Recently I reviewed a book and CD set on Flow-Dreaming. I had read the book but had not yet listened to the CD. 

Last night I got to share Flow-Dreaming with a group. We played the first four tracks of the CD and journeyed into the flow. It was a wonderful experience.

Some were old friends; some were new. All of them seemed to really like flow-dreaming. I will let you know if I get any reports of especially good results. I’m hoping at least some of the people will buy the Flow-Dreaming set and keep on using it.

The author of Flow-Dreaming, Summer McStravick, has a very good voice and professional manner. She does an excellent job of leading the guided meditations on the CD.

There is beautiful background music, too, that enhances the experience without calling attention to itself. 

Flow-dreaming with friends. What a blessing!

FlowDreaming book and CD by Summer McStravick

 You know what a fan I am of Robert Moss and his concept of active dreaming. That is, deliberately going back into dreams, taking action there in order to change situations in the waking world. Moss teaches that dreams are a tool for healing ourselves and the situations around us, and that we can use dreams actively to do that.

I have found another author on using the power of dreams to enhance your life. Her name is Summer McStravick.

McStravick, producer and director of Hay House Radio, has a similar concept, which she calls flowdreaming. And she takes it even farther, I think. 

In her book-and-CD-set, FlowDreaming, McStravic teaches us to go into “the flow” of the universe and make changes in our life from inside the flow. Starting from a visualization system that her family used when she was growing up, McStravick further developed it into a system for manifesting the conditions you want in your life.

The small hardback book is short and pithy, a clearly written instruction book that is also very inspiring. FlowDreaming comes with a CD of guided meditations and guided journeys into flow-dreaming. McStravick has a very good voice, by the way.

I love this book and highly recommended it. And the price is right. I got the book with CD for only $12.21 on Amazon.com. 

I hope you try this book and use it to make your good dreams come true. Learning to get into (and direct) the flow is a true blessing.

Robert Moss, the dream researcher, teacher and author that I keep talking about, has a radio show on dreams! You can listen over the Internet on the second Tuesday of each month, from 11 am to noon Central Time.

Here is the link: http://www.healthylife.net/RadioShow/archiveWD.htm

There is even an 800 number so that you can call in with questions during the show as he interviews other dreamworkers and dream researchers. 

What a blessing for all of us!

The Dreamer's Book of the Dead

Dream expert Robert Moss has written yet another ground-breaking book, The Dreamer’s Book of the Dead: A Soul Traveler’s Guide to Death, Dying, and the Other Side. It’s a big book, and I just started reading it. So you can be sure I will be writing more about it later. Meanwhile, just in case you have some holiday gift cash burning a hole in your pocket, I wanted to tell you about it. 

If you have read any of the Robert Moss books on dreams (or if you have been reading this blog), you know that he uses innovated techniques and is breaking new ground (in our culture) in the practical and spiritual uses of dreaming.

Some Native Americans, Tibetans, Indonesians, and others have been masters of dreamwork for centuries. But Europeans and Americans have for the most part considered dreams to be meaningless, if not downright scary. Robert Moss and others are changing that as they teach us amazing and effective ancient ways of working with dreams.

The point of this book is that our departed loved ones, friends, and spiritual teachers often appear to us in dreams with important messages, but we don’t always pay attention. Moss teaches us to heed such messages. He also teaches us to take the initiative to contact the departed in dreams.

One of the main reasons to contact departed loved ones, friends, even enemies, is closure. Sometimes we need to apologize or receive apologies to heal old wounds. Sometimes we just need the reassurance that they are still in existence, even though no longer living.

Moss says that sometimes people who have died cannot rest easy until they deliver information or make peace with the living. It may be practical, like the whereabouts of missing papers or valuables, or it may simply be guidance on handling business, family or spiritual problems.

If all this sounds morbid, it really isn’t. You can also contact spiritual teachers and others who have gone before. You can ask them for advice or find out valuable information about the past or the present. 

There is a lot of information in this book on various dream practices. As always there are wonderful stories of real people and experiences, as only Robert Moss can tell them. The book covers a wealth of information on dreams and dreamwork.

So you might want to take a look at The Dreamer’s Book of the Dead: A Soul Traveler’s Guide to Death, Dying, and the Other Sided by Robert Moss. You will find it on Amazon. I know, because that’s where I got it.

My family (on both sides) has always been blessed with dreams that contain messages from departed relatives. We have stories of dramatic dreams conveying important information going back over 100 years that I know of. Probably there were others that we no longer remember. Such dreams can be helpful in a practical way, but mainly they are comforting. 

Dreams that bring help and knowledge from departed family members are a blessing that I like to remember, especially at this family-intensive time of year. How about you?

I just found a great quote on dreams and dreaming that I think sums up the teachings of Robert Moss, lama Tenzin Wangyal, and other dream researchers and teachers often quoted on this blog on the topic of active dreaming.

It may sound flippant at first, but I think it is well worth thinking about. What do you think?

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other. —Douglas Everett

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

The fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy reminded me of a famous RFK quote: “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (also assassinated 40 years ago this year) said, “I have a dream…” In fact, he said that on several occasions about different dreams.

Both men were using dream to mean something that they wanted to have happen. At first that may seem to be a different usage from the “dreams” we have at night. But take a second look.

John Lennon said, “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

Lennon also wrote, “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” That was his dream.

In some cultures, to have a good dream, as in the dreams RFK, MLK, and John Lennon had for the good of their people, is to be obligated to work to make that dream come true. And in reading about the Senoi people of Malaysia, the Tibetan lamas, lucid dreamers of many cultures, and dreamworkers like Robert Moss, we have found that dreaming can cause things to happen. So the two definitions of dreams (day dreams and night dreams) begin to merge.

In Europe and the U.S. in recent centuries we have been taught to think of night-time dreams as passive experiences, surreal and fantastic, having nothing to do with “real” life. Now we know that we can learn to use our night-time dreams to help make our daytime dreams come true.

What could be more of a blessing than that?

I’m still reading Creative Dreaming, the wonderful dreamwork book by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., that I reviewed in a previous post.

I keep finding more and more good information in it. In particular, there is a whole chapter on Senoi dreamwork that is worth the price of the book all on its own.

The Senoi are often mentioned in connection with dreamwork, but often without much or any explanation of who they are and why they are important. The Senoi are a tribal people of what is now called Malaysia.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the Senoi were studied in their homeland, while they still lived in their traditional way. What the anthropologists discovered was startling!

The Senoi were a peaceful people who lived in the midst of warring tribes, and everyone let them alone! Despite their entirely peaceful ways, they were considered to be powerful magicians by surrounding tribes. So no one in the other tribes wanted to mess with the Senoi.

What was the source of their power? Senoi life was centered on dreams and dreamwork!

Each morning everyone in the extended family shared their dreams. They helped each other interpret their dreams, and they trained their children in dreamwork.

From babyhood on, Senoi were trained to control their dreams and to use what they gained from dreams to live a happy, peaceful, creative, and fulfilling life.

If a Senoi child had a nightmare, she or he was coached in turning the nightmare around, killing and/or befriending the dream enemy, and demanding a gift. The gift must be a song, poem, artwork, play, or invention that could be brought back and shared with the village.

Senoi dreamers learned to pursue pleasure, including sex, and to enjoy adventures in their dreams. Always, they were to bring back creative gifts to share with the community.

The most famous writing about the Senoi was published in the late 1940s by an anthropologist named Kilton Stewart. What he had learned from the Senoi (and learned to practice himself) was so amazing that others began to attack his work. They said it could not be possible, or true.

Unfortunately by then Kilton Stewart was dead. His mentor, another anthropologist had also died without leaving many notes.

Others went to Malaysia and were told by authorities that Stewart was wrong. By then, according to Garfield, the Senoi had been forced out of their ancestral lands by the new Malaysian government and forcibly resettled in camps, where they were forced into lifestyles that destroyed their old ways.

The new government did not want it to be known that they had so persecuted and oppressed such a peaceful and creative people. So the researchers who had set out to debunk Kilton Stewart were easily convinced that there had never been a Senoi society like the one Stewart so vividly described.

Patricia Garfield had written about the Senoi and had tried their methods. She knew that they worked.

Determined to find out the truth, Garfield went to Malaysia herself and persevered until she found independent guides and translators who would go with her. She sought out the remaining Senoi and interviewed them carefully.

She describes that adventure in her book. Kilton Stewart was fully vindicated by the testimony of older Senoi who described their traditional life in their old homeland exactly as he had. Stewart was right!

For more on exactly how to use the Senoi dreamwork methods to enhance your own life, and that of your family and friends, you really should read the book, Creative Dreaming.

I feel very blessed to have found Creative Dreaming, and I think you will, too.

When I started working with dreams, years ago, Patricia Garfield was one of the two best authors on dreamwork that I found. She is a clinical psychologist who also works with her own dreams.

Currently I’m reading the second edition of her book, Creative Dreaming, and I highly recommend it.

Garfield’s books are different from those of Robert Moss (Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates, and Dreaming True). She spends a bit more time explaining the research that has been done on dreams and the methods that she recommends for getting/shaping the dreams you want.

She writes very clearly and simply, so her books are fun to read and easy to understand. I also think that she is a bit more detailed in explaining how to work with dreams. So it seems easier to understand her methods and put them into practice.

Garfield gives great practical advice on transforming nightmares into pleasant dreams. She also has a lot of interesting information on how to use dreams to get answers. And she devotes a whole chapter to Native American beliefs about dreams and visions, and what we can learn from their methods.

This is a great book, and I’ll probably write more about it later. Meanwhile, give it a try, and let me know how it works for you.

Creative Dreaming was published several years ago, so you should be able to find it in the library. You can definitely find it on Amazon, where I got mine.

Sorry I haven’t blogged for awhile. I got a new job—but with a long commute. Then I got sick. I’ll get back on schedule with blogging as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, I feel really blessed to have a great job, working with fun people.

Conscious Dreaming by Robert Moss is currently my favorite book on dreams and dreamwork. You can see that my copy is pretty battered. I not only use it; I also carry it around and share it with others.

Born in Australia, Moss has recorded, studied and followed his dreams for decades. His dreams led him to England and then to the United States, from a career as a successful journalist and best-selling novelist to a teacher of dreamwork and author of dream books.

His dreams even led him to buy a particular house in a particular town in Upstate New York. Then they led him to Native American elders who could help interpret them. The elders told him that he was dreaming the traditional shamanic dreams of their people.

Moss’s books are clearly and simply written, easy to read, and filled with vivid, true stories of people and their dreams. There are lucid dreams, shamanic dreams, and dreams of future events.

Best of all, he explains clearly how to work with our dreams, how to help others interpret their dreams, and how to work actively with dreams, going back into the dreams to get more information. It is amazing how so much information and instruction can be so entertaining to read.

Moss and his dream groups use a nine-step program for understanding and working dreams. They use contemporary techniques derived from indigenous cultures around the world. His method helps you understand your past, shape your future, get in touch with your deepest desires, and receive guidance from your higher self.

Moss believes that dreams prepare us for future events, so that we can avoid disasters or at least be prepared to cope with traumatic events. And he tells some compelling stories that seem to prove his point.

His skills as both a top journalist and a best-selling author show through in his writing. It is clear and easy to understand. You won’t notice his skill perhaps—this is not showy writing—but you will enjoy the book more and understand the concepts more easily because of it.

He takes ancient wisdom and methods that have stood the test of time and makes them easy for modern people to understand and use. That is quite an accomplishment, and he can do that because he has experienced it himself.

Robert Moss is not just reporting on other people’s ideas and experiences. He is a master of dreamwork (though very unassuming about it), and he is able to explain it so that we can understand it.

After reading any of Robert Moss’s dream books (and you’ll be happy to know there are others), you will probably want to gather a few people into a group to work with dreams together. By following his instructions, you can do that—and have fun doing it.

If you do start your own dream group, or if you have one now that you work with, please stop by and leave a comment to let us know what you are doing and how it is going.

I hope to someday be able to take one of Robert Moss’s dream workshops. Now that would be blessing! Meanwhile, I feel wonderfully blessed just to be reading his books.

I’m blessed with friends who are interested in actively exploring their dreams. We’ve been working together with the Robert Moss book, Active Dreaming.

On December 8 we will gather to work again with an exercise from the book, called “Dream Tracking.” We will actively journey into each other’s dreams to help find answers to dream meanings.

Last time we did that, it was interesting and fun. We figure this time we will do even better, having had some experience. I’m looking forward to it.

I am grateful to have friends who are willing to experiment with new ideas and experience new things. And you? What are you grateful for in this season of gratitude? And how does it relate to your dreams?