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Growing Big Dreams, by Robert Moss

Growing Big Dreams: Manifesting Your Heart’s Desires Through Twelve Secrets of the Imagination, by Robert Moss
New World Library, 1608687046, 344 pages, September 2020

What does it mean to truly live out your dreams? For some, it may feel like the idea of manifestation has been co-opted by positive thinking gurus teaching how to harness control of your mind to direct it very specifically toward an intent. But what if the real secret to manifestation is not within your conscious mind, but your dreaming one? In Growing Big Dreams: Manifesting Your Heart’s Desires Through Twelve Secrets of the Imagination, Robert Moss teaches how to use time honored techniques to enhance your life through dreams and imagination.

Moss provides twelve insights that reveal the power of dreams and teaches how combined with imagination these dream techniques can guide one to living their soul’s callings. This mixture of shamanic journeying, depth psychology, story-telling, creative exploration, and dream-weaving is a wonderful tapestry to explore one’s own bigger story in life. By bridging the mythic and mundane, a doorway opens up to explore the deeper callings and potential for our lives, most often revealed through dreams and the imagination.

Before delving into my review, I must confess, I am a huge fan of Robert Moss. His work has been deeply influential on my dream practice, and I’ve read quite a few of his books, as well as taken an online course through the Shift Network led by him. Some of his most notable books are Active Dreaming, Dreaming the Soul Back Home, and The Secret History of Dreaming. I also have previously reviewed his book published in 2018, Mysterious Realities. He is an incredible storyteller, teacher, and dreamer.

However, despite my familiarity with Moss’s work, I still gained so much from Growing Big Dreams that was original, unique, and impactful. The entire process of reading this book felt like the gateways to my creativity where being flung open, allowing streams of insight to flow in and shift my perspective. There’s three things I especially love about the way the book is written that I want to focus on because I feel they really highlight what stands out about this book in particular.

The first is the many, many stories Moss provides to give examples of what he’s writing about. Since he’s been actively practicing and teaching dreamwork for decades now, he’s filled to the brim with stories to tell, and he perfectly blends his wisdom with an anecdote to show the reader how the principle can manifest or be applicable in their own life.

There were stories of recovering illness through dreams, discovering personal power, transferring dreams to another for healing, and reconnecting with parts of oneself that have been previously split off. Every chapter has a reflection on a workshop taught or story from one of his students who used the technique successfully, and it makes me confident as a reader that I too can connect with my dreams and imagination for healing and personal growth.

The second is that the whole book is filled with mythology, stories, and wisdom from tons of cultures. Quite literally spanning the globe, there is immense diversity in Moss’s approach to dreamwork. Moss discusses his experience of connecting with an indigenous medicine woman when he purchases land in New York. He also delves into the mythology of many pantheons, especially the Greek pantheon with the myth of Persephone. There’s a really intriguing story of his connection with Yemaya during a workshop in South America. Additionally, there’s stories of working with ancestors, animal guides, and gatekeepers.

Also referenced often are the insights of people, such as Barbara Hand Clow, Dion Fortune, and David Bohm. Moss draws from physics, psychology, religion, and more to bring together a comprehensive method of manifestation unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I especially enjoyed reading about Henry Corbin, who translated the works of Islamic mystics Alam al-Khayal and Alam al-Mithal, and who wrote on the Mundus Imaginalis (imaginal realm).

“It is a region of mind between the world of time and the world of eternity. In this realm human imagination meets intelligence from higher realities, and they co-construct places of healing, instruction, and initiation. Here ideas and powers beyond the grasp of the ordinary human mind — call them archetypes or Platonic forms — take on guises humans can begin to perceive and understand.”1

But here’s the third thing that makes this book so epic: Moss doesn’t just write about this stuff and leave you with no map, he provides exercises and practices so the reader too can explore. It took me quite a while to make my way through this book because I kept wanting to try all the exercises, while also giving myself the time to integrate them without just rushing onto the next section in excitement.

Some of the ones I tried were Journey to the Cave of Mama Bear, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Visit Your Dream Cinema, Journey to the Blue Lake of Healing, Bring Hummingbird into Your Heart, Who is Persphone to You?, Through Blue Fire, Step into a Picture, Journey to the Island of Your Heart’s Desire, and Gift a Power Animal.

My dream journal is packed after making my way through this book! And Moss did not hold back at all. It’s like he took all his techniques, exercises, and tools he’d used with participants in his workshops and classes and wrote it all out for the reader to do at home. Within this book, there is SO much to explore and infinite possibility through the portals of dreams and imagination.

With each exercise I tried, I feel like I found a new piece of myself. The entire time of reading Growing Big Dreams, along with doing the dreamwork and imaginal journeying, felt immensely creative. I certainly feel more attuned to what my soul is yearning for, and like I now have the toolkit to bring about these inner dreams to life in the physical world. 

This is the type of manifestation that I feel everyone should be practicing, as it connects us to ourselves, the energies present in the world (mythic, archetypal, nature, animals, spirits), and assists us in re-envisioning what’s possible for our life. I certainly felt my personal story expanding into something larger, a part of a much greater whole.

All in all, I recommend Growing Big Dreams to everyone interested in dreamwork or simply discovering a new pathway for healing and growth.  Once again, Moss has hit the ball right out of the park. I greatly appreciate all the wisdom he shares with readers as a teacher, mentor, and guide. If you are interested in learning more about dreamwork, I think this book is a wonderful place to get started for beginners. Though, experienced practitioners are certain to benefit as well from the techniques shared by Moss.

There’s many benefits to attuning ourselves to the wisdom of dreams and imagination, from boosting creativity to nurturing childhood wounds. The ample possibilities that open up when we begin actively engaging with our dream life is absolutely incredible, and it might be just what our world needs most at this time.

Dreams, by Mary Phelan

Dreams: Exploring uncharted depths of consciousness, by Mary Phelan
Mandrake of Oxford, 1906958985, 240 pages, November 2020

I decided to read Dreams: Exploring uncharted depths of consciousness by Mary Phelan because I’m in the midst of an 8-week course with Robert Moss, a pioneer writer in the field of dreams, and am finding myself seeking other perspectives to supplement what I’m learning. I figured Phelan, who has documented all her dreams for 11 years, might have the insider perspective I was seeking! Reading Dreams, it became very evident that her dedication to analyzing her dreams has yielded impactful information that has assisted her in navigating life’s twists and turns. Luckily, this book offers methodologies for readers to effectively understand the messages of their dreams and the great wisdom they hold for us. It was a wonderful complement to the exercises, activities, and dream-timing I am doing these days.

What stands out most about the content of Dreams is the way Phelan recounts her personal experiences to assist the reader with making their own connections to their internal world. Discussing the content of dreams isn’t alway easy, as it calls for a different type of thinking: the mythic, poetic, and creative side of our brain. Phelan helps the reader to get into this state of mind by referring to the great works of Shakespeare and other artists to awaken this mindset for us. She also refers to the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to illuminate the connection between our subconscious and conscious mind. There is quite a bit of focus on the concept of archetypes and the individuation process, especially as it pertains to fairy tales.

Drawing on examples of ingenuity that were prompted by dreams, such as the invention of the sewing machine, Phelan asserts that success in life comes to those who nurture their ability to discern the subtle prompts of their subconscious. A dream isn’t simply random images that appear in your slumber, it’s a jam-packed reel of scenes, feelings, encounters that when examined can lead to revelations about your waking life. Phelan devotes a good portion of the book to describing imagery, settings, and relationships that occur in dreams to explain their web of possible meanings. She has a wealth of experience to share about how she would interpret a dream and, as a result, was able to capitalize on something in her waking life.

A strong sentiment that Phelan conveys in the book is that one must take action in order for this process of working with dreams to be effective. Yes, most people naturally dream every night, but there’s a whole slew of ways to improve one’s ability to have dreams and successfully recall them. Some examples are getting enough sleep, not eating or exercising too close to bedtime, having an evening routine. It is also vital for one to put in the effort of tracking their dreams, both big and small, in order to be able to track on-going patterns. One way she suggests doing this is by having a dream notebook.

Then the most important step follows: taking action on what the dreams reveal! As much as you are prompted and prodded in your dreams, nothing will actually change or manifest without acting on the knowledge that has come through the dreams. I enjoy this reminder because sometimes I do not take the time to reflect on my dreams, especially on a busy morning. By taking the time to slow down and create an intentional practice, I have already started to be more aware of the content of my dreams and piece together the bits of information I receive while asleep.

The other point Phelan repeatedly brings up in the book, truly more of a warning than assertion, is about keeping one’s dreams secret and only revealing them to a trusted few. I was intrigued by this because I’d never heard any other dream practitioner offer this caution to the dreamer. From what I’ve studied, in certain cultures, such as the Australian Aboriginal, discussing dreams is part of the social bonding. Families will discuss dreams every morning to piece together the information they are receiving to assist the community as a whole by connecting the dots to see a bigger picture, or sometimes messages are sent through the dreamer to share a message with a relative or friend. 1

However, Phelan takes the approach that because dreams contain such sensitive subconscious information, one must be careful who they are shared with. Before sharing your dreams with another, it is worth reflecting on how much of your personal life you are comfortable with this person knowing, and whether they are truly someone you can trust to hold space and respect the content of your dreams. Furthermore, Phelan brings up a wonderful point about how speaking your dreams too soon – before you’ve fully figured out their meaning – can make them confounded with someone else’s interpretation. Above all, Dreams helps the reader to value their own ability to decode the messages of their dreams and respect just how valuable the insight contained within them can be. Thanks to Phelan’s insight, I now can respect and value the aspect of silence regarding dreams and hope to better sense when it is appropriate to share and when it is not.

My only reservation about this book is that at times it can feel a bit scattered. Phelan has packed in so many topics, ranging from the science behind why we dream to the effectiveness of dream catchers to an analysis of the story “Aladdin” that it becomes hard to fully follow along with ease. Sometimes it felt like the book was here, there, and everywhere, with very abrupt transitions from one focus to the next. This may be because I prefer to go deeper into one topic, rather than explore a variety of topics quickly. For instance, there’s a chapter titled “Cosmic Dreams,” which delves into astrology, astral bodies, and aliens, that is followed by “Sleep Disorders and Nightmares,” which describes the phenomenon of sleep paralysis and other sleep disorders. The smorgasbord of it all can feel a bit overwhelming when not in the right headspace to be integrating so much knowledge at once. For those who like to move slowly and really dive into a subject, this book may be too much to handle.

Additionally, although Dreams is meant to empower readers to discern their own meaning of dreams, Phelan shares a lot of personal examples about how she’s interpreted things and not as much insight on how someone can do this for themselves. The amount of archetypal explanations of possible meanings for situations, scenes, and objects in dream described in the book seems like it could steer a reader away from figuring out their own interpretation. I hope new readers are able to use her personal experience as a model without resorting to it in order to draw upon her pre-made associations to interpret their dreams. There is a chart at the end with all types of objects, places, and situations that may appear in one’s dreams. While this tool may be a good starting place, it also seems contradictory to Phelan’s advice to figure out your own personal interpretations because every symbol will have its own meaning based on your personal experience and mindset.

Overall, Dreams: Exploring uncharted depths of consciousness is a candid depiction of Phelan’s journey and process of working with dreams that is a suitable read for beginner or advanced dreamers. It is well-sourced and packed with scientific data, psychology knowledge, and personal experience that offers a strong framework for someone who is seeking to develop their own practice of working with dreams. Phelan effectively conveys how this work can be used for deepening one’s self-knowledge and empowering oneself by getting in touch with the internal guidance of dreams. If you want an overview of all the different facets of dream exploration, this is a good choice because it spans many topics in an introductory fashion that will help you get started in doing your own dream analysis.