10 examples of how dreams changed the course of history

I've always been fascinated with dreams, and have always searched for meanings within my own. Many people interpret them as simply being random collections of thoughts that your brain jumbles together into weird fantasies, while others try to associate specific meanings to various dream symbols in an attempt to derive some sort of meaning.

Regardless of what your personal opinions are regarding dreams, there is no dispute that some of them have had a direct impact on the course of our history.

I've collected a series of examples below. If you can think of anymore, please post them in a reply.

Are dreams really just a random collection of thoughts, or is there some greater underlying meaning that can have great consequences? You be the judge.


1) Paul McCartney dreams up the tune for 'Yesterday'

"I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, 'That's great, I wonder what that is?' There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th -- and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot, but because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it. I thought, 'No, I've never written anything like this before.' But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!"

2) Benjamin Franklin dreams of independence

Benjamin Franklin decided to encourage the other founding fathers to push for independence for the colonies after he had a dream that King George III locked him in the tower of London for failing to invent bifocals.

3) The sewing machine

Elias Howe invented the sewing machine in 1845. He had the idea of a machine with a needle which would go through a piece of cloth but he couldn't figure out exactly how it would work. Then one night he dreamt he was taken prisoner by a group of natives. They were dancing around him with spears. As he saw them move around him, he noticed that their spears all had holes near their tips. When he woke up he realized that the dream had brought the solution to his problem. By locating a hole at the tip of the needle, the thread could be caught after it went through cloth thus making his machine operable.

4) Abraham Lincoln's ignored premonition

Abraham Lincoln’s friend and bodyguard Lamon recounted that the president experienced a foreboding dream two weeks before his death. In this dream, Lincoln dreamt he viewed his own funeral in the White House. In his dream, many people grieved and a guard told him that the president had been assassinated. While validity of this second-hand story has often been questioned, it is not unlikely that Lincoln might have had such a dream during the apex of the Civil War. Lincoln also experienced a recurring dream throughout the war that he believed told of the Union’s success.

5) Hitler dodges death

While asleep in the trenches during World War I, a young Adolf Hitler dreamed he was about to be covered with earth and metal. Upon waking he immediately left the trench, and shortly after it was hit by shell killing those in it (thus sparing him, unfortunately for history).

6) The Scientific Method

Rene Descartes developed the philosophy of the Scientific Method after interpreting one night’s succession of dreams to mean that he was destined to be the person who would reform and unify the sciences.

7) Constantine goes Christian

In the Fourth Century, Christ appeared to the Emperor Constantine in a dream and told him to have an insignia of the cross represented on his shield as a safeguard against his enemies, which after defeating Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius around 312 AD established Christianity as the official religion of Rome.

8) Google grows

The inspiration for Google came to Larry Page in dream, in which he thought to download the whole web, which would later evolve into a ranked search engine concept.

9) Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'

One of best-known tales of dreams influencing literature is that of Mary Shelley. Shelley was visiting Lord Byron in Lake Geneva with her fiance and friends. Inspired by the atmosphere, Bryon challenged everyone to compose a spooky story. After several days spent thinking of an interesting ghost story, Shelley says one night, in a state between sleep and awake, she saw a doctor raise life from a dead man. Her dream would eventually develop into the classic novel, Frankenstein.

10) The birth of Islam

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mohammed in a dream and encouraged him to leave Medina and go to Mecca, which led to the establishment of the Islamic faith.

Sources:
#1
#2
#3
#4


These are obviously only a few examples of cases where dreams reportedly influenced someone to do something that ended up changing the course of history in one way or another.

I cannot confirm the authenticity of these stories, but they are widely regarded to be true accounts.

What are your thoughts on dreams, and what other examples can you think of where dreams changed the course of history?

reply to post by csuldm


Sometimes I draw pictures of what I see in my dreams. They're usually pretty creepy.
inb4 off topic

Originally posted by csuldm
Regardless of what your personal opinions are regarding dreams, there is no dispute that some of them have had a direct impact on the course of our history.

Sure, why can't dreams happen to be good ideas?

Are dreams really just a random collection of thoughts, or is there some greater underlying meaning that can have great consequences? You be the judge.

The stories do not hint at any greater underlying meaning.

As I read the headline the first name that popped into my head was Paul Mcartney.

He keeps a pad, pen and recorder bedside (or at least he has in the past) and he reports that many
of his best melodies and songs have come from the ether of his dreams---he just wakes up
with a tune in his head.

I just thought it was a weird coincidence that your first dreamer/world changer happened to be mine
as well

I usually dream of sexy women....
I think I'm going to be an erotic novelist. yeah.

reply to post by Nevertheless


I suppose you missed the point of that question. Let me rephrase.

Do our everyday (well, night) dreams contain some bigger underlying meaning designed to spark our creativity or tell us how to accomplish something important, or are they really just a collection of random images and symbols strewn together by our brains?

The other point of this thread is to examine specific instances of when dreams have led to some of the biggest ideas and events that changed the course of history. What other instances can people think of when a person's dreams caused them to do something that changed the world?

reply to post by csuldm


I often ponder the need for sleep at all. I take very little for granted as most people do, which gives
me lots to think about. It is a strange coincidence that built into the computers we have
developed as humans is a function that slightly mimics our natural dreamstate. That would be
de-fragging and registry cleaners and anti-virus programs.

It seems that in nature almost everything entity with a brain has evolved some sort of a shut down
and clean up process amd the higher the "CPU" power (if you will) the more complicated the process.

Back on topic: I used to write short stories and many of the premises those stories are based
on came directly from dreams--an inherited talking parrot that leads you to treasure, "The Queen
and her Princes"--a story of a queen who becomes interested in her daughters suitors to the
chagrin of the king who has her killed and the royal diamond collection of a necklace and
earrings called "The Queen and her Princes" is lost and then recovered centuries later...I could go
on but don't want to belabor the point...

Yes, I think dreams are either a connection to our essence (if you are spiritual) or are simply
maintenance for the brain--either way I do think creative inspiration comes from dreams.

Originally posted by csuldm
I suppose you missed the point of that question. Let me rephrase.

I don't think I did.

Do our everyday (well, night) dreams contain some bigger underlying meaning designed to spark our creativity or tell us how to accomplish something important, or are they really just a collection of random images and symbols strewn together by our brains?

The fact that we don't take it for granted that "we'll probably figure this out in our dreams", that is, to truly "sleep on it", suggests that whatever the brain is doing when we dream is a quite "random" mixture of recently experienced events. Shouldn't we otherwise know that dreams indeed do the "thinking" for us?

In some cases, dreams could of course be a true source of inspiration frequently if one is doing art, for example.

The other point of this thread is to examine specific instances of when dreams have led to some of the biggest ideas and events that changed the course of history. What other instances can people think of when a person's dreams caused them to do something that changed the world?

Because of the above, I don't know for what reason this is specifically interesting in except making it an interesting anecdote, which I don't mind getting examples of per se.

I have another one:

Film director James Cameron's idea for the Terminator films came from a dream he had whilst suffering a fever.

Good thread.

Another good one is how Emanuel Swedenborg discovered the cause of tooth decay.

While pondering the problem of tooth decay, he fell asleep and entered the hypnogogic state. He saw the image of a rotten tooth, which then morphed into the image of curdled milk. Upon waking, he rationalized that since bacteria is what causes milk to curdle, then bacteria is what causes tooth decay.

I'm almost 100% sure Constantine was contemplating converting to Christianity before his "prophetic" dream for political and strategic purposes, but then used a dream he had (or pretended to have) as "divine" justification for his political move to maintain power. Some of the other dreams are interesting though.

-TheGhoster

reply to post by Kram09


I heard that's where some of his inspiration for Avatar came from to.

Number 7 is almost certainly not entirely true. Rather, it was part of the story Constantine told to justify his conversion.

I'd wager that Mohammed's dream is also spurious, part of his own story, in the same way, but since he founded an entire religion, I'd be willing to accept that one as true.

The rest are pretty neat!

Originally posted by resoe26
I usually dream of sexy women....
I think I'm going to be an erotic novelist. yeah.

Alot of my dreams involve the fairer sex as well.....Ahem!

Originally posted by rival
reply to post by csuldm

 

I often ponder the need for sleep at all. I take very little for granted as most people do, which gives
me lots to think about. It is a strange coincidence that built into the computers we have
developed as humans is a function that slightly mimics our natural dreamstate. That would be
de-fragging and registry cleaners and anti-virus programs.

It seems that in nature almost everything entity with a brain has evolved some sort of a shut down
and clean up process amd the higher the "CPU" power (if you will) the more complicated the process.

Back on topic: I used to write short stories and many of the premises those stories are based
on came directly from dreams--an inherited talking parrot that leads you to treasure, "The Queen
and her Princes"--a story of a queen who becomes interested in her daughters suitors to the
chagrin of the king who has her killed and the royal diamond collection of a necklace and
earrings called "The Queen and her Princes" is lost and then recovered centuries later...I could go
on but don't want to belabor the point...

Yes, I think dreams are either a connection to our essence (if you are spiritual) or are simply
maintenance for the brain--either way I do think creative inspiration comes from dreams.

I like the computer analogy, very interesting and leads credence to the idea that technology imitates natural processes.