“Excuse me,” said he [Sherlock Holmes], turning to Colonel Ross, who had looked at him in some surprise. “I was day-dreaming.” There was a gleam in his eyes and a suppressed excitement in his manner which convinced me, used as I was to his ways, that his hand was upon a clue, though I could not imagine where he had found it.
According to Arup K. Chatterjee, a researcher from India, Sherlock Holmes is often described as the “dreamer” of Baker Street, showing considerable talent for oneirogenesis. By this term, the author means the conscious, volitional ability of awake people to evoke and observe lucid dreams (LD). Chatterjee also claims that dreams are the key to unlocking Holmes’s universally recognized superior intellectual abilities.
Although Sherlock is, of course, a fictional character, his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a practicing doctor. He was well informed of the medical, psychological, and general scientific developments of his time, including the study of dreams. Doyle was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. His fascination with the occult against the background of the Holmes stories suggests that the famous detective’s scientific approach needs to be reassessed for traces of the subconscious and sometimes the irrational. Holmes’s abilities are tinged with mysticism and, although he may be a genius, his methods differ from the usual proceedings of logical deduction.
Chatterjee also mentions hypnagogic hallucinations that occur on falling asleep and can sometimes even invade wakefulness, and hypnopompic hallucinations that occur on awakening. Holmes has such hallucinations, and these visions are described as influencing his waking life.
The author is not ready to answer whether it is possible, by practicing lucid dreams, to solve creative problems or solve crimes with a Holmes-like accuracy. However, it is important to study this relationship.
Have you picked up on clues from lucid dreams that helped you solve real life puzzles?
The article is included in the March 2023 issue of the journal Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural.
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