{"id":5114,"date":"2012-08-26T01:12:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T05:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=5114"},"modified":"2012-08-26T01:12:33","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T05:12:33","slug":"back-to-basics-qa-1-dreaming-is-waking-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/08\/back-to-basics-qa-1-dreaming-is-waking-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Back to basics Q&#038;A #1: dreaming is waking up"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5118\" style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/08\/chagall-village-by-night.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5118\" title=\"chagall village by night\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/80\/2012\/08\/chagall-village-by-night-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marc Chagall, &#8220;The Village by NIght&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>How do you define a \u201cdream\u201d?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A dream is a wake-up call. It takes us beyond what we already know. Dreams are the language of the soul, and they are experiences of the soul.<\/p>\n<p>There are \u201cbig\u201d dreams and \u201clittle\u201d dreams, of course. In big dreams, we go traveling and we may receive visitations. We travel across time \u2013 into the future and the past \u2013 and we travel to other dimensions of reality. This is reflected in the words for \u201cdream\u201d that are used by indigenous people who have retained strong dreaming traditions and respect for dreamers. Among the Makiritare, a shamanic dreaming people of Venezuela, for example, the word for dream is \u201cadekato,\u201d which means \u201ca journey of the soul\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You write \u201cDreaming isn&#8217;t just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing, and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.\u201d What do you mean by that?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Too often we go about in waking life in the condition of sleepwalkers, following schedules, trying to fit in with other people\u2019s expectations and deadlines, out of touch with the deeper meaning of our lives. Dreaming, we find our inner compass and the larger story of our lives, from which we can draw courage and clarity to make better choices when confronted with everyday challenges.<\/p>\n<p>The wake-up call may come in a sleep dream. It may come in that liminal state of hypnagogia when we are drifting between sleep and waking; this is a marvelous space for creative discovery, when we can make connections that escape the ordinary mind, as I explain in my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Secret-History-Dreaming-Robert-Moss\/dp\/157731901X\/ref=la_B000AQW534_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1345956584&amp;sr=1-4\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Secret History of Dreaming<\/em><\/a>. We may receive the wake-up call in the midst of everyday life, through the play of meaningful coincidence or a pop-up symbol from the world about us; navigating by synchronicity is the dreamer\u2019s way of operating 24\/7.<\/p>\n<p>We can learn to travel into the dream world wide-awake and conscious, in the way of the ancient shamans, as I teach people to do in my Active Dreaming approach. In this way, we can journey to places of healing and guidance in nonordinary reality and bring back gifts. In my new book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Dreaming-Soul-Back-Home-Shamanic\/dp\/1608680584\/ref=la_B000AQW534_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1345957790&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dreaming the Soul Back Home<\/em>,<\/a> I explain how we can develop the skills of lucid dream travel to find and bring home parts of our vital energy and identity that may have gone missing in life, so we can be whole and strong.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why is it important to work with our dreams?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For starters:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We solve problems in our sleep<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dreams coach us for future challenges and opportunities<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dreams show us what the body needs to stay well \u2013 and get well<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dreams hold up a \u201cmagic mirror\u201d to our current actions and attitudes, helping us to take an objective look at ourselves and make wiser choices<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dreams are a creative studio where we develop new ideas \u2013 as inventors, scientists, writers and world-changers have always done.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond all the above, dreams put us in touch with our BIGGER story and our larger purpose.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you define a \u201cdream\u201d? A dream is a wake-up call. It takes us beyond what we already know. Dreams are the language of the soul, and they are experiences of the soul. There are \u201cbig\u201d dreams and \u201clittle\u201d dreams, of course. In big dreams, we go traveling and we may receive visitations. We&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,78,10,34,24,5,2,12,22],"tags":[598,83,225],"class_list":["post-5114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-ancestral-traditions","category-conscious-dreaming","category-creativity","category-dream-interpretation","category-dreams","category-dreamwork","category-meaning-of-dreams","category-shamanic-dreaming","tag-adekato","tag-dream-travel","tag-makiritare"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Back to basics Q&amp;A #1: dreaming is waking up - 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\/2012\/08\/back-to-basics-qa-1-dreaming-is-waking-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back to basics Q&amp;A #1: dreaming is waking up - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you define a \u201cdream\u201d? A dream is a wake-up call. It takes us beyond what we already know. Dreams are the language of the soul, and they are experiences of the soul. There are \u201cbig\u201d dreams and \u201clittle\u201d dreams, of course. In big dreams, we go traveling and we may receive visitations. We&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/08\/back-to-basics-qa-1-dreaming-is-waking-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-26T05:12:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/08\/chagall-village-by-night-199x300.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":"Back to basics Q&A #1: dreaming is waking up - 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\/2012\/08\/back-to-basics-qa-1-dreaming-is-waking-up.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Back to basics Q&A #1: dreaming is waking up - Dream Gates","og_description":"How do you define a \u201cdream\u201d? A dream is a wake-up call. It takes us beyond what we already know. Dreams are the language of the soul, and they are experiences of the soul. There are \u201cbig\u201d dreams and \u201clittle\u201d dreams, of course. In big dreams, we go traveling and we may receive visitations. 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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\/5114","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=5114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5121,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5114\/revisions\/5121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}