The Spirituality of Dreaming: Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves

by Kelly Bulkeley

Enhance your dreaming with groundbreaking research and wisdom from vivid dreamers throughout history, sacred texts, and the present day. We're asleep almost a third of our lives. What if those sleeping hours hold wisdom, creativity, and even connection with the divine? What if our dreams offer spiritual insight and guidance―not just for ourselves, but for our communities? In The Spirituality of Dreaming , leading dream scholar and expert Dr. Kelly Bulkeley brings us a set of time-honored methods to stimulate innate dreaming capacities and amplify their impact in our waking lives. Dreams have been a perennial source of spiritual insight and guidance across all cultures and religions throughout history, he asserts, but the sacred energy of our dreams has often remained untapped. Relying on years of research, data analysis, and interviews, Bulkeley offers wisdom and strategies from "big dreamers"--people who have vivid, intense dreams and remember them. He also distills the latest findings on the impact of digital technologies on our dreams, the phenomena of lucid dreaming and dreaming incubation, practices of dream-sharing, the creative role of dreams in cultural innovation, and the growing evidence that animals dream too. In conversation with people who care about dreams and spirituality, Bulkeley makes a case for taking ourselves seriously as dreaming visionaries. By drawing on classic and contemporary works of theology, anthropology, and psychology, along with the latest dream research, Bulkeley maps the spiritual power of dreaming and argues that our dreams matter in ways we do not yet fully realize, both individually and collectively. Together we can learn how to unlock the sacred truths revealed within our sleeping selves.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Psychology

244 pages, Hardcover

Published December 5, 2023

Reviews

[Laura (thenerdygnomelife) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good primer on dreams, especially relating to their deeper meanings in our lives. "The Spirituality of Dreaming" doesn't delve into any single area of sleep science too deeply, making it a better choice for readers who are new to the topic. I loved the inclusion of Tricia Hersey's concept of "rest as resistance" and found myself inspired to read a few other books mentioned in this text. While it was a little more dense and slow to get through than I had hoped, and had a little less on dream interpretation than expected, there is some good content to be had here, as long as the reader is willing to wade through a wide breadth.

[Jackie Sunday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Bulkeley has spent years researching dreams and shares his knowledge with a thought-provoking review.

The first page sparked my interest. He said, “God possesses the awesome power to create heaven and earth and yet still needs to take a break from work?” He’s referring to Genesis 1 from the Bible and on the seventh day, it was time to rest. He ponders if God needs rest or sleep like we do?

This book covers a lot of material: interpreting dreams, sharing dreams and reviewing many types of dreams. It's well written and organized with interesting stories of images some people remembered.

The author brings the reader up to date with the technological changes which may help someone with lucid dreaming. However, he says that a dream journal may work the best for most people as it’s private and easy to jot things down. Hopefully someday, we will have the answers of all the mysteries connected to where we go every night while our bodies rest.

It's a beautiful book and it’s one that helps us to learn more about ourselves.

[Linda Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book, but I didn’t find any ways to “unlock the wisdom of our sleeping selves”

[Soula · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s an okay book that offers a little bit of everything, probably best suited to those who are new to the exploration of dreams or those who are curious but not convinced that dreams matter.

For me, the book was too dry and all over the place. If you already believe that dreams matter, if you already have an active dream life or want to learn how to improve your dream life, this book is not for you. It offers precious little in terms of practice. At best, you’ll be introduced to other writers whose books you may wish to read.

If 1/2 stars were an option, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. I chose to round down instead of up because I feel that this book does not contain what the title suggests: It is not particularly spiritual, and I don’t think anything was unlocked. Had the title suggested it was an introduction to dreams and dreaming, I’d have bumped it up to 3 stars.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A dream researcher explores both the science and spirituality of dreaming.

Kelly Bulkeley is a dream and philosophy of religion researcher who believes dreaming and attention to our dreams can be a spiritual practice. I should mention at the outset that the “spiritual” here is not necessarily connected with a particular religious tradition but rather to the “spiritual” aspect of our lives. That said, the author does reference dream accounts from the Bible (Joseph, Jacob, and Samuel) as well as other religious texts as well as numerous patients and other contemporary persons. He contends that attention to our dreams connects our conscious and subconscious lives, allowing us to live with greater self and social awareness.

He explores how we sleep. Surprisingly, in many societies, it is together with others rather than alone. He also notes our society’s aversion to sleep and proposes the idea of sleep as a form of resistance to our “always on” society. He discusses the neurophysiology of dreaming and the four categories into which many dreams fall: aggressive, sexual, gravitational and mystic and the metaphorical character of dreams that helps in our understanding. He explores dream sharing including the dream-sharing groups he facilitates. He also offers some cautions about sharing dreams and an alternative to imposed interpretations. He suggests if we do nothing more than to begin to attend to and reflect upon our dreams, we will find our dreams, our sleep, and ourselves changing.

The second part of the book describes some of the work Bulkeley and others are engaged in in developing analytic tools to study dream accounts collected in the Sleep and Dreams Database (SDDb), an open access digital archive. In successive chapters, he considers dream content relating to animals and nature, gods and other spiritual beings, and dreams of the dying and those visited in dreams by the recently deceased. He notes how many dreams of the dying have journey themes and the comfort this affords those who are dying.

The third part explores some cutting edge developments in the field of lucid dreaming. This is a state in which one becomes aware that one is dreaming, and some would introduce training to achieve this ability use brain monitoring to further enhance this experience or even control the dream experience and content. It’s obvious that the author has ethical and mental health concerns of anything beyond self-awareness of lucid dreaming as interrupting healthy sleep cycles or even being potentially manipulative. Instead he urges the idea of dreaming as creative play, using the example of Mary Shelley’s dreams and the creative social commentary that emerged in her Frankenstein. In the end Bulkeley eschews technology for the dream journal and the approach of collecting and subjecting to content analysis the accounts of dreams. He offers an example of one dream contributor, unknown to him, whose dream content over time offered an accurate and insightful account of her life. One can see how tools like the SDDb could enhance dream journaling.

The book’s subtitle may be overstated: “Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves.” My sense is that we often look for sources of “hidden knowledge.” I wonder if self-awareness or attunement might be a better descriptor–understanding the fears, longings, life-experiences and more that are expressed in our dreams. There may be a kind of “wisdom” in that, to be sure. And this is the value I found in Bulkeley’s book. I fear we are often disconnected from ourselves, and dreams help us find our way to ourselves. His descriptions were helpful of dream sharing groups and the playful approach to our dreams, as well as some warnings of rabbit holes one might fall into (similar to unsupported use of psychoactive drugs by unstable individuals).

Like many, I know I dream, but forget most of these. This book makes me wonder about keeping pen and paper by the bedside. As a Christian, we are told that “old men will dream dreams” (I qualify). I am prompted to wonder if I miss things from God, or even my own subconscious. Bulkeley’s book has at least made me curious.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

[Brian Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5, rounded up] As someone who has long been fascinated by the significance of our dream lives, I was eager to read Bulkeley’s latest work. I’ve always been stumped as to why so many people have little interest in learning more about an activity that consumes about a third of the average person’s life. The book probes the connections between dreams and spiritual life across various cultures, religions and historical eras. Having read several previous works about dream science and research, some of the concepts explored were repeats for me, especially sections that explored the links between dreams and creativity, and dream research conducted by Carl Jung. Still, the author convincingly argues that if we make an active effort to explore our dreams, it could lead to surprising discoveries about ourselves. “Instead of building walls to block out disturbing realms of the psyche, you’re choosing to enter those realms and learn what is there,” Bulkeley maintains. In all candor, the religious/spiritual themes that dominated large sections of the book didn’t resonate with me. That’s no fault of the author. What was I expecting in a book that places “spirituality” as the first word in its title? That being said, the author provides many intriguing insights. Here are some points to ponder:
-- Dreams are a form of dialogue between the conscious and unconscious mind, and exploring this link can lead to self-discovery. This linkage can help us to adapt to major changes in our lives and possibly lead us to new solutions to current problems. Dreams can be stimuli that “poke” us in parts of our personalities that we may have neglected or avoided, guiding us to greater growth.
-- Dream awareness can “liberate our minds from the artificial limits” that block our awareness of painful but important truths.
-- Dream journals can be an effective tool for unharnessing our dream lives.
“The Spirituality of Dreaming” will likely provide value to readers who aim to learn more about what exactly goes on during the couple hundred thousand hours that we spend in slumber throughout our lives.

[Anusha Datar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was interesting primer on the science, theology, and philosophy around dreams. Bulkeley draws from a variety of sources (though he mainly references the Bible) to provide insight into what we understand about dreams in adults, children, and animals. He also uses a variety of firsthand accounts and anecdotes to further illustrate the role of the subconscious and the visions it might produce (both while awake and asleep) in broader spiritual life.

I enjoyed some of what the author said about the ideas around the spiritual health of the collective instead of just the individual, and I thought that he did a decent job providing an initial survey of the landscape of the study of dreams. That being said, this book is so short and so wide in scope that I didn't really take anything meaningful away from it. Also, it was pretty dryly written and some of the more engaging sections were short or summarizing other sources (which I'm now excited to explore). More egregiously, I don't think he really discussed any of the broader "unlocks" he seems to promise in the title (other than maybe we should all keep dream journals). These factors leave a very narrow audience for this book.

I'm glad to have had picked this book up, but I really wouldn't recommend it.

[Keith Cantrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. The new Pixar series on Disney+ called “Dream Productions” inspired me to start writing down my dreams again. Who knows what stories and creative ideas my subconscious is trying to tell me! There wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking in this book, but I appreciated the importance & sacredness it placed on dreams instead of just writing them off as random firings of the brain. When you think about all the time we spend asleep, it’s wise for us creatives to use this as a time to listen to new ideas that may be knocking at our door!

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for someone to be introduced to the importance of dreaming. There are lots of interesting facts about dreaming in here. But for me personally, it was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to go deeper than it actually did. But overall, a well written and fairly interesting read.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible. blessed to have this find it way to me when it did. great use of referencing bible verses and adding philosophical thought. love the statement about the most counter cultural act is to sleep. learned my stressful vivid dreams are gravitational dreams and the dreams I am working my way to are mystical dreams. the way the author explains sociological aspects of modern american culture arise from religious elements such as the protestant work ethic is top notch. loads of information to process and I will definitely be going back to for use as reference material.

[Sarah R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. Pretty fascinating but I was hoping for more of a psychological approach I think so I got a little bored with it.

[Desy Gato · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much fluff and too little useful information.

[Billie Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read if you are new to learning about dreams.

[J Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spirituality of Dreaming by Kelly Bulkeley touches, a little, on many aspects of dreaming and the spirituality (largely from a Christian perspective here with lip service to the many and varied forms of spirituality in the world).

This definitely isn't for anyone who has even done some cursory research into the topic(s). That said, I hesitate to even say it is a good introduction for someone just coming to the area. Many topics are touched on, but even the little written for each is less an explanation than a recap of other sources and/or his other books.

For beginners there are many other books that will touch on dreams and dreaming from various disciplines and do so in a much more informative manner. There are even MOOCs available that do a wonderful job of presenting the material. Perhaps if you want a more Christian approach to dreaming this would be the book for you, but if you define "spirituality" more realistically and inclusively, there are other better sources.

It wasn't a bad book, thus three stars. Just nothing of substance other than marketing his previous books.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing.