The Spirituality of Dreaming
Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves
The Spirituality of Dreaming repackages dreaming as a life-enhancing, revolutionary act resulting in access to fonts of sacred energy.
Kelly Bulkeley declares that dreaming is the most democratic and accessible of all the spiritual arts: everyone sleeps and everyone dreams, though not everyone remembers their dreams. Drawing on interviews and data analysis, his book details what’s going on in the almost one-third of a person’s life that’s spent sleeping. It also names strategies for aspiring “big dreamers”—people who have intense, memorable, and even transformative dreams. Sensitive and encouraging, it invites exploration of the dream world for wisdom and guidance—but comes with the warning that it’s best to enter this sacred space with an attitude of humility.
The book includes coverage of lucid dreaming, dream incubation, dream-sharing practices, the role of dreams in creativity and cultural innovation, and the impact of digital technologies on dreams. It also explores the roles that dreams play in culture, including how religions lumped them together with witchcraft, sorcery, and astrology. In contrast to those who treat rest, sleep, and dreaming as passive time-wasters, it honors workers’ struggles for time to rest and argues that claiming time for self-care is a revolutionary act.
Among the book’s helpful recommendations are tips for cultivating healthy sleep; learning the language of metaphor and dream interpretation techniques; dream journaling; and sharing dreams with others to amplify individual understanding and foster the growth of communities. While accessing the wisdom of dreams requires consistent effort and the development of personal recall and understanding, the book suggests that its life-enhancing, transformative effects are well worth the effort.
The guidebook The Spirituality of Dreaming touts the amazing, creativity-enhancing benefits of dreaming as a spiritual practice.
Reviewed by
Kristine Morris
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
