Some Dreams Must Be Set Free: The Inspiration and Unusual Journey Behind Night Born
By Theresa Cheung
For more than two decades my professional life has been devoted to dreams, interpreting them, decoding them, researching them, and writing about them. Many readers know me as the author of The Dream Dictionary A–Z, the internationally bestselling guide that began life as The Element Encyclopaedia of 20,000 Dreams (HarperCollins) and now even has its own Barnes & Noble edition in the United States. Over the years I have published dozens of nonfiction books – some of them Sunday Times top 10 bestsellers – not only on dreams but on angels, the afterlife, Tarot, astrology, rituals, the Akashic Records, and Twin Flames. I also host national viewer call-ins on ITV’s This Morning as their regular dream expert.
In short, I am widely known, some say notorious, as the British Grande dame of dreams and spiritual studies. And yet, after all these years of researching and writing nonfiction, my debut novel Night Born may be the book I am proudest of.
Born Into Dreaming
My passion for dreamwork began long before my publishing career. I grew up in a family of dream decoders and psychics and later studied Theology and English at King’s College, Cambridge, where my fascination with the unseen and the symbolic only deepened. Making dreamwork mainstream has been the mission beneath everything I write. Dreams are powerful tools for self-knowledge; they reveal our inner worlds with stunning honesty, and I genuinely believe they hold the keys to profound emotional and spiritual wisdom.
And yet, despite all my books and decades of research, there has always been a limit to how far nonfiction alone can reach, especially to younger readers.
The Spark: A Gothic-Loving Daughter
The true spark for NightBorn came from right inside my own home. My daughter is a voracious reader, devouring gothic fantasies and dark, twisty novels at a rate I can only marvel at. But she won’t read nonfiction, mine included.
One day I found myself wondering: If even my daughter won’t read my dream books, how can I reach the millions of other young readers like her? How could I give them a crash course in dream decoding without asking them to pick up a reference guide?
That question ignited something. What if I could take everything I know – decades of research into dreams, Jungian psychology, symbolism, consciousness – and wrap it inside a gripping, atmospheric thriller? What if the fictional world itself could become a hidden textbook of dream decoding? A story they couldn’t put down, even if they weren’t aware they were learning as they read?
With that, Night Born began to take shape. Every major character in the novel is either a Jungian psychologist, a dream expert, or a deep, intuitive thinker. Their conversations, conflicts, and discoveries are all infused with dream symbolism, archetypes, and subconscious dynamics. The tagline came easily: Some dreams must be set free. Nightmares, after all, are dreams too.
Writing Night Born was an opportunity not only to tell an electrifying story but to smuggle the power of dreamwork into a new format, one accessible to readers who would never normally pick up a dream dictionary.
A Very Difficult Leap of Faith
Despite my passion, the process of writing fiction was a huge leap outside my comfort zone. I am an academic researcher and established nonfiction author; narrative voice, pacing, structure, and character arcs were unfamiliar territories. I had to humble myself, seek advice, take workshops, and ask trusted editors and author friends for honest feedback.
Even once the manuscript was complete, the challenges continued. My long-standing nonfiction publishers at Harper and Hachette simply couldn’t envision me writing outside the genre they had assigned me. They loved my dream dictionaries and spiritual guides, but a psychological dream-thriller? It was too far removed from their expectations. They declined to support Night Born.
That was a painful moment. But it also clarified how deeply I believed in this book. I knew NightBorn had something important to say about the subconscious, about self-knowledge, about the dreams we bury and the ones we set free. So, I took a leap of faith and decided to publish with an indie press on a non-advance basis.
It felt terrifying and exhilarating. For the first time in years, I wasn’t relying on the infrastructure of major publishers. I was walking into the unknown, trusting my instincts, just as I encourage others to trust their dreams.
Five Years, Many Setbacks – But Never a Lost Dream
From the first spark of inspiration to the moment I held the printed book in my hands, the journey took nearly five years. There were rewrites, rejections, professional doubts, and personal hesitations as I had to write the book around my paid non-fiction writing opportunities. At times I wondered whether it would ever see the light of day.
But I never lost faith in the story. In fact, the setbacks only strengthened my conviction. Dreams often demand perseverance, and NightBorn became proof of that lesson.
And now, at last, the dream has been realized. The early reactions from Goodreads have been wildly positive and deeply insightful – far beyond what I dared hope for. Readers have responded not only to the plot and characters but to the undercurrent of dream decoding woven into the narrative. Some have even told me they woke up recalling their dreams for the first time in years.
That, for me, is the highest praise imaginable. It was also the reason why I wanted to write the book and another unexpected turn in this journey is that the cover – designed by my son in law because the book had no budget for a cover designer – is taking on a life of its own. It is very arresting, and some people have messaged me to say it gives them a visceral reaction and, best of all, triggers dream recall!
A Story with a Secret Mission
When I say NightBorn is the book I am most proud of, it’s because it represents the full spectrum of who I am, not just the researcher and nonfiction writer but the creative storyteller, the dream evangelist, the woman who believes passionately that dreaming is an essential human skill.
My secret mission is simple: I want the whole world to wake up with dream recall and the tools to interpret the messages their minds send them each night. Dreamwork should be taught in schools. It should be a core life skill. Imagine if every young person knew how to read their inner world with clarity and compassion. Imagine how empowered they would feel if they understood that anything is possible if you dare to dream.
NightBorn is my fictional love letter to that belief. A page-turning story rooted in the philosophy that self-knowledge is the beginning of all wisdom.
And so I will keep dreaming big. I will keep writing, teaching, and s
haring. And I hope Night Born inspires readers especially the young ones who would never pick up a nonfiction guide to dare to dream big, too.
Because sometimes the most powerful journeys begin in the dark, with a dream that refuses to be ignored.
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Theresa Cheung is an English author who writes on the subjects of spirituality, dreams, and the paranormal. She has been named among the ‘100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People’ and has been described in the UK media as the “British grande dame of psychic and spiritual studies”.
NIGHTBORN
What if the line between your waking life and your darkest dreams disappeared forever? Alice Sinclair, a driven psychology professor, is about to find out. When thousands of people begin experiencing terrifying, vivid nightmares … all centered around her, Alice’s quiet academic life is shattered. Haunted by the question of why she’s become the subject of these shared dreams, Alice embarks on a desperate search for answers, uncovering a chilling secret: someone – or something – hungry for global power has discovered a way to manipulate consciousness itself. The world is fast becoming a playground for those in control of the dreaming mind. In a heart-stopping race against time, Alice must navigate a treacherous web of deception, where nothing – and no one – can be trusted, not even herself.
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