The best books about dreams and dreaming

The theme of this book delights me because it endorses my belief that we have control over our lives. Early in the book an old king tells a shepherd boy that being at the mercy of fate is the world’s greatest lie. He says it’s up to each person to establish their own destiny, and then all the universe conspires to help them achieve it. He tells the boy to dream, to yearn for everything he’d like to see happen in his life. Discoveries made in the field of quantum physics suggest there are several possible outcomes in life and I believe in consciously declaring an intention and focusing on the desired outcome, accompanied by appropriate action. In achieving this transformation, we become the alchemists of our lives.

It was in my school English Literature class that I first read and fell in love with this Gothic novel. My classmates and I were fascinated by the all-consuming passion of Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship. Little did we imagine that Mr. Lockwood’s nightmare of her spectre sobbing at the window, begging, “Let me in – let me in!” would be at the heart of a chart hit for Kate Bush well over a century after the book was published. Then, it was all about who ended up marrying whom, and to what depths of cruelty Heathcliff could sink. Now I’m equally interested in who was telling the story and how reliable that particular narrator might have been. 

My grandparents were Irish, which explains why Celtic mythology speaks to me. I hadn’t heard of Dream Angus (aka Aengus) until I read this book, by which time it was too late to quiz my ancestors on this impish Eros, golden-haired bearer of dreams. It was said that sometimes he kissed lovers and, when they parted, the kisses turned into songbirds who followed them home, serenading them with love songs. The author intersperses his telling of the legend with contemporary stories set in Scotland where one of the characters is especially influenced by an aspect of Dream Angus’s personality, sometimes good, sometimes quite the opposite. Angus lives on in a lullaby recorded, among others, by Barbara Dickson. It’s both haunting and sweet, just as love can be.

To some, lucid dreaming (realising you’re in a dream while still dreaming), might come naturally. But if it hasn’t, and you’re willing to spend three weeks practising the techniques, the benefits are well worth it. These include: learning to banish nightmares; developing one’s powers of choice and control; healing and restoring aspects of one’s personality that are limiting personal growth. I used to keep a dream journal, mainly to check whether any dream had been predictive, but lucid dreaming is a completely different ball game, aimed at transforming one’s everyday life. As a writer, I am particularly interested in the benefit of boosting creativity. This is a book for really serious dreamers.

When I was researching my own book I had a bit of difficulty finding more detailed information on the Asklepions (Asklepiea)—healing sanctuaries named after Asklepios, Greek god of medicine. So I was overjoyed to come across this book, which satisfactorily fleshed out the information I already had. The practice I was interested in was known as dream incubation, or temple sleep. The patients slept in the temple with the specific intention of experiencing a healing dream, the cure effected by awakening a healing instinct in the sleepers themselves. Dogs and serpents roamed the temple floor where the sleepers lay, the dogs even licking the patients’ wounds. I’ve included this book for anyone interested in this practice which is still discussed today, especially in the field of Hypnotherapy.