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Dreamgates: An Explorer's Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death
Details the ways to use dreams as the "portals to the worlds beyond physical reality," enabling the reader to recover knowledge from before birth
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 13, 2014
By the time I was halfway through this book, my dreams were more vivid, meaningful, and memorable. Moss is an enchanting and wise teacher.
April 1, 2015
This is another wonderful, absolutely all-embracing and inspiring book by Robert Moss.
This author has amazing abilities as regards conscious dreaming, as he calls lucid dreaming, active dreaming (which I can´t at present find that he provides a definition for), soul journeying and so forth. I haven´t really understood the distinctions between the various forms of “dreaming”, but the book presents an astounding array of accounts of otherworld journeys (travelling between the worlds), communication with spiritual guides, shamanic soul-flights, and visits to what he terms “ex-physicals” and their guides in their own environments.
I have by no means managed to integrate the wealth of knowledge presented in this comprehensive book about all types of soul journeying, work with the dead, etc. etc. Most of what Moss describes are some sort of out-of-the body experiences, and he often refers to the OBE expert, Robert Monroe, one of those I most admire.
He contends (and I´m not disagreeing with him) that dreams are real experiences, flights of the soul, and may be memories of the future. He provides several instances of dreams he himself had that he later came to experience in “real” life, though perhaps the dream world is just as real (or more real) than waking life. The path of the soul after death is the path of the soul in dreams.
We are provided with many exciting exercises, e.g. “Stepping into a picture”, “Climbing the spiral stair” – which will shoot you out among the stars where you may set your course for particular planets or star systems, and one called “the second self technique”, where you are guided how to leave your body,
The author holds active dreaming courses throughout the world, where he and his students participate in “shared dreaming”, journey together to other planes, universes, whatever, and retrieve lost parts of people´s souls.
He calls himself a “paleolithic psychologist”. Basic insights of paleopsychology are:
1) Spirits are real.
2) We live in a multidimensional universe peopled with beings – spirits of nature, gods, daemons, angels and ancestors.
3) We are more than our bodies and brains.
4) The soul survives the death of the body.
5) “Soul journeying is the key to the spiritual worlds and the knowledge of ultimate reality.” “The heart of spiritual practice is to shift consciousness at will and travel beyond time and space.”
6) Souls are corporeal, though composed of much finer substance than the physical body.
7) People have more than one soul.
8) Souls or pieces of souls can be lost or stolen.
9) Some people have more souls than others and can make excursions to different places at the same time.
10) At death “different vehicles of soul go to different lots”. It is possible to explore the conditions of the afterlife to prepare for one´s death and assist souls of the dying or departed.
11) We are born with counterparts in nature, e.g. a totem animal and a relationship with natural forces such as wind, water or lightning.
12) We are born with counterparts in other places and times, and in other dimensions of reality.
What can I say? I am unable to express the scope and depth of the material that Moss offers. It is an exciting book, one of its kind and an essential purchase for anyone interested in dreams, OBEs, or soul journeying.
Moss is divinely articulate, exceedingly erudite, and exceptionally gifted in all matters covered by this book. He generously recounts innumerable, unique journeying experiences both of his own and his gifted students, and provides us with many exercises of various kinds.
This is a book you will need to read again and again, and you will need to practise the exercises again and again, unless, of course, you have a natural talent for such things, as does the author.
I highly, highly recommend that you purchase, and devour, this book. Enjoy!
This author has amazing abilities as regards conscious dreaming, as he calls lucid dreaming, active dreaming (which I can´t at present find that he provides a definition for), soul journeying and so forth. I haven´t really understood the distinctions between the various forms of “dreaming”, but the book presents an astounding array of accounts of otherworld journeys (travelling between the worlds), communication with spiritual guides, shamanic soul-flights, and visits to what he terms “ex-physicals” and their guides in their own environments.
I have by no means managed to integrate the wealth of knowledge presented in this comprehensive book about all types of soul journeying, work with the dead, etc. etc. Most of what Moss describes are some sort of out-of-the body experiences, and he often refers to the OBE expert, Robert Monroe, one of those I most admire.
He contends (and I´m not disagreeing with him) that dreams are real experiences, flights of the soul, and may be memories of the future. He provides several instances of dreams he himself had that he later came to experience in “real” life, though perhaps the dream world is just as real (or more real) than waking life. The path of the soul after death is the path of the soul in dreams.
We are provided with many exciting exercises, e.g. “Stepping into a picture”, “Climbing the spiral stair” – which will shoot you out among the stars where you may set your course for particular planets or star systems, and one called “the second self technique”, where you are guided how to leave your body,
The author holds active dreaming courses throughout the world, where he and his students participate in “shared dreaming”, journey together to other planes, universes, whatever, and retrieve lost parts of people´s souls.
He calls himself a “paleolithic psychologist”. Basic insights of paleopsychology are:
1) Spirits are real.
2) We live in a multidimensional universe peopled with beings – spirits of nature, gods, daemons, angels and ancestors.
3) We are more than our bodies and brains.
4) The soul survives the death of the body.
5) “Soul journeying is the key to the spiritual worlds and the knowledge of ultimate reality.” “The heart of spiritual practice is to shift consciousness at will and travel beyond time and space.”
6) Souls are corporeal, though composed of much finer substance than the physical body.
7) People have more than one soul.
8) Souls or pieces of souls can be lost or stolen.
9) Some people have more souls than others and can make excursions to different places at the same time.
10) At death “different vehicles of soul go to different lots”. It is possible to explore the conditions of the afterlife to prepare for one´s death and assist souls of the dying or departed.
11) We are born with counterparts in nature, e.g. a totem animal and a relationship with natural forces such as wind, water or lightning.
12) We are born with counterparts in other places and times, and in other dimensions of reality.
What can I say? I am unable to express the scope and depth of the material that Moss offers. It is an exciting book, one of its kind and an essential purchase for anyone interested in dreams, OBEs, or soul journeying.
Moss is divinely articulate, exceedingly erudite, and exceptionally gifted in all matters covered by this book. He generously recounts innumerable, unique journeying experiences both of his own and his gifted students, and provides us with many exercises of various kinds.
This is a book you will need to read again and again, and you will need to practise the exercises again and again, unless, of course, you have a natural talent for such things, as does the author.
I highly, highly recommend that you purchase, and devour, this book. Enjoy!
March 18, 2013
If I say "dreamwork" in modern Western society, people usually think of analyzing the symbolism in their dreams. This book is not about that.
Instead, it's about the shamanic way of dreaming. About dreaming as a process to be experienced, not simple as content to be analyzed intellectually. This book is the closest I've ever read to the way I learned to work with dreams with my teacher Eileen "ike" West, sitting in ceremonial circles.
It's a book to experience. If you enjoy working with dreams (or want to enjoy working with them) I highly recommend this book be on your list. I'm also very glad I got the audio book for this, since Robert Moss's talks are an experience of their own.
Instead, it's about the shamanic way of dreaming. About dreaming as a process to be experienced, not simple as content to be analyzed intellectually. This book is the closest I've ever read to the way I learned to work with dreams with my teacher Eileen "ike" West, sitting in ceremonial circles.
It's a book to experience. If you enjoy working with dreams (or want to enjoy working with them) I highly recommend this book be on your list. I'm also very glad I got the audio book for this, since Robert Moss's talks are an experience of their own.
August 15, 2010
Kind of a rehash so far of his earlier dream work book. I'm half way through and so far it seems like just a continual synopsis of dream journals
May 21, 2019
I've been having crazy dreams lately. I'd taken a course in Myths and dreams (the course title was Myths, dreams and consciousness) before and that piqued my interest and wanted to know more about these dreams. But symbols, oh symbolism in the dreams that are overwhelming. From the ultimate date of June 13th, 2019 (supposedly I die then with motorcycle involved somewhere) to image of defecating in those long urinals where you have no privacy..these symbols are hard to interpret. There are other books.audiobooks about dreamwork but I wanted something that put dreams in the domain of myths and ultimately - Jungian line of interpretation, and this audiobook does not disappoint. The only part I found a bit annoying is the shamanic drumming. Try to listen to that when you're commuting early in the morning. I think listening to this before going to bed would have been better.
May 27, 2019
It was a fun book, not sure how much of dreaming is as the author interprets it (often in a very literal fashion, rather than a purely symbolic way as I am used to). For example, is the Native American man that fuses with him in a dream really a man who once existed, or - in a more Jungian view - solely an integration of some aspect of his shadow self? (I have also had a shadow-integration experience very similar to what he describes, so I can at least relate to that) .. Is he really talking with once-living shamanic people from various times in the astral plane of his dreams, or, are these aspects of himself being symbolically represented? I don't know..
I loved the shamanic drumming in the audiobook, and wish he had more of these sessions (and longer ones).
I loved the shamanic drumming in the audiobook, and wish he had more of these sessions (and longer ones).
September 29, 2021
I was doing some research on lucid dreaming and I found this book to be a very comprehensive introduction. It was sprinkled with real-life testimonies from many of Robert Moss's students which kept me glued to the page. I would have liked to see some of these topics being explored more fully but overall, I enjoyed this book and learned a lot more about conscious dreaming than I every could have imagined.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2024
This does contain a lot of information for dream control and dream exploration.
The only issue for me was the amount of waffle it came with. Some anecdotes are always welcome yet some seem to go on longer than needed.
Yet for all the information its worth it. Great tips and tricks as well as interesting insight to what the native Americans take on dreams.
If your into Lucid Dream or spirituality, this will appeal to you.
Enjoy.
The only issue for me was the amount of waffle it came with. Some anecdotes are always welcome yet some seem to go on longer than needed.
Yet for all the information its worth it. Great tips and tricks as well as interesting insight to what the native Americans take on dreams.
If your into Lucid Dream or spirituality, this will appeal to you.
Enjoy.
October 23, 2017
This is the first book about dreams I found the advice practical, usable in real life.
So for the content wise, I'd like to give five stars and this will be the book I'd like to own on my real shelf someday.
However.. I did not actually 'read' this book, but 'heard' the audiobook.
I did not like the narration at all. I hope they'd hire someone professional for the reading.
So for the content wise, I'd like to give five stars and this will be the book I'd like to own on my real shelf someday.
However.. I did not actually 'read' this book, but 'heard' the audiobook.
I did not like the narration at all. I hope they'd hire someone professional for the reading.
December 26, 2017
Fascinating! So much information and experience in that man’s head, hard to get it in one audiobook. Minimal techniques woven through the author’s personal experiences give the listener a taste of what to expect should they be having insights already or seeking them out. I’ll probably listen to it again at some point.
April 22, 2020
Pure gold, both the book, and, even more so, the audio version because you get the author's great voice and personality guiding your journey. Highly recommend.
May 25, 2022
Intersting guide to other dimensional travel with good practical exercises
December 7, 2022
This book has a series of exercises that helps you lucid dream as a practical application to each chapter. It works. I took so long to read this book because I would fall asleep.
May 31, 2010
I think almost everyone has woken up from a dream that made them wonder if it contained a hidden (or not so hidden) message. More often than not, most of us let go of the thought. Only later do we look back and realize that perhaps we should have listened or at the very least dug deeper into the meaning.
Dreamgates goes beyond simple dream symbolism and using dreams to better our waking world. In this book, the author teaches us how to actively dream. Following some very simple steps, we can not only learn to analyze our dreams while we are experiencing them but we can purposefully dream to learn and connect with others. We literally can stop the scene in progress to focus on a particular symbol or ask a guide for clarification on a particular aspect. We can even purposefully choose our dreaming intention to learn a new skill, work through issues, gain a better understanding of a concept, do research, and even see the future.
By reading Dreamgates, we come to realize that many cultures see dreaming not as a passive form of nightly entertainment but as another important form of consciousness. That dreaming is seen as a means to commune, learn, and go beyond the boundaries of our physical bodies. Moreover, learning from and using active dreaming is not limited to the shaman or the enlightened. It’s really very easy to start and it’s up to us where we want to take the process.
Dreamgates goes beyond simple dream symbolism and using dreams to better our waking world. In this book, the author teaches us how to actively dream. Following some very simple steps, we can not only learn to analyze our dreams while we are experiencing them but we can purposefully dream to learn and connect with others. We literally can stop the scene in progress to focus on a particular symbol or ask a guide for clarification on a particular aspect. We can even purposefully choose our dreaming intention to learn a new skill, work through issues, gain a better understanding of a concept, do research, and even see the future.
By reading Dreamgates, we come to realize that many cultures see dreaming not as a passive form of nightly entertainment but as another important form of consciousness. That dreaming is seen as a means to commune, learn, and go beyond the boundaries of our physical bodies. Moreover, learning from and using active dreaming is not limited to the shaman or the enlightened. It’s really very easy to start and it’s up to us where we want to take the process.
August 21, 2010
There's a little useful information here for someone new to shamanism - a little. Much of the book is recounting of personal experiences in which dream journeying gave a message that was later substantiated in real life. We don't want to hear about these experiences. We want to have them.
We picked it up because a light skim of the early chapters looked promising. It does indeed include some interesting suggestions on how to use shamanic journeying, in or out of dreams, to follow up on earlier spirit messages (or divination, I would think, though Moss doesn't address that).
But that was all there was useful to it. The exercises are fairly standard journeying fare; the difference is that it's presumed to be done in a lucid dream state. There was also far too little of this in comparison to the personal accounts. He makes reference to discussing his Active Dreaming techniques for dream journeying in an earlier book but we're wary of picking it up: Likely we'd have to special order it, and it would be a pain in the ass to find out it's just as full of things irrelevant to our interests.
As for this book, we're returning it.
-Kearil
We picked it up because a light skim of the early chapters looked promising. It does indeed include some interesting suggestions on how to use shamanic journeying, in or out of dreams, to follow up on earlier spirit messages (or divination, I would think, though Moss doesn't address that).
But that was all there was useful to it. The exercises are fairly standard journeying fare; the difference is that it's presumed to be done in a lucid dream state. There was also far too little of this in comparison to the personal accounts. He makes reference to discussing his Active Dreaming techniques for dream journeying in an earlier book but we're wary of picking it up: Likely we'd have to special order it, and it would be a pain in the ass to find out it's just as full of things irrelevant to our interests.
As for this book, we're returning it.
-Kearil
September 7, 2008
Fascinating look not at dreams, but at Dreaming: a shamanistic spiritual pursuit. The different planes of the dreamscape, and practical tips for how to travel them. Almost as interesting would be an auto-bio of the author, who was formerly a war correspondent and an ancient history professor. I'm going to back up and read his earlier work Conscious Dreaming, since I'm more of a beginner who needs to start at Step 1: remembering my dreams in the 1st place. ~=o}
September 28, 2014
This is currently one of my favorite books. I'm going to start reading it a second time so I can participate with the ideas more. I read a different edition of this book that was re-published by New World Library. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in designing their own ideas about reality based on first-hand experiences, such as dream travels.
September 22, 2010
It is a book that allows you to reach your inner soul, to your higher self, and beyond. It is a excelent book for inntermediate and experienced meditatiors and active dreamers, to reach a higher knowledge.
I recieved this book free through goodreads firstreads.
I recieved this book free through goodreads firstreads.
December 30, 2012
Robert Moss is one of those guys who essentially writes the same book over and over again. He preaches the new age genius of dreaming and has some great Rilke quotes....can´t see anything wrong with that.
August 24, 2014
I read this once a few years ago and loved it! This time, however, I listened to it as an audiobook spoken by Robert Moss himself. The experience was all the more enriched by hearing Moss speak his own words. Loved it!
May 10, 2015
With books like these, the worst case scenario is that the author is making it all up out of whole cloth. However, even if the author hasn't had all the dream adventures he claims to have had...that leaves him being what exactly? Still a very creative writer IMHO.
January 5, 2009
I re-read this one often, as it always helps me relax before bed, and interestingly, I almost always have pleasant dreams that night.
April 17, 2011
Absolutely love this book!
Read
December 12, 2011i don't know about it yet
September 8, 2012
Such a well informed Author and because of this it is easy to feel safe with his advices. He also writes very well and not full of jargon.
July 26, 2015
Audio book
Read
May 11, 2016I've sipped from the cup of Lethe and this audio has helped me to find my way. Thank you Robert Moss :)
August 8, 2017
Robert Moss has a great breadth of experience and it is helpful to have someone as intelligent as him articulate and guide you through the often taboo field of dreaming.
December 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews