Praise for The Boy Who Died and Came Back “This remarkable book traces the links between near-death experience, shamanism, and dreams. In a uniquely personal yet profoundly universal way, it takes readers into worlds that demonstrate the limitations of customary concepts of time and space.” — Stanley Krippner, coauthor of The Voice of Rolling Thunder and Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them “In this fascinating tribute to the depths of the psyche, Robert Moss reminds us in the words of Shakespeare, ‘We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.’ By unearthing these personal stories, we readers participate in an archaeology of the Self, across time, space, and dimensions, in which treasures abound.” — Robert Waggoner, author of Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self “In Plato’s Republic, Socrates asks an old man named Kefalos for his perspective on life. Kefalos replies that after spending most of his life engaged in making money as a businessman, he now sees death approaching, and questions of life and death have taken on a new urgency: What is this all about? What comes after death? As an unprecedented number of people around the world reach their own ‘Kefalos moments,’ Robert Moss’ brilliant book can help. Here he shows clearly how a person’s experiences of ‘dying and coming back’ can shape not just one person’s life but those of many others around them. I’ve seen this to be true over and over in my own work as a psychiatrist, and, knowing Moss’ work, I am sure the valuable tools he offers for exploring and understanding these experiences — as well as the many mysteries of dreams and synchronicity — will do a lot of good for many people. Robert Moss is truly a man who died and came back, bringing gifts from another world. His extraordinary life story, told with beauty and passion, confirms that there is life after life and will inspire all who read it to transcend the fear of death and live richer and deeper lives.” — Raymond Moody, MD, author of Life After Life “The indigenous peoples understand from direct experience of their dreaming that the world presents itself in two modalities — ‘the world of things seen’ and ‘the world of things hidden.’ In this extraordinary personal narrative, Robert Moss reveals himself as a master dreamer, as one of those modern mystics who can see into ‘the world of things hidden.’ He is also a gifted storyteller, and in reading his words, we discover (through direct experience) that ‘truth comes with goose bumps.’ I loved this book!” — Hank Wesselman, PhD, anthropologist, author of The Bowl of Light and the Spiritwalker trilogy, and coauthor (with Sandra Ingerman) of the award-winning Awakening to the Spirit World ALSO BY ROBERT MOSS Active Dreaming Conscious Dreaming The Dreamer’s Book of the Dead Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death Dream Gates: A Journey into Active Dreaming (audio) Dreaming the Soul Back Home Dreaming True Dreamways of the Iroquois The Secret History of Dreaming The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence & Imagination The Way of the Dreamer (video) THE CYCLE OF THE IROQUOIS (Fiction) Fire along the Sky The Firekeeper The Interpreter POETRY Here, Everything Is Dreaming: Poems and Stories Text and drawings copyright © 2014 by Robert Moss All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, or other — without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Text design by Tona Pearce Myers Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. First printing, March 2014 ISBN 978-1-60868-235-5 Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher. Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative. www.greenpressinitiative.org 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Offering Sing in me, creative spirit of the boy who died and came back and the man who flew through the black sun and returned to walk the roads of this world as the envoy of a deeper world; and of how (being human) he falls down and gets up, over and over, forgets and remembers, remembers and forgets. Let me explain through his story how the world is a playground, not a prison when we awaken to the game behind the games. Let this story help those who read it to find their bigger and braver stories and live them, and tell them well enough to entertain the spirits, win the indulgence of the gods and bring through effortless healing. Gore Mountain, April 27, 2013 CONTENTS Introduction: Kiss of Death PART I: THROUGH THE MOON GATE 1 Death in a Teacup 2 The Other Side of the Moon Gate 3 Neither Folk nor Fairy 4 Crumpet Time 5 Serpent Staff in the Sky 6 Kali Ma 7 The Pilot’s Cap 8 Night of the Hawk PART II: THE YEARS OF WRITING DANGEROUSLY 9 The Hawk and the Oak 10 Theater of Time 11 Heart of the Bear 12 Through the Black Sun 13 Seth Speaks 14 Making a Bear 15 The Incredible Shrinking Man 16 What Is Your Contract with God? 17 Dreams and the Art of Memory 18 Dream Archaeology in Johnson Country 19 The Hawk in the Hearth PART III: THE RETURN JOURNEY 20 The Change in the Very Hungry Caterpillar 21 Saying Good-Bye to the Happy Hooker 22 The Drowning Boy and His Sister 23 Among Children 24 The Wrong Bus and the Right Gas Station PART IV: AT HOME IN THE MULTIVERSE 25 The Time Is Always Now 26 We Are Sleeping till We’re Dreaming 27 The Place between Sleep and Awake 28 When the Universe Gets Personal 29 Practicing Death 30 Dancing with the Bear 31 The Double on the Balcony 32 At the Center of All Times 33 Entertaining the Spirits PART V: ADVENTURES IN DREAM ARCHAEOLOGY 34 Where Dreams Are Passports 35 Return of the Ancient Deer 36 In the House of Time 37 Mutual Visioning with Yeats 38 Flights of the Simurgh 39 What Sings and Cries 40 Dreaming with the Goddess 41 The Shaman from the Eagle’s Nest 42 On the Magic Mountain Epilogue: Ambassador of the Other Side Acknowledgments Endnotes About the Author