Inspiring Dreams: Michael Rosen’s Poetic Journey
In the year 2020, the renowned author Michael Rosen found himself in a hospital bed, battling the gripping clutches of Covid-19. After spending 40 days in a medically induced coma, he awakened to a strange and vivid dream. In this dream, he stood at the perilous edge of a cliff at Land’s End in Cornwall, desperately attempting to pass through a hole in a wall to ensure his safety. However, his efforts were in vain as he became firmly stuck.
The impact of this dream was profound. “Immediately after the dream, I can remember feeling first that it was so real, that I had ‘been there’ on the cliff and my wife, Emma, helped me. It really felt like it had happened,” Rosen recounts. “This has stayed with me. I sometimes catch myself thinking that there really was a time when I was stuck on the top of a cliff on the wrong side of a dry-stone wall with the sea hundreds of feet below, and that there was a hole through which I could escape that Emma was pushing me through.”
This dream serves as a perfect illustration of how dreams can depict waking life in a peculiar and symbolic manner, while also offering inspiration and solace. For Rosen, it was a reminder of the support that propelled him towards recovery after a brush with death.
Like countless writers before him, Rosen used his dream as a muse for a poem included in his book “Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS.” This poem caught the attention of Mark Blagrove, a psychology professor at Swansea University, who invited Rosen to take part in an online dream salon at London’s Freud Museum. Dream salons provide individuals with the opportunity to share their dreams and receive insights from the audience. Rosen was flooded with numerous questions and interpretations about his dream, with one notable observation being that Land’s End could symbolize “life’s end.”
“There’s always been this trope that there’s nothing more boring than hearing about someone else’s dreams,” states Blagrove. “Yet it’s something we feel compelled to do.” Initially skeptical himself, Blagrove attended a dream sharing event and shared one of his own dreams, only to receive poignant and meaningful feedback. This spurred him to establish a research program on dream sharing, culminating in a recent study that indicates a link between dream sharing and increased empathy among listeners.
It should be noted that while dreams often captivate us with their bizarre or entertaining nature, many of them are quite mundane. Research highlighted by Blagrove in his book “The Science and Art of Dreaming” reveals that a staggering 83% of dreams directly relate to events in one’s waking life, with a fifth of those dreams reflecting the previous day’s experiences. Tedious activities are seldom the subject of dreams, as evidenced by the study aptly titled “We Do Not Dream of the 3Rs,” which found that reading, writing, and arithmetic lack the necessary human drama to appear in our dreams.
In a world propelled by algorithms and data, it comes as no surprise that the study of dreams, known as oneirology, continues to captivate our fascination. Countless mysteries persist. Why, for example, do I repeatedly find myself plagued by dreams of sitting a seemingly random philosophy exam during my university years? And what about the happier dream I frequently experience of discovering an extra room in my home, sometimes even a secret garden? What would Freud make of that?
The “father of psychoanalysis” held the belief that all dreams contain repressed wishes, often of a sexual nature. However, his rival Carl Jung proposed the theory that dreams are intricately linked to the entire history of humanity, representing the collective unconscious. Most contemporary researchers now view dreams as a manifestation of the brain organizing and integrating experiences, highlighting potential threats that may have been overlooked while awake.
Psychologists hypothesize that nightmares serve the purpose of overcoming perceived danger while dreaming, offering evolutionary advantages in waking life. A study conducted among Kurdish children, who constantly face threats to their wellbeing, revealed a significantly higher number of nightmares with menacing content compared to children living in peaceful circumstances. Essentially, nightmares and survival are intrinsically interconnected.
Deciphering recurring dreams like these can be particularly challenging, as they often leave individuals drained and upset. Isabella Gray, a goldsmith, experienced a recurring nightmare of having to drive a bus despite her job having no connection to such a scenario. “I used to have the dream all the time. I would find myself driving the bus from a strange perspective, like from the top deck, with long arms reaching down to the steering wheel or attempting to navigate narrow steps. It occurred so frequently that I would wake up stressed and exhausted.”
While listening to a radio show, Gray heard dream psychologist Ian Wallace and emailed him about her persistent dream. “He informed me that my bus dreams were symbolic of feeling a need to have control over every aspect of my life, as if there was no support. And that resonated with me! I am responsible for taking care of numerous individuals; everything rests on my shoulders. Once he explained the meaning, the dreams miraculously ceased, never to return.”
On occasion, dreams possess more literal wisdom. When Kyle Frank was in college, he battled disfiguring acne that had plagued him since his teenage years. His GP prescribed a new medication that brought along debilitating physical and mental side effects. One night, he experienced an intriguing dream. “I found myself walking through a jungle, feeling like a young boy exploring nature. Up ahead, I noticed a village with a group of elderly men gathered near a stream. They were preparing some kind of potion. One of them beckoned me forward: ‘The way you’re approaching things won’t work. You need to find a solution yourself and help others.’
The dream struck Frank as peculiar, and he didn’t think much of it. However, during a holiday in Bali, he encountered individuals creating skincare remedies, piquing his interest in plant-based medicine. Upon returning home, Frank began experimenting with ingredients like lemongrass, aloe vera juice, and seaweed in his father’s kitchen. After numerous trial and error attempts, he discovered a formula that transformed his skin. “I felt an incredible sense of joy. Initially, I thought that would be the end of it. But when I returned to university, people kept asking about the products I used to clear my skin.” This led to the birth of a business and a grant from the Prince’s Trust. “Aspects of the dream continued to resonate, particularly the notion of helping others. It sparked the creation of the remedy and gave me the confidence to transform it into a business.”
The process of extracting wisdom from dreams can be frustrating for many who struggle to remember them. Blagrove recommends utilizing technology to aid this endeavor. “Use your phone, assuming you keep it by your bedside. When you wake up, turn on the voice recorder and try to recall as much as possible. Without doing so, the dream will simply fade away. Document it, and refrain from judging its content, even if you deem it nonsensical or mundane.”
While this may appear to be a labor-intensive task or a recipe for irritating partners, there are compelling reasons to pursue it. Documenting dreams is a vital aspect of learning how to lucid dream, a technique hailed as a potential remedy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, nightmares, as well as a means to enhance creativity and athletic performance.
“A lucid dream occurs when you are aware that you are dreaming while the dream is unfolding,” explains Charlie Morley, author of “Lucid Dreaming Made Easy.” “You are still sound asleep but fully conscious within the dream, telling yourself, ‘This is all a dream.’ Most people have experienced a few lucid dreams. If you believe otherwise, reflect on whether you’ve ever had a nightmare where you reassured yourself by saying, ‘This isn’t real – I have to wake up.'”
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
