Why should anyone look at their dreams?

Is dream analysis any more useful than reading tea leaves? We aficionados have many good reasons for the hours we spend examining our dreams. But to the unconverted, the benefits I present in Dream of the Week might not seem so impressive. I can understand that setting boundaries with imaginary characters is hardly likely to entice millions of people to sleep with a pad of paper next to their pillow. On the other hand, there are documented dreams that have proved their value in the waking world beyond a shadow of doubt. These were more than mere gifts of wisdom, they enabled the dreamers to achieve practical, tangible results. These are the dreams I want to look at this week.

1. "I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, 'That's great, I wonder what that is?'"

Paul McCartney, of Beatles fame, had a dream in which he heard a tune. It didn't sound like anything he had ever written before. He thought he must have heard the tune somewhere but had no idea where. The tune caught his fancy and he wrote it down. But he couldn't remember where he had heard it or who wrote it. He first called it ''Scrambled eggs''. Eventually he was sure that he hadn't heard the tune anywhere else, the tune had come to him in the dream. It became the Beatle's hit ''Yesterday.''

2. "One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes."

At the time that Friedrich Kekule had this dream, he was trying to understand the molecular structure of benzene. He woke up thinking about the snake with its tail in its mouth and realized that the structure of benzene was a closed ring. In 1905, Kekule was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for this discovery.

3. One night he had a nightmare in which he was attacked by warriors with spears.

Elias Howe was an inventor. He was trying to make a mechanical sewing machine. In his nightmare, the warrior's spears had holes near the tip. When he woke up he saw that the hole o\in a needle could be placed at the tip that first enters the material rather than at the other end as in a hand-sewing needle. Elias Howe patented his lockstitch sewing machine in 1846.

4. ''I was hitting them pretty good and all at once I realized I wasn't holding the club the way I've actually been holding it lately.''

Jack Nicklaus is one of the great golfers of all time with over 20 major championships and 100 worldwide professional victories. He credits a dream with getting him out of a slump in 1964. When he woke up, he knew that in the dream he was not collapsing his right arm. Nicklaus went out to practice the next day and used this new hold. It worked and his decline was over.

5. '''The Greatest Mass Murderer in the History of Mankind' had escaped from a cell and was chasing me''

Marc Barasch was the editor of ''New Age,'' an alternative magazine. He was having many dreams which made references to cells and necks. With great hesitation, Marc went to his doctor who could find nothing wrong with his neck. The nightmares continued and Marc returned for a further examination. This time the tests showed a thyroid cancer. His book, ''Healing Dreams,'' describes his own experience and similar ones.

To sum up: A hit record, a Nobel Prize, a crucial invention, a correction that re-established a champion, and a life probably saved by a dream. These are more than deep, meaningful insights.

In my own dream work and my work with clients, I have seen similarly practical dreams that created important benefits in waking life. It's not the only reason I do dream work, but it is a compelling argument for why people should explore their dreams.

Just as with cars, your individual mileage may vary. Your dreams may not result in the perfect plot for the great American novel, or help you discover the cure for cancer (although it's not impossible) but you can expect some dramatic results. In my experience, each dream analysis contributes toward improving your life.

In future Dream of the Weeks, I will offer more examples of creativity in dreams including the astonishing "Writers Dreaming" by Naomi Epel in which 26 writers discuss how they made use of their dreams.

Dream Of The Week is an experimental email from David Jenkins. It has the goal of explaining the benefits of this unique way of working with dreams to as wide an audience as possible. Each email shows one of the many techniques I use and is intended to show the reader how I worked with a particular dream. Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. (And unsubscribing information is at the bottom of the email.) If you have any feedback for me about Dream of the Week, please send me an email.

Best wishes