Lucid Dreaming: A Pathway to Creativity

Paul Simon dreamed his latest album, titled Seven Psalms, into existence. It’s a great piece of music.

He had a dream during the pandemic in which a voice told him that his next project would be called Seven Psalms. He got up every night for ten months and wrote down words and music that came to him between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. Simon’s dreams were normal, not lucid, but lucid dreams are even more exciting.

Robert Louis Stevenson usually got his ideas from dream incubation. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the best-known example.

Lucid dreaming is the next step in learning from dreams.

Lucid dreaming happens when you become aware you’re dreaming, and that’s when the dreamscape becomes as real as waking reality. It’s an altered state that is within everyone’s grasp.

If you want to know what you should be writing or harvest characters or ideas from your subconscious, use lucid dreaming. In lucid dreams, you can interact with situations and people and have perfect control over the dream.

Try out a plot, ask what the next chapter should be, or allow the dream to show you possibilities you hadn’t thought of.

Or try out a new song or painting.

Explore. It’s what artists do.