Dreamgates An Explorer’s Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death ROBERT MOSS Three Rivers Press/New York Copyright © 1998 by Robert Moss AII rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Three Rivers Press, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022. Member of the Crown Publishing Group. Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland www.randomhouse.com THREE RIVERS PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Crown Publishers Inc. Design by Nancy Singer Several sections of this book, including the “House of Time” exercise in chapter 6 and the “Journey to Sirius B” in chapter 16, are loosely based on material the author recorded for his audio series Dream Gates: A Journey into Active Dreaming. Robert Moss is grateful to the wonderful people at Sounds True for helping him to open the dreamgates for others. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moss, Robert, 1946- Dreamgates : an explorer’s guide to the worlds of soul, imagination, and life beyond death / by Robert Moss. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Dreams. 2. Shamanism. I. Title. BF1091.M79 1998 154.6'3—dc21 97-45984 CIP ISBN 0-609-80216-X 10987654321 First Edition CONTENTS Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: You Are Born to Fly 1 PART I: A Little Course in Dream Travel 9 1. Becoming a Frequent Flier 11 The Dreamworld Is the Real World 11 Open Secrets of the Dreamtime 14 Conditions for Liftoff 19 2. The Gateway of Images 29 Welcome to the Twilight Zone 29 EXERCISE: INTO THE ZONE 32 Games to Play in the Twilight Zone 33 Visual Doorways 38 EXERCISE: STEPPING INTO A PICTURE 39 3. Through the Dreamgates 41 Traveling Through Dream Images 41 EXERCISE: CLIMBING THE SPIRAL STAIR 45 The Journey to the Sea Cave 46 The Body Is in the Mind 51 Journeying Beyond the Body 53 EXERCISE: THE SECOND SELF TECHNIQUE 55 Targeting 57 Counterpart Reality 59 Journeys Beyond the Dreambody ^ v i i i Contents Shared Adventures 61 Dream Dates and Astral Sex 63 4. Wings of the Shaman 65 Healing the Wound Between Earth and Sky 65 At Home with the Spirits 68 The Way of the Shape-Shifter 70 The journey for Animal Guardians ; EXERCISE: THE JOURNEY FOR ANIMAL GUARDIANS 78 Tracking 80 Timefolding 82 5. Paleopsych 101 85 Dreamwork Is Soulcraft 85 The Challenge of Paleopsychology 87 Basics of Paleopsychology 88 The Anatomy of Soul 89 EXERCISE: EXPERIENCING THE ENERGY BODY 93 The Lost Tradition 95 Bilocation and the Dream Double 97 A Brief History of Soul-Flight 99 PART II: Journeying Between the Worlds 105 6. The Otherworld and the Imagination 107 Keys to the Third Kingdom 107 The House of Time 109 EXERCISE: JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF TIME 110 The Teaching Orders 115 Travels with G2 119 7. Journeys of Initiation 128 Personal Rites of Passage 128 The Cave Initiation 131 Contents ix A Personal Journey: Ascent to the Masters 136 Meeting Your Spiritual Guides 138 pr epa r a t io n: clearing a space 139 PATHWORKING: EXPLORING YOUR INNER TEMPLE 139 JOURNEY EXERCISE: ASCENT TO YOUR GUIDE 140 8. Creative Journeys 142 Artists of the Twilight Zone 142 Nine Keys to Creative Flow 144 Bardic Incubation 147 Visiting Your Dream Library 148 EXERCISE: GOING TO YOUR DREAM LIBRARY 149 Invisible Schools 154 9. Healing Journeys 159 Asklepian Dream Healing 159 The Theater of Dream Healing 161 Deer Mountain 164 The Wilding Powers 168 Earthing the Lightning Force 171 Journeys to Recover Lost Soul 172 The Deep End 175 PART ill: A Manual for the Psyc h o pomp 181 10. New Maps of the Afterlife 183 Toward a Modern Art of Dying 183 Scientists of the Afterlife 186 The Death Workshop: Part I 192 194 EXERCISE i: JOURNEY FOR A GUIDE 196 EXERCISE 2.: JOURNEY TO THE DEPARTED 198 EXERCISE 3: JOURNEY TO A RECEPTION CENTER x Contents 11. Sharing the Deathwalk 2.03 When Spirit Takes the Wheel 203 Dreamwork with the Dying Through the Picture 209 Communicating on the Soul Level 210 Shared Meditation: Joining the Light 212 12. Helping the Departed 215 What to Do When You Might Be Dead in Denver 215 Why the Departed Get Stuck 217 Releasing Lost Souls 230 13. Making Death Your Ally 234 The Death Workshop: Part II 234 EXERCISE I: COUNTING THE BONES 235 EXERCISE Z: WEIGHING THE HEART 236 Meeting Your Personal Death 238 PART IV: The Coming of the Mul tidimensional Human 245 14. Soul Remembering 247 Choosing Your Birth 247 Journey to the Source 252 Soul Families 253 Exploring Other-Life Experiences 255 EXERCISE: EXPLORING ANOTHER LIFE EXPERIENCE RELEVANT TO YOU NOW 258 Dialogues with the Higher Self 259 15. Alien Encounters and Spirit Callings 263 Bleedthroughs from Other Dimensions 263 Extraterrestrials or Interdimensionalsf 267 Contents xi Visitors from Hyperspace 271 The Vedic Science of Inter dimensional Travel 273 Scottish Crossings 275 When the Key to the Dreamgate Was Stolen 279 16. Starwalking 281 Dreamgates Are Stargates 281 EXERCISE: IDENTIFYING HIGHER ENTITIES IN YOUR FIELD 283 The Journey to Sirius B 284 Return to the Womb of Life 287 17. The View from the Fifth Dimension 292 5-D Vision 292 The Spiritual Secrets of Manifestation 295 Living by Synchronicity 296 EXERCISE: DREAMWORK WITH EVERYDAY LIFE 299 The Doorkeeper of Dreams in San Francisco 301 Notes 305 Bibliography 327 Resources 341 Index 342 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My students are my teachers. I am deeply indebted to the many adventurers in consciousness who have come to my workshops and Active Dreaming circles in the United States, Australia, and Europe. The journeys we have made together have helped me to develop and refine the techniques explained in this book and have produced many of its best stories. I am grateful to the many dreamers who have written to me to share their experiences in experimenting with the methods explained in my previous book, Conscious Dreaming, and contrib uted some of the stories included here. I am grateful for the companionship, encouragement, and exam ple of many fellow explorers, including Wanda Burch, Jean Camp bell, Chuck and Shirley Coburn, Trish Corbett, Rita Dwyer, Iain Edgar, Marcia and Jim Emery, Naomi Epel, Myron Eshowsky, Allen Flagg, Patricia Garfield, Jane Gignoux, Robert Gongloff, Michael Harner, Ronald Jan and Monique Heijn, Bob Hoss, Sandra Inger- man, Patricia Keeling, Steve and Wewer Keohane, Stanley Krippner, Marta Macbeth, Fred Olsen, Henry Reed, Joanne Rochon, Carlos Smith, Robert and Faye Spencer, Claire Sylvia, Jeremy Taylor, Aad van Ouwerkerk, Timothy White, Alan Worsley, and Ken Wydro. I am grateful to the wonderful people who have provided dream settings for group adventures in Active Dreaming: at the Esalen In stitute, at the Naropa Institute, at Gaia in Berkeley, at Oibibio in xiv Acknowledgments Amsterdam, at the New York Open Center, at Pumpkin Hollow Farm, at Omega, at the New York Theosophical Society, and many other venues. I give special thanks to Rochelle Brener and Cathy Marcellino Squire at the Mandala Center, a sanctuary for soulwork on my present home ground near Albany, New York; and to Lyna Hanley, a marvelously energetic doorkeeper to the Dreaming in Asheville, North Carolina. Eagle feathers for the spirited gang at Sounds True in Boulder, especially Tami Simon, Lisa Fitzpatrick, and Andrew Young. I have been graced with two dream editors, Leslie Meredith and Shaye Areheart, and a dream agent, Stuart Krichevsky. I thank all of them from the heart for helping me to bring my big dreams into man ifestation. Thanks to many others in the Harmony/Crown family for help and support over the past three years, especially Sherri Rifkin, Joanna Burgess, Brian Belfiglio, and the indefatigable Gail Shanks. Bear hugs for the “Defenders of the Dreaming” who have brought me such love and humor and shared adventure, especially Cathy, Sara, Carol, Gloria, Paula, Pat, Joanna, Patrick, Susan, Louise, Lonnie, and Suzanne. Lion purrs for my wife, Marcia, who helps me to join earth and sky, and to my daughters, who share in the limitless adventure and teach me new lessons every day. My greatest debt is to my teachers in the Real World, whose fierce love recalls me to the paths of soul and spirit. Unless we attempt the absurd we cannot achieve the impossible. Albert Einstein All day long I have exciting ideas and thoughts. But I take up in my work only those to which my dreams direct me. C. G.Jung Those who know have wings. Pancavimsa Brahmana INTRODUCTION You Are Born to Fly In its original state, the soul was feathered all over. So now it is all in a state of ferment and throbbing; in fact the soul of a man who is beginning to grow his feathers has the same sensations of pricking and irritation and itching as children feel in their gums when they are just beginning to cut their teeth. Plato, Phaedrus In her dream, Carol is pulling a long drawer out of an immense locker. As the drawer slides out, she realizes it is a safety-deposit box. It is lined with velvet and filled with sparkling jewels—diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds—that reflect and refract the light. The drawer seems endless. As Carol delves deeper, she finds an old book with a blue cover that is written in German.