Lore Podcast Episode 291: "Dream Come True"

Host: Aaron Mahnke
Date: October 20, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode of Lore, Aaron Mahnke explores the mysterious and sometimes frightening intersection between dreams and reality. Through historical anecdotes, psychological theories, folklore, and personal family stories, he examines how dreams have influenced inventions, solved mysteries, and even, allegedly, predicted death. The central theme: Where do our dreams end and the truth begin? And why do we so often look to dreams for meaning and guidance, sometimes at our own peril?

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The King’s Hand – The Blurred Line Between Dream and Reality

• [02:00] Aaron recounts the modern viral saga of Arseny, who dreamed of an absurd dish called the "King's Hand" (a hand-shaped M&M cookie filled with Greek salad) and proceeded to manifest it in waking life.
  • Notable quote:
    • “If another person were to bite into King's Hand, they would barf. I don't know.” — Arseny via Aaron Mahnke, [03:10]
• Insight: Sometimes, what emerges from our subconscious is so bizarre it’s best left in the dream world; yet, people are compelled to chase dream logic in reality.

2. Ancient Practices: Dream Journals and Interpretations

• [04:00] Dream journals are not a modern phenomenon; they date back to the 2nd century AD (Aelius Aristides in Rome) and medieval Japan (the monk Myoe).
  • Example: Myoe dreams of a hand-shaped peach with unusual characteristics—an eerily close echo to earlier stories.
  • Notable quote:
    • “It was shaped like a hand. And let me be clear, that coming off of the King's Hand story, I'm not sure if it's comforting or upsetting that we've been dreaming about weird edible hands for nearly a thousand years.” — Aaron Mahnke, [06:10]
• Ancient dream interpretation texts, like the Babylonian tablets and Artemidorus’s Greek writings, gave highly specific—and sometimes humorous—meanings to dream symbols (cheese in dreams: deceit!).

3. The Church, Philosophers, and the War on Dreams

• [10:12] In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church grew wary of dreams, viewing their interpretation as “witchy” and even sacrilegious.
• Philosophers dismissed dreams as nonsense, a tradition that floundered until Freud’s influence.

4. Freud, Jung, and Modern Dream Analysis

• [11:55] Freud reframes dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious,” symbols of wish fulfillment, and blends of memories and experiences.
  • Quote:
    • “Freud being Freud, he also tended to insist that dreaming of pretty much anything that was longer than it was wide symbolized something phallic.” — Aaron, [13:28]
• [15:05] Carl Jung proposed the “collective unconscious”, suggesting that dreams tap into universally shared symbols and themes.
  • Jung and Freud both dismissed simplistic dream dictionaries, emphasizing the necessity of context.
• Despite skepticism, dream dictionaries and prediction guides have proliferated—sometimes used to choose lottery numbers!

5. Dreams that "Changed the World": Fact vs. Fiction

• [18:10] The myth of Elias Howe: His “dream” of a cannibal king inspiring the sewing machine design (spears with holes at the tips), though widely circulated, is likely a fabrication.
  • After investigation, Aaron reveals the story originated decades after Howe’s death and lacks credible familial ties.
• [21:10] Real dream-inspired breakthroughs:
  • Hergé’s Tintin in Tibet was inspired by recurring nightmares, turning suffering into acclaimed art.
    • Quote:
      • “I was in a kind of tower made up of a series of ramps... a white skeleton appeared that tried to catch me, and then everything around me became white.” — Hergé, relayed by Aaron, [21:40]
  • Otto Loewi designed a Nobel-winning neuroscience experiment about nerve transmission after dreaming the idea, though it took two nights to recall it legibly.

6. Dreams as Solutions to Mysteries: The Lost Children of the Alleghenies

• [24:15] The legend: In 1856, two boys vanish in Pennsylvania. After days of futile searching, a farmer, Jacob Diebert, dreams of where to find the bodies—discovering their location in reality just as in his dream.
• [27:00] But: Deep-dive research (by Lore’s Cassandra) reveals the earliest evidence attributes the dream to someone else, with no specifics; details (like the deer and the shoe) are later embellishments.
  • The actual critical step: crossing a stream that others erroneously assumed impassable, a mundane oversight given a supernatural gloss.
• Insight: Communities might create dream-miracle stories to mask painful truths about human error and tragedy.

7. Why Precognitive and Prophetic Dreams Persist

• [31:00] Neurology: Most dreams occur in REM sleep, with emotional centers highly active, logic centers less so. Some theories suggest dreams are the brain’s “training ground” for possible futures (NextUp theory), so an occasional “pre-cognitive” dream is statistically inevitable.
• [33:00] Sometimes “prophetic” dreams are better explained by social and psychological needs than actual foresight.

8. The Real Magic: Family, Folklore, and the Connecting Power of Dreams

• [29:56] Final story: Kathleen Hines (née Alworth, 1934, NY), born with a caul (a “second sight” omen in Irish folklore), has a lifetime of foreboding dreams—predicting deaths of relatives, recurring nightmares symbolizing loss, and a haunting vision where deceased family members invite living ones for a ride (after which those living people die soon after).
  • Notable quote:
    • “We were real sisters…we were close as you could get right up until the bitter end. The most important thing is family. Remember that.” — Kathleen Hines (via Aaron), [36:52]
• Her life story, recorded by Lore writer (and great-niece) Jenna Rose Nethercott, underscores that dreams often reflect our emotional lives and connections:
  • Quote:
    • “Maybe Second Sight is real. Maybe not. Undeniably real, though, is the story of a young woman feeling estranged from her loved ones and her heritage and struggling to feel connected to them at any distance, even through death.” — Aaron Mahnke, [36:29]
• Despite her fears, Kathleen’s dreams may simply be an expression of longing for family and roots—proof that the deepest magic of dreams is connection, not prophecy.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 03:10 | Arseny (via Aaron) | "If another person were to bite into King's Hand, they would barf. I don't know." | | 06:10 | Aaron Mahnke | "It was shaped like a hand. And let me be clear, that coming off of the King's Hand story, I'm not sure if it's comforting or upsetting that we've been dreaming about weird edible hands for nearly a thousand years." | | 13:28 | Aaron Mahnke | "Freud being Freud, he also tended to insist that dreaming of pretty much anything that was longer than it was wide symbolized something phallic." | | 21:40 | Hergé (via Aaron) | "I was in a kind of tower made up of a series of ramps... a white skeleton appeared that tried to catch me, and then everything around me became white." | | 36:52 | Kathleen Hines (via Aaron) | "We were real sisters, we were close as you could get right up until the bitter end. The most important thing is family. Remember that." | | 36:29 | Aaron Mahnke | "Maybe Second Sight is real. Maybe not. Undeniably real, though, is the story of a young woman feeling estranged from her loved ones and her heritage and struggling to feel connected to them at any distance, even through death." |

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–03:35 – The King’s Hand: From dream to nightmare meme
• 04:00–09:15 – Ancient dream journals and weird hand-dream coincidences
• 09:15–11:55 – Dream interpretation in antiquity; cheese and dreams
• 11:55–16:00 – Freud and Jung revolutionize dream analysis
• 18:10–21:25 – Elias Howe and the (false) legend of the dream-invented sewing machine
• 21:25–22:55 – Actual dream-fueled breakthroughs: Tintin in Tibet and Otto Loewi
• 24:15–30:00 – The Lost Children of the Alleghenies: dream, myth, or cover-up?
• 31:00–33:00 – Why "prophetic" dreams seem to come true; neuroscience
• 33:10–38:15 – Kathleen Hines: family, folklore, and the longing in dreams

Episode Takeaways

• Dreams are as old as humanity’s craving for meaning, influencing everything from ancient superstition to scientific progress.
• Iconic stories of dreams shaping reality are often mythologized, shaped to comfort or excuse, rather than to reveal literal truth.
• Science, folklore, and family lore intersect in our understanding of dreams—sometimes as wish fulfillment, sometimes as omens, and sometimes just as echoes of what we most fear or desire.
• In the end, dreams connect us to our heritage and our loved ones, bridging gaps that reality cannot always close.

Closing Reflection

Episode 291 of Lore reminds us that dreams, whether prophetic or nonsensical, have always been a canvas for our deepest fears, hopes, and connections. The stories we tell about dreams—be they about monstrous pastries, missing children, or supernatural family bonds—are as much about trying to make sense of the world as they are about the mysteries that still lurk in our sleeping minds.