A curious paradox confronts dream researchers today. New technologies of data analysis allow us to identify large-scale patterns in dream content with more precision than ever before. At the same time, it remains true that each dream is a unique and free creation of the imagination in sleep, spontaneously emergent and incapable of being predicted. In short, we find consistency in general dreaming and wildness in individual dreams.
Although disconcerting to researchers, this paradox is a psychological blessing in disguise, especially for anyone interested in learning about the nature of the human mind and its potential for new growth in even the most perilous of conditions.
Dreams and Subatomic Particles
Those of us who study dreams are now able to make highly accurate predictions about the general patterns in people’s dreams. With a large enough data set, we can identify recurrent patterns in dream content and predict the frequency of their future occurrence, along with their relevance to the dreamer’s waking life. The discovery of these recurrent patterns is a major advance in dream science, refuting the sceptic’s tiresome claim that dreams are nothing more than random nonsense.
However, it also remains true that we cannot predict with the same precision the contents of any particular dream. If someone gave us 100 dream reports, we could generate an accurate profile of the major themes and patterns in their general dream life. But even if the person gave us 1,000 or more dreams, and we used the most powerful AI systems available, we still could not do more than guess what exactly they will dream about next.
This calls to mind the challenge facing physicists in dealing with quantum indeterminacy, in which they are unable to measure the exact location of any one subatomic particle. Physicists can accurately measure the probabilities of where the particle might be, and this allows them to build general models of objective validity. But those models do not and, according to the strongest version of quantum physics, cannot determine the exact location of any particular subatomic particle. There is a fundamental and irreducible unpredictability woven into the fabric of physical reality.
Something similar seems to be true in dream science, where we can predict with remarkable accuracy the broad themes of people’s dreams over time, but not what they will dream about on any given night. Even people who practice dream incubation rituals are only making a sincere request of their dreams, not a command of obedience. With its uncanny freedom and stubborn autonomy, the dreaming imagination will either respond to the incubation request or it won’t, and there is nothing else to be done about it.
This seemingly contradictory quality of dreaming—predictable in its long-term patterns, unpredictable in its individual instances—offers a double gift to anyone who is willing to listen to what their dreams have to say.
First, the long-term patterns of your dreams can reveal in surprising detail the emotional network of your most important concerns in waking life. Learning more about these oneiric patterns can provide intriguing insights into your relationships, health, work and finances, cultural interests, and even religious and political beliefs. Such deeply rooted insights can be invaluable for personal growth or any kind of therapeutic practice.
Second, each individual dream offers you an amazing gift: an experience of wildness, freedom, and spontaneous creativity. In addition to whatever personal meanings you can interpret in its contents, each dream reveals to you a realm of pure imaginal play, a realm that is your natural home every time you fall asleep. Within that realm you experience what it is to live an unbounded, unpredictable, irreducibly wild existence. It makes this gift even more amazing to know that it is shared by everyone, everywhere. Each human has the innate capacity in and through their dreams to experience the free spirit of wide-open possibility.
Opposing Forces
In our strange and troubled world of today, this latter gift holds special importance, because several recent trends are pushing in exactly the opposite direction. For instance, neuroscience tell us our mental activities and sense of self are entirely determined by brain chemistry. Social media algorithms have gained a frightening power to shape our collective fears and desires. The rise of AI seems to diminish to near insignificance the scope and dignity of human creativity. And looming over all, climate change threatens the natural ecosystem of our entire planet.
This dire external context highlights even more clearly the value of dreaming as a universally accessible source of inner wildness. Dreams liberate our minds from conventional viewpoints, give us new ways of seeing reality, and imagine alternative visions of the future, all of which directly strengthens our capacity to resist conforming to oppressive patterns of thought and behavior. Against the dehumanizing forces of current society, the playful autonomy and infinite expansion of possibility we experience in dreaming reminds us of who we truly are and what we always have the potential to become.
Dreaming Essential Reads
Wild Dreaming in Practice
In practice, this means trying to give special attention to the strangest, weirdest, most bizarre images and themes in your dreams. No need for interpretation or decoding, just focus on what it feels like to be the dreamer of such marvels. Do what you can to welcome these wild energies into your waking awareness and let them linger there as long as they want.
When people begin paying attention to their dreams, it often happens that their dreams start paying more attention to them, responding to their interest with a vibrant stream of spontaneous imagery and feeling. You can help this process by keeping a dream journal, sharing dreams with other trusted people, and doing whatever you can to carry the endlessly dynamic energies of your dreams into the waking world.