tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post6204354410139160355..comments2024-03-24T17:49:05.886-04:00Comments on The Robert Moss BLOG: The Other, AgainMarcia Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04530003059608361331noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-57708007764967917782010-08-05T17:54:57.895-04:002010-08-05T17:54:57.895-04:00Hello Robert,
Thank you for linking to this story...Hello Robert,<br /><br />Thank you for linking to this story of meeting Your Other Self. <br /><br />I can't say that I have met my other self, younger or older, but I have had 3 or 4 lives before meeting you in Duvall in February. (I, too, continually am forced by my own soul is my best explanation, to define myself anew.) <br /><br />Although I had other plans, my soul called me, likewise your soul called, too, and I am forever happy they did. <br /><br />I used the words "sheer ecstasy", a word I use very judiciously, in my journal to describe my experience of my first extended conscious dreaming perhaps 6 weeks ago. Soon thereafter I read someone's describing the ecstasy of dreaming. <br /><br />Equally, I experience a satisfying creative energy and expression when I write, though mostly for my journal. My gaining the courage through Stephanie, Lynn, and Elaine who went before me, to read my "Confession to Earth" and receive critical feedback produced a plate tectonic shift in my Being that has given me a more flowing voice. I continue on.<br /><br />Thank you for sharing this and all the beautiful stories of your soul.<br /><br />RaymondRaymond's Workhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13554349460579682593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-59665099193683860912010-02-24T18:32:31.315-05:002010-02-24T18:32:31.315-05:00Thanks, JaneE. I do believe that we have the abili...Thanks, JaneE. I do believe that we have the ability to reach across time to provide the support and counsel and encouragement our younger self may desperately need in a time of vulnerability, pain or confusion. And that this can change everything.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-30837604871524145512010-02-23T20:59:22.131-05:002010-02-23T20:59:22.131-05:00Beautiful Robert. I feel this rich encounter in a...Beautiful Robert. I feel this rich encounter in a timeless place. It feels like I can step right in.<br /><br />I thought today of my most tragic times, and of how I had the uncanny ability to see beyond my youthful experiences and into wisdom. I remember a knowing I had at sixteen that was far beyond the immaturity of my years, and of the voice that reminded me of truths that would color my perceptions, and save me, throughout my life. It may well be the mysterious source of my protective inner voice is my own older, wiser, helpful self.Jane Carletonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05641713749105165230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-63318825783763485152010-01-26T13:12:08.527-05:002010-01-26T13:12:08.527-05:00Very poignant, Epona. Reading it I feel the kiss o...Very poignant, Epona. Reading it I feel the kiss of the poniard (an olde English version of the French "poignard"). Have you thought of using this as the opening of a story and inventing the rest?<br /><br />Many of us dream in languages we know imperfectly and sometimes in languages we don't know at all (although in the latter case it can be really hard to hold on to much). My French, in waking life, is rusty and highly imperfect, but like you I have dreamed - and been able to record - some quite lengthy passages, including poems, in French that are beyond my ordinary language skills.<br /><br />One of the gifts of dreaming is that it helps us become MORE, and puts us in touch with the "moreness" of everything.<br /><br />PS> Unfortunately, it seems that this blog - at least in the Comments box - doesn't accommodate accents. I'll see if we can do something about that.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-59813313850434595372010-01-26T12:22:34.682-05:002010-01-26T12:22:34.682-05:00I was taking French in the Army and had come home ...I was taking French in the Army and had come home after class for a nap. I woke from the nap with an image and a sort of poem or vignette all in French fully formed from my dreams. It is the only piece of writing that came complete (and in French to boot) from my dreamscape. <br /><br />"Reviens a moi" elle crie a la foret silencieux. Son crie, en poingard, entaille la paix du crepiscule, tandis que son amant se detourne de t'elle. Dans sa memoire encore est encore est encore.<br /><br />(It has been so long since then, I have forgotten if I spelled everything correctly and I wasn't sure if the blog could take the accents.) <br /><br />The translation:<br /><br />"come back to me" she cries out to the silent forest. Her cry, a dagger pierces the peace of the twilight while her lover turns away from her in her memory again and again and again. <br /><br />This came with the image of a woman in a forest clearing on her knees crying with her hands over her face. It was very moving to me and I wrote it all down immediately. I can still feel her pain to this day.Eponahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07040464123107869350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-23655758481953012712010-01-26T10:00:52.471-05:002010-01-26T10:00:52.471-05:00Hi Sara - Dreams sometimes present us with fully-s...Hi Sara - Dreams sometimes present us with fully-shaped stories or scripts, other times with just that teensy bit of grit that can grow the pearl. Carrying a dream forward through further acts to a satisfying denouement can facilitate healing as well as fresh creation.<br /><br />I often learn from a dream self who sems to have gone ahead of me, scouting the roads I may take into the future for challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Sometimes my dream self has written and published things I haven't even thpught of in my waking mind, so that playing catchup with him becomes a fascinating exercise.<br /><br />I'll look forward to welcoming you and Joe into one of my playshops. I don't know how far you are ready to jump, but my five-day retreat on "Writing as a Ste of Conscious Dreaming" at a lovely private retreat center near Seatle in February will be a great place to created and to dream.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-18178508888124808662010-01-26T08:55:05.467-05:002010-01-26T08:55:05.467-05:00Hello Robert - I am about to start reading one of ...Hello Robert - I am about to start reading one of your books, the first I have read. <br /><br />What strikes me already, in this post, is your storytelling skills inspired by dreamwork. <br /><br />I have often turned dreams into poems and wondered about the possibility of stories also. <br /><br />I am thinking it would be another way to do dream re-entry and to bring in waking synchronicities.<br /><br />Last year I had my first clear dream of the future I think. Here is an extract:<br /><br />"I look at the documents I have been given to work on. They seem to be slightly faded photocopies and notice that they are 'mine'.<br /><br />In the pile is a paper that already carries my editing marks, an article by me, and a letter written to me that is talking about astrology and carries little drawings of planets and symbols.<br /><br />I express my confusion to Joe [my partner who is an astrologer] and say that the letter is something that 'must have been written to me in the future' as I have no recollection of it."<br /><br />Thank you for your availability through your writing here. Joe and I are hoping to join one of your workshops this year.Sara Firman (Sulis)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07659216720927613559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-77281292268547057072010-01-24T16:57:59.546-05:002010-01-24T16:57:59.546-05:00Thank you Robert,
Iam encouraged by your response ...Thank you Robert,<br />Iam encouraged by your response to continue on this path.<br />Being trapped in the wrong story. I believe this and most of my work centres around this theme. Thus the workshop I have developed using movies to illustrate the power of the Archetypes and how we can befriend and maybe even dance with them to change the story. It helps to challenge the opposites within and to withstand the paradox they present.<br />Looking forward to more of your insights and challenges.<br />Patricia from Oz<br />ps. It's been bloody hot over here.Patriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05236863286312188694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-74943486893656548412010-01-24T16:13:41.291-05:002010-01-24T16:13:41.291-05:00I love how the shelf elf - or in this case the alb...I love how the shelf elf - or in this case the album imp - came into play here, Patricia. And how the word "Identity" stamped on the back of the photo of the bride in her going away dress clarifies what is to be nurtured and protected when the older self reaches back to the younger self as mentor.<br /><br />Do remember that few things are as important as story. We live by stories. If we don't know what story we are living, we are probably trapped inside the wrong story, an old one that doesn't fit us any more, or one made for us by others so they can keep us in one place, without growth or transformation. I loved writing "The Other, Again" as a story within which, perhaps, many can find a mirror and a sense of larger possibility. Within the literay constraints I adopted, I am drawing on MANY experiences of encountering younger and older selves across time, and of guiding others to do this. No doubt I'll be publishing more on this theme, here and in more permanent formats.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-61419019004524299282010-01-24T15:47:54.635-05:002010-01-24T15:47:54.635-05:00Robert,
This blog has had a huge effect on me. I d...Robert,<br />This blog has had a huge effect on me. I didn't read the 'story' as just a story. I read it as being a real encounter and I do think that it encourages us to really know that these things are possible. So, flying on this understanding I began to wonder which of my younger selves could do with a visit from me. It didn't take long to surface.<br />Cleaning up my office I came across two photos that were taken on my wedding day. Now I have no way to explain how they got out of the album. But they did. One was the cutting of the cake and the other was leaving for the honeymoon.<br />After my sitting with them today and the drumming, a story of my own is forming. I have to discover again, the wishes she made, cutting the cake. And I have to prepare her for the journey.<br />I looked closely at the photo in the going away dress and I noticed that I was clutching a small purse. I do associate my identity with my handbag. Then, I turned the photo over, the photographer who took the photo worked for a company called "Identity". The message is clear, I did have to hold fast to who I was so that I could be who I am today. At times it was a struggle, but that is another story.<br />Love and light<br />Patricia from OzPatriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05236863286312188694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-19340659789873253182010-01-24T01:01:54.536-05:002010-01-24T01:01:54.536-05:00Alla - I'm intrigued by your account of the me...Alla - I'm intrigued by your account of the mentoring you invited from a possible older self. After journaling for all these years, I am actually able to track the possible interventions of an older self (sometimes younger than I now am) at various points in my personal odyssey. This was extremely helpful when I was very young, deathly ill and lonely, and found encouragement and support for the journey from an avuncular white-haired man who would turn up and assure me that - despite everything - I would survive, and know the love of women, and that the day would come when "the whole world" would want to hear the dreams it was so hard to talk about in the society in which I grew up in that era.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-40676421546528392632010-01-24T00:57:23.351-05:002010-01-24T00:57:23.351-05:00Wanda - You have material here for any number of w...Wanda - You have material here for any number of wonderful stories. I, too, am intrigued by the theme of the "treasure in the backyard" - a treasure that is at home all along but can only be found after a journey to a far place alerts the traveler to where it is. And there are so many variations on the endlessly intriguing theme of the Double, or the Other, and room for many more versions. I love to read your story of the other self on (or on the other side of) that fence.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-41824733969896124132010-01-23T14:23:04.620-05:002010-01-23T14:23:04.620-05:00Thank you for this lovely and mysterious encounter...Thank you for this lovely and mysterious encounter. <br /><br />I am intrigued by your self assignments in writing small pieces with inspired themes. I am reminded of so many of my favorite stories that could shape or re-shape dreams, experiences, and stories from my own life. I think of hundreds of pages of notes from my visit to West Africa and how I could write a "finding my treasure in my own back-yard" story from those experiences. I think of what could be written from the mysterious experience of horses on the lawn at Johnson Hall that led to a ghost story that had spun out of a death on a train track that I was near witness to.<br /><br />Your beautiful evocation of a dialogue with "The Other" also reminds me of a dream dialogue I shared in 1990. In my dream I strolled alongside a fence casually chatting with "her," my other self who took the opposite side of whatever opinion I was voicing as I rationalized how I was to proceed with a serious health diagnosis. I alternately listened to and ignored "her" but ultimately had to acknowledge that she was raising some good points. I should try to write from dialogues with myself.Wanda Burchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15451187361106279187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-35852116827213258442010-01-23T01:34:35.351-05:002010-01-23T01:34:35.351-05:00Rebecca - Thanks for welcoming the poet in me in t...Rebecca - Thanks for welcoming the poet in me in this time, as well as the other. Sometimes he gets some space on this blog, <br /><br />I want to respond briefly to your question about how it feels when one leaves an encounter with the younger self. "The Other, Again" is a story which, like its Borgesian model, does not have definite consequences, leaving a feeling of wistfulness and perhaps an edge of what the Portuguese call saudade. I have had other encounters of this kind that I believe have had very definite consequences and produced much stronger feelings, including relief, gratitude, and satisfaction that has even bordered on a sense of triumph. Like my encounter with the younger self who visited the island of Kos (wher I hope to travel again in May) - the birthplace of Hippocrates and the site of a great temple of dream healing - in the early 1970s. Caught up in family dramas and the business of the world, he missed the numinous Asklepian experience on the island at that time, and found only the ruins and the consolations of ouzo. When I met him again, as the 1995 Robert, I sought to help him to get through the fog, meet the sacred healer, and see the sun at midnight. I believe that what was transacted between us changed the lives of both Roberts in the Now-time of each. My feelings, on leaving that younger self, were of gratitude and awe.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-67155555413339819892010-01-23T01:28:12.955-05:002010-01-23T01:28:12.955-05:00What strikes me the most on reading this post is t...What strikes me the most on reading this post is the lack of response or words I can offer back. There are, I believe, some experiences, dreams or moments that define definition and analysis and just need to sink into the marrow of my bones and settle in with my cells as a living reminder of the sheer possibility of consciousness and our abilities to journey beyond what we may believe. This is one for me. Thank you. I found most comforting your sharing of the need to express and release as I struggle with that need currently as well. I am so often in awe Robert of the depth and breadth of your experiences that somehow that small vulnerability speaks volumes. Leanne,Leannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18119814834479755378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-31740562486359109492010-01-22T18:41:07.821-05:002010-01-22T18:41:07.821-05:00Sara, I do believe we can play counselor and mento...Sara, I do believe we can play counselor and mentor to our younger selves, and we have made this a conscious journeying practice in my advanced programs. In turn, we can receive gifts of memory and soul energy from our younger selves. Let's remember that an older and hopefully wiser self may be looking in on our current situation right now, with advice to give. And that beyond the games of time a larger self may be watching from a place outside time, at the hub of our many selves.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-38390147596646504852010-01-22T17:36:54.378-05:002010-01-22T17:36:54.378-05:00I'm incredibly moved by this posting of the se...I'm incredibly moved by this posting of the selves meeting.It has me thinking about the times in the past when I reached back to assist my younger self during times of great need.Your posting reminds me that when this occurs it is time folding back on itself in a very literal way.Sarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13418830124878530376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-57596339080127850542010-01-22T13:32:13.917-05:002010-01-22T13:32:13.917-05:00Dear Robert,
In my dream of yours Robert, this dre...Dear Robert,<br />In my dream of yours Robert, this dreaming encounter entices the writer, artist in us to pay attention to the 'senses of life'! the sent of amphora tobacco smoke, the image of a young fellow in a romantic beret. Allowing the writer to catch a thread here and flow with the dreaming onto page. (the experiment of new modes of writing as was mentioned).<br />I realize that these memory dream scapes bring pieces which fill in the blanks of who I may be now. I see the shaping and and able to produce a whole new story of me then and me now. Facinating!<br />Swim with this Robert! There is healing here and teaching for us all. Interestingly the 'Year 1965' adds up to '21' the "World Trump' in tarot ... <br />In my dream the poet in me is reminding me; "I am a spark of the Holy Fire".<br />Very inspiring to all the creative talent out there. Thank you!<br />Love, KarenEARTHDREAMShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06911193367950201243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-74953359777943570432010-01-22T12:51:13.870-05:002010-01-22T12:51:13.870-05:00I like Worldbridger's question, Who is the met...I like Worldbridger's question, Who is the meta-dreamer. On this occasion, it's easily answered. It is the writer.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-73612666269712371802010-01-22T12:14:27.352-05:002010-01-22T12:14:27.352-05:00Is there not a song from ( our) era? Go where yo...Is there not a song from ( our) era? Go where you want to go? Do what you need to do? Writing is solitary, but it is good to stay connected and to share. I send my poems to my best friend with Alzheimer's, and occassionally put a few things on the dream forum.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16526421154602530707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-85047338968913393942010-01-22T07:34:48.898-05:002010-01-22T07:34:48.898-05:00I'm grateful for all the warm and generous fee...I'm grateful for all the warm and generous feedback. While writing is most often a solitary enterprise, one of its great pleasures is being able to share with creative friends who support the endeavor as we go along. My favorite way to do this is to read aloud to one or more people who are close to me at the end of the day, perhaps by an open fite. Sharing at this blog sometimes provides almost equal sustenance and delight.<br /><br />Among all the other things going on at this blog, I am using it to share experiments with new modes of writing, some of which escape existing genre categories and roam the borderlands between what would be shelved as "fiction" or "nonfiction".Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-86534325839469461442010-01-22T07:27:01.651-05:002010-01-22T07:27:01.651-05:00Carol & Diana - I'll respond to both of yo...Carol & Diana - I'll respond to both of you first, to settle something with myself. Your comments are lovely, but when Carol suggests that this might be the opening of a novel and Diana invites me to carry the story forward, you are inviting me to go precisely where I have decided NOT to go with this jeu d'esprit. The pleasure in this particular writing, for me, is that it is complete unto itself in a small span and does not need to be seen as part of something larger in bulk. Borges was the master of the miniature, and I've been seeking to learn from him. He always wanted to write novels, but the closest he came was a longish short story (often called a novella) titled "The Congress", which is not one of my favorites among his fictions. I have written novels - as I tell young R.J. Moss - and may do so again, but for now I'm focused on shorter forms.Robert Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09231870716685877709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-17868802182717188342010-01-21T23:09:31.087-05:002010-01-21T23:09:31.087-05:00Wow. Sigh. I am deeply moved. The writing is exqui...Wow. Sigh. I am deeply moved. The writing is exquisite. The story riveting. The truths undeniably profound. Still, I can't quite put a finger on what it is that's "stirring" (perfect word, not mine) in me reading this.... it runs deep and gratitude and mystery are pieces...<br />There's something about the year 1965?<br />This is a lesson, I know. I'm just not sure where it belongs... still, very grateful.<br />Thank you, Robert.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00427617843255171110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-1588558893240003022010-01-21T22:55:14.207-05:002010-01-21T22:55:14.207-05:00This is strange... Early in the morning today, in ...This is strange... Early in the morning today, in the twilight state, I decided to call my older self for to ask about something. I heard the voice and felt almost like "your younger self". Same emotions, same skepticism. :-)))) Well, the future will show what's what. <br />Thank you, Robert!Allahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03246354719305581718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-925549664214256461.post-6514841513321219892010-01-21T18:18:00.845-05:002010-01-21T18:18:00.845-05:00January 20, 2010 = 0120 2010January 20, 2010 = 0120 2010Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06559452416978486638noreply@blogger.com