The Creative Power of Dreams

​The setting is Candlestick Park in San Francisco.  Ten minutes into overtime of the 2012 NFC championship game, the San Francisco 49ers and the visiting New York Giants are still deadlocked at 17 points apiece.  Then Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes nails a game winning field goal to send the Giants to the Superbowl.  Interviewed on the field afterwards, he shared: “It’s amazing, you know, I dreamed about this last night.”  The real life kick was from 31 yards out, which was easy for Tynes considering that he made the game winning kick from 42 yards out in his dream rehearsal.

Do you typically remember your dreams?  Should you bother?  Beliefs about the meaning and importance of dreams vary widely.   Nowadays, if you visit a psychiatrist, you are more likely to be offered a regimen of prescription drugs than to be asked to share your dreams.  Some leading neuroscientists see dreams as nothing more than the brain’s attempt to make sense of the random firing of neurons.  This scientific trend toward devaluing dreams contrasts notably with the perspectives of the founders of psychoanalysis.  Sigmund Freud saw dreams as important manifestations of repressed or unsatisfied desires, calling them “the royal road to the unconscious”.  Carl Jung’s seminal work blended psychology and spirituality.  He regarded dreams as important communications from the dreamer’s soul or larger self.

During waking hours, most of us rely heavily upon the logical thinking of the left hemisphere of our brain to get us through the day.   In contrast to this, the dreaming brain seems inclined to completely bypass the filter of logical thinking.  While this can cause dreams to be bizarre, the absence of logical constraints yields dreams that are highly creative and original in nature.  Whatever their source, the creative power of dreams is indisputable and worthy of our attention.

​In a recent dream, I was seated in a small circle of people along with Bono from U2.  Bono was strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a beautiful song that I had never heard before.  I’m not trained as a musician.  So, when I awoke from this dream, I had no ability to record Bono’s harmonious guitar chords.  But many talented musicians can do this quite easily.  For example, Paul McCartney heard the melody of “Yesterday” in a dream, and then rushed to the piano to play it out before the tune escaped his memory.   Sting claims that he awoke in the middle of the night with the lyrics to “Every Breath You Take” playing in his head, and then completed in the entire composition in about 30 minutes.  Billy Joel once speculated to an interviewer: “My feeling is that all of this stuff exists in a different plane and we tap into it somehow and I think I do it in a dream state.”

Salvador Dali snatched creative ideas for his surreal art by intentionally waking himself from brief naps.  Sitting in a chair, he would drift toward sleep while holding a heavy key in one hand.  When he slipped out of waking consciousness, the sound of the key striking the ground would soon awaken him – often with a fresh creative inspiration.

​For a more contemporary example of such creative napping, consider Elizabeth Gilbert, the accomplished author best known for her bestseller, Eat Pray Love.  She claims that she once dreamed a complete short story while napping on a commuter train.  She elaborates: “I awoke from my dream, grabbed a pen, and wrote down that story in one fevered burst of inspiration . . . the words poured forth for page after page without any effort whatsoever.”

​In the midst of a major golfing slump, Jack Nicklaus awoke from a dream where he was striking the ball much better after making a minor adjustment to how he was gripping his golf club.  He applied this grip change in waking life and shot two scorching rounds over the next two days -- a 65 followed by a 68.  He told a reporter: “I feel kind of foolish admitting it, but it really happened in a dream.  All I had to do was change my grip just a little bit”.

​What creative inspirations are awaiting you in your dreams?  Are there areas of your life where you could benefit from adjusting your grip just a little bit?  I encourage you to experiment with recalling your own dreams and find out for yourself.

Author's Note: This article by Chris Cunniffe was originally published in the September/October, 2016 edition of Oblique magazine.