During sleep, while our body and its various functions are resting the mind is still active and awake. Paradoxically, it is more active than it was during the time we were wide-awake. Mind experiences succession of thoughts, images, sounds and emotions, which more often than not we forget after we are awake; however, sometimes we vividly remember our dreams.

Mind is indulging in this activity not uselessly. There ought to be some purpose. Not all the thoughts, images, sounds and emotions are our immediate perceptions. Some of these are from the past, as early as our childhood. Some thoughts are unconnected. Some images we see in the dreams are the ones we had never seen before. May be our mind creates these images through its power to imagine. Sometimes we find ourselves doing things we normally never do; as one who does not know driving will find he is driving. Sometimes we see ourselves flying in a way we humans can never fly. Why mind engages itself in all this sort of weird activity?

We often compare our mind to computer. As computer does, the mind also computes. While we are dreaming, our mind is computing. Meaning, our mind is calculating; determining something by mathematical or logical methods. As in computer, we have many folders to file the work we do. Our mind too has compartments to file the information we perceive. Whenever we are doing something, which we have done before, the mind immediately files it. If the experience is new then mind does not know where to file it. In our mind, we have a kind of haversack, where mind dumps all the unconnected information. While we are in a deep sleep, the mind pulls out all the information and views it to see where it can file it. If the information is unconnected, it creates a new folder for it.

Dreams appear to us incoherent for this reason. Before it creates a new folder, the mind rummages through all the compartments, past and present. Sometimes it delves deeper into our unconsciousness to see if there is any relevant experience in our past lives. Therefore, we see things we had never seen before.

Mind creates folders and subfolders in three major compartments of our mind. We already know these compartments. These are conscious, subconscious and unconscious. Each morning we wakeup we feel fresh. The reason is we wake up with a new settled mode of behavior.

Sorting is not the only thing mind does while we dream. Sometimes, dreams provide us an answer to our long outstanding unresolved questions.

Floyd Ragsdale, while working with duPont, faced a problem with a machine that manufactured Kevlar fiber. Kevlar is the material used in bulletproof vests.  One night, Ragsdale, had a dream.

He saw the tubes of a machine and springs. His boss scoffed at the idea but Ragsdale went ahead. He inserted springs into the tubes. The machine worked perfectly, saving the company more than $3 million.

A dream led Elias Howe to beat Singer to the patent for the sewing machine. 

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In the dream, Howe was in a jungle surrounded by natives holding spears, with holes near their tips.  When he woke, he realized that putting the hole near the tip of the needle would make a working sewing machine.

Thus, we can see we can solve our problems not only by working on them but also by sleeping over them.

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Has anyone ever had a dream that was so vivid it seemed real and upon waking from this dream you obtained some kind of insight or inspiration? Personally, I for one have on many occasions. In fact I wrote a whole manuscript based on a dream or rather a series of dreams, 300 pages! I remember in the first dream, the one of the most importance, I was sitting on grassy slope directly under a tree. It was a wooded area but the type of place that would make a lovely spot for a picnic. A being of light made his way to me and stood over me and said “You are a writer, you always have been and you always will be!” I did not say anything in the dream as I felt it was in my best interests to listen rather then be heard. He then pointed to my hands and instantly a pen and paper appeared and he said, “Write this!”

Suddenly I was somewhere else. I had no involvement in this dream whatsoever and it was as though I was simply a bystander, standing on the sidelines watching as the dream played out. The dream was very intense, there was a war raging on around me but not between humans, it was a war between angels and demons. I will give no further information about the dream as it would ruin the basis of my book but when I awoke from it the first thing I did was get a pen and paper. Roughly 2 hours later I popped my head back up into reality and sitting before me was the first 20 pages of my book .Over the next two years I had dreams all related to main one and ended up with a manuscript.

In light of this I began to do research as to this phenomena because I had heard before that some writers actually get a lot of their ideas from dreams, which is called creative dreaming but what I was wrong about is throughout history not only literary figures have been inspired by dreams but painters, musicians, scientists, architects and even inventors have become inspired by thier dreams.

The 18th century Italian composer Giuseppe Tartini once dreamt he sold his soul to the devil who then played a violin piece more exquisite then anything ever heard before. The following morning Tartini composed his greatest work, ‘The Devils Trill’ sonata,saying it was only a pale reflection of the music he had heard in his dream. Albert Einstein said he received many signs and clear images from his dreams in formulating his scientific theories.

In 1797 English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge suffered from an illness and sedated himself with opium before dozing off into a vivid dream. He awoke a few hours later with 300 lines of beautiful poetry within his mind from this dream and began to quickly write them. After writing 54 lines he was then interrupted by a visitor. When the visitor finally left and hour later,the poet returned to his work prepared to write the rest,however;the remaining lines and verses had faded from his mind. What he did manage to record however; was the masterpiece ‘Kubla Khan’.

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After awaking from a horrific nightmare one stormy night Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein.

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 Albert Einstein said he received many signs and clear images from his dreams helping him in formulating his scientific theories.

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Robert Louis Stevenson first imagined Dr. Jekell and Mr Hyde through a dream.

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Elias Howe had been struggling to design a sewing machine when one night he dreamt of savage warriors whose spears had eye shaped holes. This was very clue that inspired him to create the model of the eye pointed needle.

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There are many more instances such as the above,however; the point is it is very evident dreams do play a significant creative role in our society, so much in fact it makes me wonder how many people are actually aware of this.

Perhaps creative dreams come from a higher source or power such as angels, maybe even demons, who really knows for sure, they may even come from the spirits of the dead although it is also possible that dreams emerge from our own subconscious memories and knowledge, normally hidden in the waking mind but whatever it is,it is quite apparent that creative dreaming can be of high value and importance!

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Copyright © 2009 Tanya Kime-Wallace

I doubt that you’ve heard of it, since the device was never really marketed under that catchy title. Forty-four years later, Whitcomb Judson, a successful inventor with a dozen patents to his name, marketed a slightly different version, with the equally the riveting designation, the “Clasp Locker Device.” Judson and his business partner, attached the invention to their boots and took it to the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893, where they sold twenty pairs, about one pair per million visitors. Their Universal Fastener Company was never to be much of a success.

However, fifteen years later, the Swedish engineer, Gideon Sundback made the invention smaller, lighter, and more reliable. In a brilliant marketing ploy, he re-christened the “Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure/Clasp Locking Device” with the trendy appellation “The Hookless Fastener”. The product may have been brilliant, but it dragged its name around like a ball and chain.

Nevertheless, despite a less than inspired marketing campaign, the new and improved fastener began to sell. It was attached to purses and other items, and was sold to the Army, and applied to the clothing and gear of the United States soldiers in World War I. Strange as it seems now, the new invention came with instructions

The story goes that Mr. B. F. Goodrich, of the B. F. Goodrich Company, marketing the fasteners on his galoshes, coined the term “zipper,” for the sound made when the fastener slid its way along the parallel metal tracks. After that, the invention was a sure-fire winner. It was not the brilliant, inarticulate engineers, but the smooth-talking salesman and hard-headed businessman who introduced the onomatopoeic term “zip” to the English language.