{"id":3373,"date":"2011-10-19T14:10:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T18:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3373"},"modified":"2011-10-06T14:19:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T18:19:23","slug":"daniel-an-active-dreamer-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-an-active-dreamer-in-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Daniel, an active dreamer in the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, in Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In yesterday’s article, we saw how Daniel found a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar II claimed he had lost. Scholars suspect that the content of the symbolic dream of the composite statue was invented in Hellenistic times, perhaps around 200 BCE, to reflect the later unfolding of events and to serve the propaganda agenda of a later time. The empire of iron and clay is either Greece or Rome, according to your preference. The vision of the rise and fall of great empires and the coming of a heavenly kingdom on earth continues to fire the religious imagination, notably of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and Mormons.<\/p>\n

Whether you regard it as legend, history or revelation, the story of how Daniel retrieved a dream for the king provides biblical authority for a method of active dreaming that was understood by many ancient and indigenous peoples. It is not enough to interpret dreams from the outside; to get to the meaning and truth of a dream, you must develop the ability to go\u00a0inside<\/em>\u00a0the dreamspace.<\/p>\n

On one tablet from ancient Mesopotamia, a dream expert is described as \u201cone who lies at a person\u2019s head.\u201d\u00a0 Picture this: the \u201cdream questioner\u201d (another local name for the dream expert) lies down next to someone with the intention of shifting consciousness and entering that person\u2019s psychic space, in order to solve a puzzle, or help with nightmare terrors, or to bring back information from a dream that the dreamer is missing, even a whole dream.<\/p>\n

Daniel does not lie down next to Nebuchadnezzar (though he may have wished to do so); he enters the king\u2019s dream from a distance, having sought divine guidance and protection. In entering such territories, it\u2019s always advisable to have appropriate guidance systems. Later in the Book of Daniel, we learn that Daniel had a special working relationship with the archangel Gabriel, who plays a very special role, as the Master of Dreams, in the conception and birth of the two other great religions of the Book.<\/p>\n

Previous: Daniel finds the king’s missing dream<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adapted from\u00a0The Secret History of Dreaming<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In yesterday’s article, we saw how Daniel found a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar II claimed he had lost. Scholars suspect that the content of the symbolic dream of the composite statue was invented in Hellenistic times, perhaps around 200 BCE, to reflect the later unfolding of events and to serve the propaganda agenda of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,78,38,10,24,35,5,20,7,12],"tags":[662,661,660,663,664,657],"class_list":["post-3373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-ancestral-traditions","category-ancient-religions","category-conscious-dreaming","category-dream-interpretation","category-dreaming-in-religion","category-dreams","category-history-of-dreaming","category-lucid-dreaming","category-meaning-of-dreams","tag-bible-dreams","tag-book-of-daniel","tag-daniel","tag-dream-questioner","tag-mesopotamia","tag-nebuchadnezzar"],"yoast_head":"\nDaniel, an active dreamer in the Bible - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-an-active-dreamer-in-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daniel, an active dreamer in the Bible - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In yesterday’s article, we saw how Daniel found a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar II claimed he had lost. Scholars suspect that the content of the symbolic dream of the composite statue was invented in Hellenistic times, perhaps around 200 BCE, to reflect the later unfolding of events and to serve the propaganda agenda of a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-an-active-dreamer-in-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-19T18:10:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T18:19:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/10\/Nebuchadnezzar-Dream_Gilgal_Garden_2-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Daniel, an active dreamer in the Bible - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-an-active-dreamer-in-the-bible.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Daniel, an active dreamer in the Bible - Dream Gates","og_description":"In yesterday’s article, we saw how Daniel found a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar II claimed he had lost. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3378,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions\/3378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}