DREAMS THAT ALTERED SOCIETY

SATISFACTION

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones attributed his popular

song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction to a dream. He’s said to have

recorded the acoustic riffs just before falling back to sleep.

(The riffs were followed by 40 minutes of him snoring.)

BEETHOVEN

Beethoven was rumoured to be a prolific dreamer, hearing many

of his piano sonatas in his dreams and writing them out afterwards.

Some historians even say his dreams featured instruments

not yet invented.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

Robert Louis Stevenson regularly used dreams as the bases for

his stories. He saw the scene where Mr. Hyde changes in front of

his pursuers and combined with other nights of dream,

wrote the novel within 10 weeks.

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY

Salvador Dalí’s famous clock-work The Persistence of Memory may

not have been directly seen in a dream, but Dalí often referred to

his paintings as “hand painted dream photographs”.

MESSIAH

Not of the Christ variety here (though Mary did learn of Jesus’s

coming through a dream) – composer George Frideric Handel came

to an impasse when trying to finish his now-famous piece,

Messiah. He claimed the ending for it came to him in a dream.

CALIGULA'S ASSASSINATION

Caligula, famous Roman emperor, dreamt of his death the night

before it happened. In it, he met the god Jupiter (Zeus in Greek

mythology) who proceeded to kick him from the heavens back to

Earth. The next day, conspirators assassinated the emperor.

MADAME C.J. WALKER

The world’s first female American self-made millionaire,

Madame C.J. Walker, made her fortune in the early 20th

century cosmetics industry. A black man appeared to her

in a dream and told her the mixture which would help

her falling-out hair grow back in. It worked, and she

enjoyed a lengthy career selling her cosmetics products.

HITLER'S LIFE-SAVING DREAM

While fighting in the trenches of World War I, it’s said Adolf Hitler

had a life-saving dream. In it, he and his unit were eaten up by

the earth and liquid metal. He awoke, bewildered, and left for

a walk during which time a shell landed on the trench,

killing the other soldiers.