What is dream intelligence?

When we dream, we are in an immensely creative state of consciousness. Our brain becomes hyper-associative, and new ideas, concepts, and solutions fly towards us. Our unconscious mind is highly intelligent and we can access this bright, mega-creative state when we dream.

You don’t have to be a lucid dreamer to access your dream intelligence.

Of course, if you become lucid in a dream you have the advantage of being able to ask the dream to help you with a specific problem, project, or idea. You can do this by simply calling out to the dream environment: “Help me with a new idea for my artwork!” Or, “How do I fix my relationship issue?” Lucid dreamers can interact right here, right now, with their unconscious mind. It is a fantastic chance to engage with the vast creative energy of dreams.

But even if you don’t get lucid that often, you can access dream intelligence by remembering your dreams and writing them down. If you’d like help with a particular issue, you can incubate a dream, which means simply asking for a particular dream.

To explore the endless creativity of dreams, you can receive a 50% discount on The Power of Dreams 30 Day Class, a hugely popular lucid dreaming course with Dr. Clare Johnson with 30 video lessons, an amazing downloadable dream workbook with all practices, and 5x 90 minute workshops. Just go to this page, click on Enroll Now, then apply the coupon code DREAM at checkout. Be sure the new, 50% discounted price shows up before you purchase it.

Incubate a dream to access your dream intelligence

Try writing your dream question on a piece of paper and looking at it right before you sleep, and remembering it every time you wake up slightly in the night. Your dreaming mind is highly responsive, so trust that answers and ideas will come.

Be patient, as it may take a few nights.

Note down your dreams and look for metaphors, words of wisdom, or movie-like scenes that respond in some way to your question. Dream intelligence can be cryptic, but it is deeply insightful and innovative.

Examples of dream intelligence

Recently, an illuminated manuscript appeared to me in a lucid dream. As I studied it, I saw that it was the table of contents for a new book. I woke up with my head buzzing so much that I had to get out of bed at 3am and write it all down. I was not planning on writing another book, but the next day my editor at Llewellyn Worldwide asked me if I had any new book ideas… I looked down and there it was. I sent it off to her, and the sales and marketing team loved it. Before I knew what had hit me, I was writing the book! It will come out in 2025.

All my life, dreams have brought me amazing creative boons. I was so fascinated by lucid dream creativity that I became the first person in the world to do a PhD on lucid dreaming as a creative writing tool. As part of my PhD, I wrote a lucid-dream-inspired novel, Breathing in Colour.

Many artists, scientists, sculptors, mathematicians, musicians and athletes have received amazing inspiration from their dreams, lucid or nonlucid.

Paul McCartney dreamed the tune for Yesterday.

Some surgeons perform complicated operations in their lucid dreams, to practice their moves in the equivalent of a virtual reality environment.

In 1844, Elias Howe discovered the solution for the design of a sewing machine needle in a dream where he was held at spearpoint. He noticed the spears had holes in the tips, and understood that was the only way he would get his sewing machines to work, by adding the hole to the very tip of the steel needle.

In the first 3 minutes of this video, Lenny Kravitz shares how he dreamed his way into a new music concept.

It’s so easy to tap into the vibrant dream intelligence we all possess. Why not give it a try tonight?