Lucid Dream Ideation (Episode 222)
This morning I had a magical creative moment. I was half-asleep, half-awake and I started brainstorming with myself in a dream like state about ways to create a memory for my dad on my island.
I played along with different ideas while being in a state of half-asleep. The ideas flowed in and out of my brain. And this idea came to me:
“Hang a saxophone from a string so that it floats in the air.”
My father was a musician, he loved his saxophone and he loved crazy and creative ideas. Hanging the saxophone in the air became a tribute to all of that.
When I woke up, I went straight to work and one hour later the saxophone was floating in the air 4 meters up in the air. I hung it upside down because it felt a bit more unexpected.
It now hangs there as a tribute to my father and I can imagine him floating around in the sky above my island playing on the instrument.
(This is just a prototype, the final version will have a speaker broadcasting saxophone music, be using fishing lines instead of ropes to make the illusion even stronger, and most likely be a 3D printed saxophone that glows in the dark. But the one I got up today is a great first step.)
The whole ideation process for this creative process happened TO me in a dream – a lucid dream that I could, in some aspects control.
The trick, I felt, was:
1) Do not try to wake up, or get too excited about the idea or how to remember it. (That will ruin the moment and bring you back to reality.)
2) Let the ideas “come” to you, instead of trying to “come up” with them. (You are more of a receiver than a transmitter here)
3) Be prepared to influence the creative process forward when you feel that is ok. (Let your “awake”-you nudge your “dreaming”-self – if it feels right.)
Some of the best ideas in the world has come when people are sleeping, dreaming or just going in or out of sleep. The idea with “Lucid Dream Ideation” is to understand that you CAN influence the creative process, if you do it in a way that doesn’t ruin or disturb the dreaming.
I am writing this while sitting on the porch that is overlooking the floating, soaring saxophone in my garden. I call the piece “The Stage of Life”. It’s a reminder of the need to live a creative life, and it is a tribute to my creative father. It feels fitting that this idea was passed to me in a dream.
The next time you have a Lucid Dream Ideation moment, I hope you enjoy it, and take advantage of it as well.
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09
Aug