9 Powers of Dreaming

The following comes right out of The Three Only Things by Robert Moss. It is truly a delightful book:

A dream can be an adventure playground, a jungle gym, a night school (and a flight school), a garden of heavenly delights, a place of encounter with the more-than-human, a portal into the multiverse. A dream is a place, as the Egyptians understood very well. It may be a place of beauty or terror. It can be a place of healing, initiation, higher education, and outrageous fun.

If we are losing our dreams, we are closing off worlds of possibility, entertainment, and learning.

Of all the gifts of dreams, for me the most important are the nine powers of dreaming we'll now unfold.

1. We solve problems in our sleep.

2. Dreams coach us for future challenges and opportunities.

3. Dreams hold up a magic mirror to our actions and behavior.

4. Dreams may tell how us what we need to do to stay well.

5. Dreams are a secret laboratory.

6. Dreams are a creative studio.

7. Dreams help us to mend our divided selves.

8. Dreaming is a key to better relationships.

9. Dreams recall us to our larger purpose (30-31).

Kinda makes you want to take a nap so you can dream a little. Wishes for a super Friday!

Find Life's Hidden Meanings

"In times when passions are beginning to take charge of the conduct of human affairs, one should pay less attention to what men of experience and common sense are thinking than to what is preoccupying the imagination of dreamers" -- Alexis de Toqueville in Democracy in America.

I have an e-friend, that means we haven't actually met but we took a wonderful e-course together, Great Big Dreams, in the spring with Christine Kane. Her name is Marcia and she strongly recommended this book to our group, The Three Only Things (yes, I know it's got a really odd title.) I am so glad she did because it is not something I would ordinarily read, but I am enjoying it immensely!

The book's subtitle is "Tapping to power of dreams, coincidence, and imagination." The author, Robert Moss, is also a novelist, a history professor and a foreign news correspondent. My kind of Renaissance guy.

This book is about irrational, or supernatural messages that may come to us in the form of dreams (remember the story about Joseph and the fat cows and the skinny cows?,) or seemingly random encounters. In essence, his work validates the notion, when you're ready to learn, the teacher will appear. If you have a question, the answer will come, but maybe not in the form you expected. He gives such interesting examples from a variety of times and cultures.

One incredible example came from the life history of Winston Churchill. Our image of this man is the perfect statesman, who rallied the British to such courage during World War II. Well, it turns out this man was addicted to flying small planes, not the safest of past times, especially in the early twentieth century. His wife, Clemmie, was desperate for him to stop flying, especially when she was pregnant with their third child. It was not, however, until she had a really spooky dream, not about flying but about their baby, that he promised to stop flying, at least until the child was born. That was in 1914 (90-91).

If you are an admirer of Carl Jung's work, you will particularly enjoy this delightful book. I'll soon have a direct link, but in the meantime, just click on any of the book covers below on the side to order it from Amazon.