Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self is the account of an extraordinarily talented lucid dreamer who goes beyond the boundaries of both psychology and religion. In the process, he stumbles upon the Inner Self.
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway To The I
While lucid (consciously aware) in the dream state and able to act and interact with dream figures, objects, and settings, dream expert Robert Waggoner experienced something transformative and unexpected. He was able to interact consciously with the dream observer - the apparent Inner Self - within the dream. At first this seemed shocking, even impossible, since psychology normally alludes to such theoretical inner aspects as the Subliminal Self, the Center, the Internal Self-Helper in vague and theoretical ways. Waggoner came to realize, however, that aware interaction with the Inner Self was not only possible, but actual and highly inspiring. He concluded that while aware in the dream state, one has both a psychological tool and a platform from which to understand dreaming and the larger picture of man's psyche as well. Waggoner proposes 5 stages of lucid dreaming and guides readers through them, offering advice for those who have never experienced the lucid dream state and suggestions for how experienced lucid dreamers can advance to a new level.
Robert Waggoner is President-Elect of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and a summa cum laude graduate of Drake University with a degree in psychology. He is also the co-founder and editor of the online journal, The Lucid Dream Exchange the only ongoing publication devoted specifically to lucid dreaming. He is a frequent speaker at national and international dream conferences.
While lucid (consciously aware) in the dream state and able to act and interact with dream figures, objects, and settings, dream expert Robert Waggoner experienced something transformative and unexpected. He was able to interact consciously with the dream observer — the apparent Inner Self — within the dream. At first this seemed shocking, even impossible, since psychology normally alludes to such theoretical inner aspects as the Subliminal Self, the Center, the Internal self-helper in vague and theoretical ways.
Waggoner proposes 5 stages of lucid dreaming and guides readers through them, offering advice for those who have never experienced the lucid dream state and suggestions for how experienced lucid dreamers can advance to a new level. Lucid Dreaming offers exciting insights and vivid illustrations that will intrigue not only avid dreamworkers but anyone who is interested in consciousness, identity, and the definition of reality.
That youthful experience illuminates the essential element of lucid dreaming: the conscious awareness of being in a dream while you're dreaming. In this unique state of awareness, you can consider and carry out deliberate actions such as talking to dream figures, flying in the dream space, walking through the walls of dream buildings, creating any object desired, or making them disappear. More important, an experienced lucid dreamer can conduct experiments in the subconscious or seek information from the apparently conscious unconscious.
In those preteen days, before I began lucid dreaming regularly, three experiences kept alive my interest in dreaming and the psyche: occasional dreams that seemed to be precognitive, an unexpected "vision experience," and the very real sense of having access to an inner knowing. Like many, I found life's deepest mysteries in the mind.
One day in my preteen, church-going mind, I had a mini-epiphany. It occurred to me that if God was the same "yesterday, today, and forever," as they said in the Old Testament, then God must exist outside of time, apart from time, in a place where time had no meaning. And, if that were true, then perhaps dreams were the gateway to a place without time, where time existed in one glorious Now. Yet my young science-educated mind balked at this notion. A dreamt event followed by a waking event could be nothing more than sheer coincidence and didn't necessarily entail any foreknowing. Or perhaps it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which I unknowingly helped bring about the event that I dreamt. And even when a dream voice made an observation that later turned out to be true, perhaps my creative unconscious had simply noticed things and, by calculating the likely outcome of those things, made a clever announcement.
Altogether, the precognitive dreams, the vision experience, and my search for spiritual meaning kept me probing for satisfying and complete answers. Obviously, my intense inner life, sparked by thought provoking dreams, created a persistent desire to accept, abandon, or perhaps bridge one of the two worldviews: the scientific and the spiritual. Which is why in 1975, at age sixteen, I picked up one of my oldest brother's books, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and embarked on my first lesson in lucid dreaming.
Waking up in the middle of the night, I reviewed my last dream. Had I seen my hands? No. But still hopeful, I fell back asleep remembering my goal. Within a few nights of trying this technique, it happened. I had my first actively sought lucid dream:
Little did I know, during that same time in April of 1975, thousands of miles away at the University of Hull in England, a lucid dreamer named Alan Worsley was making the first-ever scientifically recorded signals from the lucid state to researcher Keith Hearne. By making prearranged eye movements (left to right eight times), Worsley signaled his lucid awareness from the dream state. Pads on his eyes recorded the deliberate eye movements on a polygraph's printout. At that moment, Hearne recalls, "It was like getting signals from another world. Philosophically, scientifically, it was simply mind blowing." Hearne and Worsley were the first to conceive of the idea and demonstrate that deliberate eye movements could signal the conscious awareness of the dreamer from within the dream state.
A few years later, in 1978, Stanford sleep lab researcher Stephen LaBerge, using himself as the lucid dreaming subject, devised a separate, similar experiment of signaling awareness from the dream state through eye movement. Publishing his work in more broadly read scientific journals, LaBerge became strongly identified with this exciting discovery and a leader in its continued research.
My next few lucid dreams were lessons in exquisite brevity. I would be in a dream, see my hands in the course of the dream (e.g., as I opened a door with my hand or as if by some inner prompting my hands would suddenly appear directly in front of me) and immediately realize I was in a dream. I'd experience a rush of exhilaration, joy, and energy. As I took in the dream surroundings, my feelings of joy rose to such levels that the lucid dream would begin to feel unstable and then come to an end. I would awaken, full of joy but mystified by the sudden collapse of the lucid dream.
Lucid dreaming offers science a revolutionary psychological tool to experiment and investigate the deeper aspects of the dream state, consciousness and the mind. In 1975, Robert taught himself a simple technique to become consciously aware in dreams. Since that time, lucid dreaming has been proven by the pioneering research of Dr. Keith Hearne, University of Hull, and Dr. Stephen LaBerge at Stanford.
Robert frequently speaks on lucid dreaming at national and international dream conferences, workshops and college classrooms, including Sonoma State University, Iowa State University, University of Washington, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Evergreen State College, and internationally at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, Israel.
The Lucid Dreaming Experience (LDE) is an independently published quarterly e-zine dedicated to educating and inspiring lucid dreamers everywhere. The magazine seeks to educate, inform and inspire lucid dreamers by exploring lucid dream techniques, sharing lucid dreams and discussing the potentials of lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming offers you access to an inner platform to call forth creativity, promote healing, seek insight and personal transformation. In clear and thoughtful language, Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple shows you what you need to know in order to benefit from this extraordinary state. Moreover, you will learn how experienced lucid dreamers use this to accelerate spiritual growth, heal from past traumas and clear out mental debris which keeps you from your full potential.
No sailor controls the sea. Only a foolish sailor would say such a thing. Similarly, no lucid dreamer controls the dream. Like a sailor on the sea, we lucid dreamers direct our perceptual awareness within the larger state of dreaming. [p 17]
A lucid dream is a dream in which you become aware you are dreaming. It's a powerful opportunity to explore the unfathomable depths of reality, solve problems, create new possibilities, and take charge of your own healing and happiness. This book provides a range of practical techniques, artistic activities, and guided visualizations to help you bring the creativity and super-conscious awareness of lucid dreaming into your life.
The Art of Lucid Dreaming is a quick and easy guide to help you get lucid fast. Dr. Clare Johnson, world-leading expert on lucid dreaming, shares her best practical tips and a unique Lucidity Quiz that identifies your personal sleeper-dreamer type so you can fast-track to the techniques that work best for you. When you are lucid in a dream, you can choose to ask your unconscious mind for guidance, perform healing magic, seek creative solutions to problems, and explore the dream realm more profoundly than ever before. 2ff7e9595c
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