A DVANCE P RAISE FOR T HE S ECRET H ISTORY OF D REAMING
One of the most lyrically written and deeply inspiring books about dreams Ive ever read. Robert Moss brings the grace of a novelist, the erudition of a scholar, and the visionary wisdom of a shaman to bear in this wonderful new book.... More than anything, Moss gives voice to the primal joy that dreaming evokes, the sheer creative freedom thats set loose every time we go to sleep. If I were ever stuck on that proverbial desert island, this is the book Id want to have with me.
Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, visiting scholar, Graduate Theological Union,
and author of Dreaming in the Worlds Religions
Robert Moss has done it again he has written a most engaging, informative, and eye-opening book. It is also a book that challenges many of the most deeply held and unconsciously reactive prejudices of scientific dream researchers.... As the book amply demonstrates, the collective, historic importance of these particular dreams, and dreaming in general, is undeniable. I recommend it most heartily!
Jeremy Taylor, Shift magazine
This is no standard book on dreams, but an illuminating and highly enjoyable read by world-renowned dreaming expert Robert Moss, who begins by focusing on the role of dreaming as a secret engine in human evolution and survival in all aspects of society. Moss... shows how dreams can and do change the course of history and how it is possible to reclaim and use that power.
Yoga Magazine
A masterly survey and exploration of how inner dreamt realities have generated core historical realities across time and space. A great and very informative read.
Iain R. Edgar, PhD, professor of anthropology, Durham University,
and author of A Guide to Imagework
In a brilliantly insightful new book, Robert Moss makes history fun by showing how dreams and dreaming helped create many of historys most pivotal moments. Its a fascinating look into a side of history many of us have been missing. A renowned dream teacher, novelist, and scholar, Moss uses historic examples to show how dreams have enormous potential to influence not only great events, but our own everyday lives as well.
Roger Ziegler, Wellness column, www.examiner.com
Robert Mosss detective work has unearthed a secret history of dreaming that demonstrates how nighttime dreams, in concert with coincidence and imagination, have resulted in artistic productions, scientific discoveries, political turnarounds, spiritual breakthroughs, and the course of human evolution itself. This splendid book is destined to become a classic, one that transcends disciplines and provides an agenda for the role that dreams can play in ensuring human survival.
Stanley Krippner, PhD, coauthor of
Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them
Robert Moss is a brilliant teacher of the immense and intimate field of dreaming. Nearly anything imagined, from invention to strategy to poetry, has its roots in dreams. Moss deftly and powerfully demonstrates that dreams are the spirit body from which this world emerges. The Secret History of Dreaming is an essential text and should be included alongside any study of human history or scientific inquiry.
Joy Harjo, poet, musician, and author of How We Became Human
No one but no one could write this brilliant book better than Robert Moss has! Moss merges the oldest (from five thousand years ago) dream record of Dumuzi and goes on through the ages, marking signposts that lead into the latest research in the fields of science, health and medicine, creative endeavors, and mind matters, and those that explore psyche, spirit, and soul as a harmonious whole.
Rita Dwyer, past president and executive officer,
International Association for the Study of Dreams
This beautifully written book is highly recommended for dreamers as well as for practitioners of dream interpretation worldwide. Its destined to become one of the most important and authoritative books in the field of dreaming, one that all devoted dreamers and libraries will need to own.
Barbara Tedlock, PhD, author of The Woman in the Shamans Body and
Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations
P RAISE FOR R OBERT M OSSS T HE T HREE O NLY T HINGS
Readers will be pleased and inspired by Mosss reinterpretation of the world.
Library Journal
The pioneer of a dream-interpreting technique called Active Dreaming, Australian-born Moss believes that the Three Only Things can connect with extraordinary sources of direction, healing, and energy. Writing about dreams, Moss is eloquent and authoritative, a wise teacher.
Publishers Weekly
the SECRET
HISTORY of
DREAMING
A LSO BY R OBERT M OSS
Conscious Dreaming
The Dreamers Book of the Dead
Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul,
Imagination, and Life Beyond Death
Dream Gates: A Journey into Active Dreaming (audio)
Dreaming True
Dreamways of the Iroquois
The Three Only Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams,
Coincidence, and Imagination
The Way of the Dreamer (video)
the SECRET
HISTORY of
DREAMING
ROBERT
MOSS
New World Library
Novato, California
Copyright 2009 by Robert Moss
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Cover art: Paolo Veronese, The Vision of St. Helen, ca. 1550. Pinacoteca, Vatican Museums, Vatican State. Photo courtesy of Scala / Art Resource, NY.
Text design by Tona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moss, Robert.
The secret history of dreaming / Robert Moss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57731-638-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. DreamsHistory. I. Title.
BF1078.M66 2009
154.6'309dc22
2008033009
First paperback printing, August 2010
ISBN 978-1-57731-901-6
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper
New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Marcia, who saw and believed in this book
twenty years before it was written