Funny...I have been having dreams about MY parents the last couple of years, and they have been gone for 27 and 14 years, respectively.
...I never used to dream about them much at all, but I find myself going 'back' to the old family house, or discussing things with my Dad...or helping my Mom find something...etc....strange little interludes in my even stranger dreams...

I know how dreams are part of the way we process the stresses and concerns of daily life, and I am astounded sometimes at the themes and details and convoluted situations I can create while asleep. I always liked 'flying dreams' where I could soar, levitate and bobble about in the air...but a few nights ago, I dreamed ABOUT having flying dreams and was complaining to (someone) that I hadn't had any recently....so I found myself getting a lesson ABOUT flying, so I could really fly ....and again have realistic dreams! I was VERY upset when I woke and found I had 'only' dreamed it.

Now, I submit that that ranks as a pretty creative, meaningful dream...but I suspect that, although it was probably a reaction TO something, it all happened totally within ME, and was not influenced by anything except my own chemistry, position in the bed and random firing of neurons, which my semi/sub-concious mind tried to make sense of by organizing bits of memory in some coherent story line.

...and I'd wager that ALL dreams work this way. I have had VERY intense dreams, like most of us, and sometimes they seemed almost frighteningly 'real'...but **NOTHING** ever happened to indicate that they were more than my subconcious coping with aspects of life that I had not adequately processed while awake.

People have had VERY startling experiences both asleep and awake, and research is slowly showing some of the processes within us that can account for visions, 'visitations', 'voices', sounds and other phenomena. So what? Well, I happen to think that Occam's Razor is a pretty good approach to deciding about unusual happenings....and the more science can tell us about what is really possible, the less we have to postulate arcane notions that stretch the imagination into what may be IMpossible.

I love a good yarn...and I love science fiction...but I also think that the truth may be more interesting than some of the most compelling 'maybes' that we winder about.

Your mileage may vary.