In polite society, it’s considered boring to spend a lot of time talking about our dreams. But with much of the world on lockdown, not only does “polite society” suddenly seem like a relic, many of us are reporting having weirder, more vivid dreams than before. Is it a quirk of isolation—the more mundane and repetitive our days, the more fantastical and elaborate our nights?—or a subconscious processing of the collective trauma of our new reality?
In fact, such questions aren’t new. Dreams have haunted thinkers through history, from the psychoanalytical approach of Western psychology to the phenomenon of lucid dreaming—in which the dreamer is consciously aware of dreaming—which has been studied from the ancient Greeks and Tibetan monks to neuroscientists today. Whether you have an interest in programming your dreams or in learning more about the mysterious “gateway to infinity,” these 10 listens can help you unlock the age-old puzzle of dreams.
