Dreams, Shakespeare, and the Play of Consciousness with Dr. Kelly Bulkeley

What do Shakespeare, dream journals, live theater, and spiritual imagination have in common? In this episode of The Dream Journal, host Katherine Bell speaks with dream researcher and author Dr. Kelly Bulkeley about the spirit of dreaming in Shakespeare, the power of dreams as play, and how long-term dream journaling reveals patterns of meaning over time.

Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, is a psychologist of religion, director of the Sleep and Dream Database, senior editor of the journal Dreaming, and a former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. His books include The Scribes of Sleep, 2020 Dreams, Lucrecia the Dreamer, Big Dreams, The Spirituality of Dreaming, and his forthcoming book, The Spirit of Dreaming in Shakespeare.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kelly and Katherine explore how Shakespeare used dreams throughout his plays, why live theater can feel like a shared dream, how dreams and waking life blur in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and what recurring dream themes can teach us about growth, creativity, and self-understanding.

Topics Covered

Dreams as play, performance, imagination, and creative rehearsal

How Shakespeare gave language to positive and negative views of dreaming

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck, trickster consciousness, and the dreamlike quality of theater

Why live theater can create a shared imaginal or shared-dream experience

Recurring dreams, stage dreams, and how dream themes evolve over time

The Sleep and Dream Database and how large dream collections reveal patterns

Elsewhere dream journaling app and ethical uses of AI-assisted dream reflection

Lucrecia the Dreamer, prophetic dreams, history, and the Spanish Inquisition