The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

HOW TO HARVEST CREATIVITY FROM A DREAM

If dreaming is similar to psychosis, how do we get back to our normal
selves? Does it happen all at once, or does it take some time to restore
logical thought patterns? If it takes time, are we a little bit insane while
the transition occurs? Here’s something else to consider: sometimes
when we’re asleep we dream, and other times we don’t. As we make the
transition from sleep to  wakefulness, is  our  thought process different if 
we are waking from a dream or from dreamless sleep?
Researchers at New York University used the TAT to evaluate the
kinds of stories people produced after they were woken from dream-
ing sleep and compared them to TAT stories produced after they were
woken from non-dreaming sleep. They found that fantasies produced
immediately after dreaming were more elaborate. They were longer,
and contained more ideas. The imagery was more vivid, and the con-
tent  was  more bizarre. Here is  an  example of a  story given by  a  healthy 
volunteer after being woken from a dreaming state. The volunteer was
shown a picture of a boy looking at a violin:

He’s thinking over his violin. He makes a sad impression. Wait

a minute! He’s bleeding out of his mouth! And his eyes...

seems like he’s blind!

Another volunteer who had been woken from a dream was shown a
picture of a  young man, slouched on  the  floor, his  head resting on  a 
bench. There is a pistol on the floor next to him. Here is the response:

There is a boy in a bed. He may be having some kind of

emotional problem. He is nearly crying, or it may be he’s

laughing, maybe having a game. It could also be a girl.

They’re both dead. Or maybe it’s a cat? There is something

on the floor . . . keys, a flower, or maybe it’s a toy, or a boat.

After being woken from a non-dreaming sleep, this same participant
was  shown another card, and  wrote a  notably less  bizarre description,