The House of Dreams is a psychomanteum created as an installation by the artist Philip Riley.

A psychomanteum is a modern revival of the ancient Greek oracle at Ephesus where supplicants went underground in order to see visions of the dead. It was brought into the 20th century by the American psychologist, MD and author Raymond Moody, as part of his research into near death and past life experience.

This psychomanteum was originally created in 2005 from descriptions of Moody’s original as way to deal with the artist’s personal grief but the experience proved so interesting that the artist chose to bring it to a wider audience as performative installation art work. It has been installed and exhibited multiple times including twice at Burning Man in Nevada in 2007 and 2008. The installation shown here is it’s most complete form as it was exhibited in New York in 2012 but the work is still ongoing.

The House of Dreams incorporates a psychomanteum with artworks, prints and chosen artefacts in a unique divinatory space within an art gallery.