Why do we dream? How have dreams helped inspire creative artists? How useful are they in daily problem solving? What evidence is there for second sight in dreaming? How much can dreams tell us about the future?In this wide ranging and immensely stimulating account, Brian Inglis first sifts the historical evidence and then describes recent scientific research, before proclaiming the empirical evidence both for a psychic element in dreams and for their frequently beneficial value in our day-to-day lives.
He refers to the influences of âvisions of the nightâ on writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Walter Scott, WB Yeats and Graham Greene. He quotes the testimony of scientists like Nils Bohr, Henri Fabre, and Frederick KekulĂŠ (who remarked: âLet us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then perhaps weâll discover the truthâ); and he cites instances of how specific dreams have served as âmemory joggersâ or solved working problems in the case of inventors like Elias Howe (who invented the sewing machine) and sportsmen like Jack Nicklaus.The evidence for extra sensory communication in dreams is rich and enthralling - much of it derived from the contemporary archives of the Koestler Foundation. Precognition of dreams (as in âdisasterâ or âfarewellâ dreams), prophetic dreams, warning dreams and âlucidâ dreams are all indications that the mind in sleep can pick up useful information not ordinarily available to us when we are awake.âTo sleep, perchance to dreamâ: the evolutionary potential of dreams has barely been tapped. Brian Inglis shows that it is we who can be the explorers now.
Includes chapters on
Inspiration from dreams (âvisions of the nightâ)
Problem-solving in dreams (âsleeping on itâ),
Second sight in dreams (dream telepathy and clairvoyance)
Dreaming the future (precognition and dream warnings)
âLucidâ dreaming (the mindâs control over dreams)
Dream interpretation (from shamans and prophets to Freud, Jung and beyond).
Why do we dream? How have dreams helped inspire creative artists? How useful are they in daily problem solving? What evidence is there for second sight in dreaming? How much can dreams tell us about the future?In this wide ranging and immensely stimulating account, Brian Inglis first sifts the historical evidence and then describes recent scientific research, before proclaiming the empirical evidence both for a psychic element in dreams and for their frequently beneficial value in our day-to-day lives.
He refers to the influences of âvisions of the nightâ on writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Walter Scott, WB Yeats and Graham Greene. He quotes the testimony of scientists like Nils Bohr, Henri Fabre, and Frederick KekulĂŠ (who remarked: âLet us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then perhaps weâll discover the truthâ); and he cites instances of how specific dreams have served as âmemory joggersâ or solved working problems in the case of inventors like Elias Howe (who invented the sewing machine) and sportsmen like Jack Nicklaus.The evidence for extra sensory communication in dreams is rich and enthralling - much of it derived from the contemporary archives of the Koestler Foundation. Precognition of dreams (as in âdisasterâ or âfarewellâ dreams), prophetic dreams, warning dreams and âlucidâ dreams are all indications that the mind in sleep can pick up useful information not ordinarily available to us when we are awake.âTo sleep, perchance to dreamâ: the evolutionary potential of dreams has barely been tapped. Brian Inglis shows that it is we who can be the explorers now.
Includes chapters on
Inspiration from dreams (âvisions of the nightâ)
Problem-solving in dreams (âsleeping on itâ),
Second sight in dreams (dream telepathy and clairvoyance)
Dreaming the future (precognition and dream warnings)
âLucidâ dreaming (the mindâs control over dreams)
Dream interpretation (from shamans and prophets to Freud, Jung and beyond).