"Though dreams are often described as passive and entirely personal (i.e. subjective) experiences, dreaming can also be a highly active undertaking, in two important senses:

As active dreamers, we travel consciously and intentionally into the dreamspace for healing, initiation and adventure. The royal road for this type of Active Dreaming opens through the gateway of remembered dreams and visions which we proceed to reenter (or borrow, with permission, from fellow-dreamers)

As dream advocates and dream teachers, we work actively to open a space for people in all walks of life to share and honor their dreams and grow dreams for the good of the community

Similarly, while we recognize that dreams may indeed be deeply personal, we observe that dreaming can be quite transpersonal as well. Dreaming, we encounter a host of beings and entities who are more than simply aspects of our personal unconscious (though we may all be related in the great web of multidimensional life).

 

Active dreamers know that dreaming is a path of limitless adventure. Active Dreaming is not only about understanding sleep experiences (though we greatly prize the spontaneous dreams that come uninvited, showing us what we need to know). As active dreamers, we work with the whole spectrum of dreaming and visionary experience, including attending to the symbols and synchronicities of waking life – which will speak to us in the manner of dreams if we only pay attention.

In our practice, we marry the best of modern dreamwork techniques – above all the recognition that the only “expert” on dreams is the dreamer him/herself – to powerful shamanic techniques for shifting consciousness and embarking on conscious dream journeys.

 

Dreaming is daily practice. Active Dreaming is a discipline, to be studied and practiced on many levels. The core techniques have emerged from my personal practice and teaching over several decades. They include:

The Lightning Dreamwork process, which enables people to tell their dreams, receive helpful and non-intrusive feedback and embark on appropriate action in a minimal amount of time in everyday environments.

 

Dream Reentry – conscious dream travel through the gateway of a dream image

Tracking – entering another person’s dreamspace (with permission) to bring back information or support healing and resolution

The art of dream travel – journeying smoothly beyond the body into other times and other dimensions

Shared dreaming and group dream travel(grand adventures that provide mutual validation and scientific evidence of the objective reality of other dimensions)

 

Timefolding – journeying into the possible future and into past or future life experiences

The practice of dream healing on many levels, from using dreams for diagnosis and as sources of imagery for self-healing to conscious journeying into the dreamspace to help shift the energy system in the direction of health

 

Soul Recovery - using dreams to identify where a part of our energy and identity may have been lost through past trauma, and journeying into the dreamspace to bring it home

Writing as a state of conscious dreaming

Spontaneous dream theatre (the pinnacle of improve!)

Navigating by synchronicity – the dreamer’s way of operating in everyday life

The Dream Transfer technique, a powerful way of bringing healing imagery to those in need of a dream.

Dreamwork to help the dying to make their transition with grace.

Dream enactment – developing personal rituals, performance, spontaneous art and life strategies to celebrate the powers that speak to us in dreams

To create a dreaming society – where dreams will be cherished and honored everywhere – we will need many dream teachers, whose commitment comes from the heart and who can advise others, with the experience of frequent flyers, on the conditions and possibilities of the dreamworlds.

 

If we go forward in the clear understanding that dreaming is a discipline (as well as the source of limitless creative fun), demonstrate that by our personal example, and help open people to the gifts of Active Dreaming by talking to them in their own language and adapting our techniques and styles to different environments and comfort levels, we can midwife extraordinary positive changes in our world, in our time."

 

Robert Moss, The Practice of Active Dreaming: A Manual for Dream Teachers