Customer Reviews

Dreamscape: Voyage in an Alternate Reality (Quest Books)

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There are hundreds of books on dreaming, and many of them just rehash the same stuff: universal dream symbology, etc. This book is different: way different!

The basic premise is that the dreaming landscape is a real place, an actual dimension, with a geography that can be mapped. The characters inhabiting Dreamscape are real. The form they take in YOUR dreams have to do with your own personal symbology (as in, dreaming about being a river means something totally different to someone who loves to swim than it does to someone with a fear of water) but, at the same time, is part of a greater consensual reality of all dreamers. This reality is every bit as valid as Waking Life.

This book stretched my mind. I found myself coming back to it again and again, and rereading pages at random, as a Christian might open their bible. It's a small book, but oh so profound.

I consider this book to be in my top 10 fav books: a real treasure.

Its been about nine years since I stumbled across a tattered, abused copy of this book in a used book store. I thought that the cover art was really cheesy but I'm glad that I took the time to peruse it a bit because it turned out to be one of the best books on dream work that I've ever encountered.

At that time I was well acquainted with Stephen LaBerge's works as well as Patricia Garfield, et. al. What I liked so much about this book was it's radically different view on reality and the dream world. Mr. Vance's fundamental premise is that the dream world is at least as real if not more so than waking reality. This assumption flies in the face of the mainstream paradigm of our culture. However, through utilizing this alternate worldview, I found that the dream world was much more willing to open its secrets to me. How much can you learn from a person while holding the strong opinion that they are unintelligent and unlearned? Much the same, many secrets of the dream world will elude the dreamer who attains lucidity, still clinging to the assumption that "its just made up by my own mind" or that its "less real" than "reality."

The author's experience is quite obvious throughout the book. This was another one of the things that I liked so much about it. Mr. Vance is reporting on his own experiences gained through hard work and perserverance in the dream world. The only other author whose firsthand experience in alternate realities comes through so well in his written work is Robert Bruce.

Overall, I think that this is an excellent book on dream work. If you're open and willing to experiment on your own instead of just reading about other people's experiences, you could stand to learn a lot about the nature of the dream world, the universe and yourself by reading it.

What can I say, this book is a must have for anyone interested in delving into the nature of their own consciousness and the way it operates in altered states.

As other reviewers have noted, the author's basic premise is that the dream world is a real and objective "place" which is not so much created by the individual's consciousness, as it is visited and then created upon and explored as something of a multi-dimensional, interactive, shared canvas. Exactly how deep, and the author seems very certain that it's quite deep, this rabbit hole really goes is not something that I'm willing to pass judgment on at this time. My own explorations still seem to be taking place within the realm of what I believe are mostly, if not entirely, my own subjective dreaming expressions, though I have seen enough to have become confident that there is far more going on back there, and far more possible, than I would have previously entertained as realistic.

I can say with certainty, however, that regardless of the fundamental "reality" inherent in the Dreamscape, the insights given by Mr. Vance (and this little book is thick with them), on the nature of the dreaming consciousness and its relation to the waking consciousness and other conscious states, have proven an invaluable aid in my own quest for internal exploration and greater self understanding. I feel I have been provided, in this volume, with a full on chest of new tools that I can use to better assess and understand the possible meanings behind the symbols and experiences I find myself encountering within various dreaming and meditative states.

This book is quite obviously the result of many years of serious study on the part of the author, and it is my sincere belief that if you can approach it like you would the words of any truly experienced master, with respect and an open mind, there is a real treasure trove of valuable self-insight to be gained from studying this work. And study it you should. Who knows, if the Dreamscape truly is as real and as vastly interesting a place as Mr. Vance posits, maybe I'll be seeing you in there sometime...