I had the fun of doing an author tour as part of CBCA Book Week (the last week of August). During this tour I facilitated several workshops along with a number of author talks, and a signing. One of those talks was in the library of my home town, with the title ‘Dream to Live’ (playing on the thought ‘Live the Dream’).

When I mentioned how a recurring dream had become the inspiration for my first historical fiction manuscript, an attendee made the observation that Buddhism links repeated dreams to a past life. This was an interesting remark, as the previous day when I had been doing workshops on characterisation in another town, several attending students also mentioned how they obtained their best inspiration through dreams.

In reflection, it occurred to me that many belief systems, including Christianity, place great spiritual significance on dreams and their meaning. Later that week, I participated in an author signing for a customer VIP night at a Brisbane bookstore and overheard a conversation on the same topic – dreams and their meaning.

In today’s modern world, more often than not, we place very little value on dreaming, in particular the meaning of dreams. It just doesn’t sound very ‘scientific’ unless coupled with the social sciences, such as a study in psychology. Yet, I have to admit that dreams have played an important part in my life, particularly my writing journey. Perhaps not in an especially profound sense, but I began to consider the experience of others and how they might perceive dreams. Could I have my time back, I would have liked to have asked the attendee who made this initial remark what their personal perspective was on dreams. I believe it would have been an interesting conversation.

This isn’t a question I’d usually ask, but as I’m one of those annoyingly curious people, I’m going to anyway. 🙂 How about you? How do you see dreams? Do you hold to the ‘too much pizza’ logic? Is it merely an abstract conglomeration of the events of our life? Is drawing meaning from dreams a bit ‘new agey’ for your liking? Or have you experienced uncanny moments of insight, guidance or inspiration through dreams?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.