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