Buzz
Dreams are often viewed as a portal to the subconscious, unveiling concealed truths in diverse ways. They might manifest as harrowing nightmares that stir feelings of revulsion, guilt, or despair, or as exhilarating, unforgettable adventures you wish would never end—and everything in between. For certain individuals, these dreams can spark the creation of extraordinary masterpieces, unlike anything the world has witnessed before. Explore these 10 remarkable works of art, music, literature, and film born from the realm of dreams.
10. “#9 Dream” (1974): John Lennon
Following a prolonged period of creative stagnation, John Lennon drifted into a semi-conscious state and heard an enigmatic voice speaking in an unfamiliar language. The experience startled him awake, and the phrase “Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé” lingered in his mind. For the first time in months, words began to pour out effortlessly. Lennon described the songwriting process in a BBC interview:
“That’s what I refer to as craftsmanship writing—essentially, I produced it without much thought. I’m not dismissing it, but it was something I simply wrote down, inspired by a dream I had, without any profound creative spark.”
May Pang, an Apple Corps staff member with whom Lennon had a brief relationship approved by Yoko Ono, referred to the track as one of his most cherished pieces from his 1974 album Walls and Bridges:
“This track held a special place in John’s heart… as it truly emerged from a dream. He awoke with the melody and lyrics in his mind, jotting them down immediately. Though the meaning eluded him, he found the words enchanting. John’s arrangement of the strings gave the song an ethereal, dreamlike quality.”
9. Songs of Innocence (1789): William Blake
William Blake, a renowned English poet, artist, and printmaker, developed a unique printing technique that brought to life some of his most celebrated creations. Among these are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, two illustrated poetry collections offering a “deep reflection on human existence, contrasting the innocence of childhood [Songs of Innocence] with the complexities of adult life [Songs of Experience].” Blake employed copper plates for both text and illustrations, meticulously hand-painting each piece with watercolors to complete the works.
What made these artworks even more extraordinary was the inspiration behind the printing technique. Blake recounted a dream in which his younger brother, Robert, appeared to him. Robert, whom Blake had been teaching in drawing, painting, and engraving, tragically fell ill during the winter of 1787. As Robert passed away, Blake claimed to witness his spirit ascending, “clapping joyfully.” Robert’s visits continued, culminating in the revelation of the innovative printing method that would define Blake’s legacy.
8. Waking Life (2001): Richard Linklater
A scene early in Richard Linklater’s indie film Waking Life draws inspiration from a dream he had as a child. The sequence features a young boy, around 9 or 10 years old, dressed in a striped shirt, gripping the handle of his family car. Suddenly, an unseen force begins to lift him into the air, pulling him away from the mundane world and its ordinary reality. The boy clings tightly to the car, fighting the urge to let go and float away.
“That’s one of my earliest memories,” Linklater explained. “I call it a memory, though it clearly happened in a dream. As a child, you don’t fully separate what’s real from what’s not. As you grow older, you develop a clearer sense of reality and tend to dismiss the unreal. But that moment was strange. I remember it vividly—it was both terrifying and thrilling, like being pulled upward by some force, away from everything familiar, yet something was urging me to stay. It’s a bizarre memory.”
7. The Red Book (2009): Carl Jung
Carl Jung’s renowned Red Book is a collection of illustrated journal entries from a tumultuous phase in his life, during which he was tormented by unsettling visions and inner voices. He later described this period as a “confrontation with the unconscious.” Although Jung kept these writings private while alive, they were discovered and published posthumously.
Journalist Sara Corbett portrays The Red Book as “a surreal moral narrative, fueled by Jung’s desire not only to navigate his way out of the tangled depths of his psyche but also to extract its hidden treasures. This notion—that one could beneficially traverse the realms of reason and madness, light and darkness, consciousness and the unconscious—laid the foundation for his future work and the evolution of analytical psychology.”
Or, as Jung himself put it, “All my creations, all my artistic endeavors, stemmed from those early fantasies and dreams.”
6. Frankenstein (1816): Mary Shelley + Other Classics
In the preface to her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley revealed that the story originated from a vivid nightmare she experienced during her stay in Geneva with the poet Lord Byron. She described the moment she fell asleep:
“With my eyes closed but my mind sharply alert, I envisioned a pale student of forbidden sciences kneeling beside the creature he had assembled. I saw the grotesque form of a man lying motionless, then, activated by some immense force, begin to twitch with a restless, half-living movement…”
Similarly, Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly conceived the plot for The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde following a nightmare in which he saw “a man compelled into a cabinet after consuming a potion that transformed him into a savage beast.”
Another instance is Bram Stoker’s (1897) Dracula. His son recounted that Stoker attributed the book’s genesis to a nightmare triggered by “an overly indulgent portion of dressed crab at dinner”—one of several theories backed by his personal notes.
5. Book of Dreams (1960): Jack Kerouac
Dreams were a recurring muse for Jack Kerouac, a leading figure of the 1950s Beat Generation. He saw them as gateways to deeper truths and eventually compiled his dream journal entries into Book of Dreams. In it, he states: “Dreams are the touchstones of our character.” Through this work, Kerouac offers a captivating glimpse into his psyche and creative journey, urging readers to explore their dreams as a means of self-discovery and artistic inspiration.
The Book of Dreams breaks from conventional formats, lacking a clear structure or linear narrative. Organized into thematic sections, it mirrors the disjointed nature of dreams, presented in a stream-of-consciousness style. Among the entries is a dream that sparked Kerouac’s iconic novel, On the Road, where he envisioned himself and his friend Neal Cassady embarking on a cross-country road trip.
1. The Devil’s Trill Sonata (1799): Giuseppe Tartini
Giuseppe Tartini’s most renowned composition, “Violin Sonata in G Minor,” popularly known as “The Devil’s Trill,” exudes a dreamlike quality with its hauntingly emotional and intensely dramatic melody. Even by modern standards, it remains one of the most technically demanding pieces to perform. The sonata’s origin is equally captivating, stemming from a nightmare in which Tartini struck a deal with the devil.
In an interview with French astronomer Jerome Lalande shortly before his death on February 26, 1770, Tartini recounted:
“One night in 1713, I dreamt I had bartered my soul to the devil. Everything unfolded as I desired: my new servant anticipated my every need. Among other things, I handed him my violin to see if he could play. To my astonishment, he performed a sonata so exquisite and masterful, surpassing anything I had ever imagined, even in my wildest dreams.
I was overwhelmed, transported, and spellbound. I awoke breathless and immediately seized my violin, hoping to capture even a fragment of the dream’s magic. In vain! The piece I composed afterward, though the finest I ever wrote and still called ‘The Devil’s Trill,’ pales in comparison to what I heard in my dream. The disparity was so vast that I nearly abandoned music forever, had I not depended on its joy for my very existence.”
4. Dreamcatcher (2001): Stephen King
In 1990, Stephen King was struck by a minivan while walking along a rural road near his home in North Lovell, Maine. The accident left him requiring three surgeries and a lengthy recovery period, during which he experienced intense, vivid dreams. These dreams became the foundation for his bestselling novel Dreamcatcher, which was later adapted into a film directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
“The first compelling idea that came to me after the accident was about four men staying in a remote cabin in the woods,” King recalled. “Then, a man stumbles into their camp, saying, ‘I don’t feel well,’ and brings with him a terrifying hitchhiker. I kept dreaming about that cabin and the men inside it.”
Because of his injuries, King couldn’t use a typewriter. Instead, he wrote the entire story by hand in just six months. His vivid dreams during this time brought him closer to the supernatural themes that often appear in his work.
6. Frankenstein (1816): Mary Shelley + Other Classics
In the preface to her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley revealed that the story’s inspiration stemmed from a vivid nightmare she experienced during her stay in Geneva with the poet Lord Byron. She described the moment she fell asleep:
“With my eyes closed but my mind sharply alert, I envisioned a pale student of forbidden sciences kneeling beside the creature he had assembled. I saw the grotesque form of a man lying motionless, then, activated by some immense force, begin to twitch with a restless, half-living movement…”
Similarly, Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly conceived the plot for The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde following a nightmare in which he saw “a man compelled into a cabinet after consuming a potion that transformed him into a savage beast.”
Another instance is Bram Stoker’s (1897) Dracula. His son recounted that Stoker attributed the book’s genesis to a nightmare triggered by “an overly indulgent portion of dressed crab at dinner”—one of several theories backed by his personal notes.
5. Book of Dreams (1960): Jack Kerouac
Dreams served as a constant muse for Jack Kerouac, a trailblazer of the 1950s Beat Generation. He viewed them as gateways to deeper truths and eventually compiled his dream journal entries into Book of Dreams. In it, he declares: “Dreams are the touchstones of our character.” Through this work, Kerouac offers a captivating glimpse into his psyche and creative journey, urging readers to explore their dreams as a means of self-discovery and artistic inspiration.
The Book of Dreams breaks from conventional formats, lacking a clear structure or linear narrative. Organized into thematic sections, it mirrors the disjointed nature of dreams, presented in a stream-of-consciousness style. Among the entries is a dream that sparked Kerouac’s iconic novel, On the Road, where he envisioned himself and his friend Neal Cassady embarking on a cross-country road trip.
4. Dreamcatcher (2001): Stephen King
In 1990, Stephen King was struck by a minivan while walking along a rural road near his home in North Lovell, Maine. The accident left him requiring three surgeries and a lengthy recovery period, during which he experienced intense, vivid dreams. These dreams became the foundation for his bestselling novel Dreamcatcher, which was later adapted into a film directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
“The first compelling idea that came to me after the accident was about four men staying in a remote cabin in the woods,” King recalled. “Then, a man stumbles into their camp, saying, ‘I don’t feel well,’ and brings with him a terrifying hitchhiker. I kept dreaming about that cabin and the men inside it.”
Because of his injuries, King couldn’t use a typewriter. Instead, he wrote the entire story by hand in just six months. His vivid dreams during this time brought him closer to the supernatural themes that often appear in his work.
1. The Devil’s Trill Sonata (1799): Giuseppe Tartini
Giuseppe Tartini’s most renowned composition, “Violin Sonata in G Minor,” popularly known as “The Devil’s Trill,” exudes a dreamlike quality with its hauntingly emotional and intensely dramatic melody. Even by modern standards, it remains one of the most technically demanding pieces to perform. The sonata’s origin is equally captivating, stemming from a nightmare in which Tartini struck a deal with the devil.
In an interview with French astronomer Jerome Lalande shortly before his death on February 26, 1770, Tartini recounted:
“One night in 1713, I dreamt I had bartered my soul to the devil. Everything unfolded as I desired: my new servant anticipated my every need. Among other things, I handed him my violin to see if he could play. To my astonishment, he performed a sonata so exquisite and masterful, surpassing anything I had ever imagined, even in my wildest dreams.
I was overwhelmed, transported, and spellbound. I awoke breathless and immediately seized my violin, hoping to capture even a fragment of the dream’s magic. In vain! The piece I composed afterward, though the finest I ever wrote and still called ‘The Devil’s Trill,’ pales in comparison to what I heard in my dream. The disparity was so vast that I nearly abandoned music forever, had I not depended on its joy for my very existence.”
2. Persistence of Memory (1931): Salvador Dali
Spanish artist Salvador Dali saw sleep as a powerful tool for his Surrealist art, given its link to the unconscious mind. He often took short naps to enter a “fleeting hyper-associative state,” allowing him to merge unexpected ideas and challenge conventional perceptions. This approach, known as the Paranoiac-Critical Method, was described by Dali as a “spontaneous method of irrational knowledge” that unlocked his subconscious and deepened his exploration of the psyche.
This unconventional technique relied on self-induced paranoia and hallucinations, enabling Dali to craft “hand-painted dream photographs” that blended realism with fantasy, deliberately disorienting the viewer. He employed this method to create numerous works, including his iconic painting The Persistence of Memory. Dali hallucinated the entire scene before translating it onto canvas.
3. Avatar (2009): James Cameron
James Cameron has drawn inspiration for numerous movie scenes from what he calls his “spectacular dreams.” In an interview with GQ magazine, he remarked, “I have my own private streaming service that’s better than anything out there. And it’s free, running every night.”
He not only dreamt of the iconic scene in Aliens where Ripley encounters the Alien Queen in a room filled with silent eggs, but his fantasy epic, Avatar, also emerged from his subconscious:
“I awoke from a dream featuring a bioluminescent forest with trees resembling fiberoptic lamps, a glowing river filled with luminous particles, and purple moss that lit up underfoot. There were also lizards that seemed unremarkable until they took flight, transforming into rotating, fan-like creatures akin to living Frisbees, which would then land gracefully.”
Upon waking, he was so captivated that he immediately sketched the scene. This drawing later protected him from multiple lawsuits, as some claimed he had ‘stolen the idea from their minds.’
