Richard Matheson's "What Dreams May Come"

Richard Matheson’s What Dreams May Come

By B.M. Scott

Richard Matheson’s What Dreams May Come offers a distinctive exploration of the afterlife, drawing together elements of idealism, spiritual inquiry, and psychological trauma. The novel follows Chris Nielsen, a loving husband and father who dies suddenly in a car accident. Awakening in an unfamiliar world, he must learn the rules of the afterlife and confront the consequences of his life on earth. Matheson depicts heaven as a place shaped by imagination and desire, where personal visions determine reality. The story is as much a reflection on grief and hope as it is an adventure in a world beyond physical existence. Best known for his work in speculative fiction, the author departs from his customary genres in this deeply philosophical novel. While earlier works like I Am Legend and Hell House engage with horror and mortality, What Dreams May Come contributes to a modern tradition of afterlife literature - inviting comparison with Dante’s Divine Comedy and C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. This intertextuality deeply enriches the novel - situating it within a lineage of artistic attempts to imagine the hereafter.

One of the central conflicts in the novel arises when Chris learns that his wife, Annie, is unable to bear his loss and decidedly takes her own life. According to the cosmology Matheson creates, Annie becomes trapped in a state of despair that isolates her from peace. Chris’s determination to rescue Annie propels him through various spheres of the afterlife. Matheson presents love as a force capable of transcending even the boundaries of death. The narrative questions traditional ideas about salvation and damnation, focusing instead on the power of connection, memory, and persistence. The novel employs shifts in narrative perspective, with parts presented through Chris’s posthumous viewpoint and others through a fictional framing device of manuscript and commentary. Symbolism—such as landscapes that manifest emotional states and recurring dream imagery—reinforces the theme that subjective experience constructs reality, especially in the afterlife. This device echoes the psychological insights of twentieth-century existential literature.

Matheson’s vision of the afterlife is both poetic and philosophical. He argues that heaven and hell are not merely places, but states of mind shaped by choice and perspective. Throughout the novel, Chris must confront his own regrets and discover sources of healing. The text draws on a range of spiritual traditions, blending elements of reincarnation, karma, and psychological growth. The story's emphasis on the afterlife as a construct of mind and spirit resonates with existentialist notions of self-determination and Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. Spiritualist traditions, as well as writings on near-death experience, further inform Matheson’s imaginative landscape - inviting the reader to consider how the boundaries between self, soul, and cosmos may be more porous than typically conceived. By depicting a protagonist who chooses love and forgiveness over judgment and despair, the author invites readers to reconsider what it means to endure loss and remain loyal to those we cherish.

In conclusion, What Dreams May Come stands out as a reflection on the cathartic nature of suffering and hope. It challenges readers to think about life after death and to consider the ethical and emotional dimensions of grief. Matheson’s sympathetic characters and inventive settings offer an alternative to the conventional views of the afterlife found in literature and religion. The novel encourages compassion and perseverance - thereby presenting a vision in which the soul’s deepest dreams have power to reshape reality. In doing so, Matheson contributes to ongoing philosophical and psychological debates surrounding the ethics of grief, the persistence of love, and the nature of hope. The novel thus becomes a site for interrogating not only personal longing, but also the collective search for meaning in the face of loss and mortality.

Invitation for Reflection

• How does Matheson’s portrayal of the afterlife differ from traditional religious or literary depictions?

• In what ways does the novel connect love and grief to the possibility of redemption?

• What role does imagination play in shaping both heaven and hell in Chris’s journey?

• How does Matheson use psychological conflict to explore healing and forgiveness?

• Which aspects of the story resonate most with your own beliefs or questions about what comes after death?

Further Reading

Matheson, Richard. What Dreams May Come. Tor Books, 1998.

Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

Moody, Raymond A. Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death.

Harper, 2001.

Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Life After Death. Berkeley Hills Books, 1991.

Zaleski, Carol. Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times.

Oxford UP, 1987.