You Might Say I’m A Dreamer. . .

Anthropologists suggest that a significant factor determining whether or not a person becomes a shaman is that from an early age they are dreamers who have out-of-the-ordinary perceptions.  Their dreams connect them with the spirit world – which, ultimately, is the source of their power.

Like a shaman candidate, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon were dreamers who saw the world differently than most people.

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Cave drawings in Sicily

As a child growing up in Minnesota, Dylan recalled staring at the snow and having “amazing hallucinogenic experiences doing nothing but looking out your window.” 1 Later, in a “Rolling Stone” interview he commented that “I live in my dreams. I don’t really live in the actual world.” 2

Jimi Hendrix was also a shy, dreamy kid – who spoke with a stammer. He claimed to see colors, not notes in his head as he played his guitar. 3  “I used to dream in Technicolor that 1966 was the year that something would happen to me.” 4  And, in 1966, Jimi went to London and everything changed.

John Lennon said that “psychedelic vision is reality to me and always was. Even as a child. When I looked at myself in the mirror . . . I used to, literally, trance out . . . seeing these hallucinatory images of my face changing, becoming cosmic and complete.” 5

And, in his song ‘When I Live My Dream’ David Bowie declares that: “It’s a broken heart that dreams.” He acknowledges that he’s a “dreaming kind of guy.” And, he promises: “Nothing in my dream can hurt you.” 6 This is just one of Bowie’s many songs about dreams.

These artists were definitely in touch with the dreamtime. It was a source of their creativity and it gave them the power to transform their lives.  And, for those who were listening . . . it showed us a way of connecting with realities far beyond our normal experience . . . opening us to the possibility of connecting with the source of our power.

Notes:

  1. Howard Sounes, Down the Highway. The Life of Bob Dylan, (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 17.
  2. Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stone Interview, January 26, 1978.
  3. Charles Cross, Room Full of Mirrors. A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, (New York: Hyperion, 2005), 133.
  4. Ibid., 118.
  5. David Sheff, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko One, (New York: Playboy Enterprises, Inc, St. Martins Press, 1981), 158.
  6. From the album The World of David Bowie released in 1970.

Comments

  1. So interesting! They were able to make their dreams into reality. I sometimes dream like this. But I wonder what it is like to dream in color. If they were able to transform their lives, then I believe that I can too.

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