Synopsis:
"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." -- John Steinbeck
Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples showing how some of the world's most creative people have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. From these, she draws lessons on lucid dreaming and its application to our problems great and small.
In the visual arts, for example, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built surrealism out of dreams. Today, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, dreams her extraordinary designs into life. In film, "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman; so have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, many dream of winning a Nobel Prize, but physiologist Otto Loewi worked with the Committee on the medical experiment that earned him the real prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi dreamed of resistance.
Since Freud, we have taken it for granted that our dreams tell us something about where we are and where we have been. Now, in The Committee of Sleep, Barrett vividly reveals how dreams can also tell us where we could possibly go -- and how to get there.
Read this book, sleep on it, and see what transpires!
From the Back Cover:
"This fascinating and balanced compendium is the first critical examination of the tricky subject of the role of dreams and dreaming in creative life -- a question which has been pondered since antiquity. Dr. Barrett draws vividly and eloquently on the world's literature as well as her own clinical experience; one leaves this book with much more respect for sleep and dreaming."
-- Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist from Mars
"An Engaging yet scholarly adventure filled with absorbing anecdotes from the history books and from Dr. Barrett's own interviews with some of the world's great scientists and artists. As she explores the sometimes whimsical, often profound creative energy of the dream, her perceptive commentary illuminates why and how nocturnal inspirations occur and provides practical guidance for readers wishing to call upon the Committee as a resource. Facinating reading!"
-- D.M. Thomas, author of The White Hotel
"Barrett provides a delightful update on the creative use of dreams by contemporary artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, scientists, inventors, and others, along with a reminder of classical dream discoveries. She has gathered many unique examples from eastern cultures, as well, including India, Islam, and Africa. Her personal interviews with living artists in various fields inspire readers to recognize their own dream discoveries and use them to enrich their daily lives. Good bedtime reading!"-- Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., author of Creative Dreaming and The Universal Dream Key
"A fascinating account of the fantastic creativity of the dreaming mind. The most extensive collection of creative dreams yet, The Committee of Sleep is well written, thoughtful, and inspiring."-- Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., author of the bestseller Lucid Dreaming
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