July 10, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
This past week, I attended a fantastic conference in Chicago, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). For 25 years, IASD has held annual conferences featuring many prominent authors on dreaming and lucid dreaming, as well as new scientific research, experiential discoveries, and workshops.
It is a wonderful opportunity to meet lucid dreamers of all stripes – in fact, the new lucid dreaming documentary "Wake Up: Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming" was filmed at the IASD Conference in Sonoma, CA, two years ago, and shows many of the lucid dreaming authors and researchers who present at IASD conferences. Check out the documentary’s trailer at http://www.lucitopia.com/.
In that brief trailer, you meet Beverly D’Urso who participated in many early lucid dreaming scientific experiments, professor Scott Sparrow who authored Lucid Dreaming: Dawning of the Clear Light, professor and researcher Jayne Gackenbach who authored Control Your Dreams and was editor of the Lucidity Letter, professor and artist Fariba Bogzaran, novelist Clare Johnson, dream scholar, and author Kelly Bulkeley, and myself. And those are just some of the talented lucid dreamers who attend the IASD conference.
You can read about next year’s conference at www.asdreams.org/2010/. Since I am the newly elected president of IASD, I hope to see you there – and if not 2010, then perhaps 2011, when IASD hopes to host a conference in Amsterdam.
At this year’s conference, I met a talented lucid dreamer from the former Soviet Union. From our conversations, I learned that lucid dreaming has been heavily influenced by the works of Carlos Castaneda. Since I taught myself how to lucid dream after reading Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan (this was before lucid dreaming had been proven, no less!), I had followed Castaneda’s writings, particularly as they pertained to lucid dreaming. Lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union appeared to be focusing strongly on these ideas of Castaneda’s and taking them even deeper.
As I mention in my book, don Juan told Carlos that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity” (Castaneda italicized dreaming to mean lucid or conscious dreaming). Some lucid dreamers will interpret that to mean in the imagination you can do anything within your infinite imagination, while others will suggest lucid dreaming leads to innumerable other dimensions. A’la Castaneda, some lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are focusing on the multidimensional view of lucid dreaming.
In my book I mention that a lucid dreamer can radically shift one’s focus by announcing to the awareness behind the dream, “Take me to the next level!” or “Show me the next form!” Instantly, you will find yourself lucidly aware in an entirely new lucid dream. In my experience, you may find yourself in your current home, for example, completely lucid in a changed environment. Now imagine what lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are doing: they lucidly go to the next level, then lucidly go from there to another level, and then another and another! They use lucid dreaming to explore multidimensional depth. Experientially, they appear to have discovered that each successive level leads to greater lucid dream stability.
In lucid dreaming, one can focus on the seen or the unseen, the known or the unknown, the actual or the potential – if one learns to use focus. Generally speaking, we focus within the framework of our conceptual base, because we feel comfortable there. However, lucid dreaming also allows us to focus beyond our conceptual knowing. It’s then that we get a sense of don Juan’s proclamation that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity.”
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
This past week, I attended a fantastic conference in Chicago, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). For 25 years, IASD has held annual conferences featuring many prominent authors on dreaming and lucid dreaming, as well as new scientific research, experiential discoveries, and workshops.
It is a wonderful opportunity to meet lucid dreamers of all stripes – in fact, the new lucid dreaming documentary "Wake Up: Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming" was filmed at the IASD Conference in Sonoma, CA, two years ago, and shows many of the lucid dreaming authors and researchers who present at IASD conferences. Check out the documentary’s trailer at http://www.lucitopia.com/.
In that brief trailer, you meet Beverly D’Urso who participated in many early lucid dreaming scientific experiments, professor Scott Sparrow who authored Lucid Dreaming: Dawning of the Clear Light, professor and researcher Jayne Gackenbach who authored Control Your Dreams and was editor of the Lucidity Letter, professor and artist Fariba Bogzaran, novelist Clare Johnson, dream scholar, and author Kelly Bulkeley, and myself. And those are just some of the talented lucid dreamers who attend the IASD conference.
You can read about next year’s conference at www.asdreams.org/2010/. Since I am the newly elected president of IASD, I hope to see you there – and if not 2010, then perhaps 2011, when IASD hopes to host a conference in Amsterdam.
At this year’s conference, I met a talented lucid dreamer from the former Soviet Union. From our conversations, I learned that lucid dreaming has been heavily influenced by the works of Carlos Castaneda. Since I taught myself how to lucid dream after reading Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan (this was before lucid dreaming had been proven, no less!), I had followed Castaneda’s writings, particularly as they pertained to lucid dreaming. Lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union appeared to be focusing strongly on these ideas of Castaneda’s and taking them even deeper.
As I mention in my book, don Juan told Carlos that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity” (Castaneda italicized dreaming to mean lucid or conscious dreaming). Some lucid dreamers will interpret that to mean in the imagination you can do anything within your infinite imagination, while others will suggest lucid dreaming leads to innumerable other dimensions. A’la Castaneda, some lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are focusing on the multidimensional view of lucid dreaming.
In my book I mention that a lucid dreamer can radically shift one’s focus by announcing to the awareness behind the dream, “Take me to the next level!” or “Show me the next form!” Instantly, you will find yourself lucidly aware in an entirely new lucid dream. In my experience, you may find yourself in your current home, for example, completely lucid in a changed environment. Now imagine what lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are doing: they lucidly go to the next level, then lucidly go from there to another level, and then another and another! They use lucid dreaming to explore multidimensional depth. Experientially, they appear to have discovered that each successive level leads to greater lucid dream stability.
In lucid dreaming, one can focus on the seen or the unseen, the known or the unknown, the actual or the potential – if one learns to use focus. Generally speaking, we focus within the framework of our conceptual base, because we feel comfortable there. However, lucid dreaming also allows us to focus beyond our conceptual knowing. It’s then that we get a sense of don Juan’s proclamation that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity.”
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
June 4, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
Failure can be a wickedly wonderful teacher. My early lucid dreams were filled with these sweet sour teachings. I’d become lucid, get excited and watch the lucid dream collapse. Or I’d become lucid, modulate my emotions, then watch a few interesting dream figures play a strange game – within twenty seconds, I would become captivated by their antics and lose my lucid awareness! Waking, I’d see the new lesson, “I have to focus on being consciously aware.”
Focus. To grow as a lucid dreamer, you have to learn focus.
The lessons on conscious focus continued for years, as I concentrated on the beauty and complexity of focus. For example in my early lucid attempts at flying, I would wonder with a bit of fear, “How high am I?” and then focus on the ground. You know what? Each time, I focused on the ground, I would move toward the ground. Suddenly, I would be lucidly falling out of the sky, as the object of my focus (and fear) came ever closer.
The lesson? Focus has an emotional dimension.
My failures taught me that focus involved more than sight. Focus followed the emotions in all their complexity. When lucidly walking and you fear that mean looking dream figure has noticed you, your fear locks in that focus, and pulls you into the gravity of fear and a near certain encounter. Conversely, if while flying you strongly wish to stand next to that attractive person on the hilltop, your emotionally tinged focus pulls you there more quickly. My teacher, failure, taught me that focus was rarely neutral. Focus usually followed the lucid dreamer’s emotions.
Consciously aware in the dream state, you can choose your focus. You do not have to focus on the attractive person; you do not have to focus on the person you fear. Instead, my teacher taught me that you can actively change your focus through a shift of mental and emotional emphasis. Almost instantly, you can say, “No,” to your habitual focus, and re-focus on another goal.
Making that shift of focus occur requires inner will. You will your focus away from entrapment by fear or desire. You will your focus in the direction of your new intent. Then, your will becomes a powerful reality creator, as you learn to adjust your focus and free yourself from habitual tendencies and emotional instincts.
Yet, there is even more to focus, since it has a multi-dimensional aspect. Next time, we’ll concentrate on using focus to access the unseen, the non-apparent, the imagined and unimagined.
Until then, stay lucid,
Robert
Failure can be a wickedly wonderful teacher. My early lucid dreams were filled with these sweet sour teachings. I’d become lucid, get excited and watch the lucid dream collapse. Or I’d become lucid, modulate my emotions, then watch a few interesting dream figures play a strange game – within twenty seconds, I would become captivated by their antics and lose my lucid awareness! Waking, I’d see the new lesson, “I have to focus on being consciously aware.”
Focus. To grow as a lucid dreamer, you have to learn focus.
The lessons on conscious focus continued for years, as I concentrated on the beauty and complexity of focus. For example in my early lucid attempts at flying, I would wonder with a bit of fear, “How high am I?” and then focus on the ground. You know what? Each time, I focused on the ground, I would move toward the ground. Suddenly, I would be lucidly falling out of the sky, as the object of my focus (and fear) came ever closer.
The lesson? Focus has an emotional dimension.
My failures taught me that focus involved more than sight. Focus followed the emotions in all their complexity. When lucidly walking and you fear that mean looking dream figure has noticed you, your fear locks in that focus, and pulls you into the gravity of fear and a near certain encounter. Conversely, if while flying you strongly wish to stand next to that attractive person on the hilltop, your emotionally tinged focus pulls you there more quickly. My teacher, failure, taught me that focus was rarely neutral. Focus usually followed the lucid dreamer’s emotions.
Consciously aware in the dream state, you can choose your focus. You do not have to focus on the attractive person; you do not have to focus on the person you fear. Instead, my teacher taught me that you can actively change your focus through a shift of mental and emotional emphasis. Almost instantly, you can say, “No,” to your habitual focus, and re-focus on another goal.
Making that shift of focus occur requires inner will. You will your focus away from entrapment by fear or desire. You will your focus in the direction of your new intent. Then, your will becomes a powerful reality creator, as you learn to adjust your focus and free yourself from habitual tendencies and emotional instincts.
Yet, there is even more to focus, since it has a multi-dimensional aspect. Next time, we’ll concentrate on using focus to access the unseen, the non-apparent, the imagined and unimagined.
Until then, stay lucid,
Robert
May 4, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
When the first spark of lucid realization illuminates your mind and you gleefully announce, “Hey, this is a dream,” what happens next?
For many beginning lucid dreamers, their success will be determined by how they respond in the first 15 to 30 seconds. In those initial crucial moments, taking four important steps can set you on the path to an exciting and lengthy lucid dream. These are the steps: 1) modulating your emotions, 2) elevating your awareness, 3) maintaining your focus, and finally, 4) establishing your intent.
The joy or euphoria that often accompanies your lucid dream realization will lead to its quick demise, unless you rein in the emotional intensity. Lucid dreaming newbies quickly learn to modulate their emotions, since intense emotions lead to the collapse of lucid dreams.
Lucid dreamers deal with intense emotions in a number of ways. Some visually focus on something boring, like their hands or the floor, since visually neutral stimuli serves to decrease any emotional upsurge. Others mentally tell themselves to “Calm down,” before their emotions get too high. While others begin to concentrate their energies on other tasks, which naturally reduces the level of sensed emotion.
Once the emotional level has stabilized, you will want to elevate or clarify your awareness. Some do this by performing a “reality check” (they levitate, put their hand through a wall, etc.) to re-confirm that they exist in the dream state. Some engage in a solidifying ritual, such as rubbing their dream hands together to ground themselves and spark the kinesthetic senses. You can take this further by shouting out a suggestion to the dream, such as “Greater clarity now!” or “More lucid awareness!” These vocalized intents normally show immediate results.
An elevated awareness makes the next goal of maintaining your focus much easier. Newbies frequently discover that their focus will wander, and suddenly they will get intrigued by some aspect of the dream. If not careful, this new aspect can become so interesting (or en-trancing) that your lucid awareness vanishes, and you slip back into regular, unaware dreaming.
Maintaining your focus requires an “active” realization of lucid dreaming. Many lucid dreamers perform repetitive actions to remind themselves that they are dreaming. They may repeatedly announce, “This is a lucid dream” or perform reality checks at certain intervals.
One caution about focus involves staring at objects in a lucid dream. For some reason, lucid dreamers find that staring fixedly at something for more than a few seconds often causes the dream to feel shaky and then collapse. Some lucid dreamers notice the shaky feeling and immediately look back at their hands or the ground to stabilize the dream state. Others have discovered ways to create a new dream scene (by closing their eyes for a second or spinning around); however, for inexperienced lucid dreamers a new dream environment may feel bewildering.
In my book, I suggest that the easiest way to maintain your focus involves establishing an intent or goal to accomplish, and then establishing a new intent or goal immediately after the initial accomplishment. You can think of this as the “active focus & re-focus” technique. By re-focusing on a new goal, you maintain an active state of awareness. Without an active focus on a goal, new elements will spontaneously enter the dream and capture your attention. Within seconds, your focus will likely become en-tranced by these new elements and you will lose lucidity, as you slip back into unaware dreaming. By habitually establishing goal after goal, you keep your awareness active.
Of course, a lucid dreaming goal may be a very simple thing, such as “I wonder what is around the corner?” or “I now want to walk through that door.” Each goal focuses your awareness and keeps conscious activity engaged. By stringing these simple goals together, a beginner can maintain lucid awareness, and have a surprisingly long lucid dream.
Each of these four crucial steps to successful lucid dreaming—1) modulating your emotions, 2) elevating your awareness, 3) maintaining your focus, and finally, 4) establishing your intent—requires your focus. With practice, these steps become second nature. Once established, you can confidently and lucidly explore the incredible beauty and creativity of your larger Self and the inner lands of the Psyche.
Best wishes,
Robert
April 8, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
When you read the papers of the late Gestalt psychologist and lucid dream researcher Paul Tholey, you discover a pioneer in developing a lucid mindset. I define a lucid mindset as a persistent mental habit of reexamining one’s perceived environment or state of awareness. This reexamination naturally leads to conscious awareness in the dream state.
In 1959, Tholey wondered if he could bring conscious awareness into the dream state by asking himself numerous times during the day, “Am I awake, or am I dreaming?” Reasoning that this question would occur to him in a dream, he then might become critically aware and conscious in the dream. After about a month’s consistent repetition of this question, he succeeded with his “Reflection Technique” and became lucid.
Some lucid dreamers have begun to call Tholey’s “Am I awake, or am I dreaming” the Critical Question. It definitely seems “a” critical question about one’s state – but it does not appear to be the only one, or the only one that leads to lucid awareness.
As previously mentioned, one ultra frequent lucid dreamer routinely asks, “What was I just doing?” This memory check prompts her lucid awareness, as she realizes she had been going to sleep, so this must be a dream. For her, the Critical Question that elicits greater critical awareness is a memory check about activity.
Other ultra frequent lucid dreamers appear to develop greater vigilance as a result of frequent nightmares in childhood. Apparently, they habitually scour the perceived environment to determine if they are dreaming and, therefore, possible prey for nightmarish figures. Perhaps their Critical Question might be, “Am I safe here?” or some expression of vigilant awareness which naturally leads to lucidity.
I imagine that young Buddhist monks learn to develop a lucid mindset when they repeatedly hear, “All of this is like a dream.” If you consistently consider all perceived environments to be “like a dream,” then you may enhance your ability to discern dreaming as being like a dream and become consciously aware in it.
In my experience, I began to develop a lucid mindset after reading the works of Jane Roberts, who put forth that our perceived experience came as a direct outgrowth of our beliefs, thoughts and feelings. Therefore, understanding our experience required an investigation of our beliefs, thoughts and feelings. So when something notable would happen in my waking life, I would wonder, “Why did I create this? How does this relate to my beliefs, thoughts or feelings?” Like Tholey, these same questions began seeping into my dream life, prompting lucid awareness, as I reconsidered an outlandish event and determined “This could only occur in a dream!”
These examples show how a lucid dreamer can easily develop a lucid mindset. By consciously adopting a Critical Question that appeals to you and requires you to reexamine your experience and by using it consistently during the day, it transfers to your dreaming and causes you to reexamine the dream experience. This questioning mindset naturally leads you to lucid awareness.
The Critical Question does not have to be philosophical; it can be simple, like “What was I just doing?” or “Where am I?” However it must be used consistently during waking hours.
Imagine an entire society and culture persistently asking a Critical Question. Maybe over time, lucid dreaming will lead to a worldwide lucid mindset,
Robert W
When you read the papers of the late Gestalt psychologist and lucid dream researcher Paul Tholey, you discover a pioneer in developing a lucid mindset. I define a lucid mindset as a persistent mental habit of reexamining one’s perceived environment or state of awareness. This reexamination naturally leads to conscious awareness in the dream state.
In 1959, Tholey wondered if he could bring conscious awareness into the dream state by asking himself numerous times during the day, “Am I awake, or am I dreaming?” Reasoning that this question would occur to him in a dream, he then might become critically aware and conscious in the dream. After about a month’s consistent repetition of this question, he succeeded with his “Reflection Technique” and became lucid.
Some lucid dreamers have begun to call Tholey’s “Am I awake, or am I dreaming” the Critical Question. It definitely seems “a” critical question about one’s state – but it does not appear to be the only one, or the only one that leads to lucid awareness.
As previously mentioned, one ultra frequent lucid dreamer routinely asks, “What was I just doing?” This memory check prompts her lucid awareness, as she realizes she had been going to sleep, so this must be a dream. For her, the Critical Question that elicits greater critical awareness is a memory check about activity.
Other ultra frequent lucid dreamers appear to develop greater vigilance as a result of frequent nightmares in childhood. Apparently, they habitually scour the perceived environment to determine if they are dreaming and, therefore, possible prey for nightmarish figures. Perhaps their Critical Question might be, “Am I safe here?” or some expression of vigilant awareness which naturally leads to lucidity.
I imagine that young Buddhist monks learn to develop a lucid mindset when they repeatedly hear, “All of this is like a dream.” If you consistently consider all perceived environments to be “like a dream,” then you may enhance your ability to discern dreaming as being like a dream and become consciously aware in it.
In my experience, I began to develop a lucid mindset after reading the works of Jane Roberts, who put forth that our perceived experience came as a direct outgrowth of our beliefs, thoughts and feelings. Therefore, understanding our experience required an investigation of our beliefs, thoughts and feelings. So when something notable would happen in my waking life, I would wonder, “Why did I create this? How does this relate to my beliefs, thoughts or feelings?” Like Tholey, these same questions began seeping into my dream life, prompting lucid awareness, as I reconsidered an outlandish event and determined “This could only occur in a dream!”
These examples show how a lucid dreamer can easily develop a lucid mindset. By consciously adopting a Critical Question that appeals to you and requires you to reexamine your experience and by using it consistently during the day, it transfers to your dreaming and causes you to reexamine the dream experience. This questioning mindset naturally leads you to lucid awareness.
The Critical Question does not have to be philosophical; it can be simple, like “What was I just doing?” or “Where am I?” However it must be used consistently during waking hours.
Imagine an entire society and culture persistently asking a Critical Question. Maybe over time, lucid dreaming will lead to a worldwide lucid mindset,
Robert W
March 4, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
Why do some dreamers immediately take to lucid dreaming, while others struggle to achieve lucidity even once?
I thought about this question recently when interviewing a young Norwegian woman, Line Salvesen, for The Lucid Dream Exchange. She claims to have about fifteen hundred lucid dreams a year. For most of us who average three or four lucid dreams a month, fifteen hundred per year sounds incredible!
She’s not the only person, though. Over the years, I have met a number of ultra-frequent lucid dreamers, on-line and in person. Curious about their ability, I began to search for some common characteristics—something to explain this high frequency. I noticed how they often assumed everyone dreamt lucidly, and felt shocked to learn this was not the case. In some cases, their frequent lucid dreaming could be traced back to persistent childhood nightmares where they learned how to achieve lucidity to deal with nightmare scenarios. In other cases, their frequent lucid dreaming seemed connected to certain waking mental habits.
Recalling my carefree college days studying behavioral psychology and reading Carlos Castaneda, I went from three to eight lucid dreams a month to a high of thirty lucid dreams per month at my peak—all of which I nicely charted as a budding behaviorist. Some of this increase I could attribute to the use of the MILD technique. But decades later, when I began meeting ultra-frequent lucid dreamers, I began to feel a bit deflated, quantitatively speaking. How did they achieve lucidity so frequently?
Then a mini-epiphany came to me.
One day, reading an email from an ultra-frequent lucid dreamer, and feeling a tinge of envy mixed with curiosity, I responded, “How? How do you become lucidly aware in almost every dream?” The lucid dreamer wrote that she had a consistent habit of asking herself repeatedly, “What was I just doing?” This mental habit carried over to her dreaming awareness, such that in the dream she would pose this exact question to herself, “What was I just doing?” Searching her mind, she realized she had been preparing for sleep, so therefore, she must be dreaming!
At that moment, a little light went on in my brain. Ultra-frequent lucid dreamers develop a lucid mindset.
A lucid mindset means a persistent mental habit of reexamining one’s perceived environment or state of awareness. Whether it involved memory or vigilance (e.g., Am I safe here from nightmares?), these ultra-frequent lucid dreamers repeatedly checked or analyzed their current situation.
For some, numerous nightmares apparently reinforced the need to differentiate waking from dreaming, and allowed them to become highly attuned to dream state cues that would prompt lucid awareness. This habitual need to examine their state (waking or dreaming) naturally led to lucid dreaming, as a positive way to handle nightmares. Done with consistency over time, a lucid mindset developed, which became an unconscious and routine part of their dreaming life.
As for the lucid dreamer who consistently questioned herself to remember her last action, we find another type of lucid mindset. Here, she performs not so much a “reality check” as a memory check that leads to a reality check! Her questioning leads her to reexamine more thoroughly her environment or current state, and she becomes lucid. Whatever the underlying motivation, certain habitual mental patterns lead these ultra-frequent lucid dreamers to examine their perceived environment or current state more closely.
So how can you use this knowledge to become a more frequent lucid dreamer? How can you work towards developing a lucid mindset? Or do you have a touch of a lucid mindset already, which you just haven’t noticed?
Next blog, we’ll explore these “critical questions” and see how we can develop our lucid mind.
Lucid wishes,
Robert
Why do some dreamers immediately take to lucid dreaming, while others struggle to achieve lucidity even once?
I thought about this question recently when interviewing a young Norwegian woman, Line Salvesen, for The Lucid Dream Exchange. She claims to have about fifteen hundred lucid dreams a year. For most of us who average three or four lucid dreams a month, fifteen hundred per year sounds incredible!
She’s not the only person, though. Over the years, I have met a number of ultra-frequent lucid dreamers, on-line and in person. Curious about their ability, I began to search for some common characteristics—something to explain this high frequency. I noticed how they often assumed everyone dreamt lucidly, and felt shocked to learn this was not the case. In some cases, their frequent lucid dreaming could be traced back to persistent childhood nightmares where they learned how to achieve lucidity to deal with nightmare scenarios. In other cases, their frequent lucid dreaming seemed connected to certain waking mental habits.
Recalling my carefree college days studying behavioral psychology and reading Carlos Castaneda, I went from three to eight lucid dreams a month to a high of thirty lucid dreams per month at my peak—all of which I nicely charted as a budding behaviorist. Some of this increase I could attribute to the use of the MILD technique. But decades later, when I began meeting ultra-frequent lucid dreamers, I began to feel a bit deflated, quantitatively speaking. How did they achieve lucidity so frequently?
Then a mini-epiphany came to me.
One day, reading an email from an ultra-frequent lucid dreamer, and feeling a tinge of envy mixed with curiosity, I responded, “How? How do you become lucidly aware in almost every dream?” The lucid dreamer wrote that she had a consistent habit of asking herself repeatedly, “What was I just doing?” This mental habit carried over to her dreaming awareness, such that in the dream she would pose this exact question to herself, “What was I just doing?” Searching her mind, she realized she had been preparing for sleep, so therefore, she must be dreaming!
At that moment, a little light went on in my brain. Ultra-frequent lucid dreamers develop a lucid mindset.
A lucid mindset means a persistent mental habit of reexamining one’s perceived environment or state of awareness. Whether it involved memory or vigilance (e.g., Am I safe here from nightmares?), these ultra-frequent lucid dreamers repeatedly checked or analyzed their current situation.
For some, numerous nightmares apparently reinforced the need to differentiate waking from dreaming, and allowed them to become highly attuned to dream state cues that would prompt lucid awareness. This habitual need to examine their state (waking or dreaming) naturally led to lucid dreaming, as a positive way to handle nightmares. Done with consistency over time, a lucid mindset developed, which became an unconscious and routine part of their dreaming life.
As for the lucid dreamer who consistently questioned herself to remember her last action, we find another type of lucid mindset. Here, she performs not so much a “reality check” as a memory check that leads to a reality check! Her questioning leads her to reexamine more thoroughly her environment or current state, and she becomes lucid. Whatever the underlying motivation, certain habitual mental patterns lead these ultra-frequent lucid dreamers to examine their perceived environment or current state more closely.
So how can you use this knowledge to become a more frequent lucid dreamer? How can you work towards developing a lucid mindset? Or do you have a touch of a lucid mindset already, which you just haven’t noticed?
Next blog, we’ll explore these “critical questions” and see how we can develop our lucid mind.
Lucid wishes,
Robert
February 4, 2009
Dear Dreamers,
In my previous two blogs I discussed the phenomena of lucid euphoria and lucid ecstasy. Now, I’d like to explore what I call the lucid afterglow, a state in which many lucid dreamers find themselves upon waking from a lucid dream.
Like the natural afterglow of the sun that has already set but whose light still reflects off of high clouds and bathes the landscape in its diffused brilliance, the afterglow of lucid dreaming seems to impact us with a special feeling. Lucid dreamers often describe the afterglow as a feeling of increased energy, a positive feeling of radiant confidence or a sense of heightened awareness. Sometimes this relates back to an accomplishment in the lucid dream, but the afterglow often follows a simplistic lucid dream.
However expressed, the affect has been noted to linger for hours and even days in rare cases. The person feels a noticeable inner change, which, like the setting sun, gradually subsides and disappears.
The afterglow effect can be found in a number of human endeavors: emerging from a hot sauna, endorphins from a long distance run, a deep massage, etc. However, all of these are physical events. What is it about the mental event of lucid dreaming that creates a lucid afterglow? And why would a lucid afterglow lasts for hours, even days?
There may be as yet undiscovered chemical or hormonal releases activated by this unique state of conscious awareness in dreaming that persist in the body long after the lucid dream. In fact, it may be discovered that lucid dreaming’s similarity to waking activates those neurotransmitters and hormones associated with waking. This alone would explain how the afterglow effect persists long into the waking hours.
To develop this idea more deeply, think about the affect of a nightmare. Dreaming, we encounter something frightening and our fright multiplies as we run screaming and terrified. Once we awake, the physical and emotional affect quickly dissipate; the heart beat and breathing soon return to normal. Within five or ten minutes, we are fast asleep and headed back towards dreaming. Why is there no nightmare afterglow that persists for hours after waking? Why do many lucid dreams have a lengthy afterglow, but a regular dream does not? Does a regular dream’s influence become relatively limited to the dreaming brain, while a lucid dream influences both the dreaming and waking brain, and therefore persists long into the waking state?
The lucid afterglow may have a connection to the considerable power for healing in lucid dreams — a topic I devote a book chapter to, and which relies heavily on the work of lucid dreamer, Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. There, you can read approximately fifteen successful healing attempts in the lucid dream state, which carried over successfully to the lucid dreamer’s physical condition as an after-effect. Many of these seem quite dramatic and suggest the healing potential of lucid dreaming.
For most lucid dreamers, though, the lucid afterglow will be just that — a warm sense of joy, confidence and heightened awareness which lingers into their waking hours as an unseen gift from lucid dreaming.
Best wishes until next time,
Robert Waggoner
In my previous two blogs I discussed the phenomena of lucid euphoria and lucid ecstasy. Now, I’d like to explore what I call the lucid afterglow, a state in which many lucid dreamers find themselves upon waking from a lucid dream.
Like the natural afterglow of the sun that has already set but whose light still reflects off of high clouds and bathes the landscape in its diffused brilliance, the afterglow of lucid dreaming seems to impact us with a special feeling. Lucid dreamers often describe the afterglow as a feeling of increased energy, a positive feeling of radiant confidence or a sense of heightened awareness. Sometimes this relates back to an accomplishment in the lucid dream, but the afterglow often follows a simplistic lucid dream.
However expressed, the affect has been noted to linger for hours and even days in rare cases. The person feels a noticeable inner change, which, like the setting sun, gradually subsides and disappears.
The afterglow effect can be found in a number of human endeavors: emerging from a hot sauna, endorphins from a long distance run, a deep massage, etc. However, all of these are physical events. What is it about the mental event of lucid dreaming that creates a lucid afterglow? And why would a lucid afterglow lasts for hours, even days?
There may be as yet undiscovered chemical or hormonal releases activated by this unique state of conscious awareness in dreaming that persist in the body long after the lucid dream. In fact, it may be discovered that lucid dreaming’s similarity to waking activates those neurotransmitters and hormones associated with waking. This alone would explain how the afterglow effect persists long into the waking hours.
To develop this idea more deeply, think about the affect of a nightmare. Dreaming, we encounter something frightening and our fright multiplies as we run screaming and terrified. Once we awake, the physical and emotional affect quickly dissipate; the heart beat and breathing soon return to normal. Within five or ten minutes, we are fast asleep and headed back towards dreaming. Why is there no nightmare afterglow that persists for hours after waking? Why do many lucid dreams have a lengthy afterglow, but a regular dream does not? Does a regular dream’s influence become relatively limited to the dreaming brain, while a lucid dream influences both the dreaming and waking brain, and therefore persists long into the waking state?
The lucid afterglow may have a connection to the considerable power for healing in lucid dreams — a topic I devote a book chapter to, and which relies heavily on the work of lucid dreamer, Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. There, you can read approximately fifteen successful healing attempts in the lucid dream state, which carried over successfully to the lucid dreamer’s physical condition as an after-effect. Many of these seem quite dramatic and suggest the healing potential of lucid dreaming.
For most lucid dreamers, though, the lucid afterglow will be just that — a warm sense of joy, confidence and heightened awareness which lingers into their waking hours as an unseen gift from lucid dreaming.
Best wishes until next time,
Robert Waggoner
December 17, 2008
Dear Dreamers,
In my previous blog (October 22) I discussed lucid euphoria, which can occur at the beginning of many lucid dreams. An even more profoundly intense experience can occur within and during the lucid dream. I call this lucid ecstasy.
Lucid dreaming lends itself to depth experiences, I feel, because it involves both the awareness of the waking mind with the vastness of the unconscious mind. This combined awareness of waking conscious and unconscious naturally leads to deep, unparalleled encounters with the mystery of the larger Self. As Carl Jung noted, however, even the light of the numinous must pass through the lens of each person’s unconscious, resulting in a multiplicity of manifestations.
Lucid ecstasy can have many forms in the lucid dream, yet primarily appears as an overwhelming sense of beauty and thanks, or a spiritual or religious knowing, initiation or comprehension, and sometimes an intense physically oriented sensation.
Once in a lucid dream, I consciously wandered the nearby streets in the sparkling darkness, admiring the beauty and seeming aliveness of the dreamt houses, the sidewalk, the trees with their near perfect details and uniqueness. At that moment, I could feel something welling up inside of me, and I spontaneously began expressing my deepest, sincerest thanks for being alive and aware in this incredible place at this wondrous time. Suddenly, the outpouring became a gushing of thanksgivings, a bursting forth of praise for the miracle of this created reality, like years of pent-up, unexpressed joy found an outlet and shot into the skies of my mind with exploding fireworks of happiness.
In the morning, I sought to understand what had happened. Lucid ecstasy was the only way to describe it.
Discovering this deep joy in lucid dreams has been noted by many lucid dreamers. The author of Pathway to Ecstasy, Patricia Garfield, commented that along her lucid dreaming path, she found changing levels of emotion, activity and content. She writes, “At the first level, we are total victims of our dreams figures. . . . At the second level, we are active participants in our dream struggles. . . . At the third level of interaction, we are conscious and peaceful participants in our dream adventures.” She then concludes, “At the fourth level of interaction, we move into a full-blown mystical, ecstatic experience within the dream.”
Garfield suggests that at this fourth level, where ecstasy arrives, the lucid dreamer finds, “Forms disappear and all is radiance. We are part of a single life force. I glimpse the brilliance of this level fleetingly, at one with the universe. These are the dream experiences of light.”
For many of us, these ecstatic experiences of “a single life force” or oneness will materialize in various ways. Some will experience pure light – a knowing, compassionate, positive light, in which we find deep support, acceptance, knowledge and love. Others may find this light emanating from lucidly dreamt figures or buildings or objects, sometimes holding religious or spiritual significance that prompts an extraordinary realization within the lucid viewer. Still others may find themselves as a pinpoint of light, hurtling through the cosmos, or comprehending its connection to all other points.
However experienced, a feeling of lucid ecstasy often emerges, as the lucid dreamer consciously connects to the “radiance.”
Perhaps most common among lucid dreamers is the sense of lucid ecstasy that derives from a dreamt physical experience. It may be the sense of enormous freedom felt when lucidly flying through the dreamscape with mastery. Or, it may be engaging in a deep sense of oneness while lucidly and passionately coupling with another. However expressed, it seems the lucid senses heighten the beauty and joy to a crescendo of intensely felt sensation. For a brief moment, the lucid dreamer feels transformed by the intensity and reaches a momentary sense of ecstasy.
I recall a lucid dream in which the breakthrough was visually experienced. Frustrated by some impediment in flying, I felt lucidly determined to go as fast as possible and cast aside any constraint to flying. As I willed myself forward, propelled by emotion, the imagery slid by quickly until it became a streaked blur of color – then suddenly, like breaking the sound barrier, I seemed to break the visual barrier, and burst into a darkness where the light existed in myriad capsule forms which scattered in front of my perception, like so many pieces of broken glass. I marveled at this shattering of imagery, as bits of light tumbled through the darkness.
In many regards, lucid ecstasy points to the breaking of typical constraints. For a moment, the lucid dreamer allows an expansion, an outpouring, a breakthrough of consciousness and sensation. Then, radiant joy rushes into the openness, which the lucid dreamer experiences as a kind of ecstasy.
Next time, we will bask in the lucid afterglow, which many experience for hours or days after their lucid dream.
Until then, best wishes,
Robert Waggoner
In my previous blog (October 22) I discussed lucid euphoria, which can occur at the beginning of many lucid dreams. An even more profoundly intense experience can occur within and during the lucid dream. I call this lucid ecstasy.
Lucid dreaming lends itself to depth experiences, I feel, because it involves both the awareness of the waking mind with the vastness of the unconscious mind. This combined awareness of waking conscious and unconscious naturally leads to deep, unparalleled encounters with the mystery of the larger Self. As Carl Jung noted, however, even the light of the numinous must pass through the lens of each person’s unconscious, resulting in a multiplicity of manifestations.
Lucid ecstasy can have many forms in the lucid dream, yet primarily appears as an overwhelming sense of beauty and thanks, or a spiritual or religious knowing, initiation or comprehension, and sometimes an intense physically oriented sensation.
Once in a lucid dream, I consciously wandered the nearby streets in the sparkling darkness, admiring the beauty and seeming aliveness of the dreamt houses, the sidewalk, the trees with their near perfect details and uniqueness. At that moment, I could feel something welling up inside of me, and I spontaneously began expressing my deepest, sincerest thanks for being alive and aware in this incredible place at this wondrous time. Suddenly, the outpouring became a gushing of thanksgivings, a bursting forth of praise for the miracle of this created reality, like years of pent-up, unexpressed joy found an outlet and shot into the skies of my mind with exploding fireworks of happiness.
In the morning, I sought to understand what had happened. Lucid ecstasy was the only way to describe it.
Discovering this deep joy in lucid dreams has been noted by many lucid dreamers. The author of Pathway to Ecstasy, Patricia Garfield, commented that along her lucid dreaming path, she found changing levels of emotion, activity and content. She writes, “At the first level, we are total victims of our dreams figures. . . . At the second level, we are active participants in our dream struggles. . . . At the third level of interaction, we are conscious and peaceful participants in our dream adventures.” She then concludes, “At the fourth level of interaction, we move into a full-blown mystical, ecstatic experience within the dream.”
Garfield suggests that at this fourth level, where ecstasy arrives, the lucid dreamer finds, “Forms disappear and all is radiance. We are part of a single life force. I glimpse the brilliance of this level fleetingly, at one with the universe. These are the dream experiences of light.”
For many of us, these ecstatic experiences of “a single life force” or oneness will materialize in various ways. Some will experience pure light – a knowing, compassionate, positive light, in which we find deep support, acceptance, knowledge and love. Others may find this light emanating from lucidly dreamt figures or buildings or objects, sometimes holding religious or spiritual significance that prompts an extraordinary realization within the lucid viewer. Still others may find themselves as a pinpoint of light, hurtling through the cosmos, or comprehending its connection to all other points.
However experienced, a feeling of lucid ecstasy often emerges, as the lucid dreamer consciously connects to the “radiance.”
Perhaps most common among lucid dreamers is the sense of lucid ecstasy that derives from a dreamt physical experience. It may be the sense of enormous freedom felt when lucidly flying through the dreamscape with mastery. Or, it may be engaging in a deep sense of oneness while lucidly and passionately coupling with another. However expressed, it seems the lucid senses heighten the beauty and joy to a crescendo of intensely felt sensation. For a brief moment, the lucid dreamer feels transformed by the intensity and reaches a momentary sense of ecstasy.
I recall a lucid dream in which the breakthrough was visually experienced. Frustrated by some impediment in flying, I felt lucidly determined to go as fast as possible and cast aside any constraint to flying. As I willed myself forward, propelled by emotion, the imagery slid by quickly until it became a streaked blur of color – then suddenly, like breaking the sound barrier, I seemed to break the visual barrier, and burst into a darkness where the light existed in myriad capsule forms which scattered in front of my perception, like so many pieces of broken glass. I marveled at this shattering of imagery, as bits of light tumbled through the darkness.
In many regards, lucid ecstasy points to the breaking of typical constraints. For a moment, the lucid dreamer allows an expansion, an outpouring, a breakthrough of consciousness and sensation. Then, radiant joy rushes into the openness, which the lucid dreamer experiences as a kind of ecstasy.
Next time, we will bask in the lucid afterglow, which many experience for hours or days after their lucid dream.
Until then, best wishes,
Robert Waggoner
October 22, 2008
Dear Dreamers,
Let’s consider: lucid euphoria, lucid ecstasy, and the lucid afterglow.
A common and noticeable effect of becoming consciously aware in dreams is what you could call lucid euphoria.
At that moment of realizing “This is a dream,” you often experience a giddy feeling, like some type of primal, creative energy is now coursing through you. When you couple that feeling, that energy, with the awareness that you now exist in the mental realm of dreams, it creates a noticeable lucid euphoria. You feel newly empowered with a yet to be expressed brilliance, as if truly knowing everything actually is possible. A new world opens to you and anxiously awaits your creative breath.
In waking life, it seems rare to experience this lucid euphoria. You might have to conjure up memories from childhood – those moments of mental or physical struggle, when suddenly, without knowing exactly how, you “got” it! Sitting in the third grade, you spontaneously “got” how to divide numbers. Or in band, you finally “got” how to blow into your flute! Those brief flashes of insight and mastery that erupted within your mind – and gave you a brief sense of euphoria and sudden mastery. Those moments hint at the dreamer’s feeling of lucid euphoria.
But why lucid euphoria? I recall reading excerpts of an early panel discussion on lucid dreaming at the Association for the Study of Dreams when Ernest Hartmann, M.D. brought up that question. Why would lucid dreaming result in a sense of joy, of euphoria? No one had an answer.
As I see it, there may be any number of explanations, so let me express a few possible contenders.
Neurologically, a sense of euphoria may result from the neuro-chemical splash of mixing the dreaming brain with the lucid (more-waking) brain. The addition of conscious awareness to the dreaming brain may spark new cells, new brain areas to activate, as new mental powers come online. Science has noticed that the dreaming brain operates differently than the waking brain. As Richard C. Wilkerson notes:
“Generally speaking, when we go to sleep the brain becomes deactivated, desensitized to outer sounds and sensations and switches over from an aminergic neurochemical system that keeps us alert and focused on the outer world to a cholinergic system that allows for relaxation. We are sleeping. Then something strange occurs, the aminergic system stops almost completely and the cholinergic system becomes hyperactive” (Electric Dreams, March 2003).
If my conjecture is correct, the awareness of lucidity prompts both systems into activation, and you suddenly get a joining of brain powers, which the lucid dreamer feels as lucid euphoria. Of course, that is simply a conjecture on my part. To my knowledge, no scientist has broached or considered this point.
On a mental level, lucid euphoria may be a function of moving from a reactive mode of being chased by dream figures or accepting bizarre situations to suddenly switching to a more conscious, more powerful and deliberate mode of lucid awareness. By gaining a sense of directive control, the lucid dreamer feels a sense of euphoria – now that he or she can consciously direct the dreaming to his or her liking.
On a spiritual level, I have only read one comment pertaining to what I call lucid euphoria -- and that was in the writings of Jane Roberts. She suggested that the giddy sense of joy reflected the Self’s awareness of having accessed the larger storehouse of its inner abilities. Our waking self rarely accessed its fuller abilities, she maintained. When lucid, all of those abilities are activated more directly, and the dreamer senses the additional power inherent in those abilities as a type of joy.
Now others may point to a psychological explanation, such as lucid euphoria represents the ego inflation that naturally results when mixing the waking self with the unconscious self. Perhaps a strict Jungian might say that. Or (thinking like a behaviorist now), lucid euphoria results from having been rewarded in previous lucid dreams; so the joy reflects the conditioned response of expecting the same playful fun as in other lucid dreams.
However it arrives, lucid euphoria truly exists. It loftily carries many lucid dreamers forward, who feel its energy as a welcoming to the dreaming awareness.
—Robert Waggoner
P.S.: Next blog, we’ll talk more as we move into the space of lucid ecstasy, and then move onto the after-effects of lucid dreaming, or the lucid afterglow. See you then . . .
Let’s consider: lucid euphoria, lucid ecstasy, and the lucid afterglow.
A common and noticeable effect of becoming consciously aware in dreams is what you could call lucid euphoria.
At that moment of realizing “This is a dream,” you often experience a giddy feeling, like some type of primal, creative energy is now coursing through you. When you couple that feeling, that energy, with the awareness that you now exist in the mental realm of dreams, it creates a noticeable lucid euphoria. You feel newly empowered with a yet to be expressed brilliance, as if truly knowing everything actually is possible. A new world opens to you and anxiously awaits your creative breath.
In waking life, it seems rare to experience this lucid euphoria. You might have to conjure up memories from childhood – those moments of mental or physical struggle, when suddenly, without knowing exactly how, you “got” it! Sitting in the third grade, you spontaneously “got” how to divide numbers. Or in band, you finally “got” how to blow into your flute! Those brief flashes of insight and mastery that erupted within your mind – and gave you a brief sense of euphoria and sudden mastery. Those moments hint at the dreamer’s feeling of lucid euphoria.
But why lucid euphoria? I recall reading excerpts of an early panel discussion on lucid dreaming at the Association for the Study of Dreams when Ernest Hartmann, M.D. brought up that question. Why would lucid dreaming result in a sense of joy, of euphoria? No one had an answer.
As I see it, there may be any number of explanations, so let me express a few possible contenders.
Neurologically, a sense of euphoria may result from the neuro-chemical splash of mixing the dreaming brain with the lucid (more-waking) brain. The addition of conscious awareness to the dreaming brain may spark new cells, new brain areas to activate, as new mental powers come online. Science has noticed that the dreaming brain operates differently than the waking brain. As Richard C. Wilkerson notes:
“Generally speaking, when we go to sleep the brain becomes deactivated, desensitized to outer sounds and sensations and switches over from an aminergic neurochemical system that keeps us alert and focused on the outer world to a cholinergic system that allows for relaxation. We are sleeping. Then something strange occurs, the aminergic system stops almost completely and the cholinergic system becomes hyperactive” (Electric Dreams, March 2003).
If my conjecture is correct, the awareness of lucidity prompts both systems into activation, and you suddenly get a joining of brain powers, which the lucid dreamer feels as lucid euphoria. Of course, that is simply a conjecture on my part. To my knowledge, no scientist has broached or considered this point.
On a mental level, lucid euphoria may be a function of moving from a reactive mode of being chased by dream figures or accepting bizarre situations to suddenly switching to a more conscious, more powerful and deliberate mode of lucid awareness. By gaining a sense of directive control, the lucid dreamer feels a sense of euphoria – now that he or she can consciously direct the dreaming to his or her liking.
On a spiritual level, I have only read one comment pertaining to what I call lucid euphoria -- and that was in the writings of Jane Roberts. She suggested that the giddy sense of joy reflected the Self’s awareness of having accessed the larger storehouse of its inner abilities. Our waking self rarely accessed its fuller abilities, she maintained. When lucid, all of those abilities are activated more directly, and the dreamer senses the additional power inherent in those abilities as a type of joy.
Now others may point to a psychological explanation, such as lucid euphoria represents the ego inflation that naturally results when mixing the waking self with the unconscious self. Perhaps a strict Jungian might say that. Or (thinking like a behaviorist now), lucid euphoria results from having been rewarded in previous lucid dreams; so the joy reflects the conditioned response of expecting the same playful fun as in other lucid dreams.
However it arrives, lucid euphoria truly exists. It loftily carries many lucid dreamers forward, who feel its energy as a welcoming to the dreaming awareness.
—Robert Waggoner
P.S.: Next blog, we’ll talk more as we move into the space of lucid ecstasy, and then move onto the after-effects of lucid dreaming, or the lucid afterglow. See you then . . .
August 29, 2008
Dear Dreamers,
Before I had a book, I had this: 1,000 lucid dreams, thirty-two years of lucid dreaming experience, and lots of time to think about it.
I mention this not to boast, but simply state it took a lot of lucid dreaming to derive the insights, the experiences, the depth of lucid dreaming that you will find in Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.
I also had something else – a deep desire to tell the larger story of lucid dreaming, and in so doing, expand the potential of new lucid dreamers to investigate that larger story for themselves. You see, I noticed that some lucid dreamers were settling for a simple explanation of lucid dreaming, which one could briefly state like this: lucid dreamers experience only the lucid dreamer’s expectation and mental models. (Carl Jung disagreed vehemently with this “mirror” view of dreaming, which suggested that dreams only mirror the contents of our conscious mind.)
When it appeared that some lucid dreamers had simplified the experience of lucid dreaming to only expectation and mental models, I knew I had to write a book – if for no other reason than to correct that misperception, that mischaracterization. Lucid dreaming seems much more profound, much deeper than expectation and mental models, and the proof lies in lucidly seeking out the unexpected, seeking beyond mental models, venturing into the unknown. When you consciously experience the unexpected, the unknowable in a lucid dream, you know that you have gone deeper than the ego self or the waking self – you have made contact consciously with a deeper portion of your own being.
This book explores that inner depth, and provides an outline of what I and many other talented lucid dreamers are discovering.
Along my journey, I had the great fortune of meeting talented lucid dreamers at the annual International Association for the Study of Dreams conference (asdreams.org). There, we were able to listen to each other’s presentations, talk afterwards and share ideas, techniques and some of our deepest lucid experiences. I benefited immensely from their friendship and wisdom.
Hearing that others shared many similar lucid dream experiences and had come to much the same conclusions as I, supported my developing view that common principles exist in dreaming. Lucid dreaming and the experience of lucid dreamer shows convincingly that dreaming is a principled environment. When lucidly aware, it definitely does not seem chaotic or a random firing of neurons in search of a meaning – dreaming appears to be a structured environment, operating according to certain principles. And when consciously aware, you can experiment in that principled environment and begin to establish a model of those principles and how they assist in the creation of that realm.
In this book, I have sought to do many things – to express both the principles of the lucid dream realm and the profound depth and mystery of that realm, which includes interacting with the awareness behind the dream, an awareness I call the Inner Self. Through example and explicit techniques, I demonstrate various actions dreamers can take to increase their likelihood of becoming lucidly aware and maintain that state successfully.
I hope you enjoy reading the book, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Moreover, I hope it spurs you to investigate lucid dreaming for yourself, and experience the depth of inner space.
Sincerely,
Robert Waggoner
Before I had a book, I had this: 1,000 lucid dreams, thirty-two years of lucid dreaming experience, and lots of time to think about it.
I mention this not to boast, but simply state it took a lot of lucid dreaming to derive the insights, the experiences, the depth of lucid dreaming that you will find in Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.
I also had something else – a deep desire to tell the larger story of lucid dreaming, and in so doing, expand the potential of new lucid dreamers to investigate that larger story for themselves. You see, I noticed that some lucid dreamers were settling for a simple explanation of lucid dreaming, which one could briefly state like this: lucid dreamers experience only the lucid dreamer’s expectation and mental models. (Carl Jung disagreed vehemently with this “mirror” view of dreaming, which suggested that dreams only mirror the contents of our conscious mind.)
When it appeared that some lucid dreamers had simplified the experience of lucid dreaming to only expectation and mental models, I knew I had to write a book – if for no other reason than to correct that misperception, that mischaracterization. Lucid dreaming seems much more profound, much deeper than expectation and mental models, and the proof lies in lucidly seeking out the unexpected, seeking beyond mental models, venturing into the unknown. When you consciously experience the unexpected, the unknowable in a lucid dream, you know that you have gone deeper than the ego self or the waking self – you have made contact consciously with a deeper portion of your own being.
This book explores that inner depth, and provides an outline of what I and many other talented lucid dreamers are discovering.
Along my journey, I had the great fortune of meeting talented lucid dreamers at the annual International Association for the Study of Dreams conference (asdreams.org). There, we were able to listen to each other’s presentations, talk afterwards and share ideas, techniques and some of our deepest lucid experiences. I benefited immensely from their friendship and wisdom.
Hearing that others shared many similar lucid dream experiences and had come to much the same conclusions as I, supported my developing view that common principles exist in dreaming. Lucid dreaming and the experience of lucid dreamer shows convincingly that dreaming is a principled environment. When lucidly aware, it definitely does not seem chaotic or a random firing of neurons in search of a meaning – dreaming appears to be a structured environment, operating according to certain principles. And when consciously aware, you can experiment in that principled environment and begin to establish a model of those principles and how they assist in the creation of that realm.
In this book, I have sought to do many things – to express both the principles of the lucid dream realm and the profound depth and mystery of that realm, which includes interacting with the awareness behind the dream, an awareness I call the Inner Self. Through example and explicit techniques, I demonstrate various actions dreamers can take to increase their likelihood of becoming lucidly aware and maintain that state successfully.
I hope you enjoy reading the book, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Moreover, I hope it spurs you to investigate lucid dreaming for yourself, and experience the depth of inner space.
Sincerely,
Robert Waggoner
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