The Three Only Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, & Imagination by Robert Moss

book coverAs a social worker, I am continually interested in the mind, especially in finding ways to help my clients heal. At a glance, I found this book fascinating for its sheer title. More specifically, Moss reframes nightly dreams to be more than coincidence by giving dreams the power to guide us to a larger purpose. Often people give meaning to dreams, which is soothing or validating to them individually. However, I agree with Moss that dreams should not be dismissed as mere subconscious fantasies.

In my early twenties, I became exceedingly curious about my dreams of becoming a professional and used self-help books and academic scholarship to empower me to realize them. Had he written the book back then, Moss conceptualization would have been a powerful tool for me to understand my unguided questions about my dreams.

Although the introduction is longer than necessary, with subsequent chapters repeatedly previewing notions already stated in the introduction, the second half of the book proves to be the most notable portion. There, Moss forms the foundation necessary to analyze our lives purpose, providing a reasonable alternative perception or procedure for understanding dreams, coincidence and imagination and their interconnectivity. His scheme of nine powers of dreams can heal us and guide us to initiate our nightly dreams into meaningful plans (p. 31).  He views coincidence as conceivable opportunities to direct our lives. Finally, he believes imagination is a driving force behind the realization of our dreamspresenting his seven secrets of imagination that are meant to ignite our ability to create the lives we desire.   

One of my favorite features is the way the book is written as a step-by-step guide. Moss instructs the reader on the how tos of each of the principles and practice. The second feature I enjoyed most was his use of concrete examples from real-life people to help readers understand his points. For example, to exemplify his point about nightly dreams as a guide to direct life goals, he talked about the creator of Monster.com, who used his dream about people walking up to an electrical board and choosing jobs to create a multi-million-dollar company.

I would strongly recommend this book to clinician as a resource for helping clients to use their imagination to create new possibilities for their lives. I would also highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned their dreams and wondered what if they followed their dream to its real-life end.      

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