StarDreaming:

Letters From a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author

"An intriguing glimpse into a fully engaged, creative mind - candid, intimate, effortlessly wise and easily persuasive, all this with sparks rising up . . ." - Dr Terry Dowling [Award winning author, critic, editor, and reviewer]

EIN Presswire Press Release [3/9/26]

Science Fiction, Fate and Depth Psychology Collide in New Nonfiction Book StarDreaming

Some fateful connections are written in the stars before they happen in reality. In StarDreaming: Letters from a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author Jungian therapist Maureen B. Roberts shares the extraordinary story of how a prophetic dream - involving actual twin stars - led to an intense relationship with Award-winning science fiction author, Damien Broderick. 

Roberts dreamed their entire relationship - including how it was doomed to end - several months before it began. Such was the unsettling boat she landed in, one fateful day in July 1994. That afternoon, she’d referred to Broderick’s work in a paper presented at a Melbourne University science fiction conference, unaware that he was sitting in the front row.

Following her presentation, Roberts chatted briefly with Broderick after he approached her. That night she was stunned by a long, vivid and intensely impactful dream in which the two of them, initially seated outdoors at the university campus, seemed to be represented, or mirrored by twin stars rapidly orbiting one other overhead, hence the title of her book. 

Widely regarded as Australia’s ‘dean of science fiction’, Broderick had at the time amassed an impressive body of work that included his cyberpunk novel The Judas Mandala, which coined the term ‘virtual reality’ in 1982. His award-winning The Dreaming Dragons featured in David Pringle's Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels [1949-84] and was chosen as the year's best by Kingsley Amis. 

Roberts’ powerful dream foreshadowed not only their two year relationship, but also their sometimes playful, at other times emotionally volatile exchange of letters that reflected how their predestined connection became challenging, enlightening, yet eventually conflicted. 

Award-winning author, editor and critic Dr Terry Dowling sums up StarDreaming as ‘an intriguing glimpse into a fully engaged, creative mind - candid, intimate, effortlessly wise and easily persuasive, all this with sparks rising up . . .’

A two-time university literary Prize winner, Roberts, who has practiced for decades as a depth psychotherapist, brought her understanding and experience of Jungian psychiatry, literature and mysticism to her letters to Broderick. They amount to a colourful banquet of personal anecdotes, scholarly and science fiction oriented discussions, friendly banter, psychospiritual reflections, scientific philosophy, and personal friction. In the end, their nevertheless mostly affectionate relationship ended as the dream foretold it would—with Broderick unable to handle the emotional tension and eventually removing himself from it. 

Roberts rediscovered the letters while dumping old computer files and was immediately intrigued and captivated, given that she’d forgotten most of their content. While none of Broderick’s letters are included in the book, he did insert edited versions of some of them into his science fiction novel, The White Abacus. 

In 1994 Roberts was also busy writing the first draft of her epic science fantasy myth, An Era in Anddemar, which she discusses several times in StarDreaming. Broderick believed in the novel’s vision and made overtures to HarperCollins on her behalf. Fast-forward 32 years and remarkably, both StarDreaming and An Era in Anddemar are being published within a few months of each other. 

It took three full drafts and years of painstaking revisions before Roberts arrived at a final version of An Era in Anddemar that she was pleased with. ‘Having the two linked books released so closely together was an instance of what Jung called synchronicity,’ she says, ‘a meaningful coincidence in time between two events that signals a deeper significance beyond our conscious intent, or control.’

StarDreaming is by no means light reading. It will likely find its audience among imaginative, intelligent, deeply reflective lovers and students of science fiction, Jungian psychology, relationship dynamics, philosophy (as the ‘love of wisdom’), and transformative spiritual experiences. 

The term ‘StarDreaming’ also carries a dual meaning. The book ends with a brief discussion of several other, hugely impactful dreams that Roberts experienced between 1994-97, involving two big ‘stars’ of the 1990s: legendary Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna, and Princess Diana.

StarDreaming is being published by 6th Books, an Imprint of Collective Ink Books, but Roberts recently published An Era in Anddemar through her own Imprint, Vandrassian Press. ‘I knew a traditional publishing editor would probably slash a lot of the descriptive detail, as well as modify the elevated prose style,’ she says. ‘I needed to stay true to the vision, rather than pander to publishing norms regarding tone, language, and narrative pacing. Anddemar bucks pretty well every current literary trend, simply because the vision demanded it.’

Further insight into the two books, as well as extracts from and blog posts about them, can be found on Roberts’ author website www.maureenbroberts.com

Press Release Source:

https://www.einpresswire.com/article/939338881/science-fiction-fate-dreams-and-depth-psychology-collide-in-new-nonfiction-book-stardreaming

Review of StarDreaming by Alanna Kali

What happens when two people meet at the intersection of intellect and intuition, skepticism and mysticism, outer space and inner worlds? In StarDreaming: Letters from a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author, Maureen B. Roberts offers an intimate record of a relationship that seems to exist within all of these tensions at once.

StarDreaming centres on Roberts’ correspondence with Australian science fiction author Damien Broderick during the mid-1990s. Roberts, whose background encompasses depth psychology, shamanic psychotherapy, mythology, and spirituality, approached their connection through an intensely symbolic lens. Though we don’t read Broderick’s side of the correspondence, these letters become the story of two people attempting to understand one another, meeting between two different ways of interpreting reality.

Between 1994 to 1997, Roberts experienced a series of powerful dreams, including one featuring Broderick himself . . . she came to understand the dream as foreshadowing the emotional pattern and eventual trajectory of their relationship. Even knowing that things probably wouldn’t end well, Roberts dove into the relationship with an open mind and heart.

What followed was years of thoughtful correspondence that ranged from day to day events in Roberts’ life, to metaphysical discussions, to romantic conversation. Here’s an example of the range:

“At the heart of myth is the archetypal essence of human nature, the transcendental centre and circumferential whole of the Jungian “self”, which is coextensive with the cosmos and experientially indistinguishable from God. If myth is inclusive by virtue of its holism, so then is its unifying core self, which transcends the polarities of matter and psyche, inner and outer, Nature and technology.”

To vulnerable confessions like this:

“All the men I was involved with before you were conventionally good-looking as well as, personality-wise, idealised versions of my idolised father, and as I’ve mentioned before, part of my breaking free from this complex has come through finally learning to love a man who’s not in the least like my dad, so perhaps I’ve made some progress.”

It’s fascinating to view matters from Roberts’ perspective as she navigates her inner world during the evolution of her relationship with Broderick.

Readers familiar with Jung will recognize many of the ideas woven throughout the letters: projection, archetypes, synchronicity, individuation, the unconscious, and the meaningful symbolic life. Yet the book moves beyond Jungian psychology into questions of precognition, spirituality, reincarnation, shamanism, paranormal experience, literature, and philosophy.

Science fiction becomes another realm where these mysteries are explored, since Broderick was a science fiction writer, while Roberts was an enthusiastic reader. Roberts introduces readers to the idea that rather than being completely separate from mystical experience, speculative fiction becomes a place where humanity has long experimented with ideas about consciousness, identity, alternate realities, transcendence, and the unknown. While I rarely knew the science fiction book she was discussing, I loved how she interwove themes, for instance:

“All of this is of course the essence of synchronistic phenomena as eruptions of archetypes into the phenomenal realm. Predictably, then, Strieber’s aliens reflect the evolution of consciousness, that is, Jung’s proposal that ruling dominants age, thereby bringing about what he called a ‘metamorphosis of the gods’, such that (in Strieber’s words) ‘we know that their appearance depends more on the understanding of reality through which a given culture perceives them than on any objective insight into their true nature.'”

I mean, we’ve got aliens, consciousness, and Jungian psychology. How cool, right?

It’s fascinating to read her letters because Roberts can move from intellectual discussion to emotional vulnerability, from literary analysis to spiritual speculation, from psychological interpretation to the complicated realities of loving another person. She has a wide range of interests but her thoughts are absolutely fascinating.

The book’s range is broad, occasionally moving quickly between personal experience, psychology, philosophy, literature, science fiction, and mystical speculation. Those comfortable following connections between seemingly different territories are likely to find this quality part of its charm in reading Roberts’ letters.

I really enjoy the epistolary structure of the book, which makes the experience of reading it particularly intimate. Since these were Roberts’ personal letters, decades later they still retain something of the immediacy that comes from passion–the amorous and vexing feelings all in one shimmering within the subtext. You get a glimpse into Roberts’ heart and soul, which feels a bit voyeuristic at times, but completely enthralling.

And while readers never get to read Broderick’s responses, I do not feel this diminishes the book in the slightest. Ultimately, the style reinforces what StarDreaming truly is: one person’s attempt to understand what that relationship awakened within her. As someone who has long kept diaries of lovers and saved especially meaningful conversations, I see great beauty in this publication. The thought that a meaningful, catalyzing relationship could yield such insight is inspiring, and it’s very entertaining to witness this small glimpse into a formative time in Roberts’ life.

While most readers will never experience Roberts’ precise circumstances, many will recognize the experience of meeting someone whose presence rearranges their internal landscape. Some relationships arrive not because they are destined to remain forever, but because they expose something previously hidden. They reveal projections. They activate wounds. They challenge assumptions. They introduce new ideas. They force an encounter with parts of the psyche that might otherwise remain comfortably unconscious. Within these letters, we see how Roberts moved through these activations, finding meaning in the process.

Love, in StarDreaming, does not guarantee compatibility. Spiritual significance does not guarantee permanence. A relationship can matter profoundly and still become conflicted. Meaning does not necessarily require a conventional happy ending. This is a beautiful lesson that is imparted, amid the many intellectual, emotional, and spiritual conversations taking place.

Those who are interested in exploring the idea of destiny, soul connections, synchronicity, and signs will enjoy reflecting on what might have brought Broderick and Roberts together, as StarDreaming presents a romance that is psychologically complex. This is a meaningful example of how connection may feel fated while still demanding discernment and how a dream may reveal significance without providing simple instructions. Sometimes, the goal is not a unified relationship; transformation itself may be the purpose.

Ultimately, Roberts invites us into the liminal territory where dreams intersect with waking life, intellectual understanding meets intuitive knowing, and another person can become both companion and catalyst. Some relationships change the course of our lives because they last. Others change us because they awaken something. StarDreaming is an exploration of the latter and of the mysterious inner universe that opens when we are willing to take our dreams seriously.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in Jungian psychology, dreamwork, synchronicity, paranormal experience, science fiction, shamanic perspectives, and spiritually transformative relationships. Roberts has given those with mystical inclinations a real gift by sharing her letters. There are so many avenues one can explore within the content–discovering new sci-fi books, understanding Jung better, contemplating the role of dreams in our lives–that I am sure each reader will take away something special from this book.

https://musingmystical.com/stardreaming-by-maureen-b-roberts/

Review by Nemo C. Mörck BSc, MSc 

[Society for Psychical Research https://www.spr.ac.uk/StarDreaming]

StarDreaming: Letters from a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author, by Maureen B. Roberts, is an unusual book. It mainly consists of letters written by Roberts between 1994 and 1996 to the author Damien Broderick (1944-2025), with whom she had a relationship. I never knew Broderick, but we corresponded. The parapsychology community remembers him primarily for The Lotto Effect, Outside the Gates of Science, Evidence for Psi (co-edited with Ben Goertzel), Knowing the Unknowable, and Psience Fiction. I regret that I never paid any attention to his body of fiction while he was alive.

Roberts holds a PhD, and her dissertation concerned English literature and Jungian psychology. For the past thirty years, she has run a private practice as a depth and shamanic psychotherapist. She herself has undergone ‘a shamanic initiation crisis and subsequent training’ (p. 164). Her biography also makes it clear that she has lived a rich life and been interested in many things.

StarDreaming is easier to read than to understand. Being somewhat familiar with Jungian terminology helps. I imagine that readers familiar with science fiction literature also derive further enjoyment from the letters. We only get to read the letters from Roberts; hence, we only get to see her perspective on her relationship with Broderick. She has not shared everything. Some material is lost, and Roberts deemed some too private. 

Roberts first met Broderick at a conference: ‘He initially came across as a self-assured, softly spoken, shrewd, guarded and supremely intelligent man, full of brilliant insights but lacking the kind of emotional warmth and intensity that resonated with my own heart’ (p. 14). She notes: ‘Damien’s letters differed markedly from my own. Sometimes cynical, he was also a more extraverted, disciplined, grounded and rational person than me’ (p. 17). 

In my own correspondence with Broderick, I once mentioned the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which has been used by parapsychologists. I told him not to take the test result too seriously. Broderick wrote: ‘My results were stunningly INTJ, which was totally accurate’ (personal communication, 19 September 2020).

I was at first disappointed by the fact that we would not get to read what Broderick wrote to Roberts, but as I read on, I understood. It would not have been appropriate to publish his letters without his explicit permission. Roberts liked the person she rediscovered when she reread her old letters. She also grew on me as I read. 

Roberts had an intense dream the same day she met Broderick for the first time. She thinks that it captured their entire relationship and returns to it in her letters. However, Roberts did not reveal how the dream ended in her correspondence, but she mentions its ending in her introduction.  

From what I read, I could guess why Broderick sometimes replied to her in anger. In short, Roberts is more of a New Ager. I don’t use the term as an insult. Broderick was a friendly observer of parapsychology, but as Roberts found out, he had little patience for much that falls within the New Age. I recall that reincarnation was too far out for him. 

As I read the letters, I understood why Broderick kept the correspondence going. Roberts read widely, including science fiction, Jungian literature, and more. Her perspective differs markedly from his, and she was fearless. More than once, Roberts mentions that she writes what she believes is the truth regardless of the consequences. This unusual honesty makes the letters interesting. In one letter she writes, ‘…as I’ve made clear before, you were a far cry from my ideal man’ (p. 86).

I don’t know what happened between Broderick and Roberts, but from the letters, I can guess. I think Roberts sometimes presents interpretations and speculations in the same way that she presents facts. Broderick might well have found that somewhat jarring. Roberts also notes that he seemed bothered by their personality differences. 

Roberts accuses Broderick of trying to idealise her, claims that he is at war with himself, and argues that she only wants to help. She was deeply fond of Broderick, and the letters suggest that he found it difficult just to accept her love. In one letter Robers writes, ‘…you’re not an easy man to love, Damien, not because you’re unlovable but because you won’t allow yourself to be loved’ (p. 113). In another letter she writes, ‘I love you for who you are, not because you conform to my ideals, or agree with me’ (p. 104).

Roberts saw similarities between Broderick and the Trickster character Terragian in her book, An Era in Anddemar. I found her phrase ‘…dumb bimbos, for instance, make ideal targets for anima projections…’ (p. 45) memorable. From the context I gather that she argued that people who are not so clearly defined can find themselves being targeted by projections from others. Roberts meant no ill; she just writes her letters in a forthright way. I also found the expression, ‘orgasmic relish’ (p. 14) memorable, and hope to use it often if I live to write my own memoirs.

In addition to their relationship troubles and Jungian psychology, they also discuss literature and sometimes exchange feedback on manuscripts. Roberts has included a paper she delivered in 1994, ‘Myths of Inner and Outer Space: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence’. However, the book also concerns a precognitive dream about Ayrton Senna’s death and experiences concerning Princess Diana after her death. Roberts rejects the labels ‘psychic’ and ‘medium’, but I gather that she would be willing to accept the term shaman.

This is an unusual book. I have deliberately tried to avoid giving too much away. However, I am uncertain about the book’s mass appeal. I enjoyed the book, but I corresponded with Broderick. I suspect that readers somewhat familiar with his style find the letters more interesting than do readers who have only heard his name. In one letter Roberts writes, ‘Let’s face it, in terms of integrity, intelligence and a commendably playful seriousness about life, friends of your calibre are hard to come by.' 

Ayrton