On Episode 16, Charmaine Li shares how her dreams influence her waking life, a few of her dream-memories, her work with ONEIRIC SPACE and more! Interview starts at 23:00.
Image Description: A black and white photo of Charmaine looking directly into the camera. Photo Credit: Jean-Sébastien Veilleux | ENECharmaine Li writes, conducts publishing experiments, and assembles soft gatherings alongside friends and collaborators, among other things.
Her practice is rooted in engaging with storytelling, memory, and knowledge through an embodied, multisensorial approach. Moving between writing, publishing, public readings, and spatial installations, Charmaine’s work reflects on the processes of attuning to ungraspable forms of knowing — nightly dreams, intuition, ancestral memory, and interconnected patterns that emerge in nature. She is interested in tracing the cultural and historical forces that elevate certain knowledge systems while marginalizing others, and particularly drawn to ways of living and knowing that embrace multiplicity, uncertainty, and change as fundamental aspects of being in the world.
Charmaine also initiated ONEIRIC SPACE, a research and publishing project delving into the relationship between nightly dreams and waking life, both at an individual and collective level. Alongside conversational partners and collaborators, ONEIRIC SPACE investigates dreams as a site for gesturing towards generative patterns of being, feeling, and imagining together.
She also works as an editorial consultant providing content writing and strategy services to companies, brands, and agencies.
Born in Tkaronto/Toronto, Charmaine lives and works in Berlin.
What inspired you to start Oneiric Space?
I think a series of events over the course of many years sparked the idea for ONEIRIC SPACE. I had vivid dreams as a child, but it wasn’t until a frightening episode of sleep paralysis in my early twenties that I began to inquire about dreams more seriously. That experience led me to take a couple of psychology courses at university, where I was introduced to the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. I found myself especially drawn to Jung’s writings, which inspired me to begin recording my dreams regularly. Over time, I noticed a reciprocal relationship: my dreams influenced my waking life just as much as my waking experiences shaped my dreams.
As my interest in dreams grew, I began looking beyond the psychotherapeutic lens. I started compiling a document with links to artists, writers, scientists, researchers, and philosophers who engaged with dreams in their work. Eventually, the idea of creating an online publication took shape. After several conversations with my friend Effie Efthymiadi in 2018, we began developing ONEIRIC SPACE as a project for exploring diverse perspectives and approaches to dreams. What started as an online interview publication has since evolved into a web of research, publications and gatherings all seeking to expand the ways we view and engage with nightly dreams. I continue to be surprised and inspired by the new forms and directions the project keeps taking.
How have your dreams influenced your waking life?
Dreams seep into my waking life in many different ways. A nightmare involving a family member or friend has often prompted me to reach out to them or pay closer attention to the dynamics of our relationship. At times, when I’ve been grappling with anxiety or fear, a dream has offered a new perspective and helped me move through those emotions in waking life. Dreams have also sparked creative ideas. In fact, before starting ONEIRIC SPACE, I had several dreams tinged with an inner push to create something and engage more deeply with the realm of dreams.
If you feel comfortable sharing, what is one of your dream- memories?
Earlier this year, I was transcribing entries from my 2024 dream journal when one in particular stayed with me. It was from December 24, 2024:
Tiny, translucent white bugs scatter across the path leading to our street.
Clusters of their eggs — like Styrofoam beads — cling together in small, eerie clumps.
The sun is shining as I walk by, but the scene feels ominous,
as if something has passed through and killed everything in its path.
Near the house, I spot an enormous, lifeless grasshopper splayed on the ground.
Its tail is three times the size of its body, shimmering in iridescent purple.
I'm in awe
Can you share one meaningful dream you’ve had? This is a dream you have drawn great meaning and perhaps guidance from.
The week before my paternal grandmother passed away last December, I had this dream: I was in a warmly lit kitchen with bare walls, standing at the counter making sweet red bean soup with mochi. As I shaped the glutinous rice balls in my hands, my paternal grandmother appeared and asked what I was making. I poured her a bowl of the sweet soup and encouraged her to try it. She glanced at the bowl and said it was too much — that I should leave some for others. I left the soup simmering on the stove, and a thin, floury purple film formed over the top. When I peeled it back, I saw clumps of uncooked flour stuck to it. I could feel my maternal grandmother’s presence behind me. Though I didn’t see her, I knew she was there as she walked past me and added a taro mochi ice cream to the dessert.
My grandmother was in Toronto when she passed. I was in Berlin. I had seen her on a video call a week earlier, but I hadn’t been able to express everything I wanted to. This dream felt like an offering from afar. Even though I couldn’t be there physically, I was able to cook for her one last time in my dreams — and that meant a lot to me. So did the presence of my maternal grandmother, who passed more than a decade ago.
Have you ever had any lucid dreams? What is your perspective on lucid dreams?
I’ve had several lucid dreams where I was aware that I was dreaming, but I’ve never tried to change anything within them. I really enjoy hearing about other people’s lucid dream experiences, yet personally, I haven’t felt the urge — or perhaps the ability — to alter the course of my own. In my day-to-day life, I can be a bit of a control freak, so it actually feels meaningful to have a space where I don’t want to control anything. There’s something freeing about simply receiving and allowing the dream to unfold in its own way.
Do you record your dreams? If so, how do you do this?
Yes, I record my dreams in a journal upon waking. I try to do this as regularly as possible, even if I remember only fragments — sometimes it’s just a couple of lines. My dream entries are woven throughout my daily journaling, so the two often sit side by side. It feels natural to let them coexist that way, as both offer glimpses into different aspects of my inner world.
Whose dream inquiry, explorations, practice, writings inspire you?
Early on, I was deeply inspired by the work of Carl Jung. His approach to dreams opened so many new worlds for me. Since starting ONEIRIC SPACE, I’ve been incredibly grateful to engage in conversations with a wide range of brilliant and thoughtful individuals exploring dreams in their own ways. To name a few: Fariba Bogzaran, Manisha Anjali, Sharon Sliwinski, Oana Tudoran, Daniel Godínez-Nivón, Goitseone Montsho, and Mina Heydari-Waite. Lately, I’ve been revisiting The Oracle of the Night: The History and Science of Dreams by Brazilian neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro — a fascinating blend of history, neuroscience, and deep reverence for dream worlds.
Can you share a story of an experience you have had facilitated by someone else where you explored your dreams?
Last year, I participated in a playtest for a game called ‘Dream Dungeon,’ created by my friend and collaborator Nick Koppenhagen in collaboration with Carina Erdmann. It’s a role-playing game with card-based elements that begins with a dream-sharing session. As each player shares a dream, the others take notes on details or images that stand out. Then, we each take turns stepping into the role of the Dreamer, along with other characters drawn from our dream notes. Through a social dreaming exercise, we collaboratively re-enter the dream space and build a new narrative that weaves together elements from everyone's dreams. We were a group of four with Nick as the facilitator, and I was amazed by how deeply immersed we all became in each other’s dreamscapes — creating new scenes, storylines, and meanings together while our personal and collective imaginations flowed seamlessly.
Thanks so much Charmaine for Meeting me at the Throughline :)
RESOURCES:
Website: Charmaine Li / ONEIRIC SPACE
Instagram: @oneiric.space
Newsletter: Circulations (@ Sunrise)
ADDITIONAL MENTIONS:
HOW TO SUPPORT CHARMAINE/ ONEIRIC SPACE’S WORK:
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