What Happens When...?

[justfran]

Okay, so it's illegal to get baptised by a lay person unless it's an emergency. What happens if you really think you're going to die, your friend the layman baptises you, then you end up surviving? Do you still have to go through RCIA?
Would a lay baptism be legal if, say, you see Jesus, the Blessed Virgin or an Angel in a dream, and they tell you that you should get baptised immediately because you're going to die before you go to sleep the next night? and what would happen if you found out after your baptism that it was just you dreaming?

[BLAZEr]

A baptism, by anyone, "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" is valid. It is licit when performed by a priest or deacon in union with the Church. It is also licit when performed by a lay person in a case of emergency, whether the person recovers or not (in fact a recovery might be a sign of the efficacy of the confection of the sacrament).

However, every baptism must be assured of it's validity by being performed by a priest or deacon and registered through a parish. This means that a baptism perfomed outside of a parish by a lay person must be done again "conditionally." The Conditional baptism is done only in case the first baptism was somehow invalid (not the proper form or intention). The date of the conditional baptism is recorded in the parish registry along with a notation that it was a conditional baptism.

The scenario you portray about the dream is kind of odd. I can't really comment on it other than to say that it would seem to me not a good reason to perform an emergency baptism.

I would think that a person who was baptised outside of the ordinary method (through RCIA at the Easter Vigil or by traditional infant baptism) should go through RCIA.