What do you think?
Rate this book
Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner (Library of Religious Biography
If you don’t know Tina Turner’s spirituality, you don’t know Tina.
When Tina Turner reclaimed her throne as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1980s, she attributed her comeback to one the wisdom and power she found in Buddhism. Her spiritual transformation is often overshadowed by the rags-to-riches arc of her life story. But in this groundbreaking biography, Ralph H. Craig III traces Tina’s journey from the Black Baptist church to Buddhism and situates her at the vanguard of large-scale movements in religion and pop culture.
Paying special attention to the diverse metaphysical beliefs that shaped her spiritual life, Craig untangles Tina’s Soka Gakkai Buddhist foundation; her incorporation of New Age ideas popularized in ’60s counterculture; and her upbringing in a Black Baptist congregation, alongside the influences of her grandmothers’ disciplinary and mystical sensibilities. Through critical engagement with Tina’s personal life and public brand, Craig sheds light on how popular culture has been used as a vehicle for authentic religious teaching. Scholars and fans alike will find Dancing in My Dreams as enlightening as the iconic singer herself.
When Tina Turner reclaimed her throne as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1980s, she attributed her comeback to one the wisdom and power she found in Buddhism. Her spiritual transformation is often overshadowed by the rags-to-riches arc of her life story. But in this groundbreaking biography, Ralph H. Craig III traces Tina’s journey from the Black Baptist church to Buddhism and situates her at the vanguard of large-scale movements in religion and pop culture.
Paying special attention to the diverse metaphysical beliefs that shaped her spiritual life, Craig untangles Tina’s Soka Gakkai Buddhist foundation; her incorporation of New Age ideas popularized in ’60s counterculture; and her upbringing in a Black Baptist congregation, alongside the influences of her grandmothers’ disciplinary and mystical sensibilities. Through critical engagement with Tina’s personal life and public brand, Craig sheds light on how popular culture has been used as a vehicle for authentic religious teaching. Scholars and fans alike will find Dancing in My Dreams as enlightening as the iconic singer herself.
291 pages, Hardcover
Published November 7, 2023
6 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 17, 2023
Just a day before Tina Turner died I received an advanced reader's copy of a new spiritual biography of the singer. That is a bit eerie, but it is the truth. Tina Turner was known in life as the Queen of Rock and Roll. Whether you were a fan or not, at least if you were of a certain age, you knew the name. You might know some of her songs, especially "Proud Mary." As for the spiritual dimensions of her life, that might not be as well-known. At least, I knew little to nothing about her spiritual life. Yet, as we discover in this biography by Ralph Craig III, she had a rich and diverse spiritual life that enabled her to overcome tremendous odds in life, including an abusive marriage to Ike Turner.
This contribution to the Eerdmans Library of Religious Biography invites us to explore the life of this amazing singer and performer who was known as much for her dancing as her singing. The dancing aspect of her performances is captured in the title, and as for the latter, the singing voice, it was powerful. I will confess that while I have known of her for much of my life---her career began at about the same time I was born --- I wasn't a fan. Nevertheless, as I read through this biography became drawn into her life story.
As I write this review, Ralph Craig's "Dancing in My Dreams" is not scheduled for publication until the late fall of 2023. So, if you don't want to read any spoilers, you might want to stop reading!
This is the story of a woman born and raised in rural Tennessee, outside Memphis. While we know her as Tina Turner, her birth name was Anna Mae Bullock. Her now famous moniker was given to her by her husband Ike even before their marriage. Early in life her parents divorced and left her in the care of her two grandmothers. The two grandmothers were very different and contributed differently to her spiritual development. Her grandmother on her father's side was a strict Baptist, and it was in the context of the Black Baptist churches that she began to develop her powerful singing voice. On her mother's side, she was introduced to more non-traditional spiritual ways, including mysticism, Native American spiritual traditions and practices, and supernaturalism. While she was in and out of her parents' homes, while living with her mother she was also introduced to Pentecostalism. All of this expresses different forms of Southern religious culture.
While still in high school in St. Louis, she met Ike Turner, who allowed her to occasionally sing with his band. This experience introduced her to the Blues and R&B. In time she became an integral part of the band and then the wife of Ike, who we discover was very controlling and abusive. It would take many years for Tina to extricate herself from Ike's control. We learn a lot here about the 1960s racial climate, though neither Ike nor Tina was active in the Civil Rights Movement. In these early years, Anna Mae, now Tina Turner, began to draw on the mysticism of her maternal grandmother. As time passes we see how this leads to a variety of spiritual frameworks, including astrology, psychics, and eventually Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism.
It was in the early 1970s, as Tina began to break free of Ike's control that she began to explore Ska Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. She was first introduced to Buddhism in the early 1970s by friends and by her son Ronnie. Ralph Craig helpfully introduces us to Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism, which was founded in 1930 in Japan. While Turner began to engage with Buddhism she didn't give up her interest in astrology or consulting psychics. Her attraction to Buddhism was combined with her interest in various forms of metaphysical religion. Turner's move into Buddhism coincided with her break with Ike, which was quite difficult as Ike was very controlling. Launching her own career was difficult as well since many venues and recording companies did not welcome her as a Black woman. It was her engagement with Buddhism that helped her manage this transition into a new life without Ike. We learn a lot about the challenges of this breakup that eventually allowed Tina to own her own identity as Tina Turner. Fortunately, with the help of other musicians including David Bowie, she was able to launch a career that made her one of the best-known singers in the world. Interestingly, she made her mark first in Europe.
While this is a spiritual biography, privileging her spiritual life, this is also a true biography so we gain insight into her career, which eventually took off allowing her to achieve her dream of filling arenas. Again, it was her engagement with Buddhism, especially chanting that helped her achieve her dreams, dreams that included overcoming both racism and sexism in the music industry. While she achieved her dream of becoming a successful solo artist who filled stadiums and arenas, she had one more dream left to be fulfilled. That dream involved becoming a religious teacher.
As early as the mid-1980s, Tina began to dream of becoming a religious teacher. However, moving into that role did not come until after she retired from live performing. Before that, she would limit the discussion of her beliefs to interviews. Eventually, however, she would enter into opportunities to engage in spiritual teaching in the early 2000s. This included releasing albums and books that expressed her beliefs.
While we may know her best for her music, as Ralph Craig notes, "At every major juncture of Turner's life there was religion: she learned to dream in the cotton fields of Nutbush and found comfort in the natural, earthly spirituality of her maternal grandmother. This spirituality was itself rooted in a stream of Black southern religious culture that centered conjure, root work, dreams, visions, signs, and the wilderness experience" (p. 217). But that was not the only contributor. There was also her paternal grandmother's Black Baptist tradition that helped her find her singing voice in the church choir. Ultimately, it would be in the context of Buddhism that she would find her independent voice as a singer, person, and ultimately as a religious teacher.
I believe that readers of this biography will come to a new appreciation of the singer known for her dancing and singing, but who was much more than that. Whether we share her religious beliefs and practices, we discover here how they formed her and sustained her in life. For that reason, this will be a welcome biography.
This contribution to the Eerdmans Library of Religious Biography invites us to explore the life of this amazing singer and performer who was known as much for her dancing as her singing. The dancing aspect of her performances is captured in the title, and as for the latter, the singing voice, it was powerful. I will confess that while I have known of her for much of my life---her career began at about the same time I was born --- I wasn't a fan. Nevertheless, as I read through this biography became drawn into her life story.
As I write this review, Ralph Craig's "Dancing in My Dreams" is not scheduled for publication until the late fall of 2023. So, if you don't want to read any spoilers, you might want to stop reading!
This is the story of a woman born and raised in rural Tennessee, outside Memphis. While we know her as Tina Turner, her birth name was Anna Mae Bullock. Her now famous moniker was given to her by her husband Ike even before their marriage. Early in life her parents divorced and left her in the care of her two grandmothers. The two grandmothers were very different and contributed differently to her spiritual development. Her grandmother on her father's side was a strict Baptist, and it was in the context of the Black Baptist churches that she began to develop her powerful singing voice. On her mother's side, she was introduced to more non-traditional spiritual ways, including mysticism, Native American spiritual traditions and practices, and supernaturalism. While she was in and out of her parents' homes, while living with her mother she was also introduced to Pentecostalism. All of this expresses different forms of Southern religious culture.
While still in high school in St. Louis, she met Ike Turner, who allowed her to occasionally sing with his band. This experience introduced her to the Blues and R&B. In time she became an integral part of the band and then the wife of Ike, who we discover was very controlling and abusive. It would take many years for Tina to extricate herself from Ike's control. We learn a lot here about the 1960s racial climate, though neither Ike nor Tina was active in the Civil Rights Movement. In these early years, Anna Mae, now Tina Turner, began to draw on the mysticism of her maternal grandmother. As time passes we see how this leads to a variety of spiritual frameworks, including astrology, psychics, and eventually Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism.
It was in the early 1970s, as Tina began to break free of Ike's control that she began to explore Ska Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. She was first introduced to Buddhism in the early 1970s by friends and by her son Ronnie. Ralph Craig helpfully introduces us to Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism, which was founded in 1930 in Japan. While Turner began to engage with Buddhism she didn't give up her interest in astrology or consulting psychics. Her attraction to Buddhism was combined with her interest in various forms of metaphysical religion. Turner's move into Buddhism coincided with her break with Ike, which was quite difficult as Ike was very controlling. Launching her own career was difficult as well since many venues and recording companies did not welcome her as a Black woman. It was her engagement with Buddhism that helped her manage this transition into a new life without Ike. We learn a lot about the challenges of this breakup that eventually allowed Tina to own her own identity as Tina Turner. Fortunately, with the help of other musicians including David Bowie, she was able to launch a career that made her one of the best-known singers in the world. Interestingly, she made her mark first in Europe.
While this is a spiritual biography, privileging her spiritual life, this is also a true biography so we gain insight into her career, which eventually took off allowing her to achieve her dream of filling arenas. Again, it was her engagement with Buddhism, especially chanting that helped her achieve her dreams, dreams that included overcoming both racism and sexism in the music industry. While she achieved her dream of becoming a successful solo artist who filled stadiums and arenas, she had one more dream left to be fulfilled. That dream involved becoming a religious teacher.
As early as the mid-1980s, Tina began to dream of becoming a religious teacher. However, moving into that role did not come until after she retired from live performing. Before that, she would limit the discussion of her beliefs to interviews. Eventually, however, she would enter into opportunities to engage in spiritual teaching in the early 2000s. This included releasing albums and books that expressed her beliefs.
While we may know her best for her music, as Ralph Craig notes, "At every major juncture of Turner's life there was religion: she learned to dream in the cotton fields of Nutbush and found comfort in the natural, earthly spirituality of her maternal grandmother. This spirituality was itself rooted in a stream of Black southern religious culture that centered conjure, root work, dreams, visions, signs, and the wilderness experience" (p. 217). But that was not the only contributor. There was also her paternal grandmother's Black Baptist tradition that helped her find her singing voice in the church choir. Ultimately, it would be in the context of Buddhism that she would find her independent voice as a singer, person, and ultimately as a religious teacher.
I believe that readers of this biography will come to a new appreciation of the singer known for her dancing and singing, but who was much more than that. Whether we share her religious beliefs and practices, we discover here how they formed her and sustained her in life. For that reason, this will be a welcome biography.
May 12, 2024
Summary: A biography of the life of Tina Turner, centering on how her embrace of Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism was transformative in the fulfillment of her dreams, including that of becoming a religious teacher.
If you remember Tina Turner, most likely your memory of her was in performance, singing “Proud Mary” or “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, often beginning low and slow and climaxing in a frenzy of dancing by her and her backup singers as she belted out powerful vocals–a revival service at a rock concert.
Maybe that should have cued me to powerful spiritual roots in her life. Even so, there was much new for me in this spiritual biography of Turner’s life. What should have been evident, knowing the stories of other, was her Black church experience, beginning at the Woodlawn Baptist Church in rural Nutbush, Tennessee, and later Pentecostal Church of God in Christ churches in Nashville. Growing up as Anna Mae Bullock, she was the child of a strict religious mother and absentee father who died young, She also lived part of the time with an aunt Zelma and her uncle Richard, who she eventually would live with after her mother left, moving to St. Louis where she encountered the clubs, sang for Ike Turner, eventually becoming part of his act, becoming “Tina” and marrying her.
On one hand, Ike Turner turned Tina into the professional who could walk into a studio and lay down a vocal track in one take. But it came at the tremendous cost of physical abuse, making her life a study of partner abuse and the psychological fear and dependency that kept her from leaving for many years, even as Ike further descended into drug addiction.
What distinguishes this book is Ralph Craig’s account of the turning point in her life, resulting from a number of spiritual practices including consulting with readers, astrology, and most significantly, Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. Through Wayne and Ana Maria Shorter and their friend Valerie Bishop, she was introduced to the chanting associated with this Japanese form of Buddhism and the peace and focus she gained from this practice and their support helped her leave Ike for good, and over several years, launch her solo career, pursuing a dream of performing in stadiums. Craig goes into depth concerning the history of this branch of Buddhism and the embrace of Buddhism in Black America.
He also describes what he calls Turner’s “combinatory religious repertoire” in which she draws upon all her religious influences although Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism remains central. A quote from Vanity Fair (1993), cited by Craig may give a sense of this:
“I do something about my life besides eating and exercising and whatever. I contact my soul. I must stay in touch with my soul. That’s my connection to the universe….I’m a Buddhist-Baptist. My training is Baptist. And I can still relate to the Ten Commandments and to the Ten Worlds [a concept from Soka Gakkai]. It’s all very close, as long as you contact the subconscious mind. That’s where the coin of the Almighty is….I don’t care what they feel about me and my tight pants on stage, and my lips and my hair. I am a chanter. And everyone who knows anything about chanting knows you correct everything in your life by chanting every day” (p. 175)
Craig goes own to recount how she used chanting to prepare herself to connect with audiences in concerts. And he recounts the slow climb from smaller venues to arenas, the struggle and prejudice she encountered with getting recording contracts with American companies and the much more favorable reception she enjoyed in Europe leading to her move to England and eventually Switzerland, where she married again.
The final chapter records her retirement after her Wildest Dreams concert tour, where she filled stadiums, in 2009. In her remaining years, she pursued one final dream, to teach what she had learned, releasing several recordings sharing religious teaching. Her life after 2013 became increasingly a struggle with declining health as she suffered a stroke, kidney disease and later, cancer. Her last US appearance was in 2019 at the New York debut of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. She died May 24, 2023.
Craig offers an in-depth account of how Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism profoundly shaped the second half of Turner’s life, and offers her as an example of the experience of other Blacks who followed her path into Buddhism. One senses that for Turner, and perhaps others, the church remained culturally formative but failed to offer the spiritual resources found in Buddhism. As much as I wished she would have found the support to leave an abusive partner from the church (even her mother supported Ike against her) and found in the spiritual practices of the church, what she needed to sustain her in her performing life, I’m grateful for the solo career she achieved, her body of work, and the preservation of her life from the violence many women do not survive. Ralph H. Craig, III has added an important, though religiously divergent account, to Eerdmans Library of Religious Biography.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
If you remember Tina Turner, most likely your memory of her was in performance, singing “Proud Mary” or “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, often beginning low and slow and climaxing in a frenzy of dancing by her and her backup singers as she belted out powerful vocals–a revival service at a rock concert.
Maybe that should have cued me to powerful spiritual roots in her life. Even so, there was much new for me in this spiritual biography of Turner’s life. What should have been evident, knowing the stories of other, was her Black church experience, beginning at the Woodlawn Baptist Church in rural Nutbush, Tennessee, and later Pentecostal Church of God in Christ churches in Nashville. Growing up as Anna Mae Bullock, she was the child of a strict religious mother and absentee father who died young, She also lived part of the time with an aunt Zelma and her uncle Richard, who she eventually would live with after her mother left, moving to St. Louis where she encountered the clubs, sang for Ike Turner, eventually becoming part of his act, becoming “Tina” and marrying her.
On one hand, Ike Turner turned Tina into the professional who could walk into a studio and lay down a vocal track in one take. But it came at the tremendous cost of physical abuse, making her life a study of partner abuse and the psychological fear and dependency that kept her from leaving for many years, even as Ike further descended into drug addiction.
What distinguishes this book is Ralph Craig’s account of the turning point in her life, resulting from a number of spiritual practices including consulting with readers, astrology, and most significantly, Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. Through Wayne and Ana Maria Shorter and their friend Valerie Bishop, she was introduced to the chanting associated with this Japanese form of Buddhism and the peace and focus she gained from this practice and their support helped her leave Ike for good, and over several years, launch her solo career, pursuing a dream of performing in stadiums. Craig goes into depth concerning the history of this branch of Buddhism and the embrace of Buddhism in Black America.
He also describes what he calls Turner’s “combinatory religious repertoire” in which she draws upon all her religious influences although Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism remains central. A quote from Vanity Fair (1993), cited by Craig may give a sense of this:
“I do something about my life besides eating and exercising and whatever. I contact my soul. I must stay in touch with my soul. That’s my connection to the universe….I’m a Buddhist-Baptist. My training is Baptist. And I can still relate to the Ten Commandments and to the Ten Worlds [a concept from Soka Gakkai]. It’s all very close, as long as you contact the subconscious mind. That’s where the coin of the Almighty is….I don’t care what they feel about me and my tight pants on stage, and my lips and my hair. I am a chanter. And everyone who knows anything about chanting knows you correct everything in your life by chanting every day” (p. 175)
Craig goes own to recount how she used chanting to prepare herself to connect with audiences in concerts. And he recounts the slow climb from smaller venues to arenas, the struggle and prejudice she encountered with getting recording contracts with American companies and the much more favorable reception she enjoyed in Europe leading to her move to England and eventually Switzerland, where she married again.
The final chapter records her retirement after her Wildest Dreams concert tour, where she filled stadiums, in 2009. In her remaining years, she pursued one final dream, to teach what she had learned, releasing several recordings sharing religious teaching. Her life after 2013 became increasingly a struggle with declining health as she suffered a stroke, kidney disease and later, cancer. Her last US appearance was in 2019 at the New York debut of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. She died May 24, 2023.
Craig offers an in-depth account of how Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism profoundly shaped the second half of Turner’s life, and offers her as an example of the experience of other Blacks who followed her path into Buddhism. One senses that for Turner, and perhaps others, the church remained culturally formative but failed to offer the spiritual resources found in Buddhism. As much as I wished she would have found the support to leave an abusive partner from the church (even her mother supported Ike against her) and found in the spiritual practices of the church, what she needed to sustain her in her performing life, I’m grateful for the solo career she achieved, her body of work, and the preservation of her life from the violence many women do not survive. Ralph H. Craig, III has added an important, though religiously divergent account, to Eerdmans Library of Religious Biography.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Read
June 12, 2024Tina Turner was a one-of-a-kind singer and entertainer. For decades she gave the world some powerful performances. Most know of her career, especially the earlier days with her husband Ike Turner. Most also know that he was not the nicest man, which would really be putting it mildly. He was very controlling and abusive to her, trying to make her live her life according to his rules.
It was when she finally broke free from his control, that she was her own person, someone who finally played by her own rules. Ralph Craig has done an exceptional job of looking deeper into her life, than many of us ever realized. Yes we knew she was a million selling singer, with a host of hit songs. We knew that she loved to wear short skirts and spike heels and gyrate across the stage, while belting out songs like Private Dancer, Simply The Best, and What’s Love Got To Do With It. We also know during her amazing solo comeback, she was selling out stadiums and entertainment venues all around the world.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, to parents who were quite poor. When they separated, Tina went to live with her grandmother. But when her grandmother died, she went back to live with her mother in the 1950’s. She loved to sing and ultimately met Ike Turner in 1956. But this is not entirely the crux of the book.
The author looks into the spiritual side of her life, which seemed to be her saving grace when life turned dark, and on the desperate side. She became a Buddhist, and by embracing that religion, in many ways, it turned her life around, and altered her frame of mind, by getting quite heavily into the concepts of the religion.
It specifically is known as Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. It is when she does the chanting that she achieves the most inner peace and comfort. And she found it to be the ideal way to prepare for her concerts, going through the chanting ritual before them, putting her in the proper frame of mind. She is quoted as saying, "After I embraced Buddhism, I never doubted I would get where I wanted to go. But much of the time I had no idea how exactly I would get there. I left the ‘how’ up to the universe and the mythical workings of my mind and soul.”
Ralph Craig looks deeply into her life through music and spiritual peace. She even made recordings later in her life, that looked at the world of Buddhism, explaining how it created harmony in her life. Tina did write memoirs earlier in her life, and some of the information in them is found here, but author Craig does tread into new ground about her life,career, and legacy, creating a most enlightening book that makes her blazing talent glow even brighter.
It was when she finally broke free from his control, that she was her own person, someone who finally played by her own rules. Ralph Craig has done an exceptional job of looking deeper into her life, than many of us ever realized. Yes we knew she was a million selling singer, with a host of hit songs. We knew that she loved to wear short skirts and spike heels and gyrate across the stage, while belting out songs like Private Dancer, Simply The Best, and What’s Love Got To Do With It. We also know during her amazing solo comeback, she was selling out stadiums and entertainment venues all around the world.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, to parents who were quite poor. When they separated, Tina went to live with her grandmother. But when her grandmother died, she went back to live with her mother in the 1950’s. She loved to sing and ultimately met Ike Turner in 1956. But this is not entirely the crux of the book.
The author looks into the spiritual side of her life, which seemed to be her saving grace when life turned dark, and on the desperate side. She became a Buddhist, and by embracing that religion, in many ways, it turned her life around, and altered her frame of mind, by getting quite heavily into the concepts of the religion.
It specifically is known as Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism. It is when she does the chanting that she achieves the most inner peace and comfort. And she found it to be the ideal way to prepare for her concerts, going through the chanting ritual before them, putting her in the proper frame of mind. She is quoted as saying, "After I embraced Buddhism, I never doubted I would get where I wanted to go. But much of the time I had no idea how exactly I would get there. I left the ‘how’ up to the universe and the mythical workings of my mind and soul.”
Ralph Craig looks deeply into her life through music and spiritual peace. She even made recordings later in her life, that looked at the world of Buddhism, explaining how it created harmony in her life. Tina did write memoirs earlier in her life, and some of the information in them is found here, but author Craig does tread into new ground about her life,career, and legacy, creating a most enlightening book that makes her blazing talent glow even brighter.
August 16, 2025
Dancing in My Dreams is a powerful, soul-stirring tribute to Tina Turner—more than a performer, she was a force of nature and a beacon of resilience. As someone who’s endured a painful divorce, I was deeply moved by her journey through abuse and heartbreak and awed by the strength it took for her to not just survive but rise with grace and power. This book captures her indomitable spirit and reminds us all that even in our darkest moments, there is light, healing, and the possibility of triumph. An extraordinary read that speaks to every woman who’s ever had to rebuild herself.
A huge thanks to NetGalley, the author & the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.
A huge thanks to NetGalley, the author & the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.
January 29, 2024
An icon. Tina Turner and What's Love Got To Do With It, are what helped give me the confidence to start on my own spiritual journey with Buddhism many years ago. This was absolutely wonderful!
October 26, 2023
an amazing life! and an amazing book! wildest dreams, the bodhisattva dreams.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews