Historical Dreams & Visions

Hosted byGeorge Noory

Historical Dreams & Visions

About the show

Scholar and dream pioneer Robert Moss discussed dream interpretation and how the lives of historic figures were influenced by dreams. According to him, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Harriet Tubman were some of the titans of history who had dreams affect their lives. "I tried to write the inner dimension of history," Moss said of his goals with historical dream research.

He recounted one remarkable dream which was shared between two of America's founding fathers: John Adams and Benjamin Rush. In the dream, experienced by Rush, he was given a book about the "future history of the United States." In it, Rush read that Adams and his longtime political rival had reconciled and that they die on the same day. Seventeen years later, this very turn of events did indeed occur. "The dream was precognitive ... If we have any doubt about the central, vital importance of dreaming in the history of everything, take an example like that and be educated," Moss declared.

On the subject of dream interpretation, he detailed a cooperative process in which two, or more, people share their dreams with each other. When looking at a person's dreams, he suggested saying "if this were my life" and trying to see it through that lense. Upon reaching a conclusion about what the dream might mean, ask the person, "So what the heck are you gonna do now? ... what is your action plan?" Moss explained that this process can be beneficial because it allows for "non-authoritarian, non-intrusive feedback and can be guided towards helpful action in very few minutes."

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