Dreams That Forever Changed Society

1. Albert Einsteins Theory of Relativity changed the world of physics and it came from a dream. Einstein dreamt he was sledding down a mountain, ever increasing speed until he nearly reached the speed of light. He noticed the stars looked different and this observation led him to the mathematics by which he figured out the famous formula. .....

Google

2. Yes, even the idea for our biggest search engine came from dreams. Founder Larry Page dreamt of Google, seeing that he & Sergey Brin could make a business by downloading the entire web onto computers. .....

The Twilight vampire

3. Like it or hate it, twilight changed the way pop culture saw vampires. Stephenie Meyer, author of the best selling Twilight series, had the idea for vampires come to her in a dream specifically for the human vampire love relationships and where vampire skin sparkled when in the sun but didnt burn. .....

Frankenstein

4. What would the literary world be without Frankenstein? Author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dreamt up the idea for Frankenstein after Lord Byron (a fellow poet she was visiting) challenged his guests to write a ghost story. She dreamt of the moment when the mad scientist brought Frankenstein to life and, the following morning, began writing the chilling tale. .....

Yesterday

5. Beyond having the most covers of any song in history, The Beatless song Yesterday came to Paul McCartney while dreaming. He woke up with the music in his head and wrote it out on the piano next to him. .....

Abraham Lincolns assassination

6. Honest Abe dreamt of his own assassination just a few days before how freaky is that?! He dreamt he could hear sad wailing in the White House and, in getting up and trying to find it, finally came upon a room with mourners and his own corpse .....

Sewing machine

7. The sewing machine was invented in 1845. Elias Howe had a dream he was taken prisoner by men with spears ready to do him in. Looking at their spears as they were nearly upon him, he noticed a hole at the spears points. By the next day, this breakthrough led him to develop the missing link in his sewing machine. .....

A winning golf swing

8. Famous golfer Jack Nicklaus lost his groove in 1964, shooting games easily in the 70s. After seeing a problem with his holding of the club in a dream, he corrected it the next day and his game improved significantly. .....

Mathematical genius

9. Well known among mathematicians, Indian Srinivasa Ramanujan is said to have published over 3,000 theorems. He claimed Hindu goddess Namagiri would appear in his dreams and tell him new formulas. .....

DNAs double helix

10. One of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time was the discovery of DNAs structure. Dr. James Watson had a dream involving two snakes intertwined with heads at the opposite ends, leading to his consideration of a double helix. .....

The Terminator

11. With a fever spiking to 102 .....

Stephen King books

12. Global best selling novelist Stephen King had many ideas come to him through dreams, including the books Misery and It. As King said: Ive always used dreams the way youd use mirrors to look at something you couldnt see head on. .....

Nervous system communication

13. In the early 20th century, scientists thought our nerves transmitted information electrically. After a dream, Dr. Otto Loewi awoke during the night and scribbled some thoughts on a paper. Upon waking in the morning, he realized he had written about information being transmitted chemically, later proven to be true and winning him the Nobel Prize in 1936. .....

Benzene

14. You might not know much about it, but benzene is a pretty important foundation in chemistry, partly responsible for cars, leather, and high schoolers dismay. Chemist Friedrich August Kekul .....

Periodic Table of Elements

15. Dmitry Mendeleev first came up with the idea for the periodic table in a dream. Unable to figure out how to arrange the elements, he used music heard in his dream to figure out the best way was by their properties and atomic weight. .....

Inception

16. Director Christopher Nolan is fascinated with dreams. He would frequently practice waking up and falling partially asleep again to try manipulating his dreams in the semi conscious state. Its easy to see how this love turned into the Inception thriller. .....

Artillery Gun Leveler

17. D.B Parkinson, an employee at Bell Labs (started by Alexander Graham Bell and at one time owned by AT&T) was designing an add on to the telephone in 1940. One night, he dreamt he was in the middle of the war in Europe and, after being shown by an artillery crewman, saw the device he was creating helped the cannon take out Nazi aircraft with surprising accuracy. .....

Satisfaction

18. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones attributed his popular song (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction to a dream. Hes said to have recorded the acoustic riffs just before falling back to sleep. (The riffs were followed by 40 minutes of him snoring.) .....

Beethoven

19. Beethoven was rumoured to be a prolific dreamer, hearing many of his piano sonatas in his dreams and writing them out afterwards. Some historians even say his dreams featured instruments not yet invented. Wed love to hear his Symphony No. 5on one of those! .....

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

20. Robert Louis Stevenson regularly used dreams as the bases for his stories. He saw the scene where Mr. Hyde changes in front of his pursuers and, combined with other nights of dream, wrote the novel within 10 weeks. .....

The Persistence of Memory

21. Salvador Dal .....

Messiah

22. Not of the Christ variety here (though Mary did learn of Jesuss coming through a dream) composer George Frideric Handel came to an impasse when trying to finish his now famous piece, Messiah. He claimed the ending for it came to him in a dream. .....

Caligulas assassination

23. Caligula, famous Roman emperor, dreamt of his death the night before it happened. In it, he met the god Jupiter (Zeus in Greek mythology) who proceeded to kick him from the heavens back to Earth. The next day, conspirators assassinated the emperor. .....

Madame C J Walker

24. The worlds first female American self made millionaire, Madame C.J. Walker, made her fortune in the early 20th century cosmetics industry. A black man appeared to her in a dream and told her the mixture which would help her falling out hair grow back in. It worked, and she enjoyed a lengthy career selling her cosmetics products. .....

Hitlers life saving dream

25. While fighting in the trenches of World War I, its said Adolf Hitler had a life saving dream. In it, he and his unit were eaten up by the earth and liquid metal. He awoke, bewildered, and left for a walk during which time a shell landed on the trench, killing the other soldiers. .....

South African Anti Apartheid Revolution

26. Nelson Mandela remained steadily devout to democratic ideals and gave his life to uphold the dream of a South African free society. His courage to endure the hardship of 27 years of imprisonment and emerging to be the first democratic elected President of South Africa, demonstrated before thewhole world greatness of spirit and true servant leadership can survive anything. .....

Serving the Poorest of the Poor

27. Mother Teresa left a quiet life of teaching to become a world renowned missionary comforting the poor, the dying and the worlds most unwanted. Her life motto can be summed up in this quote, At the end of our lives we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by, .....

Value Judgments Placed on Character Not Color

28. Martin Luther King Jr. mobilized racial equality in the segregated American south, through non violent protests and influencing a nation to believe that all people are created equal. His historical march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King's famous I Have a Dream speech came to be regarded as one of the finest oratory deliveries in American history. .....

Upholding The Right to Vote For All

29. An abolitionist and advocate for womens suffrage, Susan B. Anthony campaigned for equal rights for all American citizens. She worked tirelessly to see inalienable human rights upheld promised through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Anthony made it her lifes work to outlaw slavery and seek full citizenship for all races and genders. .....

Positive Change Through Nonviolent Resistance

30. Mohandas KaramchandGandhiwas the primary leader of Indias liberation movement against British rule. His non violent approach to civil disobedience and simple living have influenced oppressed people groups all over the world. The summary of his conviction can be felt in oneof his famous quotes, Be the change you want to see in the world. .....

Helping Jews Escape The Holocaust

31. Cornelia Corrie ten Boom says God does not have problems. Only plans. The Boom family dedicated their lives to help hundreds of Jewish survivors escape the Holocaust during World War II. After being turned in by a friend and captured in 1944, Corrie was released from the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Boom spent the latter years of her life sharing her Christian faith and demonstrating the power of forgiveness. .....