Visit World Dream Atlas

Read more in The Atlantic
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“There’s just one dream that I remember from many, many years ago. I’d lose the magic if I told you, so I can’t. I can show you this tattoo though. The tattoo is part of it.” 

- Austin, Texas, USA

“I gave birth to an alligator on my bathroom floor. At first, I thought that he was going to eat me, but I tamed him.”

- New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

“When I was 16, dreamed that I won the lottery. Of course, the first thing I did was buy my high school. When my actual alarm clock went off, I kind of half-woke-up. I thought, ‘I don’t have to go to school. I own the place.’ Then, I rolled over and went back to sleep.”

- Vancouver, Canada

"I love it when people talk in their sleep. I whisper in their ear, 'Yes? Yes? Tell me more! Tell me where the treasure is!'"

- Amsterdam, Netherlands

“This is a dream from the age of 2 or 3. I’m underneath the dining room table, and my mother hands me a glass of warm milk to drink.”

“What does that mean to you?”

“My parents had this paradox. They would take care of me, and yet they kinda wouldn’t. So, this handing me the glass under the table is like, “Okay, we’re going to provide you with the necessities of life – food and shelter – but we’re not going to nurture you. I’m handing this to you under the table so that we can’t make eye contact, and you can’t see me while you drink this. There’s no intimacy there.”

- Brooklyn, New York, USA

“I was riding a sea monster. It was pink.”

- New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

“I was a satellite circling the earth and I wanted to zoom into the world. So, I zoomed into a city. Then, I zoomed into a street. Then, I saw a van, and I zoomed into the van. And, I was like, ‘Wow, look at that! There’s a little human in there!’”

- Berlin, Germany

“In this dream, I was playing on a beach with my friends – laughing, and rolling around, and flipping through the water. Then, I turned and saw a lush forest. I thought, ‘I should go there.’ Then, I woke up.”

“What would have happened if you had gone?”

“This was right after I spent a week in the country. So, in the dream, it felt like the forest was calling me home.”

“Are you a different person in the forest?”

“I feel like I’m myself. When I’m in the city, I feel like I have to put on protection. There’s so much stimulation. I actually even visualize it – this dragon-scale armor I put on when I go out. In the wilderness, you hear crickets, and you hear trees moving, and they talk – they do. If you sit with them and you ask a question, you’ll get an answer. I don’t hear them when I’m here.”

- Manhattan, New York, USA

“A few years ago, I was staying in the east of Iceland in a room with no windows. There was no light coming from under the door or from the keyhole - nothing. It was pitch black inside. The darkness was so heavy, I could not breathe - like being in a coffin. But, I turned on my side and tried to sleep. Suddenly, I saw something on the wall, a shade of light. ‘What is this?’ I thought. ‘Probably I had been lying on my eye and that’s why I’m seeing the light.’ But, I turned to the door, and I saw this small light inside of the door. And then, the light came out of the door and started to float around, and suddenly it came very close to me. Inside of this light was a tiny, tiny person. And I was watching this light all night, until I fell asleep. In the morning when I woke up, the light was still there, up in the corner of the room. Suddenly, someone knocked on my door and the light disappeared.” 

“What do you think it was?”

“I think our brain can’t let go of the world. Our ego can’t say ‘I’m nothing.’ The brain has to have a point in the universe to feel it exists. That’s why I think my brain made this light. Because it was so dark, that the brain couldn’t bear to think, ‘I’m nothing. I’m not here.’ Or maybe, the light was from some other universe. I don’t know.”

- Reykjavik, Iceland

“My mom passed away seven years ago. After that, I dreamed about her a lot. It sounds silly, but I felt like she would visit me in my dreams to come check up on me. I had this one really vivid dream about it. I had just heard about a study that ranked the happiest and most depressing cities in the U.S. The most depressing place to live was Detroit, and the happiest was Boulder, Colorado. Anyway, a few nights later, I had a dream that I was Skyping with my mom. I was crying because I hadn’t seen her in forever. I said, ‘Where have you been? I’ve missed you! I’ve been worried sick!’ And, she looked at me, and she goes, ‘I’m in Boulder, Colorado.’ It really stuck with me.”

- Brooklyn, New York, USA

“I had a dream the week before I broke up with my girlfriend. It was the apocalypse, and we had to get these guns and drive to this cave. Anyway, I couldn’t find her. For some reason, we couldn’t talk in words. We could only talk in emojis. So, I was trying to describe where we should meet with emojis. I was like: Tree-tree-rock-smileyface-corn. And, she just wasn’t getting it. So yeah, that’s pretty much when I knew I was going to break up with her.”

- Los Angeles, California, USA

“Often, I’m flying, over the countryside where my grandmother lived. It’s so vivid. It’s freedom from everything.”

“Do you feel that you’re in control?”

“I feel that I don’t need to be in control. In fact, the more I relax, the higher I go.”

- Odessa, Ukraine

“I was in bed with a girl, rolling around under the sheets. When I looked up, the bed was surrounded by every woman I have ever had sex with - from one-night stands to ex-wives. They were all staring at me while I frantically tried to remember everyone's name.”

- Ketchikan, Alaska, USA

"And, I've flown. I've been birds."


- East Hampton, New York, USA

“I looked down at my hands, and saw that I was missing fingers. I realized instantly that I was dreaming. And, in that moment, although I continued to sleep – I was awakened. I knew that everything I saw and felt was an illusion. It was all just a manifestation of me. I finally understood the Buddhist concept of enlightenment. That with a single thought, one can transcend this world.”

- Tijuana, Mexico

“I was in the ocean when I saw sharks coming at me. I swam away as fast as I could, and ran onto the beach. I thought I was safe. That’s when I realized that the sharks had wheels.”

- Amsterdam, Netherlands

“My sister has always been ill. She has a genetic disease that kept her in the hospital for much of her life. My mom and my dad were told that if they had another baby, the baby would have a ninety-percent chance of getting this disease. So, when my mom recognized that she was pregnant with me, they were scared that I would get this disease, and they were thinking maybe not to have me. Then, my mom had a dream that a priest came up to her. The priest was a character in the book she was reading at the time. The priest said, ‘You will have a completely healthy girl.’ When my mom woke up, she told my dad, ‘We will have this baby. She will be fine.’ And, I am fine. I’m perfectly healthy.”

- Berlin, Germany

“When I opened a store back in Turkey, I had a very bad time. For 21 days, I had no business. I was in a lot of debt, and I had to sleep in my store. I’m not a very religious man, but one night when I was sleeping, I saw a dead holy man very very clearly. He said, ‘My son, don’t worry I will help you. I will take care of you.’ After that, my business became very good. But, I lost my character. I changed. I started gambling, and I hanged out with bad women, and I drank alcohol. When I did that, I never saw that holy man again. He never came back to my dream. I’m doing okay now, but I’m not the person I was. I don’t know who I am. Now, I’m trying change back, but it’s not easy. Right now, even if I promise to God not to gamble, not to drink, it won’t change. I’m not that strong yet. But, one day I will be, and when I am I know he will visit me again. He is just waiting for me to go closer to him.”

- Juneau, Alaska, USA

“In my last lucid dream, I entered a room of people watching a wall of TV monitors. They talked to me and answered my questions. I was so surprised that they had real personalities - that unlike all my other lucid dreams, they were independent of me. They explained that they travel in dreams. ‘You went too deep,’ they warned. ‘You shouldn’t be here very long.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I tried to wake up, but I couldn’t. I asked them to help me. That’s when one of the women came behind me. She touched my shoulders. I fainted, and when I woke up, I was back in my bed.”

- Kiev, Ukraine

“The first memory I had – and it may be from when I was two or three – is from when I would be going to sleep, and as I would close my eyes, I would see this… You ever live in the north?”

“Aurora borealis?”

“Right. Now, if you go really far north, and it’s a really good storm, the aurora borealis is right overhead, so dramatic, and you just feel like an ant on the stage. These silver curtains come down—whoosh! Well, every time when I closed my eyes, it was just like that. It wouldn’t have any color or brightness until it started to get closer and closer. It would come in like a funnel, faster and faster. And, it would condense into something that felt, every time, like the entire universe was hitting me right in the forehead. It would go ‘ping!’ And, it was light as a feather. It’s the most exquisite feeling, because it’s infinity and infinitesimal all at once. It would happen just that way every night.”

- Irvine, California, USA

Nastya foresaw the destruction of her home before it happened in nightmares. They started last November, as protesters gathered on the Maidan. “Nobody was thinking about war then,” she added. Still, the visions came. She saw herself and her husband crouching - hiding from gunfire in the ruins of their home. She saw their betrayal, and their execution. “Maybe it means that will happen too,” she contemplated. “I don’t know. I never believed in dreams before this.”

- Semenovka, Ukraine

According to his brother, this man ran 25% of the drug business in Juarez, Mexico. He survived a gunshot to the head and ended up in prison where he had this dream inside his cell.

“You read the Bible right? Do you remember the pale horse of the apocalypse? The pale horse came to my dream. It was more of a revelation than a dream. I could hear the wings flapping, like the wings of a bird, but humungous. It was the size of an elephant or bigger, and I got scared. And, I just heard him land. He landed on the ground. He was dead. There’s different horsemen, and that was the horse of death. The horse that comes to take life away. It meant that I had conquered death.”

- Tijuana, Mexico

“I’ve had pregnancy dreams. In one, I was really upset about it. Another time, I was really happy about it. In that dream I actually held my baby, and I was so in love with my baby… But, another time I gave birth to a baby, and it was a sandwich! And, I put it in my backpack, and then suddenly I was like, ‘Oh! I forgot about my baby! I am a horrible mother!’”

- Mission Viejo, California, USA

“In Afghanistan, one of my friends was killed by his best friend. It was an accidental discharge. Many months later, back in the states, I dreamed that my doorbell rang. My friend was standing there, lit up and happy, with an overnight bag. He had a 48 hour pass from heaven. We spent the entire weekend together - bar hopping, having discussions, and taking my dog Roxy to the park. We saw my friend’s best friend there. He embraced him and said, “You will always be my brother. I don’t want you to feel guilt in your heart for what happened.” Then, I saw my friend holding his neck with blood gushing out. Then, he appeared in his casket wearing his dress uniform, deader than a doornail. I was sweating profusely, and started to tear up. I awoke to Roxy licking my face.”

- Columbus, Georgia, USA

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