Stephenie Meyer, describes it like this:

“In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately.

This is not just a fantasy scenario. It’s a psychological conflict that all human share.

***

I’m not interested in evaluating the book or the films. What interests me is the dream itself, what it reveals when we look at it psychologically.

Let’s start with the vampire.

In Jungien terms, the vampire represents the Shadow — the parts of ourselves we reject because they feel socially unacceptable, uncomfortable, or too intense. Not necessarily evil but difficult to face.

Vampires are immortal, strong, and extremely attractive but also monstrous creatures. This culturel archetype1 reflects the complicated relationship people have with death, life and sexuality.

Immortality, strength, and attractiveness represent human ideals and these get balanced by the monstrous part:

Living on human blood.

This makes the creature both desirable and horrifying — attractive but deadly, immortal but also a killer.

That duality matters. Because the Shadow is rarely just “dark.” It often contains qualities we secretly value or or strengths we haven’t allowed ourselves to own.

Here, the Shadow appears not as something ugly or threatening, but as something beautiful, powerful, and compelling, yet still difficult to fully accept.

Vampires also symbolise both creative life force and the danger of being consumed by one’s own instinctual side, reflecting something within ourselves that feels both very attractive and deeply unsettling.

As a cultural archetype, the vampire has evolved. In early 19th-century literature, such as The Vampyre (1819), the figure shifted into something charming, elite, and seductive while remaining dangerous.

With increasing individualism, especially in Western culture, vampires became sympathetic antiheroes that used for exploring identity, sexuality, and rebellion.

The fact that the girl and the vampire are not enemies but lovers suggests that the psyche is not trying to destroy one side, but rather find a way for both parts to coexist, even if there is a fear of being changed or overwhelmed in the process.

The vampire trying to restrain himself suggests that this instinctive force is not purely destructive. It is controlled, or at least trying to be controlled. This can point towards the possibility of integration.

In dreams, death often symbolises transformation, loss of identity, fear of change, or transition between psychological states.

So the fear of it is not just “I might be hurt.”
It’s deeper: If I let this in, I might not be the same person anymore.

From a modern psychological perspective, this looks very similar to an approach–avoidance conflict: wanting something deeply, yet also fearing the consequences of getting it simultaneously.

Here, this shows up in relationship context.

Intimacy requires closeness, and closeness requires vulnerability. To feel deeply connected, we must allow another person to truly see us, this includes our fears, desires, and imperfections. This can feel both nourishing and threatening at the same time.

Not because the other person is dangerous, but because of what being seen brings up: Vulnurability.

The blood is a powerful symbol of life itself. It also can stand for soul, chi, life energy, fertility or depending on context death and danger.

For Jung, blood can symbolise libido in its broader meaning: life energy, emotional intensity, instinct, desire, and psychological vitality.

For Freud, blood could mean vulnerability, sexuality, attachment, and the tension between desire and danger.

I would lean to interpret the blood as the essence of her, her energy or the potential of her life, since the girls described as ordinary.

Talking in which, despite being described as ordinary, the girl’s blood attracts a beautiful and powerful fantastical creature who falls in love with her.

The “average girl” symbolises the conscious self — the familiar identity or the way the dreamer perceives herself.

The vampire’s attraction to the girl's blood shows that she is being valued not for surface qualities, but for something essential.

Average girl’s special blood, shows us a very human contradiction: the feeling of being ordinary on the surface, yet wanting to be seen as deeply valuable at one’s core.

Here it may be reflection of a desire to be more than ordinary, or desire to believe even an ordinary life contains something deeply valuable and attractive at it's core.

At the same time this attraction feels dangerous. Because to be valued at that level also means being exposed at that level.

To be seen that deeply is also to risk being overwhelmed, changed, or even “consumed” by the relationship.

The tension between the girl and the vampire can be understood as a dialogue between different psychological forces:

the part that seeks safety and the part that drawn to excitement

the part that preserves identity and the part that transforms it.

The woods are often associated with the unconscious. Forests are places where finding your way becomes difficult, familiar structures easily disappear, and hidden things exist2.

Forest symbolise entering unknown psychological territory. But this conversation doesn’t happen deep in the dark forest. It happens in the meadow.

The meadow is open, visible, and calm.

A meadow in the forest can symbolise something unconscious is becoming conscious.

Something previously hidden is now being observed, discussed, made conscious which fits the idea of conversation with the shadow.

The place that conversation took, tells us that the psyche is ready to look at this tension rather than avoid it.

As always, the emotional tone of the dream changes everything.

If the atmosphere felt frightening, that would mean the dreamer is not yet ready to integrate this aspect of the self and perceives it as dangerous.

On the other hand, if it felt romantic, it may suggest openness towards integrating this part of the self; as for Jung, love can symbolise the union of opposite sides. From a modern perspective, it would show openness to emotional closeness.

If this were my dream, I would reflect on recent experiences, emotional tensions, and desires and see whether Jungian perspective or the modern psychological perspective feels more personally meaningful.

Here we have two plausible options:

For Jung, this would be an indiviation dream which shows the tension between shadow material and conscious identity.

For modern depth psychology, this dream may reflect the emotional vulnerability and the desire to be loved deeply for something essential while also fearing the possible loss of control or identity that intimacy can bring.

Regardless, there is a change happening, and it’s bringing up complicated emotions. Feeling torn about it, holding opposing thoughts and feelings, is very human.

It’s okay to be scared sometimes. The truth is, you never really know what change will bring or take away; you can only guess.

As Şems-i Tebrizi writes:

"If you think 'My life will be upside down', don't worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?"

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A client presents with symptoms that, at first glance, align with severe anxiety.

There is minimal eye contact.

Social interaction feels strained and avoidant and they describe a persistent pressure in the chest, as though something is bearing down on them.

Decision-making is not absent, but becomes tangled, looping until action feels out of reach.

The initial focus of the work is not interpretation or intervention.

It is safety.

Creating a space where the nervous system can begin to settle without expectation. A place where presence is enough, and where nothing needs to be performed.

During this early stage, dream work is mentioned as a possible avenue for exploration.

What follows becomes the centre of this case.

The Dream Pattern

The client reports a recurring dream.

Each night, the dream begins differently. The opening scenes vary, sometimes unclear, sometimes fragmented.

Yet regardless of how it starts, it always resolves in the same place.

He finds himself in the back of an airborne aircraft.

The environment is consistent:

• The aircraft is military in appearance

• The colour palette is dominated by dark greens

• He is dressed in military-style clothing, similar to those around him

• There are other individuals present, though their faces are not visible

Within the aircraft, there is a clear structure:

• Some individuals remain seated, looking down

• Others stand and move toward the rear of the aircraft

At a certain point, the lighting changes.

A red light flashes.

Then it turns green.

The rear door opens.

Those standing begin to jump from the aircraft.

The client then follows the same sequence each time:

• He stands

• Turns to his right

• Steps forward toward the open door

And just as he is about to jump…

He falls asleep.

The dream ends at this exact moment, every time.

Waking Presentation & Possible Links

There are notable parallels between the dream structure and the client’s waking experience.

In waking life, he reports:

• Difficulty maintaining eye contact

• A tendency toward social withdrawal or exclusion

• A persistent sensation of pressure in the chest

• Significant difficulty making decisions, often becoming mentally “stuck” despite understanding available options

From my perspective, the dream appears to centre around a repeated movement toward action that is never completed.

The sequence is consistent:

Preparation → Readiness → Movement → Interruption

The interruption, in this case, is sleep.

This may suggest a form of nervous system protection or shutdown occurring at the point of perceived exposure or action.

There are also several symbolic elements that may hold relevance:

• Military setting: structure, hierarchy, expectation, uniformity

• Uniform clothing: reduced individuality, blending into a group

• Faceless individuals: difficulty engaging with others, or perceived threat from others

• Red to green light transition: external permission, timing, readiness to act

• Right vs left positioning: potential symbolic distinction between action and inaction, though this may be highly personal to the client

The dream doesn’t depict the act itself.

It returns, each time, to the moment immediately before it.

Clinical Reflection

At this stage, the material is intentionally left open.

The dream presents a structured, repeating sequence with strong sensory and symbolic consistency. The waking symptoms suggest a nervous system that experiences difficulty with visibility, decision-making, and social engagement.

A Dream Professional — Buket Elena

Buket Elena and I spoke several weeks ago about pulling together a collaborative piece and I really wanted her to step into this case and offer her interpretation.

She brings a depth-oriented perspective to dream work, with a particular sensitivity to symbolism, subconscious patterning, and the personal meaning embedded within recurring imagery. She writes with incredible professionalism so it made perfect sense for me to ask for her inputs.

Where this case has been presented through a therapeutic and nervous-system lens, her contribution will explore what the dream may be expressing from within the symbolic and subconscious landscape itself.

This case sits in a very particular place. It’s a space where something is ready to happen, where movement is already forming, yet something within the system quietly intervenes.

For now, that’s where we leave it and I’ll open up for Buket Elena to add her words.

Hello fellow souls, thank you for reading this far and thank you Dan for this lovely collaboration. I won’t take much of your time, so let’s directly dive into the realm of dreams.

A dream’s meaning can only be truly understood by the dreamer themselves; here, we can only speculate about different interpretations.

Why were the people faceless?

There could be a few reasons. First, perhaps because he doesn’t really look at people’s faces in his daily life, so the dream reflects that.

Second, his subconscious may be censoring the faces because it is unbearable for him to face them even in his dreams. Sometimes the subconscious can blur things, although it usually presents them in a very raw and direct way. But considering his personality and fears, this could be possible. We wouldn’t know for sure.

Actually, this is also a plausible explanation for why dreams use so many symbols: as the psyche trusts you more, the more naked and direct the dreams become.

Another possibility is that the people’s identities are simply not important in the dream, and they are only there to represent a crowd — what we call “others.”

Also, from Jungien perspective, they could represent different internal roles (the watcher, the protector, the one who performs, the one who hides) that have not yet become fully integrated into identity. Here they are in two different groups which could be the part of him who wants to act on and the part that stays back.

So the dream may not only be about fear of action, but about action without a fully felt sense of self inside it.

What does the recurring nature of the dream tell us?

Usually, recurring dreams are about trying to solve, rehearse or process something. This often happens through the same dream repeating in slightly different conditions and ending a little differently each time.

But in his dream, the beginning changes while the ending stays the same. That suggests he feels stuck and cannot break a cycle he is in. Also, considering that he is expected to jump in the dream, this shows that he is trying to take action but keeps failing himself.

What do the people on the right and left mean?

About right and left, I could go with universal meanings, but I feel there are most probably very specific personal symbols for him.

For example, if one of his parents is “left-wing” and the other “right-wing,” and their personalities are opposite, while he feels caught between them, that could show up like this in a dream. Or if he has certain beliefs or stereotypes connected to the right or left hand (for example, everyone he loved was left-handed, or the people who bullied him used their left hands, or the most successful people in class were always left-handed), that could also shape the symbolism.

In a more universal sense, the right often represents logic, action, and consciousness, while the left represents emotion, unconsciousness, and hesitation. However, if he knows about brain hemispheres, he might interpret it differently. Jung would most probably frame it as conscious versus unconscious.

What does the light switch mean?

The light works as a signal. Red turns green, and he understands that it is now his time to jump. This may suggest waiting for outside validation or permission before acting on something.

Why the military?

Aircraft are vehicles of elevation, mission, trajectory, and risk. A military one adds discipline, vigilance, hierarchy, and readiness under pressure. It feels less like freedom and more like mobilisation without personal agency, movement shaped by survival rules rather than desire.

Usually, travelling by car, bus, plane, or train is considered a symbol of life flow or direction. Here, he is not flying the aircraft; he is a participant, and it is a military aircraft. He isn’t in control. He may feel great pressure and performance anxiety because of expectations.

As he is in a military operation, he is committed, and there is no easy way back, especially because he is in a plane and not a car — unless jumping itself is not the duty to be done, but the way back.

Also, in the military everyone looks the same and is considered part of a larger team, seen as one unit rather than as individuals. You do not easily get seen or recognised among people wearing the same uniform and serving the same purpose. So it could be about suppression of individuality, blending in, or not being seen.

What does jumping mean?

Jumping represents what taking action feels like to him in real life. In this case, it reflects a loss of control, unpredictability, and therefore danger and fear. Imagine making a decision feeling like that or even after the decision is made, carrying out the action it requires still feels the same.

What does falling asleep means?

The edge often symbolises transition: visibility, decision, intimacy, self-expression, career movement, or even a deeper surrender to one’s own life direction. Yet instead of jumping or stepping back, the system goes offline.

That “falling into sleep” feels like a brilliant image of protective dissociation or nervous-system override. Not pathology necessarily, but a learned reflex: when the psyche approaches exposure, uncertainty, or irreversible movement, it substitutes unconsciousness for choice.

Questions to ask if we want to grasp a meaning closer to the truth

I always say that the emotional meaning a dream carries can radically change the interpretation. Here, we don’t know the emotions involved, nor the personal stories that may relate to the symbols in the dream.

For instance, he could already be afraid of flying, or flying could be one of his aspirations. He could hate the military, which would make us think he feels pressured into doing something he doesn’t want to identify with. Or he might have always wanted to join the military, in which case it could mean he is challenging himself toward his goals.

There are so many things we don’t know, but here are a few questions that would help us understand the dream’s meaning better:

- What is the emotional tone just before sleep occurs?

- Does the sleep feel protective, relieving, or obstructive?

- What personal associations does the client hold with the military, flying, or authority structures?

- How does the client feel about faceless people?

- What significance, if any, exists in the right and left positioning within the dream?

What does it all mean?

At its core, the dream reflects a person who is ready for change but does not yet feel safe enough to fully act on it. Something in waking life may be asking for a decision, a step forward, or greater visibility, yet each time they come close, fear, overwhelm, or an old protective pattern interrupts the movement. The recurring nature suggests this is an unresolved inner conflict: part of them wants to move forward, while another part still protects them by keeping them stuck. In simple terms, the dream’s meaning is about the struggle between readiness and fear, growth and self-protection.

Perhaps what it asks, with subtlety and persistence, is this:

when that moment comes again in waking life, will you recognise the edge not as a place to disappear from, but as the place where your life begins to move?

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Ignoring dreams is like ignoring a third of your life.

Every night your subconscious tells you at least four to six stories in dreams. By the time you turn forty, you may have forgotten more than 80,000 dreams.

That is 80,000 times where your pysche tried to tell you something and you never heard it.

Why you should keep a dream journal

Dreams are like glimpses of a secret garden of your inner world.

They show how your mind processes emotions, connect ideas, and works through experiences that were too complex or heavy for the waking mind.

Dreams inspire creativity, offer insight and sometimes they simply show us parts of ourselves we did not know were there.

Most people dream several times every night, yet by morning these dreams usually dissolve into the air.

Keeping a dream journal — writing your dreams down when you wake up — may sound simple at first, but it significantly improves how much of your dreams you remember.

More importantly, it gives you something precious: a record of your inner life.

Research supports this surprisingly simple practice. A review comparing seventeen studies found that recording dreams can increase dream recall anywhere from 10% to more than 600%.

In other words, simply paying attention trains your brain to remember more dreams because you begin to treat them as important and valuable.

A dream journal is the collection of letters that are sent from unconscious.

Dream Recall, Creativity, and Problem-Solving

People who frequently remember their dreams tend to report higher creativity and stronger problem solving abilities.

This does not necessarily mean they dream more creatively. It means they are more likely to remember the rare dreams that contain insight.

In a large survey of nearly 2,500 participants, people reported receiving a creative idea or problem solution from a dream about once every two months on average.

If you never record your dreams, these moments are almost always lost. Writing them down increases the chances of capturing them.

Creative professionals appear to intuitively understand this. Artists, writers, and scientists often recall more dreams than the average person. It seems that creative thinking and dream awareness feed each other. History contains many examples of dreams inspiring breakthroughs.

In one study, people who dreamed about a spatial navigation task after learning it performed better the next day than those who did not dream about it.

Another study found that participants who kept a daily dream journal for a month showed significant improvement on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, a widely used measure of creativity.

Dreams and Emotional Processing

As if the creative inspiration of dreams were not already a gift, they also help with emotional processing.

In one fascinating study, recently divorced individuals struggling with depression spent nights in a sleep laboratory. During REM sleep — the stage when vivid dreaming occurs — they were awakened several times to report their dreams.

A year later, researchers followed up with them.

Those who had dreamed about their former partners were more likely to show improvement in their depressive symptoms than those whose dreams did not involve the relationship.

A replication study found something similar. Participants whose dreams contained richer emotional detail and personal memories tended to experience greater reductions in depressive symptoms over time.

In a large study of adolescents found that, except for nightmares, higher dream recall was associated with better sleep quality, higher creativity and greater psychological well-being.

In another experiment, participants who remembered their dreams reacted less strongly to disturbing images the following day than those who did not recall dreaming.

In other words, dreaming — and remembering those dreams — may help the brain process difficult experiences overnight.

Dream journaling as a Map of the Inner World

In one of my first essays I said:

"Dreams are like the roots of a tree — unseen, silent, reaching deep into the dark soil. We may never fully map them, but they are what nourish the visible life above ground."

Dream journaling slowly helps you map what has been going on in your inner life and how it has been affecting you.

When dreams are written down regularly, we begin to recognise patterns and then understand them better.

Your emotions and thoughts in waking life reflect into your dreams, and reviewing dream entries can reveal themes that might otherwise go unnoticed. Over time, your journal becomes a record of how your mind processes life beneath the surface.

The subconscious speaks every night. The problem is that most of us never write back.

Low-Effort Things You Can Do to Remember Your Dreams

1) Set an intention

It may sound cliché, but it works.

Psychologist Carl Jung observed that telling yourself before sleep, “Tonight I will remember my dreams,” often increases recall.

You might say something like:

“My dreams are important. I will remember them in the morning.”

This gives your mind a reason to remember.

2) Wake up without an alarm when possible

This is not essential. You can also set your alarm strategically, but these details are not strictly necessary.

3) Do not move immediately when you wake up

If possible, keep your eyes closed for a moment and try to remember what you were feeling or seeing just before waking.

This simple habit works surprisingly well.

How to Record Dreams Effectively

There are many ways to do it. Recording them is far more important than doing everything “perfectly.”

There is no single correct method. You will eventually discover what works best for you.

In my recent articles I introduced a Dream Channels Framework. If you want to explore the realm of dreams more deeply, I recommend checking it out.

For now, here are the most important things to keep in mind.

1) Choose the tool right

If your mornings are busy and you cannot sit down to write, do not frustrate yourself with a notebook.

Record your voice instead. You can use a notes app, voice recorder, or any tool that feels convenient.

2) Use different ways of recording

Writing is not the only option.

You can draw, sketch, or record sounds depending on the nature of the dream.

If it belongs to the Painter’s channel, sketch the textures, colours, and shapes first, along with a few small notes.

If it belongs to the Composer’s channel, record yourself humming or singing whatever you remember. If you don’t remember it perfectly, that’s okay. The point is not the muse — although it is a blessing — but what the dream is trying to convey to you: the emotions and the story.

3) Record dreams regardless of how important they seem

We are not recording dreams because they are solely interesting. We record them to collect data about our inner world.

A dream that seems insignificant today may reveal meaning later.

4) Do not try to interpret immediately

Dreams are not meant to be understood instantly and then left alone.

You don’t need to understand them immediately or fully. Sometimes you might not understand them until months later.

Dreams often continue each other, and they may become clearer as more dreams appear.

It is good not to rush interpretation and to take your time with them.

5) Write down the emotions you felt

This is extremely important.

The feelings you experience during the dream play a major role in understanding it. Without recording them, it becomes easy to forget how the dream actually felt.

Research shows that dream emotions often mirror waking emotions, even when the dream story itself seems strange.

6) Avoid intellectualising the Alchemist’s dreams too quickly

Some dreams exist mainly to make us feel something deeply.

Interpreting them too quickly can take away that experience.

If a dream is emotionally powerful, allow yourself to feel it first.

7) Use grounding techniques after intense dreams (e.g. Dancer’s channel)

Some dreams can be physically or emotionally intense.

Simple breathing or grounding techniques can help calm your body and bring you back to a stable state.

Take good care of yourself.

8) Subscribe here, if you want to learn more about understanding your dreams :)

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What Beginners Should Expect

In my experience, keeping a dream journal increased the number of dreams I recalled during the first week, but the biggest increase happened in the second week. The dreams became clearer, more detailed, and longer.

Most people do not see immediate results.

During the first few days, you may remember only fragments or nothing at all. This is normal.

After about one or two weeks, dream recall usually begins to increase. Blank mornings become rarer, and dream memories start appearing more frequently. Over time, entries grow longer and more detailed.

Some people also report more vivid dreams or occasional lucid dreams once they begin paying attention to their dream life. I haven’t experienced this myself but perhaps you will.

However, there is one thing worth mentioning.

Once you start paying attention, your dreams may become wilder and more intense.

It happened to me, and it is quite common.

So, be prepared to see things you buried deep down and acted as if they never existed. They may show their face.

The subconscious seems to respond when it realizes someone is listening.

Start tonight! You don’t need much, just intention, a pen, and paper.

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A note on limitations

Dream journaling is beneficial for most people. However, frequent distressing nightmares can sometimes signal deeper stress or trauma.

If journaling consistently increases anxiety or disrupts your sleep, it may be helpful to speak with a therapist. Your journal can also become a useful tool in that process.

Sources

This is not the most proper citation method, but let me have a few chill days before my dissertation, haha. Every study I mentioned is taken from these articles. If you read them fully, you’ll see. Feel free to contact me if you have any problems :)

https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(11)00122-4/abstract

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38622204/

https://d-nb.info/1271011573/34#:~:text=frequency%20have%20been%20examined%3A%20for,A%20possible%20explanation%20could%20be

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810016300447?via%3Dihub

5. Alchemist’s Dream |Emotional ● Affective Channel|

In this channel, the dream communicates primarily through emotion.

Images, symbols, or narrative may be present, but they are not central. The core element is the feeling itself. The dream exists to make you experience a specific emotional state — sometimes with an intensity that exceeds what you allow yourself to feel while awake.

The real message is not in what happens, but in what you feel. The story is only a container. The emotion is the communication. The unconscious is not trying to show you a myth or an image; it is creating an emotional experience.

The Alchemist’s channel may be more active when a person is:

• Going through difficult or painful experiences

• Avoiding certain emotions in waking life

• Processing loss, change, or relational conflict

• Highly intellectualizing feelings instead of allowing them

• Experiencing emotional shifts faster than conscious awareness can integrate

Examples

• You feel intense fear but don’t know why — the dream may be nothing more than a dark, empty room.

• You feel overwhelming anxiety, and the dream consists of walking on thin ice.

• You dream of someone arguing, but what stays with you is the feeling of rejection.

• A long, complex narrative unfolds — yet you wake up with a deep, unexplained sadness.

Function

The alchemist’s channel allows the psyche to process emotions by making them directly felt.

It can bring forward emotions that have been:

• Avoided

• Suppressed

• Intellectualized

• Dismissed too quickly

Feeling is a necessary part of emotional processing. The Alchemist’s channel creates the conditions for that process to occur. It does not primarily seek to explain. It seeks to make you experience.

Distinction from other channels

The alchemist’s channel centers on emotion itself — not story, not symbols, not myths, and not images. These elements may appear, but the defining feature is the feeling that stays with you.

As mentioned before, dreams often involve multiple channels at once. However, when the alchemist’s channel is present, it is usually one of the dominant channels, even if it is not the only one.

How to work with Alchemist’s dreams

The most important step is simple, but not easy:

Allow yourself to feel what the dream showed you - before anything else.

Do not rush to interpret it or immediately reduce it to symbols or explanations.

Later:

• Write down what you felt, in detail

• Name the emotion as precisely as possible

• Notice where you feel it in your body -if you did-

• Sit with it for a moment without trying to change it

Understanding can come later. The first task is to let the emotional process complete itself.

These dreams do not want to be solved immediately. They want to be experienced.

6. Poet's Dream |Imagery ● associative|

The unconscious thinks in symbols, and it speaks in images.

Carl Jung

The Poet’s channel communicates primarily through personal symbols, metaphors, and associative imagery.

Distinction from other channels

Unlike the Sage channel, which uses universal archetypes, the symbols here are highly individual. While most people would understand a devil or a snake (still, highly dependent on your culture), other images — like a lemon, a piano, or a piece of furniture — may carry a meaning unique to the dreamer. The focus is on personal resonance, not shared myth.

This channel is often lighter than mythic or narrative dreams, yet it can convey subtle psychological truths that are difficult to express directly.

Examples

You dream that you are taken to do gymnastics, even though you weren’t particularly interested in it at the moment. In the same room, you notice a piano and sit on the piano bench. You realize the piano has two sides, and someone comes to sit opposite you and begins playing, waiting for you to join.

In this dream, both the gymnastics and the piano are symbolic, carrying meanings specific to the dreamer that could not easily be predicted by others.

This example also illustrates how dreams can involve multiple channels simultaneously. In this case, the dream engages the Novelist’s channel (the scenario and sequence of events), the Poet’s channel (personal symbolic associations), and the Composer’s channel (sound/music).

Function

The Poet’s channel allows the psyche to communicate subtle, personal insights through symbolic associations. It translates feelings, desires, or conflicts into imagery that resonates uniquely for the dreamer.

It is particularly suited for material that is difficult to express literally or emotionally complex, offering a personal language for reflection and self-understanding.

How to work with them

• Record the symbols, images, or metaphors exactly as you remember them.

• Reflect on what these images mean to you personally — avoid looking for universal meanings first.

• Notice emotional reactions or bodily sensations associated with each symbol.

• Over time, track recurring symbols or associations to uncover patterns.

We will be learning more about making your own symbol dictionary in the future.

7. Dancer's Dream |Somatic ● Body|

The Dancer’s channel communicates primarily through bodily sensation.

These dreams emphasize physical experience: movement, weight, tension, balance, sexual sensation, proprioception, or extreme body states. The dream and the body interact recursively — the somatic experience shapes the dream, and the dream shapes the body’s experience.

Some of these dreams may be strongly physiological, while others combine physical sensations with emotion or narrative. Not all emotional dreams involve body awareness, and not all somatic dreams are intensely emotional — but they can overlap.

Examples

• Feeling burned because it’s too hot in your room, which shapes the dream into discomfort or a potential nightmare.

• Kissing a crush or ex in a dream and experiencing the sensation so vividly that it affects your body upon waking.

• Experiencing weightlessness, tightness, or movement extremes that dominate the dream experience.

Distinction from other channels

As with all channels, others may be present; what matters is which one is dominant.

Unlike the Alchemist’s channel, which centers on emotion, the Dancer’s channel emphasizes physical sensation itself. Somatic and emotional channels can coexist and may even be equally strong, but when bodily experience takes precedence, the Dancer’s channel is primary.

A note on this channel

This channel is intentionally less developed than the others. Not because it is unimportant, but because it remains the least explored — both in my own experience and in current psychological models.

Yet it clearly exists. Some dreams are dominated not by story or emotion, but by the body itself. For that reason, it deserves a place in this framework — even if that place remains provisional and open to further understanding.

How to work with them

These dreams can produce strong physical or emotional reactions. Upon waking:

• Ground yourself using breathing or body-awareness techniques

• Allow the intensity to pass before attempting analysis

• Once calm, note the sensations you experienced

• Reflect on whether these bodily signals relate to emotions, stress, desires, or other psychological material

• Explore narrative or symbolic aspects later — first prioritize safely processing the physical experience

This channel remains an area of ongoing exploration. If you have experienced dreams where the body itself was the main communicator, I welcome those accounts. They may help this part of the framework grow into clearer form over time.

8. Inventor’s Dream |Problem solving ● Abstract|

The Inventor’s channel communicates primarily through logic, problem-solving, and abstract thought.

Dreams in this channel focus on puzzles, formulas, mechanisms, patterns, or technical solutions. They may be procedural, schematic, or highly structured.

The dream often explores unresolved problems, recombines concepts, or generates insight — from mathematical ideas to engineering solutions, algorithms, or creative innovations. (If you are interested in seeing examples of these you might like my recent article here. )

Function

• Incubate unresolved intellectual problems

• Experiment with abstract systems, formulas, or mechanisms

• Explore alternative solutions to technical or conceptual challenges

• Generate new insights or strategies for real-world problems

It is particularly active when the mind is engaged in intense cognitive or creative work during waking life.

Distinction from other channels

The Inventor’s channel is defined by abstract problem-solving and cognitive experimentation. Other channels may appear simultaneously, but if the core of the dream is a mental puzzle or system, the Inventor’s channel is primary.

How to work with them

The biggest problem with these dreams is that people continue sleeping and forget everything — or they write something down and can’t read it in the morning. So if the solution matters to you, keep a pen and paper next to your bed and record it as clearly as you can, then go back to sleep.

Write down formulas, diagrams, procedural steps, or anything that shows how the solution worked. Even fragments are valuable.

Note any logical insights, patterns, or relationships you noticed, even if they don’t make complete sense yet.

Don’t rush to analyze or apply it immediately. Let it exist first as it came to you. Sometimes its value becomes clearer later, when you return to it with a fresh mind.

Most importantly, allow your mind to wander freely during the day. Solutions often emerge when consciousness relaxes its grip.

If we learn to dream, gentlemen,

then we shall perhaps find truth

To him who forgoes thought,

Truth seems to come unsought;

He gets it without labor.

August Kekulé

Treat these dreams as a space where your mind experiments freely. They are not always direct instructions, but they show you how your mind approaches problems — and sometimes, that alone is the real solution.

Thank you for reading. If you’ve made it this far, it means you’re genuinely interested in dreamwork. We’ll be moving into more practical applications very soon.

If you’d like to explore your psyche more deeply, subscribe along dear fellow deep soul 🌙

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Dreams rarely explain themselves directly. And when we try to interpret them the same way every time, they fall apart or worse, lose their meaning completely.

“The dream is its own interpretation.”

Jung

The unconscious does not rely on one universal language. It uses whatever mode of expression best serves the psychological need of the moment. I call those languages as dream channels in this framework: the primary modes a single dream uses to communicate its purpose.

Channels overlap, but usually one or two dominate and knowing which one matters. It tells you how to record the dream, what to attend to first, and which questions will actually produce insight.

♦ Why distinguish channels at all?

The dominant channel shapes how a dream should be approached. Treating an image-driven dream like a linear story, or an emotionally-driven dream like a code to be cracked, will distort its message.

Correctly identifying the channel helps you:

• interpret with less distortion

• avoid over-intellectualizing or over-simplifying

• respect the psyche’s chosen mode of communication

• align interpretation with the dream’s functional goal

• use dreams more effectively for insight, creativity, and integration

Think of it as diagnostic sensitivity: we wouldn’t perform CPR on someone who’s choking. Similarly, don’t force symbolic decoding on a dream whose job is emotional processing.

♦ Channels are not fixed molds

Different dreams communicate differently.

Imagine being fluent in several languages. You might choose your mother tongue for emotionally complex conversations because it feels intimate and natural. You might use a second language to create distance or clarity. Sometimes they blend without effort — many multilingual individuals describe this fluid switching.

The psyche functions similarly. It does not operate in a single permanent language. It selects the channel — or combination of channels — that best serves the emotional, symbolic, or regulatory task at hand.

♦ These are not your subconscious’s language — they are each dream’s language

A person does not “belong” to a single channel. Across different periods of life, and even across the same nights, different dreams may communicate through different dominant modes.

The unit of analysis here is not the person, but the dream.

♦ On naming

The labels (poet’s dream, composer’s dream, etc.) are stylistic choices intended to make the channels memorable. They are metaphors. One does not need to be a poet or a musician to dream in those modes.

♦ This framework is provisional

There are as many dream experiences as there are individuals.

This model is a first draft — a heuristic for noticing patterns, not a clinical taxonomy. Channels overlap. They influence each other. They may evolve over time.

Usually, one or two dominate in a dream, but none exist in isolation.

1. Sage's Dream | Mythic ● Archetypal |

This channel draws heavily from the work of Carl Jung and his theory of the collective unconscious.

In this channel, dreams speak through archetypal figures and mythic patterns: heroes, villains, wise elders, death and rebirth, initiations, journeys, gods, monsters, and symbolic battles.

Your dream becomes a myth, not merely a personal drama, but a symbolic epic.

While Jung did not describe “channels” in this terminology, his observations on archetypal or “big” dreams inform this distinction.

This channel tends to appear more often in people who:

• Think symbolically

• Are drawn to literature, poetry, religion, philosophy

• Already reflect deeply

• People or undergoing major life transitions

Example:

Seeing a shape-shifting serpent-man. Being called by the devil and visiting his house. Encountering a blind wise man with his dog.

These dreams could also be considered narrative. However, because the mythic figures are so dominant, the primary channel is mythic, with the novelist’s channel as secondary.

Function:

The mythic channel functions as a regulatory structure during major psychological reorganization. It mythologizes inner change, simultaneously signaling its importance, legitimizing its necessity, and containing its destabilizing force within archetypal narrative.

Distinction:

Unlike the painter’s channel, the Sage’s Channel is driven less by pure visual atmosphere and more by symbolic events and themes.

Unlike the novelist’s or poet’s channels, it carries a stronger sense of universality. The figures do not feel merely personal, they tend to feel ancient, impersonal, and larger than the individual psyche.

How to work with these dreams:

These dreams are often dense and multilayered, combining multiple channels.

To engage with them more fully, it may help to:

• Write them in detail

• Draw key images

• Reflect on personal associations

• Study myths, archetypes, and symbolic traditions

Understanding does not arise only through interpretation, but through relationship with the dream itself.

2. Painter's dream | Image ● Scenery |

In this channel, the dream does not unfold as a moving story. Instead, it appears as a stable or slowly shifting scene, more like a painting than a narrative.

The emphasis is not on what happens, but on what is seen.

This is where dreams speak in:

• Pure visual metaphor

• Aesthetic atmosphere

• Colour, light, texture

• Surreal imagery

• Composition and spatial relationships

The meaning is carried primarily by the image itself, rather than by events or plot.

This channel may appear more frequently in individuals who are visually oriented or attentive to imagery.

Painter-type dreams have inspired many works of art — such as The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli or the surreal imagery of Salvador Dalí1

Example:

I have only dreamt in this channel a few times. In one dream, I saw a lion-headed human figure chewing grass on the right and a deer-headed human figure on the left. There was no flow of events — just stable scenery with background and figures. It was clearly painter’s channel, but also mythic. As you can see, dreams rarely use only one channel.

Function:

The painter’s channel allows the psyche to express psychological material in condensed visual form. Instead of explaining, it presents.

This channel is especially suited for material that is:

• difficult to articulate verbally

• emotionally complex but structurally clear

• better understood through perception rather than analysis

• The image acts as a container of meaning.

Distinction:

Regardless of how mythic or symbolic the content is, if the dream appears as a still image or a very slowly changing scene, then the Painter’s Channel is dominant — even if other channels are present alongside it.

How to work with painter’s dreams

If your dream appears in this way, resist the urge to immediately translate it into words.

Instead:

• Sketch the image

• Note colours, light, and spatial relationships

• Record your emotional response to the scene

Verbal interpretation can come later.

When translated too quickly, visual meaning can flatten — like describing a painting without seeing it.

These dreams often remain vivid in memory precisely because of their visual intensity.

Give your dream a chance to exist in its mother tongue.

3. Novelist's dream | Narrative ● plot driven |

Here, the dream feels as a story.

There are characters, motivations, conflicts, and developments over time. Events follow one another with a sense of progression, sometimes even with structure resembling exposition, climax, and resolution. These dreams function like miniature novels.

This is one of the most common ways dreams communicate, though it often overlaps with other channels.

A well-known literary example is Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was famously inspired by a dream.

Function:

The novelist’s channel allows the psyche to simulate situations across time.

Rather than presenting a single image or archetype, it creates scenarios where different parts of the self, fears, desires, or conflicts can interact dynamically.

This channel is especially suited for:

• Exploring interpersonal dynamics

• Rehearsing possible futures

• Processing unresolved situations

• Testing decisions and their consequences

This channel allows the psyche to observe itself in motion.

Distinction:

Unlike the painter’s channel, meaning unfolds through sequence rather than image.

Unlike the Sage’s channel, characters feel psychologically specific and personal rather than archetypal.

The emphasis is on what happens next.

How to work with novelist’s dreams

Writing is the most effective way to preserve and understand these dreams.

As soon as you wake up:

• Write the dream down quickly — narrative dreams fade faster than visual or archetypal dreams

• Record dialogue exactly as you remember it

• Note emotional reactions during key moments

• Give the dream a title

You may also expand the dream into a short story. This can reveal psychological dynamics that were not immediately obvious.

The goal is not to fictionalise though, but to explore the structure the psyche created.

4. Composer's dream |Auditory ● Musical|

In this channel, the dream expresses itself primarily through sound.

Visual elements may be minimal or vague. Sometimes the dream consists almost entirely of dialogue, music, or voice.

Here, dreams speak through:

• Music, melody, and rhythm

• Voices and spoken words

• Tone, intensity, and silence

• Sonic atmosphere (e.g., tension carried by sound rather than image)

The meaning is carried primarily by what was heard/said.

You might:

• Wake up with a melody

• Hear a voice delivering a message

• Remember only dialogue

• Experience music defining the dream’s emotional tone

Keith Richards and Paul McCartney are examples of musicians who reportedly dreamed music that later became famous songs, such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Yesterday. Another example is Giuseppe Tartini, who said his Devil's Trill Sonata was inspired by a dream.

Example:

I have dreamed through this channel several times. Compared to the other channels, it feels more raw and direct, almost confrontational in its clarity.

In one dream, I heard a voice repeating the same message to me over and over until I woke up. There were no elaborate visuals, no complex storyline — just the voice and its insistence.

In another dream, I clearly remember the conversation I had with someone and knowing where I was, yet there was no surrounding narrative and almost no visual context. The exchange itself was the dream.

Function:

The composer’s channel allows the psyche to communicate through sound, especially when meaning is tied to language, tone, or musical structure rather than image.

This channel is particularly suited for delivering direct verbal messages. Sound can communicate psychological meaning without relying on imagery or narrative.

How to work with Composer's Dreams

When approaching this channel, remember that it is a language and you understand it, even if the exact melody or wording fades. You still know what it was about. Before translating it into explanations, take a moment to reconnect with how it felt. Let the meaning exist in its original form first.

If you have the musical ability, try to play, hum, or notate what you heard as soon as possible. Recording yourself can help preserve details that disappear quickly.

Write down any words, phrases, or conversations exactly as you remember them. Auditory details tend to fade faster than images or stories.

Then leave your notes aside for a few days without rereading them.

After some time has passed, write down again what you remember the dream was about — without checking the original version. You will often find that while the exact wording is gone, the core meaning remains clear. This second version reflects the psychological essence more than the literal form.

We will explore the next four channels in the following essay. After that, we will go deeper into each one, and I will provide practical guidance you can use to work with your dreams and develop dream-based creativity.

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• No one can truly know the real meaning of a dream except its owner and even they often don’t fully know.

• I am not clinically assessing Ronen Goldman’s dreams or work.

• I am not claiming to know the “true” meaning of any dream or symbol.

• My interpretations are personal reflections and speculative thoughts inspired by his surreal imagery. They are shaped by my own experiences, imagination, and by literary and Jungian ideas.

• Readers are invited to treat these interpretations as conversation starters, not definitive analyses.

Let's start then!

If I had a dream like this, I would think: “I’m looking for fish in the sea, where they should be but they’re flying right behind me.”

I would interpret it as an opportunity, meaning, or reward coming from an unexpected place, while I remain too focused on the task itself to notice that my efforts might be misaligned. It could suggest that I am trying to extract meaning, validation, or nourishment from a place that cannot actually provide it.

Another possibility is that the fish perceive her as the bait! This feels quite plausible, especially considering the overwhelmingly blue background, which could symbolically imply the sea. In that case, I’m unsure how to interpret the reversal: am I the seeker, or the one being approached?

Oh no — someone wasn’t supposed to open something they shouldn’t have.

The box could represent something suppressed, unwelcome, unconscious, or shadow material.

The tricky part is the birds. Are they coming out of the box, going into it, or both? That distinction changes the interpretation significantly. Birds may symbolize spirit, psyche, or thoughts.

When I first looked at the image, I thought the birds were moving toward the box, as if feeding on something inside it. In that case, the prohibited or repressed content would be something vital, and its release would evoke the psyche, elevating libido in the Jungian sense of psychic life energy.

However, if the birds are coming out of the box, the meaning shifts. Then it would suggest that suppressed material is emerging in a chaotic way, triggering an individuation crisis. Individuation often begins with disorientation; opening the box brings disorder rather than clarity. In this reading, the unconscious seems to say: if you repress something for too long, this is how it returns.

Yet another uncertainty remains: we don’t know who opened the box or how. Was it curiosity, accident, or was the box simply no longer able to contain its contents?

I will consider these two pictures together, as they highlight the importance of recurring symbols in dream interpretation.

First photo

At first glance, this image looks joyful. Fruit everywhere, movement, abundance. But something feels subtly off.

If fruits represent the results of inner growth, creativity, psychological rewards, or life energy made tangible, then this is not a scene of scarcity. Quite the opposite. There is more than enough.

The man is already holding a full basket. This detail is crucial. He is not empty-handed, not desperate, not lacking. And yet he keeps running, chasing more fruit rather than stopping to taste or expand his capacity.

One reading is that the psyche is pointing to a self-imposed limit. Growth is happening, rewards are available, but the container remains the same size. Instead of getting a bigger basket —a larger psychic structure, a wider identity— the figure keeps circling within familiar limits.

Another possibility is satiation. The dream may suggest a point where accumulation no longer nourishes. The running becomes automatic, almost compulsive.

In this sense, the dream does not criticize lack of potential; it questions how potential is being used. Creativity is present, but integration may be lagging behind production.

Second photo

The man is formally dressed, the suit immediately evokes persona, social role, professionalism, order, and adaptation to collective expectations. The surrounding environment reinforces this: structured buildings, controlled space, a life organized around function rather than spontaneity.

Unlike the first image, the fruits do not fall passively or wait to be gathered. They move toward him, almost violently. This reverses the dynamic entirely.

If fruits again symbolize creativity, vitality, or the rewards of inner life, then the reaction becomes telling. Instead of receiving or harvesting, the figure appears to resist. The fruit is not desired, it is intrusive.

This suggests a psyche where spontaneous life energy conflicts with an over-identified persona. Creativity is not absent here; it is experienced as disruption. Something that threatens order, efficiency, or seriousness rather than enhancing it.

However, I think we need a different view when we consider these 2 together.

If fruits are seen not only as creativity but as condensed psychic content —the results of long term inner growth or repressed affect— their aggressive movement becomes significant. This is not inspiration knocking politely; it is the unconscious breaking through containment.

Here the fruits represent overflow. Something has been held back too long. When it finally appears, it arrives not as beauty but as intrusion.

The man’s resistance suggests an ego not yet ready to metabolize this material. Rather than integration, the response is defense. The psyche experiences the unconscious as threat, something that could destabilize order and identity.

This is a classic early stage of individuation. Jung emphasized that individuation does not begin with harmony but with disturbance. The ego first meets the unconscious as chaos. From that perspective, the first picture could represent later stages of individuation.

Okay, this one’s very personal because I actually wrote a poem with this concept of stairs:

Near 20, I’ve endured well

With every stair I climb

I draw nearer the earth

Yet it isn't death I fear

But the failure to live

Buket Elena

If I had a dream with such stairs, my interpretation would be personal at first, shaped by my own imagery (as it should be for anyone). I would see them as a representation of time. But this dream doesn’t fully fit that reading. So instead, I’ll approach it from a Jungian angle.

In Jungian terms, the spiral staircase feels like the path of individuation — not a straight climb, but a circling descent into the self that requires letting go of control in order to flow with it.

Stairs suggest that going deeper, even falling, can mean moving toward higher awareness — intellectual or spiritual growth — as the stairs are actually rising upward despite seeming to sink lower.

The two figures appear as inner opposites. The man, strapped in and reaching, represents the conscious will: active, controlled, trying to hold on. He seems focused on reaching the suitcase while ignoring the woman. This implies that he is overlooking the emotional and unconscious part of himself.

In Jungian terms, he turns away from the anima — the feeling, intuitive, vulnerable side — and chooses instead to secure his baggage. He reaches for what he can carry, not for what might change him.

He chooses control over connection.

The woman in blue is the other side, still, receptive, surrendered. She represents feeling and depth, the part of us that waits rather than strives. She extends her hand as well, yet it remains unclear whether she wants to be saved or to save him, to pull him into the deeper world. Together they create a tension between doing and being, control and surrender.

Here, the playground sits on top of the house. Children usually love it, yet the boy looks trapped inside, watching the outside from behind glass.

At first glance, a few possibilities come to mind: perhaps the parents provide everything for entertainment, but what he truly wants is them, not toys. Or maybe he has the playground but no friends to share it with. It could also be that the playground is placed in an unsafe way, making him forbidden from using it at all.

From a Jungian angle, the image becomes less literal and more symbolic. The house can be seen as the conscious self — structured, safe, limited — while the playground above represents imagination, freedom, and the inner child. All the joy and spontaneity exist, but they are placed out of reach, almost absurdly high.

The child at the window becomes the inner child within us, locked inside the adult structure.

So all three interpretations point to the same psychological truth: something essential is missing.

The child simply doesn’t have what he needs — whether it is permission, connection, or courage — to reach the roof. Whether the cause is emotional neglect, isolation, or internal restrictions, the result remains the same: he needs and wants something he cannot have, deprived of fun, joy, and freedom.

Oh, I love that! The picture speaks for itself. If I had a dream like that, I’d probably think my subconscious is reminding me of my own limitations—my impotence and insignificance—as my dog can go as far as I let it, and I can go as far as my potential allows.

But there’s more than that. There’s a spiritual aspect to this picture. Are you really in control? It feels like the psyche is asking.

I hope this journey through dreams and surreal images sparked your imagination. I certainly enjoyed writing it. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please share any feedback. If you’d like to support my work and continue exploring the hidden worlds of the mind with me, you can subscribe here.

Thank you for reading and for taking this little dive into the unconscious with me.

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"Logic will get you from A to B; imagination will take you everywhere"

Albert Einstein

Why would we care about the midnight stories our brain tells us?

It turns out dreams are more than we think - a rich source of creativity. Indeed, some of humanity’s greatest ideas have emerged from dreams, shaping our art, science, and inventions.

You’ve most likely already heard these two examples.

The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Paul McCartney said the melody came to him in a dream. “I liked the melody a lot,” he recalled, “but because I’d dreamed it, I couldn’t believe I’d written it.”

Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, too, fell asleep at his desk and dreamed of how the chemical elements should be arranged. When he woke, he quickly wrote down what he had seen — the first periodic table!

If dreams have powered such breakthroughs, it’s worth asking: how can we tap this creative fuel ourselves?

My next essay will be about practical ways to harness dream-inspired creativity and what science says about it. Since we live in a science-obsessed era, it wouldn’t be without it, haha!

If you’re interested and want to support my work, you can subscribe here—thanks!

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Dreams For science

“Reason cannot think without imagination.”

Immanuel Kant

Long before scientists studied dreams in labs, dreams were quietly helping some of the greatest minds in history.

We’ve already mentioned Mendeleev’s periodic table. Another classic story is that of August Kekulé. After tireless attempts to determine the structure of benzene, he dreamed of atoms dancing and forming the image of a snake biting its own tail.

I find this a very cheeky expression of the subconscious—when I imagine the atoms as naughty children, dancing, running around, and teasing the dreamer as they reveal what is really happening. This vision inspired the idea of the benzene ring which laid the groundwork for modern chemistry.

His famous reflection captures an important wisdom about letting the mind wander:

If we learn to dream, gentlemen, then we shall perhaps find truth

To him who forgoes thought,

Truth seems to come unsought;

He gets it without labor.

Louis Agassiz —one of nineteenth-century America’s most famous naturalists—had a similar experience. His widow recounts that while trying to decipher the obscure impression of a fossil fish on a slab for 2 weeks, he set the work aside and dismissed it from his mind; soon after, a dream restored the fossil’s missing features perfectly. It’s funny, because he actually already knew it. He just needed to relax and give his subconscious the opportunity to speak to him.

Neuroscientist Otto Loewi dreamed the experiment that proved the existence of chemical neurotransmission, work that laid the groundwork for modern neurobiology and earned him a Nobel Prize.

Would you be so humble as to attribute your Nobel Prize to God, believing that he/she sent you the answers in your dream? Well, the next example is different — he doesn’t have a Nobel Prize, though, as there isn’t one for mathematics.

Srinivasa Ramanujan attributed his mathematical discoveries to visions. He told colleagues that the goddess Namagiri Thayar appeared in dreams, showing him complex formulae; his notebooks contain many formulas he said came directly from these visions. (I’m not claiming the goddess literally gave him knowledge, although we can never know such things :D, I am only reflecting on the role of dreams in his creativity.)

Notice a pattern: these dreams didn’t arrive out of nowhere. The dreamers had been intensely thinking about their problems, so they were ready to receive the message when the subconscious/mind did the magic.

I could keep going, but I’ll stop here and turn to art—dreams in the realm of imagery are especially fascinating!

Dreams for art

Artists have long been drawn to dreams as a source of imagery and invention. The Surrealists of the early 20th century deliberately tried to capture the illogical, dreamlike flow of the unconscious.

Salvador Dalí even developed a quirky “slumber-with-a-key” micro-nap technique —holding a key or ball while dozing so it would fall and wake him at the verge of sleep— to fish for inspiring visions.

“I am convinced that when I think I am awake, I am still dreaming,” Dalí said, perhaps because he was constantly experimenting at the boundary between sleep and wakefulness.

The Persistence of Memory – Salvador Dalí, 1931

Dalí’s melting clocks and other surreal images feel like actual dreams put onto canvas, because in a sense, they were – he was tapping into the dream state for artistic inspiration.

Here some other dream inspired paintings:

The Hunter (Catalan Landscape) – Joan Miró, 1924

Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale – Max Ernst, 1924

Ronen Goldman, a photographer, recreated his dreams in photographs; the results are incredible and gorgeous. Here a few photos I picked from his website, see sources for more.

I’ve always been intrigued by the “unseen” part of the world. So much seems to be known scientifically nowadays, that “mystery” is hard to come by. But on the other hand, there are so many things we don’t know, or fully understand—like what dreams are, or what they mean. I decided to try and harness the medium of photography to portray these dreams and apparitions that cannot be put into words. Photography works so well for this—things look real, but they cannot possibly be happening. Or can they?

Ronen Goldman

Then there’s the story of Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill Sonata.” Tartini dreamed he had made a pact with the devil; in the dream, the devil played the violin with supernatural skill. Waking, Tartini tried to recapture the music but he felt the waking version was only a shadow of what he’d heard in sleep.

Next time, if a devil visits your dream, maybe hand over your instrument of creation and see what happens!

There are so many examples of dreamwork in art! I’ll make a bigger list in the future.

But you get what I mean now, don’t you?

Understanding the link between dreams and creativity helps us deliberately make use of that well. Simple practices can increase the chance that a dream will yield inspiration: keeping a dream journal by the bed to catch ideas before they fade (I will be writing about "how toS"), or try a modern, gentle version of Dalí’s micro-nap technique to spark insight (with caution—don’t disrupt your sleep chronically; I’ll explain the science behind napping techniques in the next essay).

Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist or inventor, paying attention to your dreams might surprise you with a fresh perspective on a problem or a spark of imagination.

Scientists are continuing to study how and why this works, but one thing is clear: the boundary between sleep and creativity is much more porous than we ever realized. Our sleeping mind is not idle at all; it’s busy sculpting ideas, resolving tensions, and even helping resolve our emotions.

By remembering and exploring we’re visiting that secret workshop of creativity we all possess. And who knows? A brilliant idea might be waiting for you in your next dream!

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Some sources I used

Famous scientists

Ramanujan

Art examples

Kekule

Louis Agassiz

Scientific discoveries 2

“When we sleep the soul is lit up completely by many eyes; with them we can see everything that we could not see in the daytime.”

Aeschylus

As modern people living in a world shaped by science, we have little patience for what cannot be quickly explained or neatly understood. Scientific inquiry works best on phenomena that can be observed, measured, and subjected to experimentation.

Dreams sit uneasily within this framework. Once we understand their biology and physiology, we tend to dismiss them, saying things like “it was just a dream” or “random images produced by the brain as consciousness loosens its grip.”

And yet, nothing meaningful can be understood from a single perspective alone. Human beings are not only biological organisms, but also psychological, cultural, spiritual and social ones. Dreams, too, may be explained by more than chemical activity or REM cycles.

For most of human history, dreams were anything but meaningless. They were consulted, feared, honored, and carefully recorded. Entire civilizations listened to them as attentively as they listened to kings, priests, or omens in the sky.

To examine how people in the past understood dreams is not to indulge nostalgia or rehearse cultural history. It is to recover a forgotten way of listening—a way of attending to the unseen dimensions of ourselves and the world, before they are interrupted, disciplined, and diminished by the shallow certainties of modern science.1

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Carl Jung

Dreams as Messengers from the Divine

For most of human history, dreams were not treated as random images. They were understood as messages—clear, intentional communications from gods, spirits, or fate itself. Sleep was seen as a doorway, a moment when the human mind became quiet enough to listen.

One well-known example comes from ancient Egypt. Prince Thutmose IV reportedly fell asleep beside the Great Sphinx. In his dream, the Sphinx spoke to him, promising the throne if he cleared the sand burying it. Thutmose obeyed and later became pharaoh.

In Mesopotamia, a Babylonian king dreamed that the moon god commanded him to rebuild a neglected temple. The dream was treated as an order, not a metaphor.

In the Hebrew Bible, Pharaoh dreamed of seven healthy cows devoured by seven starving ones. The dream was interpreted as a warning of famine and acting on it saved Egypt from collapse. In each case, the dream had one purpose: to guide action in the waking world.

This belief was not limited to one region. The ancient Greeks described dreams as messengers sent by the gods. Hesiod called them “children of Night, brothers of Sleep,” born to carry meanings humans could not access while awake.

The Romans, too, took dreams seriously, especially when they carried a sense of warning. One of the most famous examples is the nightmare said to have haunted Caesar’s wife on the eve of his assassination. She dreamed of his death and begged him not to go to the Senate. He dismissed the dream and was killed the very next day.

Across cultures, the pattern was the same: dreams were not reflections of the self, but messages from beyond it. In a world filled with uncertainty, they felt like rare moments when the universe spoke plainly, if one was willing to listen.

Dreams as Night Journeys of the Soul

Beyond divine messages, many cultures understood dreams as journeys—moments when the soul loosened itself from the body and wandered elsewhere.

This belief appears across indigenous traditions worldwide. In several Native American languages, the word for dreaming is closely tied to soul travel. From North America to Siberia, people believed the spirit could meet ancestors, encounter animal guardians, or cross distant realms while the body lay still.

The dream world was not symbolic or unreal, it was sacred terrain. To dream of a falcon might mean a guardian spirit had appeared; to dream of a deceased relative could be an actual reunion. A grandfather speaking beside a fire was not memory replaying, it was presence.

Those who knew how to navigate this world were shamans and elders. They entered trance or dream states deliberately, seeking healing or insight for the community. Dreams were often shared openly. Among the Lakota Sioux, a powerful vision was believed to have value only when spoken aloud because the dream was not owned by the dreamer alone. It belonged to the people.

As Marie-Louise von Franz wrote, expanding on Jung’s work:

“Occasionally, one has a dream that is so remote from one’s life, so numinous, and so strange and uncanny that it does not seem to belong to the dreamer. It is like a visitation from another world… In ancient times, and even today among some people, such dreams are regarded as messages from the gods or ancestral figures.”

These were what Jung called big dreams—dreams that carried more than personal meaning.

On the other side of the world, Aboriginal Australians developed one of the most far-reaching dream philosophies.

In their worldview, creation itself emerged from the Dreaming—a timeless spiritual reality where ancestral beings shaped land, animals, and humans. This Dreaming is not confined to the past; it continues alongside everyday life. Through night dreams, people may enter it again, meeting ancestors or receiving guidance tied to specific places and creatures. To dream, then, is to step back into creation itself.

Decoding the Dream Language

If dreams were messages or journeys, the next question was inevitable: what do they mean? Rarely did dreams speak plainly. They arrived wrapped in symbols, strange scenes, and impossible logic. Across cultures, learning to understand this language became a skill—part intuition, part tradition, part sacred knowledge.

The ancient Egyptians were among the first to systematize dream interpretation. They compiled early dream manuals, often called Dream Books, listing images and their meanings.

A snake in a dream was considered a good sign—victory over an enemy. Seeing oneself in a mirror, however, was taken as an omen of conflict or misfortune. To modern eyes these interpretations may seem arbitrary, but to the Egyptians they were grounded in a spiritual logic refined over generations.

Dreams were carefully recorded, compared with real events, and discussed with priests. The belief was simple: the gods spoke in symbols, and those symbols could be learned.

In Mesopotamia, the approach was strikingly similar. Assyrian and Babylonian scholars practiced oneiromancy—dream interpretation—and carved long lists of dream omens onto clay tablets. These texts functioned much like dictionaries.

Dreams also appear woven into literature. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero is disturbed by strange dreams—falling stars, unfamiliar objects—and turns to his mother to decode them. She explains that these images foretell the arrival of a companion who will change his fate. Likewise, in the Hebrew tradition, Pharaoh’s dream of cows and grain is meaningless until Joseph interprets it as a warning of famine.

Different cultures, same idea: dreams speak in riddles, and meaning requires a skilled listener.

Not all traditions saw dreams purely as external messages. In ancient China and India, more philosophical interpretations emerged. Some Chinese thinkers suggested dreams reflected the dreamer’s inner state—desires, fears, even physical health.

In India, certain Vedic philosophers went further, proposing that both dreams and waking life are maya, illusion. Yet even these philosophies granted dreams a special status: if life is a dream, then dreams might be the truest life!

The Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi captured this uncertainty perfectly. After dreaming he was a butterfly, he awoke and wondered whether he was a man who had dreamed of being a butterfly—or a butterfly now dreaming he was a man. The question remains unanswered.

Inviting and Honoring Dreams

Given the powerful pull dreams have always had on us, many cultures refused to leave them to chance. They did not merely have dreams — they prepared for them, invited them, protected them. A good dream was seen as a blessing, a sign of favor. A bad one was not ignored, but treated like a wound that needed care, or a warning that required response.

One of the oldest ways of doing this was dream incubation — sleeping in sacred places to invite a meaningful dream. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, people traveled long distances to temples, made offerings, and slept on holy ground, hoping the gods would answer their questions through the night. Sometimes a priest or oracle would guide the process, and in rare cases even sleep nearby, dreaming on behalf of the seeker.

When illness, doubt, or major decisions arose, people turned to dreams as counsel. Whatever appeared — however strange — was treated as a message worthy of patience, reflection, and trust.

Other cultures focused on protecting the dream space. Among the Ojibwe people, dreamcatchers were hung above beds to filter nightmares and allow only nourishing dreams to pass through.

In traditional Chinese belief, a frightening dream was spoken aloud at dawn to weaken its power, while a beautiful dream was kept quiet, protected from being “spoiled.”

Sometimes, dreams went even further — intertwining with destiny itself. Across Asia, stories tell of mothers dreaming before the birth of extraordinary beings. In ancient India, Queen Maya dreamed of a radiant white elephant entering her womb; priests understood this as a sign of a child touched by the divine — the Buddha.

In China, dreams of dragons, suns, or celestial light were said to announce the birth of future emperors. These stories were not about proof, but about hope. Dreams offered people a way to believe that life was not random, that meaning arrived quietly, first in sleep.

“It is only in modern times that the dream, this fleeting and insignificant-looking product of the psyche, has met with such profound contempt.”

Carl Jung

From the earliest campfires to the most elaborate temples, humans have always turned to dreams for comfort, guidance, and connection. It is only in modern times that we have learned to dismiss them so easily.

Perhaps it is time to return — not backward, but inward — and begin listening again.

In my opinion,

Dreams are like the roots of a tree — unseen, silent, reaching deep into the dark soil. We may never fully map them, but they are what nourish the visible life above ground.

Listening again does not require abandoning science or returning to superstition. It just begins with something simpler: attention.

A willingness to pause before we say “it was just a dream.”

As Carl Jung wrote:

“The unconscious is the dark being within that hears what our conscious ears do not hear, and sees what our conscious eyes do not perceive… We only become aware of this unheard hearing, this unseen seeing, when the unconscious sends us these forgotten images in dreams.”

To understand dreams is to remember that there is more beneath the surface — depths that are darker, quieter, and waiting to be brought into the light if we are to be whole.

Tonight, when sleep comes, perhaps simply pay attention.

Dreams still speak. The question is how willing we are to listen.

In future essays, I’ll explore how to understand our dreams more deeply. If this resonates, you’re welcome to subscribe 😊

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