The Meaning of Hearing a Phone Ring

As with so much related to spiritual meanings of things, the spiritual meaning of hearing a phone ring is very much context dependent. Before ascribing a spiritual meaning to anything you always need to remember to rule out the physical reasons why you might be experiencing something.

In this case, hearing a phone ring may very well have absolutely no spiritual significance at all. There may be a phone ringing somewhere near you that belongs to someone else. You may be at home and hear the phone ring but no-one else is there, but are your neighbours close and is it theirs you can hear? If the kids are watching TV upstairs, was there a scene with a phone ringing?

Phones, by their nature, often have very piercing and attention grabbing ringing tones. This means that you may not hear much else going on around you, such as on the TV, but you may hear the phone ringing in the scene even if you can’t hear the dialogue.

It’s important to rule out the physical reasons why you might hear a phone ring before you look for the spiritual. Having said that, there could be circumstances, which we’ll look at below, whereby even a physically ringing phone does have a spiritual meaning. So, you’re going to have to decide for yourself ultimately, what the spiritual meaning of a phone ringing actually is in your case.

Key Points

Category	Key Point
Physical Explanations	Rule out actual phones ringing first before assuming a spiritual meaning.
No Phone	Hearing a ring when no phone is there means spirit wants to communicate.
Actual Phone	A spirit may use an actual ringing phone to get your attention.
Dreams	Rings in dreams often relate to messages from spirit or your subconscious.
Premonition	Thinking of calling someone right before they call you may be a sign from spirit.
Attention	The ring ultimately represents spirit wanting you to listen or pay attention.
Meditation	Quiet the mind through meditation to “answer” any spiritual phone calls.
Grief	Dream calls from loved ones can mean you’re still processing grief.
Wake-up Call	It can symbolize an important message from your higher self.
Synchronicity	Note calls as possible signs to take meaningful action.
Help	Seek professional dream interpretation if the meaning is unclear.

What Does It Mean if You Hear a Phone Ringing?

As we hinted above, there’s two possible cases which can be looked at when it comes to the spiritual meaning of a phone ringing;

• When there is actually a phone ringing
• When there is no phone ringing

When There Is No Phone Ringing

If you hear a phone ring and there’s no physical explanation for hearing it, then there could very well be a spiritual reason.

In the modern world, a telephone is still one of the easiest ways to communicate with someone over a great distance. The internet is a great means to do that via text, but the telephone is still commonly used for talking. There aren’t many distances greater than that between the physical realm and the spiritual realm, and so hearing a telephone ring when there actually isn’t can be a sign that your spirit guides want to communicate with you.

If you’ve felt disconnected from spirit lately, the telephone ring could be a sign to remind you that they’re still there – you just have to pick up the phone, metaphorically speaking. Spirit is generally very polite (there are some exceptions of course) and will usually take a back seat in your life and let you get on with it. Unless you’ve given them permission to up-end your life by starting a spiritual awakening then they’re generally pretty happy to come and go as you please. So the experience of hearing a telephone ringing when there’s no actual telephone ringing is often a calling to listen.

To answer the telephone that isn’t ringing but you heard it, you need to quieten your mind. For the experienced meditator this will be relatively easy to accomplish and the telephone is just a reminder to do it. For a beginner, quietening the mind can seem almost impossible and the telephone you’ve heard is a sign that it’s time to learn. Spiritual meditation isn’t that hard though, and we’ve a whole article about it on the site (just click the highlighted text).

Hearing a phone ring is a reminder from spirit that you’re not alone. You’re part of something much bigger than yourself. You’re one with, and loved by, the universe.

When There Is Actually a Phone Ringing

Given how we began this post by saying you should always rule out the physical reasons for something before ascribing a spiritual belief to it, you may be wondering how there can be a spiritual meaning of hearing a phone ring when there’s actually a phone ringing.

However, just as spirit can ring doorbells, and knock on doors or windows, we see no reason why they couldn’t – if necessary – ring a phone. This would be especially true of older landline phones – mobile phones might be a bit harder due to them being digital rather than analog.

But, if you hear a phone ring and when you answer it there’s no-one there it could be spirit trying to gain your attention. It’s more likely a prank caller, so it’s worth getting that ruled out first – and you can do that by installing a caller ID system on your phone if it doesn’t have it already (mobile phones will already have it).

If you feel it is spirit trying to get your attention, then you’ll need to ask them what they want. The likelihood is that they won’t use the phone to actually tell you. The phone is just a signalling mechanism to get your attention. Spirit want you to meditate to speak to them. You can find out more about spiritual meditation here.

Spiritual Meaning of Hearing a Phone Ring in a Dream

One of the most common reasons for hearing a phone ring in a dream is because there is actually a phone, or some kind of alarm ringing in reality. But because you’re asleep your brain intreprets the external sound and tries to fit a dream around it for you. By the time you wake up the sound may have gone away. This is a relatively likely explanation if you hear a phone in your dream, then answer it, but it doesn’t stop ringing. It may be time to wake up!

There is also a bizarrely named medical condition called Exploding Head Syndrome (it’s not as bad as it sounds!) whereby someone dropping off to sleep hears loud, sudden noises. A phone may not fit this quite as closely as hearing a sudden bang for example, but hearing a phone ring in a dream could be a manifestation of this condition.

But, if there’s no physical or medical reason for hearing the phone in your dream then there’s a good spiritual explanation for it. It does depend quite a lot on the context within the dream itself though, so you may need to think about exactly what happened within the dream. Did you answer and was there anybody there? When you answered, was it a friend who you’ve not spoken to for a long time? Was it a stranger you’ve never heard of? Did they try to sell you something? You can see just from this brief list that interpreting this dream is a very personal thing.

But here’s some more generalised pointers;

If you are the one who is receiving the phone call, it can suggest that someone is trying to reach out to you from the spiritual realm. This could be a loved one who has passed on, or your spirit guide trying to give you a message. The content of the conversation will give you clues as to what the message is about.

If you are the one making the phone call in the dream, it can suggest that you are trying to reach out to someone in the spiritual realm. This could be a loved one who has passed on, or your spirit guide. The content of the conversation will give you clues as to what the message is about. If you find yourself dreaming of this regularly you may still be grieving the loss of that loved one or you may be wondering if your spirit guides are listening. A spiritual meditation would be a good thing to do in this case as this is a more conscious, yet with much subconscious involvement, way to make contact than a dream is.

The phone ringing can also be a sign that you are receiving a wake-up call from your higher self. This is a message from your subconscious mind trying to get your attention. The message will be based on what is going on in your life at the time.

If you’re regularly having dreams of a phone ringing and you’re struggling to interpret the meaning, a professional dream counsellor may be able to help.

Spiritual Meaning of Thinking of Someone Ringing and Then They Do

This is perhaps slightly different to the phenomenon of hearing a phone ring, but you may have experienced times when you’re sitting still, pondering to yourself and you suddenly think “Oh I must ring Bob”. And then the thought passes and you continue pondering, fully intending to phone Bob shortly.

And then, out of the blue, before you ring them, Bob rings you. “It’s been ages!” you say. And it has. And yet, almost as if by virtue of you thinking of ringing Bob, they ring you instead.

This could be one of three things;

• Pure coincidence. Of course at Mystical Spiritual Pathfinder we believe coincidence is rarely an answer.
• Manifestation. The act of thinking about something can bring that something about – sometimes not in the way we thought it would originally. Thinking about ringing Bob sends messages to the Universe that you should speak to Bob, and the Universe responds by having Bob ring you instead.
• Premonition. Perhaps your subconscious gets a glimpse of the future – and knows that Bob will ring you. But instead of your conscious mind interpreting this message from your subconscious as Bob ringing you, it instead decides to interpret it as you should ring Bob.

Whatever the reason for this, it’s important to take note of the subtle messages we receive when daydreaming or pondering. These are often synchronicities – where the universe tries to let us know that if we take action immediately we will benefit from it. For example, Bob might be able to provide some help that we need. If we ring Bob as soon as we think of it, he might offer that help just as part of the conversation without us asking. But if we miss the synchronicity, he may well be busy, or just moved, or just gave away the think we need to help us.

People regularly report these kinds of synchronicities whereby they’ve been thinking of ringing someone who they’ve not spoken for some time and then they actually ring them. Sometimes they’ll even just show up on the doorstep and you’ve not seen them for years.

Summary

In this post we’ve looked at the spiritual meaning of hearing a phone ring. We noted that it can include hearing it when there’s no phone nearby but we hear one anyway, or there can be times when the phone actually ringing can be a spiritual sign. We learned that we should always rule out the physical reasons for something happening before looking for a spiritual meaning – but if you can’t find a physical reason then there could very well be a spiritual meaning.

We discovered that hearing a phone ring can mean that someone from spirit – whether that be a deceased relative, or our spirit guides – wants to gain our attention for some reason.

If you’re having regular dreams of hearing a phone ring and can’t interpret it for yourself you could ask for the services of a dream counsellor who can help you navigate the possible reasons that are specific to you.

We hope you’ve found this post helpful and if you’ve enjoyed it please feel free to share it with your mystical or spiritual friends using the buttons below. If you have any comments, questions or other feedback please let us know using the comment form below.

Thanks for reading!