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

by Kelly Bulkeley

Overview

1st Place Winner of the Chanticleer International Book Awards 2023 in Mind & Spirit category

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 dreams: 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506483146
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	244
Sales rank:	480,144
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, is a global expert on dreaming and a psychologist of religion focusing on dreams. With degrees from Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Chicago Divinity School, he is director of the Sleep and Dream Database, senior editor of the journal Dreaming, and former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. His books include Dreaming Beyond Death, Big Dreams, An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming, and Dreaming in the World's Religions. His work has published in the New York Times and TIME magazine. Bulkeley lives in Estacada, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

Bulkeley (The Scribes of Sleep), director of the Sleep and Dream Database, aims in this impassioned handbook to help readers “unlock new dimensions of your own nocturnal imagination.” According to the author, everyone has “the potential to become a ,” and can fuel their “dreaming imagination” by optimizing sleep patterns, exploring “the metaphorical meanings of dreams,” and sharing dreams with others, whether individually or in“dream-sharing groups.” He overviews three “realms” where “spiritual energies can be especially strong”—dreams with animals and nature; gods and demons; and death and dying—and elucidates prominent themes and types for each (“visitation dreams” featuring a deceased loved one are particularly common, for example). His links between the spiritual and the unconscious illuminate (“the psychospiritual intensity of dreaming can transform an abstract idea into a deeply relevant and personally meaningful conviction”), even if the thesis sometimes stretches into hyperbole, as when Bulkeley tells readers that their “visionary gifts can make a real contribution to the collective health of those around you in these fraught and perilous times.” Still, it’s a welcome resource for those eager to dive into the mysteries of the unconscious. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Bulkeley's scientific research, bolstered by stories of religious, spiritual, and historical practices from cultures around the world, has felt mind-shifting. Dreaming as a tool for social transformation: who knew? This eye-opening book feels deeply hopeful, and I may never sleep the same way again." —Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto and Radiant Rebellion

"A pulsating, personal, playful invitation to delve into rich spiritual possibilities generated by our dreams. This is a brave and beautiful book." —Robert C. Dykstra, author and Charlotte W. Newcombe Professor of Pastoral Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

"Bulkeley reminds us that dreaming is fundamentally a spiritual practice for 'a culture that has fallen dangerously out of touch with its own dreaming resources.'" —Kirk A. Bingaman, author and professor of pastoral mental health counseling, Fordham University

"If we want lives that are Spirit-led, we must listen closely to the language of our dreams. This book has offered me deeper understanding and a renewed commitment to take my dreams seriously!" ——Kate H. Rademacher, author of Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World

"The Spirituality of Dreaming leads us inside of the world of dreams and illustrates how our dreams serve as a portal to and from the Divine and provide another opening for the Spirit to lead us home." —Lerita Coleman Brown, spiritual director and author of What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman

"The Spirituality of Dreaming offers clear guidance to connecting with the creative and deeply personal power of the dreaming mind, through the well-presented methods of science, culture, and tradition. Kelly Bulkeley reminds us that sleep is an absolute essential, and he invites us to become more active players in the meaningful drama of our dreaming lives. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey." —Michelle Carr, assistant research professor, University of Montreal

From the Publisher