An Amazing Dream and From Which Inspiration Comes for Great Literary Works

I had the most amazing dream a few nights ago. I awoke around 2 in the morning for no apparent reason with a dream fresh in my mind, I wrote down a sentence concerning the dream so I would not forget it, and was able to go back to sleep. Within the dream I was not a participant, did not feel I had a body even, but was rather an observer floating in the sky. I was shown a world of floating cities and, without any words being spoken to me, was made to understand that the world below was covered in water, so hot that humans could not live there, and what made the floating cities possible was the continual rising hot air. You see, the cities, were suspended from giant sails, which caught the rising hot air, enabling them to float. I was given the feeling that this place had a very stable atmosphere, another reason the cities were possible, for there were no strong winds or storms to destroy the sails. As far as architecture, if you imagine something along the lines of Tolkien's elvish cities, you will be fairly close. I was given a glimpse into another world and, once shown, was permitted to leave.

I have made comments in the past to people and often wished it to myself, that I wish there was a machine which could directly and accurately extract images from people's minds. I wish this again so that you could see the world I saw, rather than me attempting to explain it in a few fumbling words.

Now onto inspiration. I have felt different times, when I am reading a book that is especially good, that the events contained therein actually happened. I am sure this is a far from original idea, though I do not remember hearing or reading about it anywhere, but at such times a part of me wonders if great authors are given glimpses into alternate realities and other dimensions and are merely conveying the events which there transpired or have transpired in those pasts. A part of this wondering arises from the fact that the believability of the world which I am reading has nothing to do with how fantastical or mundane the said world is. Tolkien so exhaustively creates a world, one cannot help but feel you are simply reading a history of Middle-earth, a history which may be an alternate history to our own world. C.S. Lewis manages to do create the believability of Narnia, Perelanda other worlds in far fewer words, which is one of the reasons I love him. Within the works of Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, and many others, you are sure if you could time travel and glimpse behind the veil that you could catch the Hunchback in his tower ringing the bell or Mr. Knightly walking his estate. This is not to demean great authors and their abilities, for whether they are peering across dimensions or not, it takes a great writer to convincingly convey what they have seen.

My Dad shared a link to a talk done by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) having to do with "You Elusive Creative Genius" and within it she talks about how, in the past artistic geniuses were viewed to be mediums of beings who inspired/conveyed masterpieces to them. Perhaps these beings are great travelers, crossing time and space and reporting the significant or interesting happenings which occur in the places they have been.

Here is a link to the talk which I mentioned. It is quite interesting. If you have a few minutes, take a look.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html