Dreams as a Source of Inspiration

Source of Inspiration Accessing dreams as a source for creativity is nothing new. Since ancient times, writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and a variety of people from other professions have logged their dreams and/or shared them, then acted upon them creatively in waking life. Many talented artists, as well as everyday creative people have said they feel the same kind of freedom to explore their emotions in dreams, that they do when they have an encounter with the artistic process. It’s only natural then that so many people connect the two by first logging their dreams, then drawing on the raw emotional content and imagery from their dream experiences to feed their art. Examples of this extend beyond the works of Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, and the entire Surrealist movement. (reference)

In the early 1900s, Madam C.J. Walker became the first African American, female self-made millionaire. With a scalp infection that made her lose most of her hair, she paid attention to a dream she had in which a large black man told her the solution. Some of the ingredients were from Africa, so she sent away for them and followed the recipe from her dream which made her hair grow in strong, so she decided to sell it. Google cofounder Larry Page, had a vivid dream that led to the invention of the World’s largest search engine we now use as a verb. He once said during a University of Michigan commencement address: “You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don’t have a pencil and pad by the bed to write it down, it will be completely gone the next morning? Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23. When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking: what if we could download the whole web, and just keep the links and... I grabbed a pen and started writing! Sometimes it is important to wake up and stop dreaming. When a really great dream shows up, grab it!” (reference)

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