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| Dreams
are extraordinary creations of the mind, tapping
into the mind's great capacity to recall, to
imagine, to evaluate, and to integrate. It's no
wonder that dreams have been a source of
inspiration for artists and philosophers,
scientists and inventors. Here are just a few
examples: |
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| Robert Louis Stevenson, the
prolific author of Treasure Island and Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, wrote that he got many
of his best stories from his dreams. |
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| Edgar Allen Poe, whose poems
and short stories include The Raven, The
Telltale Heart, and The
Murders in the Rue Morgue, is reported to
have relied on his dreams to inspire the moods
and themes of many of his tales. |
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| Guiseppe Tartini wrote his
masterpiece for the violin, the Devil's
Sonata, after hearing it performed in a
dream. |
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| German chemist Friedrich A. Kekulé
visualized the molecular structure of benzene (a
closed carbon ring) in a dream. |
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| The Prophet Mohammed
reportedly had a high regard for dreams and each
morning asked his disciples to tell their dreams,
gave interpretations, and shared his own dreams
with them. |
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| French philosopher Voltaire
composed a canto of "La Henriade" in a
dream. |
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| Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
poetic masterpieces Kubla Khan and The
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner were inspired
by dreams. |
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| Jack Nicklaus told a friend
that he improved his golf swing after dreaming of
a new way of holding his club. |
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| Carl Jung wrote of his early
dream journals, "All my works, all my
creative activity, has come from those initial
fantasies and dreams which began in 1912, almost
fifty years ago. Everything that I accomplished
in later life was already contained in them,
although at first only in the form of emotions
and images." |
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| Nineteenth-century chemist Dimitri
Mendeleyev fell asleep while chamber
music was being played in the next room. He
understood in a dream that the basic chemical
elements are all related to each other in a
manner similar to the themes and phrases in
music. When he awakened, he was able to write out
for the first time the entire periodic table,
which forms the basis of modern chemistry. |
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| Niels Bohr, dreaming of how
horses run at the race track, had an insight into
how electrons remain in their orbits. Based on
this vivid image from a dream, Bohr was able to
formulate his quantum theory, a scientific
breakthrough for which he was eventually awarded
a Nobel Prize. |
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| And young Albert Einstein dreamed
that he was sledding down a steep mountainside,
going faster and faster, approaching the speed of
light, which caused the stars in his dream to
change their appearance. Meditating upon that
dream, Einstein eventually worked out his
extraordinary scientific achievement, the
principle of relativity. |
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| If you know of other examples of creativity
inspired by dreams, please send them - along with
their source - to templeofdreams@earthlink.net |
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