Kerrie writes books for young adults set in a parallel dream world. “Thank you to everyone who took part. I set out to discover whether people, particularly young people, are interested in dreams. I found out that there is a real appetite for dreams and that the best adventures come from young minds. I’ve recently been contacted by the children of a school in Dorset who want to discuss some paintings that they have been doing which feature their dreams”.
Ten dreams and ten nightmares were chosen to feature in a ‘top ten’ list, which can be viewed online at www.dynamotales.com. Dreams were chosen on the basis of the number of the most commonly occurring themes and their ability to thrill in terms of adventure. The most common themes include quests, flying, meeting with friends and family, heightened emotional awareness and shape changing. Number one the Top Ten list, features a dream where the person is a powerful creator and has designed their own kingdom, with many levels. The dreamer flies in and out of the world, saving people from danger and helping them to navigate its complex structure.
Second on the list is a dream about a game of chess that comes to life. “The dreamer plays the game in a large auditorium, surrounded by his friends and family, both past and present. All the chess pieces are babies – human and animal. When they are knocked off the chess board, the pieces miraculously grow up and walk off to take their places in the auditorium”. At number three, comes a battle for survival against hoards of alien space-craft.
The survey shows that dreams are not only great fun, but often have deeper, therapeutic value. In their dreams people meet up with loved ones who they have lost. When they wake up they feel elated.
Around sixty percent of young adults believe that they have predicted the future in their dreams, compared with only forty percent of the adults. These premonition dreams range from the very mundane, like dreaming of people who you haven’t spoken to in months or years and then receiving a phone call from them a few days later, to the very profound like dreaming of someone’s death and that person dying soon afterwards.
The differences in the type and subject matter of dreams not only spans young and old, but men and women. While a quarter of men meet monsters in their dreams, only one in ten women do. Seventy-
Famous people, both past and present, appear in around four in ten of our dreams, with twice as many women as men dreaming about these celebrities. Young people dreamed of Dr Who or historical figures like Henry VIII, teenagers bumped into their music idols, and adults spent time with lifelong heroes. “One of my adult dreamers met up with Monty Python’s Terry Jones for some jam doughnuts!”
What list would be complete without the odd quirky dream? In one, a dreamer is a lollipop lady, but rather than direct children across the road, she wore a beautiful multicoloured gown and gave out lollipops to children!
“Our dreams are so full of adventure when we are young” said Kerrie. “Life does not come with a health and safety warning as it does when you are older. That is why I love writing adventure books for the young adult market. I always know that however exciting, and imaginative the plotline, it is nothing compared with what is going on in the heads of the youngsters out there”.
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• For more information about The Dynamo Tales, please contact Kerrie Clifford on 07855 622113 or email kerrie@dynamotales.com
• Please ensure that that the web address www.dynamotales.com is not hyphenated when it is placed in a newspaper column format
• One hundred and forty two dreams and nightmares were submitted to the online survey
