What’s the real lore behind the Supernatural dreamwalkers?

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW/Dean Buscher Image Acquired from CW TV PR

Dreamwalkers were introduced in Supernatural’s season 13 winter finale.

Kaia Nieves is just one of many dreamwalkers in the world of Supernatural. Introduced in the season 13 midseason finale, Kaia was selected by Jack to help him get into the Apocalypse World to save Mary Winchester from the clutches of the archangel-with-a-god-complex, Michael.

Sam makes a point in saying that the lore on dreamwalking is vast. It’s complicated, messy, and isn’t consistent. This is certainly the case. The idea behind dreamwalking has been around for centuries, if not millennia. Each culture has a version of the lore and while there are some similarities, there are also some major differences.

It’s time to look at the Supernatural lore on dreamwalkers and compare it to the reality.

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The Supernatural dreamwalking lore

In the show, dreamwalkers are those who can walk in between worlds. They see other worlds in their mind during periods of sleep. Kaia mentions that they don’t just dream these places. They are physically present and they can be hurt while there. This can mean certain death. Kaia shows scars on her arms, which are from the monster in “The Bad Place;” the only world she dreamwalks into.

However, another dreamwalker, Derek Swan, has more control over his abilities. He’s able to go to specific places. There are paintings of the worlds he has been to, including the Apocalypse World.

With the help of other beings, like nephilims, the dreamwalkers can open doorways to other worlds. Jack helped direct Kaia to the Apocalypse World after initially landing in The Bad Place. There were doorways to other places. They can also take people through the doorways, possibly through the help of nephilims but also possibly through controlling their own powers. This part is currently unknown (as of December 2017).

Showrunner Andrew Dabb has said that dreamcatchers are an important element to the dreamwalking lore. Dreamcatchers have their own mythology and SPN Hunters will look into them when/if they appear in Supernatural.

Dreamwalking lore in real life

Dreamwalking is something that has been used throughout TV and movies and take the idea from some real lore. The mythologies differ among cultures. In some cases, it’s possible to walk within other people’s dreams but not affect anything; more like dream spying. In other cases, it’s possible to manipulate or even kill (which is something A Nightmare on Elm Street showed through Freddy Krueger’s ability to kill in dreams.

Supernatural has taken a lot of ideas from the Shamanic lore of dreamwalking. In this lore, it’s not just possible to enter other worlds in the dreams, but also through meditation. There is also Native American lore that uses the Peyote ceremony for dreamwalking.

The “dream realm” is like the gateway to the alternate realities. Like Kaia and Derek, it’s possible to gain access to these alternate realities. In the real lore, the worlds are similar but have significant differences, which is like the Apocalypse World having the major difference of the Winchester brothers never being born.

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Dabb says that dreamwalkers were developed before the alternate worlds. This would make sense with the way the lore of both work together. It will be interesting to see how this develops with Kaia in the future.

Supernatural returns in Jan 2018. Don’t forget to follow SPN Hunters on Twitter for more lore and mythology explored and explained.