ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

Reality Sandwich recently contacted me to ask some questions about lucid dreaming!

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The Current State of Lucid Dreaming: A Talk with Robert Waggoner Each time we fall asleep, we enter a world more vast and strange than anything we might fathom in waking life. Lucid dreaming pioneer Robert Waggoner explains why lucid dreaming has resurfaced in the 20th century, who practices lucid dreaming, the transformative potential of this practice, and more.

 Faye Sakellaridis •

Where do you see lucid dreaming heading?

Where will people want to take it?

How will it unfold?

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

Mental Magic and the Battle of Beliefs

Clicking around the internet today, I came across an interesting post by a lucid dreamer.  He said his father taught him how to become lucidly aware in his frequent nightmares, as a young child.

The father taught him lucid dreaming, through the use of 'mental magic'.

One day, the father came into his bedroom before sleep and announced that he had purchased a very special and very magic 'wand'.  This wand was so powerful and so amazing that if you slept with it under your pillow, it would be there in your dreams whenever you had a nightmare.  Then you could grab your wand, and knowing it was just a dream, get rid of the frightful monsters.

Of course, the very special, magic wand was composed of plastic and probably cost less than a dollar.  But that didn't matter to this young child.  He now had something to help him, something that would be there in those nightmarish dreams, and help him see them as dreams and banish the monsters.

You know what?  It worked!!

When the monsters would appear in his dreams, the young child would suddenly look around for his magic dream wand, become lucid, and dispatch the monsters.  They disappeared!  Excitedly in the morning, he probably told his father about the success of the magic wand, and how the dream monsters had been forced to disappear!

His father probably just appreciated everyone getting a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately though, this story does not have a 'happy ever after' ending....

The young child's early success with the magic wand worked only for a couple of months.  Then, somehow, the dream monsters figured out a way to overcome the power of the magic wand.  The wand began to lose its effectiveness.  And as it did, the young child began to lose his confidence too.  Bit by bit, the nightmares returned.

And now, as a young man, the lucid dreamer reports that nightmares are kind of a family tradition.  Moreover, he has come to believe that nightmares are possibly genetic.

I don't know about that....  What I do know: lucid dreaming involves 'relating' -- relating to the objects and figures in the lucid dream, and relating to your own beliefs and expectations, your own focus and intent.  If you know how, you can overcome your limiting beliefs and expectations.  You can banish them (whether they appear as monsters, witches, zombies, or flying monkeys), and deplete them of energy (your projected energy).

You can win the Battle of Beliefs.

In our new book, Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple, you can see how to do it.  Better yet, you can teach your child, your nieces and nephews, your friends, how to become more talented, aware and compassionate lucid dreamers.
www.LucidAdvice.com

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

New Book -- just released  

in CD and audiobook!!!

Check it out at Amazon and other bookstores!

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

and The New Book -- Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple

Our new book, Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple, is now available for purchase in print,    Kindle/e-versions and in audio version too.

If you are looking for the latest on the science of lucid dreaming and want to learn how to induce lucid dreams, then you will want to check this book out.  

Learn more and see the first review here

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

Lucid dreamers -- how would you respond to this question about dream figures sent to my book's website  at www.LucidAdvice.com by Tobias?

Hi Robert, Happy new year and looking forward to your new book. My question is about dream figures. I have noticed that every time when I am not lucid and have a conversation with a figure the dialogue is like in physical life and their eyes look alive and full of awareness. 

But if I gain lucidity during the same conversation, they stop talking and only answer back with nothing or strange words. Also their eyes become blank and robotic. This happens every time, it's like when I gain awareness they loose theirs! Is this something you have reflected upon? 

Like last night I had a good dialogue with a lady but as soon as I became lucid she turned zombie like and stopped answering my questions. Best regards/ Tobias

Robert Waggoner 12/30/2014 12:59 PM

Hi Tobias, 

Yes, my new book, Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple (with co-author Caroline McCready) has just come out in print! Hope you enjoy it. To your interesting question... basically, you are saying that dream figures seem to lose awareness, when you gain awareness. Hmmm..... I wonder about that.

Does the lucid dreamer's sudden awareness just make them seem dim by comparison? Or were they always dim, and your lucidity 'confirms' that (but while non-lucid, they seemed equal to you?). 

In my first book, I suggest some guidelines for interacting with dream figures and the proper way to ask questions.... but I assume you know not to insult them by saying, 'Do you know this is a dream?' -- since they usually respond by looking very disappointed. 

Anyway, I have sometimes become lucid by interacting with very smart dream figures, who remained smart in the lucid dream. Because of those instances, I disagree with a simple, 'I become lucid, DFs become less intelligent'. The actual situation seems much more complex!

##

As all of us lucid dreamers discover, dream figures vary in awareness, responsiveness, behavior and apparent intelligence!  So it seems hard to make general claims about dream figures -- since they vary as much as lucid dreamers.  :-)

Lucid wishes and Happy New Year!

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

Hi Lucid Dreamers,

I noticed today and posted this tidbit to Facebook:

Hit a milestone - 101 Reviews on Amazon for my first book.... (and 80+ people gave it Five Stars) Amazing! 

Read the Amazon Reviews here 
Incredibly, I only know one person who wrote a review -- a professor from a college out in California, who began to use my book in a special course on consciousness and altered states.  All of the other reviews come from people who felt interested in writing about their feelings or experience while reading it.  For myself, I believe in 'organic' reviews -- people coming forward who want to express themselves.

Actually, the bigger milestone is the fact that this book is in its eighth or ninth printing!  People are ordering more copies now than when it first came out, and telling their lucid dreaming friends to check it out.

So my sincere thanks to the readers, the reviewers and lucid dreamers, who have taken the time to read about the depth, beauty and power of lucid dreaming,

Robert

ROBERT WAGGONER

LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF

Hi Lucid Dreamers,

Occasionally lucid dreamers send me questions at my book's website www.LucidAdvice.com

Here's a recent one with my response.  How would you have responded?

Good day. I've been practicing lucid dreaming since 2010 and among all the experiences I've had, one stood out. From time to time I would simply realize I'm dreaming. Other times I undergo what some people call the vibrational stage. This is when a ringing or bubbling sound in my ear becomes louder and louder accompanied by my body feeling a tingling sensation all over.

The experience that stood out was the feeling of being stretched from the head and feet or being dragged around either from the head or from the feet. I've had semi-conscious dreams when I would be dragged around the floor while sitting or be dragged off the bed. I've concluded that the dreams of being dragged around in the dream and the stretching/dragging sensation during the vibrational stage are related.

One time I finally called out this dragging force out. It appeared as a phallic shadow. When I asked what it was it began vocalizing which shook the room we were in.

It was weird...

- Slide

My response:

Hi Slide,

Great to hear about your practice of lucid dreams. But I have a bit of news to share: these vibrational stage events sound like a very common feature of OBEs, as does your experience of being stretched, dragged, etc.

In my book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, I devote half a chapter to the phenomenological differences between a 'lucid dream' and the OBE.  Stephen LaBerge did some early research and found that about half of lucid dreamers surveyed, also had experience with OBEs (so your experience seems fairly common for lucid dreamers -- but it is important to see the difference between these two unique states).

These two states of lucid dreaming and OBEs have similarities -- just as a house cat and a mountain lion have honest similarities -- but they are distinct enough to merit separate classification. So if you have a chance, check my book out of a library, and read about the distinctions between these two states. Lucid wishes!

- Robert