Secret History of Dreaming »

Robert Moss, the creator of Active Dreaming and a columnist for Spirituality and Health, leads seminars around the world. A former professor of ancient history and philosophy, he is also a bestselling novelist, journalist, and independent scholar. His seven books on dreaming include Dreamgates, The Three “Only” Things, and Conscious Dreaming. He lives in upstate New York.

Dreaming is vital to the human story. It is essential to our survival and evolution, to creative endeavors in every field, and, quite simply, to getting us through our daily lives. All of us dream. Now Robert Moss shows us how dreams have shaped world events and why deepening our conscious engagement with dreaming is crucial for our future. He traces the strands of dreams through archival records and well-known writings, weaving remarkable yet true accounts of historical figures who were influenced by their dreams. In this wide-ranging, visionary book, Moss creates a new way to explore history and consciousness, combining the storytelling skills of a bestselling novelist with the research acumen of a scholar of ancient history and the personal experience of an active dreamer.

Mary Ann Hughes - Library Journal

Moss, the author of several books on dreaming (e.g., The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination), now explores the impact of dreaming and coincidence on history. In the first half of the book, he discusses instances in which seers and dreamers have changed the course of history by gaining otherwise inaccessible information while also considering the history of dream interpretation and the history of dreams as inspiration in medicine and the arts. The book's second half presents the biographies of four remarkable and distinctive dreamers-Joan of Arc, Lucrecia de León (whose dreams predicted the defeat of the Spanish Armada), Mark Twain, and Winston Churchill. While certainly not adhering to the standards of academic history or psychology, the book is captivating, well written, and sure to please the casual reader. For most public libraries.

Introduction Fields of Dreaming

Pt. 1 Secret Engines of History

1 Earth Speakers and Dream Travelers 3

2 Interpreters and Diviners 27

3 Divine Dreaming 51

4 The Angel That Troubles the Waters 83

5 From the Dream Library 101

6 How Dreaming Gets Us Through 123

Pt. 2 Masters of the Three "Only" Things

7 Joan of Arc and the Tree-Seers 145

8 The Beautiful Dream Spy of Madrid 163

9 The Underground Railroad of Dreams 177

10 Mark Twain's Rhyming Life 193

11 The Man Who Blew Things Up 211

12 Winston Churchill's Time Machines 233

Epilogue: The Future History of Dreaming 255

Acknowledgments 271

Notes 273

Bibliography 300

Index 317