{"id":5944,"date":"2014-03-23T09:27:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-23T13:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?p=5944"},"modified":"2014-03-23T09:27:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-23T13:27:42","slug":"mark-twain-on-drilling-dream-memory-dreaming-parallel-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/03\/mark-twain-on-drilling-dream-memory-dreaming-parallel-lives.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Twain on drilling dream memory & dreaming parallel lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"-<\/a>In one of his later stories, \u201cMy Platonic Sweetheart\u201d, Mark Twain wrote, \u201cIn our dreams \u2014 I know it! \u2014 we do make the journeys we seem to make, we do see the things we seem to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also described a practice for \u201cdrilling\u201d the memory in order to catch more dreams and use them to discover the nature of the personality and of reality itself. \u201cFew drill the dream-memory, and no memory can be kept strong without them.\u201d The drill involves writing down dreams when they are fresh, then studying them and revisiting them and trying to figure out \u201cwhat the source of dreams is, and which of the two or three separate persons inhabiting us is their architect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>Mark Twain\u2019s experience was that in dreams we can find ourselves in parallel worlds where we lead a continuous life, usually forgotten after waking. In these parallel lives, we may be following a path from which we departed in ordinary life. We may find ourselves living with a lost love.<\/p>\n

As a cub pilot, Sam Clemens (as he then was) was smitten by a lovely fourteen-year-old girl in braids called Laura Wright. He spent two days hours as close to her as he could get, then they were forced to separate and embarked on separate lives. Mark Twain\u2019s notebook entries suggest that he dreamed of Laura, and a parallel life in which they were united, over most of his life.<\/p>\n

He wrote enigmatically, in a letter in 1893: \u201cI dreamed I was born, and grew up, and was a pilot on the Mississippi and a miner and journalist and had a wife and children \u2014 and this dream goes on and on and on<\/i>, and sometimes seems so real that I almost believe that it is <\/i>real. I wonder if it is?\u201d \u00a0He wished to be able to migrate to a parallel world where he could be with loved ones from whom he was cruelly separated.<\/p>\n

Adapted from The Secret History of Dreaming<\/em> <\/a>by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Photo: Taken in 1909 by A.F.Bradley. Public domain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of his later stories, \u201cMy Platonic Sweetheart\u201d, Mark Twain wrote, \u201cIn our dreams \u2014 I know it! \u2014 we do make the journeys we seem to make, we do see the things we seem to see.\u201d He also described a practice for \u201cdrilling\u201d the memory in order to catch more dreams and use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10,4,5,20,7,12],"tags":[1730,470,350,471,468,1729],"class_list":["post-5944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-conscious-dreaming","category-dream-recall","category-dreams","category-history-of-dreaming","category-lucid-dreaming","category-meaning-of-dreams","tag-dreaming-parallel-worlds","tag-laura-wright","tag-mark-twain","tag-my-platonic-sweetheart","tag-parallel-lives","tag-sam-clemens"],"yoast_head":"\nMark Twain on drilling dream memory & dreaming parallel lives - 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\/2014\/03\/mark-twain-on-drilling-dream-memory-dreaming-parallel-lives.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Twain on drilling dream memory & dreaming parallel lives - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In one of his later stories, \u201cMy Platonic Sweetheart\u201d, Mark Twain wrote, \u201cIn our dreams \u2014 I know it! \u2014 we do make the journeys we seem to make, we do see the things we seem to see.\u201d He also described a practice for \u201cdrilling\u201d the memory in order to catch more dreams and use…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/03\/mark-twain-on-drilling-dream-memory-dreaming-parallel-lives.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-23T13:27:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/03\/Mark-Twain-A.F.Bradley-1909-233x300.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":"Mark Twain on drilling dream memory & dreaming parallel lives - 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\/2014\/03\/mark-twain-on-drilling-dream-memory-dreaming-parallel-lives.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mark Twain on drilling dream memory & dreaming parallel lives - Dream Gates","og_description":"In one of his later stories, \u201cMy Platonic Sweetheart\u201d, Mark Twain wrote, \u201cIn our dreams \u2014 I know it! 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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\/5944","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=5944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5946,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions\/5946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}