Recap

Dreamwork, Healing & the Dead

Robert Moss, the creator of Active Dreaming, a synthesis of dream-work and shamanic techniques for empowerment and healing, made his debut on Coast. Rather than associating dreams with sleep, Moss said that "dreaming is about waking up," and that wisdom about our own lives as well as the afterlife can be gleaned from this state.

If a person is having a "dream drought" (not remembering their dreams) he suggested they pay attention to details and symbols in their waking life as a way of getting in touch. The Iroquois believed that if you couldn't remember your dreams, you were losing part of your soul, he recounted. Dreams have enormous diagnostic value, and the body can show us in pictures what is going on with it, he added.

We have natural communication with the departed in dreams, Moss put forth, listing three explanations-- because the dead are still around for their own reasons; because the deceased wishes to socialize or convey a message; or because in our dreams we travel into the realms where those who have passed over still exist. Our "left brain inhibitors" are down during the dream state and this could increase our receptivity to this kind of travel, he reasoned.

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Dreams & Egypt

"The Egyptians believed that the gods speak to us in dreams," Robert Moss writes in an essay on his website. Their civilization made use of trained dreamers who served as military advisors and were reportedly able to traverse time and space in the "dreambodies" of birds and animals. These "frequent flyers" also explored "the roads of the afterlife and the multidimensional universe," he notes. Read the full essay.