The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination

the
THREE
“ONLY”
THINGS

TAPPING THE POWER OF
DREAMS,
COINCIDENCE
& IMAGINATION
ROBERT MOSS

14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949

Copyright © 2007 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 and typography by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moss, Robert.
The three “only” things : tapping the power of dreams, coincidence, and imagination / Robert Moss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57731-596-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57731-596-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Dreams. 2. Imagination. 3. Coincidence. I. Title.
BF1078.M67 2007
154—dc22

2007020955

First printing, October 2007
ISBN-10: 1-57731-596-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-57731-596-4
Printed in Canada on 100% post consumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Praise for
The Three Only Things

“There is a wider dimension of life than our rational, everyday existence — a domain where dreams, coincidence, and imagination frolic. In our intellectual age, we have largely cut ourselves off from these sources of wisdom and happiness — a kind of psychological and spiritual suicide. In
The Three Only Things
, Robert

Moss, a great storyteller and master of the practical, shows us how to reclaim this side of our lives. In our demanding, challenging world, we ignore this book's vital message at our peril.”

— BARBARA MONTGOMERY DOSSEY, PhD, RN, author of
Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice
and
Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer

“Robert Moss weaves his three themes of dreams, imagination, and coincidence into an inspiring, insightful, and completely practical way to grow our personal understanding and a transforming vision for others and our collective world. A tour de force by one of the very best practitioners and theorists of contemporary dream and image work today.”

— DR. IAIN R. EDGAR, author of
Guide to Imagework

“Reading
The Three Only Things
is an exciting journey full of mind-opening information and insight. I had a hard time putting this book down, yet I wanted to so that I could go out in the world of coincidences and tap into the power of my own dreams and imagination with a new perspective. Robert Moss has a gift for reminding us how playful and synchronistic life truly is.”

— CHRISTINE HASSLER, life coach and author of
20 Something, 20 Everything

ALSO BY ROBERT MOSS

Conscious Dreaming
Dreamgates
Dreaming True
Dreamways of the Iroquois
The Dreamer's Book of the Dead

The Way of the Dreamer
(DVD)
Dream Gates: A Journey into Active Dreaming
(audio)

The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking that created them
.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN

CONTENTS

Introduction: On Another Plane

PART ONE: ONLY A DREAM

Chapter 1: Dreaming Is Waking Up

Chapter 2: The Nine Powers of Dreaming

Chapter 3: Everyday Dream Games

Chapter 4: Dreams Are a Secret Engine of History

PART TWO: ONLY A COINCIDENCE

Chapter 5: Where Mind and Matter Meet

Chapter 6: The Nine Rules of Coincidence

Chapter 7: Asking the Everyday Oracle

Chapter 8: Coincidence and What Wants to Happen

PART THREE: ONLY IMAGINATION

Chapter 9: The Practice of Imagination

Chapter 10: The Seven Open Secrets of Imagination

Chapter 11: Building in the Imagination

Chapter 12: Masters of Imagination

Epilogue: The Incredible Journey

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

INTRODUCTION
ON ANOTHER PLANE

H
ow often have you said, “It's only a dream” — to yourself or someone else?

How about, “It's only a coincidence”? Come on, we 've
all
said that something is just coincidence.

How often have you told yourself, “It's just my imagination,” or, “I'm just making this up”? We routinely dismiss thoughts, feelings, intuitions, and mind-pictures this way, telling ourselves that what we imagine is somehow less than real.

In our everyday speech, in our unconsidered reflexive behaviors, we discount or put down dreams, coincidence, and imagination as
only
this or that.

Ironically, these three “only” things are extraordinary sources of guidance, healing, and power — if we will only pay attention.

Creators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and world changers have always understood this. In this book, we 'll learn how Harriet Tubman dreamed the roads to freedom for three hundred escaping slaves; how Wolfgang Pauli, the Nobel Prize–winning pioneer of quantum physics, used dreams throughout his life as his “secret laboratory”; and how Jeff Taylor dreamed up the hugely successful online job agency Monster.com.

We'll find that what has worked for great creators and world transformers is available to all of us. We have the material. We all dream; even the hard-head who says “I don't dream” is only saying, “I don't remember.” Whenever we're ready, we can start tapping the nine powers of dreaming.

THE NINE POWERS
OF DREAMING

1. We solve problems in our sleep.
   
2. Dreams coach us for future
   challenges and opportunities.
   
3. Dreams hold up a magic mirror
   to our actions and behavior.
   
4. Dreams show us what we need to do to stay well.
   
5. Dreams are a secret laboratory.
   
6. Dreams are a creative studio.
   
7. Dreams help us to mend our divided selves.
   
8. Dreaming is a key to better relationships.
   
9. Dreams recall us to our
   larger purpose.
   

The play of coincidence is all around us, and if we will only
look
, it will teach us that our thoughts and feelings literally generate different events and experiences in the world “out there.” We can then begin to work consciously with the law of attraction. We 'll see how empires have been governed by the careful monitoring of coincidence, and how serendipity has contributed to many of the most important inventions and scientific discoveries. We'll learn to navigate life and sail into a richer world of possibility by following the nine rules of coincidence.

All of us live by images; they turn us off and turn us on, whether we use our imaginations or are just passive receivers of programming from others. Everything in our lives is different, and charged with magic, when we decide to
choose
the images to which we give our energy and attention and move in the direction of our heart's desires.

We 'll learn from masters of the imagination like Leonardo da Vinci, who gave his apprentices a technique for “arousing the mind to various inventions”; Mark Twain, who found universes within the very small; and Joan of Arc and Winston Churchill, who were able to transfer their visions to mobilize whole peoples. We 'll find that we can remake our lives, and our world, by learning and applying the seven open secrets of imagination.

THE NINE RULES
OF COINCIDENCE

1. There are things that like
   to happen together.
   
2. Thoughts are actions and produce effects.
   
3. Coincidence multiplies when we are in motion.
   
4. Life rhymes.
   
5. The world is a forest of symbols.
   
6. Every setback offers an opportunity.
   
7. To find our way, we may need to get lost.
   
8. Look for the hidden hand.
   
9. The passions of the soul
   work magic.
   

When we claim the power of the Three Only Things, we connect with extraordinary sources of direction, healing, and energy.

We also become citizens of two worlds.

In everyday circumstances, caught up in hurry and stress and other people's schedules and expectations, we often lose touch with the deeper meaning of life. We become entangled in problems that cannot be solved on the level of thinking and being we are on. We are unable to recognize the hidden order of events. We become strangers to magic, which is the art of reaching into a deeper reality and bringing gifts from it into the ordinary world. Worst of all, we forget who we are. We do not know where we come from or where we are going, beyond lists and resumes. We do not remember that our lives may have a deeper purpose and be part of a larger story.

Through dreams, coincidence, and the workings of imagination, we begin to remember that there is a world beyond the obvious one, and that it is there we reawaken to who we are and what we are meant to become. Reawakening to that world is like discovering colors after living in black-and-white. That other world is actually the multi dimensional universe within which our 3D reality bobs like a rubber duck in a bathtub. Science knows it is there, and it may be the secret source of all the events that will manifest in the world of the senses.

Through the Three Only Things, we wake up to the secrets of creative living. We become conscious that we are all strange attractors — we attract or repel people, events, and opportunities according to our energy and our state of mind. We come to grasp that there are no impermeable boundaries between inner and outer, subjective and objective. We remember that the passions of the soul work magic, and that our best work is done in the spirit of play. We realize that dreaming is less about sleep than about
waking up
. We learn that the time is always
now
— except when it is
go
.

THE SEVEN OPEN
SECRETS OF IMAGINATION

1. By picturing our blocks,
   we can move beyond them.
   
2. The body believes in images.
   
3. If we can see our destination,
   we are better than halfway there.
   
4. The Big Story is hunting us.
   
5. There is a place of imagination,
   and it is entirely real.
   
6. We can grow a vision for someone
   in need of a vision.
   
7. The stronger the imagination,
   the less imaginary the results.
   

All of these things are open secrets. They are knowledge that belongs to us — and can be used by us — as soon as we are ready to reclaim it. As we reawaken to the powers of dreaming, the rules of coincidence, and the uses of imagination, there will be moments when we may be seized with regret that it took us so much time to reclaim tools for living that are profoundly simple, yet have the power to remake our lives and our world.

LIVING BY THE THREE ONLY THINGS

The data in this book is drawn from many sources: from the dream chronicles of the Ottoman court to current scientific research on photon interference, from the ancient I Ching to the Monster.com website, from the correspondence between Winston Churchill and his wife to interviews with entrepreneurs, military leaders, physicians, inventors, artists, and many others for whom the Three Only Things have been a source of success and inspiration. However, the most important data is selected from the thousands of experiences that have been shared with me over the years by people from all walks of life who have attended my workshops, read my books, or been my companions in life adventures.

But, to begin, I want to share some of my personal experiences, because I agree with Mark Twain — an American master of the Three Only Things — when he says, “I don't want to hear about the moon from a man who has not been there.”