*THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* What is a dream? Why do we dream? How do our bodies and minds use dreams? These questions are the starting point for this unprecedented, astonishing study of the role and significance of dreams, from the beginning of human history. An investigation on the grand scale, encompassing literature, anthropology, religion, and science, it articulates the essential place dreams occupy in human culture, and how they functioned as the catalyst that compelled us to transform our earthly habitat into a human world. From the earliest cave paintings - where the author finds a key to humankind's first dreams, which contributed to our capacity to perceive past and future - to cutting-edge scientific research, Ribeiro arrives at startling and revolutionary conclusions about the role of dreams in human existence and evolution. He explores the advances that contemporary neuroscience, biochemistry and psychology have made into the connections between sleep, dreams, and learning, before revealing what dreams have taught us about the neural basis of memory and the transformation of memory in recall. And he makes clear that the earliest insight into dreams as oracular has been confirmed by contemporary research. Accessible, authoritative, and fascinating from first to last, The Oracle of Night gives us a wholly new way to understand this most basic of human experiences.

This practical handbook provides a complete program of study and practice for every student to awaken consciousness in the Internal Worlds: those dimensions we all visit each night, but only faintly remember, if at all. "The aspirant tries to be conscious of his own dream; hence, he becomes a spectator and actor of a dream with the advantage of being able to abandon the scene at will in order to move freely in the Astral World. "Then the aspirant, free of the limitations of the flesh, outside the physical body, will have discarded his old familiar environment and penetrated a universe ruled by different laws. "The discipline of the dream state of Tantric Buddhists methodically leads us to the awakening of our consciousness." By the application of the techniques provided herein, any sincere person can achieve the awakening of the consciousness, and thereby come to know the truth of the mysteries that exist beyond the reach of our physical senses.

"An ideal bedside book"
'Sunday Times'

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRETS OF YOUR DREAMS?

You remember them, talk about them, worry about them, but how much do you actually know about them? Dreams are an important part of your life, and now this handy dictionary can help lead you through the maze of your psyche. Organised from A-Z, this accessible guide will let you know whether you are due a run of luck, or whether it would be better to just stay in bed!

"A practical, comprehensive guide"
'Cosmopolitan'

"Marvellously comprehensive"
'Daily Express'

"Addictive bedtime reading"
'Daily Telegraph'

This book contains a truly remarkable breakthrough in reaching the inner voice. Even more importantly, the system has within it the ability to have this inner wisdom address an issue on demand. You can now pose a question and have it answered overnight! The mysteries of life and the best course for us to take through it are usually better understood within our sub-conscious mind. Now there is an opportunity to access this wisdom directly and be sure that the advice received is nothing but the best and entirely positive.

We all have dreams, but what do they mean? Your dreams hold the secrets of your unconscious thoughts and understanding their hidden meaning can guide you in your daily life. The author analyses people's dreams, most of them common ones, and shows how to interpret their meaning and decipher the messages they are sending. This book will encourage you to work with your dreams in order to reach a deeper understanding of what is happening in your life and to make sense of the seemingly random material deriving from the unconscious. There are dreams relating to pop stars, relationships, sex, dead people, horror, animals, being improperly dressed, teeth falling out, the apocalypse, holidays, the Leaving Cert, flying and more. 'Makes for fascinating reading' Sunday Independent

The broad scope of the dream material analyzed in this book allows the authors to touch upon many subjects associated with the nature of the psyche, not only those relevant to pregnant women. The careful interpretation of the amplificatory material drawn from a wide range of cultures also makes this an inspiring aid for the understanding of dreams, valuable to psychologists, doctors, midwives or anyone else interested in this human subject.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. Have you ever dreamt you were naked on stage, or woken having failed an exam? In these fascinating, pioneering essays, Sigmund Freud plunges into the recesses of our minds, and awakens the hidden meanings behind our most typical and surprising night-time fantasies. From dreams of violence and death, to the more prosaic moments in our dream-life, Freud shines a light on the darkness we are often happy left consigned to night. Selected from the books The Essentials of Psycho-Analysis and The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of the Sigmund Freud, Volume IV: The Interpretation of Dreams (First Part) by Sigmund Freud

Introducing a unique 9-step approach to understanding dreams, Robert Moss shows how to use your dreams to understand your past, shape your future, get in touch with your deepest desires and be guided by your higher self. He explains how to apply shamanic methods, most notably from Australian Aboriginal and Native American traditions, to any and all practical and spiritual challenges. Moss's approach is easy, effective and entertaining, animated by the skilful retelling of his own dreams and those of his students - and their often dramatic insights and outcomes. According to Moss, some shamans believe that nothing occurs in ordinary reality unless it has been dreamed first. In the dreamscape, we not only glimpse future events but can also develop our ability to choose more carefully between possible futures. CONCIOUS DREAMING'S innovative methods of dream-catching and transpersonal interpretation, of dream re-entry and of keeping a dream journal enable the reader to tap into the deepest sources of creativity and intuition - and make better choices in the critical passages of life.

Apuleius' "Metamorphoses" is probably best known as the literary source for the myth of Eros and Psyche and as a primary source of information about mystery religions in the ancient world.

There is another realm of the "Metamorphoses" which has, until now, received relatively little attention -- namely, the many dreams found within it. "The Religious Dreamworld of Apuleius'" Metamorphoses offers an engaging portrait of the second-century dreamworld. Recognizing the centrality of the religious function and spiritual interpretation of dreams, this book illustrates their vital importance in the ancient world and the wide variety of meanings attributed to them.

James Gollnick draws deeply from historical and psychological studies and provides a historical background on the current interest in the role of dreams in psychological and spiritual transformation.

This study of Apuleius' "Metamorphoses" adds to an appreciation of Apuleius the dreamer and the second-century dreamworld in which he lived and wrote.

Stop wondering what your dreams and visions mean - and start living the meanings!

The Divinity Code to Understanding your Dreams and Visions is a Bible-based guide to dream interpretation that reveals the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

With this set of Master keys, you can unlock the unseen realm! Led by the Holy Spirit, you can manifest God’s Kingdom on earth through Jesus Christ by knowing what your dreams and visions mean.

The Divinity Code to Understanding your Dreams and Visions contains:

• The most extensive Christian dream dictionary on the market (with Scripture support).
• An important dictionary of names and places.
• A critical chapter on counterfeit interpretations by the occult.
• 101 interpreted dreams providing credible evidence.
• A fascinating metaphor dictionary.

Anyone who has felt the grief of a loved one's passing knows that it takes considerable time for healing. When the beloved returns in a dream, it has a profound effect on our emotional well being. We wake knowing the person we love is still present, still available to us. The dreams reassure us that we, too, will survive the inevitability of death. The stories in this book are all true. Many are dreams of loved ones who returned to the dreamer days, months, or even years after death.

Dreams have fascinated us for centuries. Where do the images come from? What makes dreams so complex? Why are the feelings so powerful? This book examines the psychology of dreams, including the work of Freud and Jung, and how modern sleep research and dream therapy have illuminated why we dream at all. The second part of the book is a lexicon that will help you to interpret your own dreams. This compelling illustrated guide, with over 600 beautiful and intriguing images, celebrates dreams as an important part of the human experience, translating the surreal conjurings of our dreamlife into enlightening insights into our own psyche.

Invoking Mnemosyne--Greek goddess of memory and eloquence, daughter of Heaven and Earth, mother of the Muses, and archetypal deity of the Asklepion dream temple tradition--this book initiates you into full dream consciousness, offering a lucid-dreaming ritual experience in the spirit of the Mystery Schools of antiquity. Explaining how a conscious dream life is essential for self-discovery, deep integration, and healing, lucid-dreaming instructor Sarah Janes presents exercises, techniques, and initiations to help you explore the inner depths of your psyche. These realms, accessible through dreams, can help you to form a better understanding of who you are. Sharing her more than a decade of research on Sleep Temples and Mystery Schools of the Esoteric Tradition, Sarah explores the evolution of imagination, memory, and consciousness throughout the ages and proposes that dreams have been fundamental in the creation and development of culture. Dreams play an important role in ancestor worship, afterlife beliefs, animism, religion, and wisdom traditions. Sarah reveals how dreams offer us an opportunity to remember and directly experience our divinity, to transcend the limitations of our mortality and enter timeless, imaginal realms. Employing the power of story to affect the mind and lay down new neural pathways--as if one were really living the story--Sarah begins each initiatory chapter with a psychodramatic narrative. Using symbolism and powerful imagery, these stories help you generate the perfect dreams for each stage in the initiation. And by becoming a better dreamer, you can make better, more aware decisions in your waking life.

Dream interpretation was a prominent feature of the intellectual and imaginative world of late antiquity, for martyrs and magicians, philosophers and theologians, polytheists and monotheists alike. Finding it difficult to account for the prevalence of dream-divination, modern scholarship has often condemned it as a cultural weakness, a mass lapse into mere superstition. In this book, Patricia Cox Miller draws on pagan, Jewish, and Christian sources and modern semiotic theory to demonstrate the integral importance of dreams in late-antique thought and life. She argues that Graeco-Roman dream literature functioned as a language of signs that formed a personal and cultural pattern of imagination and gave tangible substance to ideas such as time, cosmic history, and the self.

Miller first discusses late-antique theories of dreaming, with emphasis on theological, philosophical, and hermeneutical methods of deciphering dreams as well as the practical uses of dreams, especially in magic and the cult of Asclepius. She then considers the cases of six Graeco-Roman dreamers: Hermas, Perpetua, Aelius Aristides, Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianus. Her detailed readings illuminate the ways in which dreams provided solutions to ethical and religious problems, allowed for the reconfiguration of gender and identity, provided occasions for the articulation of ethical ideas, and altogether served as a means of making sense and order of the world.

We have puzzled over dreams for centuries. From ancient societies, believing dreams to be messages from the gods, Freud's theory of dreams revealing our unconscious minds to modern day experiments in psychology and neuroscience, dreams continue to fascinate but also be a source of mystery. Are dreams just mental froth or do they have a purpose? This book argues that, originally, we dreamed to survive. Dreaming brains identify non-obvious associations, taking people, places, and events out of their waking-life context to uncover complex and, seemingly, unrelated connections. In our evolutionary past, survival depended on being able to detect these divergent, associative patterns to anticipate what predators and other humans might do, as we moved around to secure food and water and meet potential mates. Making associations drives many, if not all, brain functions. In the present day, dream associations may support memory, emotional stability, creativity, unconscious decision-making and prediction, while also contributing to mental illness. Written in a lively and accessible style, and showing the reader how to identify patterns in their own dreams, this book presents a highly original theory of dreaming and will be a compelling read for anyone interested in psychology, consciousness, and the arts, as well as those involved in dream research.