Creative Dreaming: Plan And Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity, Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self [Paperback]

Patricia Garfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1995

Dreams are more than just random images that play in your head at night. They are a source of inspiration and transformation that can have a profound effect on your waking state. While everyone dreams, not everyone makes use of this unique resource. Patricia Garfield presents techniques and information, drawn from many dreamers and widely varied cultures and times, that will enable you to plan your dreams ahead of time, influence them while they are occurring, and recall them and their lessons forever afterward.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684801728
• ISBN-13: 978-0684801728
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Dreams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A seminal book in the rebirth of a dreaming culture, December 30, 1999

By 

Robert Moss (Way of the Dreamer, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Dreaming: Plan And Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity, Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self (Paperback)

Patricia Garfield's classic work is one of the landmark books of the century we are now leaving. She takes dreaming out of the hands of tenured "experts" and encourages all to become active explorers of our personal dream experiences, and of dream reality, learning from cultures - especially those of the ancient world and of indigenous peoples - that value dreaming as a source of direct revelation on the critical issues of life and death. Her account of Senoi dream practices (though sniped at by some academic nitpickers as idealized rather than anthropological) provides excellent guidance on braving up to nightmare terrors and forging alliances with dream allies who may at first appear as adversaries.

I vividly remember discovering "Creative Dreaming" soon after it first appeared in the mid-1970s. I felt as if this queenly, elegant woman had picked up a sledgehammer and broken away some of the chains that had fettered our society's appreciation of what is actually going on in dreaming, and why we need to recover the ancient arts of dream incubation and dream healing. Patricia's book encouraged me to follow my own path as a dream teacher with greater courage and openness, and was a vital early influence in the research and practice that eventually led me to write CONSCIOUS DREAMING and the books that have followed. Before I ever met her in ordinary reality, she appeared several times in my dreams both as a guide and as a kind of anima figure. Thank you, Patricia, for all you have contributed to the rebirth of a dreaming culture - a dream I profoundly hope we will see fulfilled in the 21st century.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning to fly..., January 9, 2007

By 

Maria_airaM (Miami, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Dreaming: Plan And Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity, Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self (Paperback)

I read this book for the first time in high school while I was doing research for a term paper. As a by product of that research, I learned how to manipulate my dreams, and best of all, how to fly in them. This has been one of my favorite things to do for the last 30 years. Yes, something I do while asleep. I also learned how to stand up to my fears within the dream, and consequently, in my waking life. Another benefit is that I have dreamed about work, real detailed dreams where I'm sort of reviewing things I have read in manuals and reached conclusions within the dreams that solved problems I was having at work in my waking life. I've gone into work the next day and attempted the procedures (I support computers) that I thought would resolve the problem, and they have! And not just once.

This book changed my life.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than you think, June 15, 2003

By 

shetakaey "http://www.rendingtheveil.com" (Baytown, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Dreaming: Plan And Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity, Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self (Paperback)

I've had this book for years, and really have gotten a lot out of it. It talks about confronting your fears in your dreams, and the important of the dream life to various cultures. If you are a magick user or pagan, you would probably enjoy this book. I was prompted to write this review when I read below that some people think she's an idiot... I thought she did a very good job.

This is a book about dream control. It's worth the ten bucks.