Dream Galaxy

Research case · Transformation

Defeated in an argument by myself

London, England · 18th century

He dreamed that he had been worsted in a verbal argument, and was thereby much mortified.

Original text — The World of Dreams, Havelock Ellis

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Source
The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. Case report
Rights
Public domain (US)
Record type
Research case
Place
London, England · British
Date
18th century
Uncertainty
Moderate — Samuel Johnson’s dream, quoted by Ellis from Boswell; Johnson noted the winning wit was his own.
Imagery
A stranger · Book
Feelings
Helplessness

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Dreams of becoming someone or something else, or of not knowing whether one is awake, have long interested writers on lucid dreaming; Stevenson credited such night work with parts of Jekyll and Hyde.

Stevenson (1888)

Mythological

Metamorphosis is one of mythology’s oldest engines — Ovid’s Metamorphoses gathers hundreds of beings changed into trees, birds and stars.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Chinese traditions

Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream gave Chinese thought the idea of wuhua, “the transformation of things”, and the phrase “Zhuang Zhou dreams of the butterfly” remains shorthand for the blurred line between self and world.

Zhuangzi, Qiwulun

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images