DREAMS THAT CHANGED SOCIETY

E = MC SQUARED

Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity changed the world of physics – and

it came from a dream. Einstein dreamt he was sledding down a mountain,

ever increasing speed until he nearly reached the speed of light. He

noticed the stars looked different and this observation led him to the

mathematics by which he figured out the famous formula.

GOOGLE

Yes, even the idea for our biggest search engine came from dreams.

Founder Larry Page dreamt of Google, seeing that he & Sergey Brin

could make a business by “downloading the entire web onto computers”.

THE TWILIGHT VAMPIRE

Like it or hate it, twilight changed the way pop culture saw vampires.

Stephenie Meyer, author of the best-selling Twilight series, had the

idea for vampires come to her in a dream – specifically for the

human-vampire love relationships and where vampire skin sparkled

when in the sun but didn’t burn.

FRANKENSTEIN

What would the literary world be without Frankenstein? Author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dreamt up the idea for Frankenstein

after Lord Byron (a fellow poet she was visiting) challenged his guests

to write a ghost story. She dreamt of the moment when the mad

scientist brought Frankenstein to life and, the following morning,

began writing the chilling tale.

YESTERDAY

Beyond having the most covers of any song in history, The Beatles song

Yesterday came to Paul McCartney while dreaming. He woke up with

the music in his head and wrote it out on the piano next to him.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION

Honest Abe dreamt of his own assassination just a few days before – how

freaky is that?! He dreamt he could hear sad wailing in the White House

and, in getting up and trying to find it, finally came upon a room with

mourners and his own corpse…(OK so you could argue that his

dream was not the cause of one of the most momentous events in

history, but it’s still a pretty freaky coincidence, don’t you think?)

SEWING MACHINE

The sewing machine was invented in 1845. Elias Howe had a dream

he was taken prisoner by men with spears ready to do him in.

Looking at their spears as they were nearly upon him, he noticed

a hole at the spears’ points. By the next day, this breakthrough led

him to develop the missing link in his sewing machine.

A WINNING GOLF SWING

Famous golfer Jack Nicklaus lost his groove in 1964, shooting games

easily in the 70’s. After seeing a problem with his holding of the

club in a dream, he corrected it the next day and his game

improved significantly.

MATHEMATICAL GENIUS

Well-known among mathematicians, Indian Srinivasa Ramanujan is said

to have published over 3,000 theorems. He claimed Hindu goddess

Namagiri would appear in his dreams and tell him new formulas.