Robert Moss Interview & more

Dear Friends,
Joining me "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" tonight is special guest, Robert Moss, a gifted raconteur, writer, and dreamer, discussing the "three only things" of dreams, cooincidence and imagination. We will also be talking about his latest publication, " The Secret History of Dreaming", a book that "restores a missing dimension to our understanding of what drives the human adventure: the vital role of dreams and imagination in science and literature, war and religion, medicine and the survival of our kind. History without the inner side is as shallow as history without economics, and as boring as history without sex. This book makes history fun. On the foundation of decades of original scholarly research and synthesis, it eloquently delivers the necessary past: the lessons that can help us create a better future."

After the Interview, the rest of the show will be devoted to musick inspired directly from dreams and visions.

The shows airs live on Thursday, May 28th between 10PM and Midnight EST, at 88.3 FM, WAIF Cincinnati, or online at the following address:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/waif-cincinnati or follow the link from www.waif883.org
From the bio on his website, www.mossdreams.com : Moss describes himself as “a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture.” He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer – a woman of power – and that they were calling him to a different life. Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss’s approach is that dreaming isn’t just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.
Core techniques of Active Dreaming includeThe “lightning dreamwork” process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the “if it were my dream” protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and “symbolic pop-ups” in ordinary life as “everyday oracles”.

Robert will also be giving a talk about his latest book, "The Secret History of Dreaming" at Joseph-Beth on friday June 4th at 7:00PM All of us are living a STORY. What BIG Story is hunting YOU? The Healing Power of Story Workshop When: Sat June 6, 10-5 Sun June 7, 10-4If we fail to define ourselves, we let ourselves be defined by others.

All of us are living a story. If we don’t know what it is, it’s likely to be a little, limiting story, woven from past disappointments, stitched tight by people forever telling us who we are, what we can and cannot accomplish.Great healing becomes available when we draw on the immense energy generated by serving a larger purpose. We gain courage and stamina to get through the ups & downs of daily life, aware that we’re acting in a deeper drama. Australian Aborigines say that the BIG stories are hunting the right people to tell them, like predators stalking in the bush. The trick is to put ourselves in a place where the BIG stories can find us. In this weekend of creative play, we’ll let the BIG stories hunt us, and learn to embody their power and healing in our lives.We’ll explore and perform some of the BIG stories from myth and literature...*The Japanese story of the sun goddess who hid her light because she was abused, and how she was coaxed back...*The Gnostic story of the forgetful envoy sent into this world on a vital mission, but forgot what it was...*Dante’s story of how we approach our truest life teacher by knocking on the heart.From dreams and shared journeys, spontaneous theatre and entertainments, we’ll harvest personal stories, charged with energy and meaning, becoming the authors of our own life scripts!When: Sat June 6, 10-5 Sun June 7, 10-4 Where: Writing for (a) Change 6906 Plainfield Rd. Cin, Oh 45236How: Write check to “Robert Moss.” Mail to Robin O’Neal 1 Osprey Ln Cin OH 45246Cost: $225 before 5/15/09; $275 after. TO REGISTER: Contact Robin 513.659.3356or roknrobinwrites@mac.com

Media Squat

"President Obama may be smarter than most of us, but he’s still attempting to rescue the very institutions that robbed us in the first place. He’s not a socialist, as conservatives may be arguing, but he is a corporatist. Using future tax dollars to fund government job programs is one thing. Using future tax dollars to give banks more money to lend out at interest is robbing from the poor to pay the rich to rob from the poor." -Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas has a new radio show/podcast on one of my favorite stations of all time, Jersey's WFMU... check out Media Squat here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/RK
This sentence is a link to the whole article the quote is taken from.

Writers of the Future, Honorable Mention

My novelette, "Trepanning for Gold" received an Honorable Mention in the 1st quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. Congratulations to those who won in each respective category, and to all the others who made the Honorable Mention list. We'll keep on keeping on. Write, write, revise, edit, rewrite and write some more.
For those whom don't know, Writers of the Future is a great contest, run in quarters (winners drawn from each quarter, all winners printed in the book each year). If you write Science Fiction or Fantasy you should really consider entering this contest. There is a parallel contest for illustrators. This contest has been a gateway for many entering the publishing world.

Systems Failure

I saw the cover of the Cincinnati Enquirer today at the coffee shop. "Our System Has Failed Us". It should have read "Our Systems". Plural, with an S. If the human race got a report card, like I did in the dream I had last night, it would be studded with F's and D minuses. Sure, their might be a few C's where we are just muddling along, maybe even a B. An A might represent those stunning achievements of our geniuses and cultural innovators. If the assesment was for a midterm, the notes at the bottom would read, "unless drastic measures are taken, by the end of the quarter, Cultural Fugue will certainly have been entered."
Cultural Fugue is a term coined by Samuel R. Delany, a writer of, and critical thinker on, Science Fiction. It comes from his book "Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand." It is sort of a combination of toxic ills, uncontrolled pollution and toxic waste, and nuclear war all propelled by socio-economic stress. When a planet enters Cultural Fugue their might be no turning back. In Delany's own words it is when "socioeconomic pressures reach a point of technological recomplication and perturbation where the population completely destroys all life across the planetary surface." Sometimes it can be averted. Often times it is not. Luckily, for those planets, they exist only in a world of fiction.
So what to do in this time of planetary crisis in all systems, economic, education, environment?Our judicial systems crumble and health care is a farce. Can we halt the claws of entropy before several arteries are sliced?
I believe so. But to do it we need to dip our hands into the realm of magick and dreams, bring back the gifts present there.
A study of history shows that humanity has always been ushered along by contact with extra dimensional beings, angels, fairy folk and the like. This will be the subject of my next post.

Kim Stanley Robinson

"Does the word postcapitalism look odd to you? It should, because you hardly ever see it. We have a blank spot in our vision of the future. Perhaps we think that history has somehow gone away. In fact, history is with us now more than ever, because we are at a crux in the human story. Choosing not to study a successor system to capitalism is an example of another kind of denial, an ostrich failure on the part of the field of economics and of business schools, I think, but it’s really all of us together, a social aporia or fear. We have persistently ignored and devalued the future—as if our actions are not creating that future for our children, as if things never change. But everything evolves. With a catastrophe bearing down on us, we need to evolve at nearly revolutionary speed. So some study of what could improve and replace our society’s current structure and systems is in order. If we don’t take such steps, the consequences will be intolerable. On the other hand, successfully dealing with this situation could lead to a sustainable civilization that would be truly exciting in its human potential" -Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim is one of my favorite science fiction writers and a leading environmental thinker. Do yourself a favor and read this quick article by him... and pick up one of his books. My favorites are the "Three California's" series (The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge) and his Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). He is a fascinating, thought provoking writer.

H**ster Haiku

Went to the Tavern
make a lot of money,
still bought PBR

Friends: Tune in to On the Way to the Peak of Monster this evening, presented by Dr. Sydosky on 88.3 FM, Cincinnati, between the hours of 10PM and Midnight, February 26th. Dr. Sydosky will be sharing his life long obsession with all things monstrous. You, as a listener, will become the guinea pigs in his depraved experiments. Mad science takes over the airwaves! Tonight! ...and with the possibility of a thunder storm, the creation of new life...