Robert Moss is a dream educator. He has written several books about the power of dreams and the keys to their understanding. I took a workshop with Robert a number of years ago and read some of his books and the big “take home” for me was the fact that dreams are universal.
In a workshop with Robert, when a participant shares a dream experience, others in the room will speak about their reaction to it. Comments are always prefaced with these words, “If this were MY dream, and it is…”
My understanding of “mind” is that it is multi-faced and multi-layered. Within the first layer, the facets of Mind contain all aspects of “me” including all of the ages I have been and all the personalities I invoke for the various “hats” I wear or have worn. I am daughter, sister, adventurer, mother, wife, friend, partner, lover, grandmother, teacher, therapist, artist, contractor, musician, poet, yogi, writer, entrepreneur, heterosexual, assistant, laborer, hiker, photographer, dancer, painter, singer, gardener, meditator, seamstress, animal lover, traveler, camper, taxi driver, spiritual seeker…and the list goes on and on.
In the second layer, past lives are remembered. The list of all the aspects of “me” gets much longer. It now include both genders, different races, all sexual orientations, cultures, and an endless list of political, professional and personal positions and occupations.
The third layer of Mind is Universal Mind. Universal Mind is the over-riding aspect of Mind linked into the matrix of all minds, everywhere, beyond the constrictions of time and space. Sometimes referred to as the Akashic Records, Universal Mind is also called the All Knowing, the Non-Conscious, Soul-Ray, and Spirit.
When Robert Moss says, “If this were my dream, and it is…” he speaks to the belief that a dream has its origins in Universal Mind, filtering down through the layers of Mind that become more and more specific to the dreamer until it arrives in their personal conscious waking mind.
Yesterday a friend called to chat. He told me the story of, as he put it, an “epic” dream he recently had. An “epic” dream is one that feels profoundly significant. There is a knowing within the dreamer that says, “This is a dream worthy of my attention.” Mind, in all its Universal Wisdom, is sending me a message about my life, my path, my future. The “All Knowing” is coming through my dream to be helpful and supportive. It is my job to listen.
Some dreams are quite confusing to “little mind.” The symbolic, metaphoric nature of dreams can present a challenge to the dreamer as we attempt to make meaning of what may appear at first glance to have none. I have learned to “open my lens” very wide when I listen to dreams. I “view” the dream as if it were a movie and as I rest back in my seat and allow the dream to come to me visually, the context and meaning often appear beyond the details of the dream.
This is what happened as I listened to the telling of my friend’s dream. As he spoke the opening sentence I was immediately transported into the dream and it became mine…
Scene one: I am packing for a trip with some other people including my ex-husband who is perilously late in getting his things packed up and loaded. I finish packing before him in a chaotic, unorganized way, throwing in some last-minute items and leaving some things behind which seemed unimportant. I feel kind of bad that Jim is so behind and will probably not get his things together in time to bring them along on the trip.
Scene two: I am riding on the front row of a big greyhound-type bus and we have stopped to take a rest break. I don’t know why, perhaps impatience, but I am compelled to get in the driver’s seat and take over driving the bus! There is a sense of necessity to this, something like, “I must get us over a hump or somehow turned around and then everything will be okay and I can release the driving duties.”
The first order of business is to turn the bus around and head in the opposite direction. I feel confident to pull this off; it appears to be easy enough at first. It looks as if there is room enough to maneuver the bus and pull a “Y” turn on the narrow dirt road we are on. I soon discover the brakes are not working well. They slow the bus but don’t bring it to a complete stop. Unable to stop, I can’t achieve the “Y” turn as planned and my only alternative is to continue forward.
The path ahead is a maze of small, constricted dirt roads. I am uncertain of the turns to take not knowing which are through-roads and which are dead-ends or may lead me to “god-knows-where!” The road gets more and more difficult and I am forced up a narrow, steep hill. I hear something and look back to see the trailer, hitched to the back of the bus with all our baggage on it, has come loose and is crashing down a hillside. From here things go from bad to worse. The bus, without brakes, is now off the edge of the road, teetering over a steep precipice.
At this moment I leave my body and “rise above” the bus. Looking down I realize the situation is hopeless and I must “jump ship” escaping with my life, as the bus goes over the cliff.
Just then I “wake up” within the dream and find myself back in my seat in the bus. Before me is a “conductor” who is obviously in charge of “bus operations” and knows all that is going on. He begins explaining to me that I am now in a “rehabilitation” process so I can “normalize” and proceed with my trip. He explains that the first thing needed is for the bus system, which is incredibly sophisticated and beyond my comprehension, to “reconfigure my nervous system and calm it down.” There is, he explained, a “red alert” going on inside me, which has completely thrown off my functioning. The bus has a mechanism built into it to correct and reset my nervous system. I need to simply sit still and allow it and everything will be alright.
I feel shocked and amazed and very humbled to see how very small I am in relation to this highly sophisticated vehicle I am being carried in. There is a feeling of deep letting go and surrender, along with a bit of foolishness and humiliation, but mostly a substantial amount of relief. I trust the process of this reconfiguration in my nervous system and wholly welcome it even though my mind and rational thought processes are in complete disarray and overwhelm.
In a state of awe, I think back to all that had taken place, beginning with the extreme imbalance of my nervous system which led me to taking over control of the bus, driving things into utter disaster. I puzzle at the fact that although the bus is an incredibly sophisticated, highly technical piece of equipment, its brakes had failed!
I feel humble as I contemplate the enormous lessons. It is so important to remain in a calm, balanced surrendered state as I allow a far more sophisticated, intelligent mechanism to drive and control the bus. When I do that, everything is alright. If on the other hand, I allow myself to get uptight, afraid and filled with doubt, I send my nervous system into “red alert.” Fearing that I will not get where I need to go, I insist on taking the wheel and driving the bus, and as I have seen, this does not go well.
My “take home” is to be strong and resolute as I remain on task, stay on board, and rest back relaxed and confident, marveling at the beauty, power and sophistication of the bus. Allowing the bus to be driven by higher forces, I will ultimately be safely taken to my destination.
Related articles
- The Way of the Dreamer with Robert Moss (2005) (lucidreamblog.wordpress.com)
- Robert Moss On How To Use Active Dreaming (disinfo.com)
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