Most of us take the dream world to be an unreal one, partly of fairy tales and fantasy, and partly of wishful thinking which has nothing to do with the reality of the waking life.
On the other hand, people who suffer from nightmares will characterise dreaming as a trip to a land of monsters, demons and saber-tooth tigers who wait there to terrorise the dreamers and swallow them up.
The thing is that we do not think that dreams prepare us in anyway to deal with reality. When we see that someone doesn’t recognise the problem or the limitations of a situation, we say, “Stop dreaming and come back to reality.” The truth is that dreams, in the entire history of humankind, have been instrumental in solving the problems that once seemed insoluble, in breaking new grounds and in coming up with the ideas that the wakeful mind didn’t even have the slightest idea of. A plethora of scientific breakthroughs, works of art, and mechanical inventions are products of creative dreaming. Creative dreaming has changed the reality of the waking world.
Elias Howe invented the lock-stitch sewing machine based on a dream that showed him where to place the eye of the needle. A dream by D.B. Parkinson led to the invention of the M9 Electrical Analog computer, a precursor to the guidance system used in antiaircraft machine. Otto Lewi won the Nobel Prize in physiology for an experiment that he first devised in his dream.
How could the dreamingmind solve problems and come up with the creations and inventions in sleep that the waking mind tried and tried and failed? Perhaps, the dreaming mind knew something that the waking mind didn’t.
In ancient Greek society, there were shrines where the Oracle (the words or the answer from the divinity), was revealed to the people who came there with a question. One of the most common method of receiving Oracle, was “incubation,” in which the inquirer slept on the grounds of the temple and received the answer in a dream. Robert Louis Stevenson conceived the idea of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a dream.
The opening notes of Tristan and Isolde were dreamed by Richard Wagner.
Samuel Colerige, composed the long poem Kubla Khan in its entirety, in his dream.
To make use of creative dreaming, work with a single minded focus on your goal or the problem, in your waking hours.
Creative dreaming is only the pay off for the work you do during the day. Study, observe, analyze, think, reason, and trust your dreaming mind to help you.
Ask your subconscious mind to reveal the answer to you in the dreams. If you pray, pray for the answer to be revealed to you in any form or fashion.
