LUCID DREAMING: GATEWAY TO THE INNER SELF
JULY 19, 2011
Letters
to young lucid dreaming researchers….
In science, we call the study of mushrooms, mycology. As in any discipline, the
study of mushrooms requires precise classification of characteristics, since
many mushrooms share similar traits. From experience, mycologists know that
some edible mushrooms look very similar to poisonous mushrooms, so the ability
to distinguish mushrooms correctly may have life or death consequences. Those
fine distinctions have critical importance for the proper understanding and use
of edible mushrooms.
When researching a psychological event like lucid dreaming, one needs a
thorough self-report to insure the event meets the criteria established for a
lucid dream. By doing so, the young researcher guards against the pollution of
his or her lucid dreaming database by the inclusion of experiences that may
seem similar to, but fail to meet the fundamental definition of, lucid
dreaming. Although the consequences may not qualify as “life or death,” lucid
dreaming researchers can easily and unintentionally pollute their own research
by allowing for inclusion psychological experiences that do not meet the
definition of a lucid dream.
The American Psychological Association defines a lucid dream as “a dream in
which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming and may be able to
influence the progress of the dream narrative.” Others commonly define lucid
dream as “realizing you dream while dreaming” or “a dream in which one is aware
that one is dreaming” (Wikipedia). The common point to all definitions involves
a mental realization while in the state designated as “dreaming”.
The problem? Some people prepare to fall asleep and suddenly hear an odd
humming around their head, feel energy moving up their body and experience
concern about these strange sensations. Then they realize that they view their
bedroom from a new vantage point. Because they feel consciously aware now,
float around the space and know that their body lies in bed, they deem this a
“lucid dream”. But does it meet the defining criteria? Did they realize they
dreamt while dreaming? Or do they experience something similar to lucid
dreaming, but not the same?
In the above example, the people do not report becoming aware within a dream.
Rather they indicate experiencing an unusual state while preparing to fall
asleep. Clearly this does not meet the definition of a lucid dream, yet
innumerable posts on lucid dreaming forums call this experience a “lucid
dream”. Why? Usually, they point out that the person achieves conscious
awareness and experiences dream-like conditions, i.e., floating out of bed. Yet
it fails to meet the definition’s criteria of becoming aware within a dream.
Moreover, a judgment to include such an experience as a lucid dream completely
ignores the initial set of reported symptoms, e.g., odd humming, energy
movement felt in body, anxiety about state, etc., that have no place in the
definition, or in the classical lucid dream experience. When you add those to
the analysis, you must understand that the event differs remarkably from the
common experience and definition of a lucid dream. Like mushrooms, it may seem
similar to the one you seek, yet it varies enough as to need a separate,
distinct classification as something else. I want to encourage lucid dream
researchers to see the difference, and refuse to include these strange ‘fungi’
in their servings of lucid dream research, so that the science of lucid dream
research leads to healthy results.
Next time, I will comment on some odd aspects of the so-called Wake Initiated
Lucid Dream or WILD….
P.S: I'll be at Seattle's East West Book Shop on Thursday, Aug 11, 2011. Tell
your friends.
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JUNE 7, 2011
For my UK
and European readers, please note that I will be giving three presentations on
lucid dreaming (June 18-19, 2011) in London at the Centre for Counseling and
Psychotherapy, along with Dr. Nigel Hamilton and Mary Ziemer. My three talks
will focus on lucid dreaming’s healing, spiritual and creative aspects. Each
day’s session begins at 11:30 a.m.
For more information or to register, please visit this link http://www.luciddreamalchemy.com/page/news1
Also I will be speaking in Chelmsford, England a few days later ( evening of
June 22nd) at the Marconi Sports and Social Club on Beehive Lane. The Dari
Rulai Buddhist Temple is hosting the event. Visit http://www.freeindex.co.uk/event(lucid-dreaming-workshop-with-top-best-seller-from-usa)_185.htm to learn more about the time and place of this presentation.
Then on June 24th, join me (and more than 100 presenters on dreaming) at the
International Association for the Study of Dreams Conference in Kerkrade, the
Netherlands. For more details, visit http://asdreams.org/2011/index.htm
Look forward to seeing you.
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APRIL 13, 2011
For a
list of my upcoming speaking engagements & appearances, podcasts, author
information, and more, please click here.
POSTED BY MOMENT POINT PRESS AT 2:05 PM 
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Dear
Dreamers,
In the last issue of The Lucid Dream Exchange, a lucid dreamer reported
a fascinating lucid dream that resulted in an apparent physical healing. What
follows is a condensed version of her story and my speculations on creating a
scientifically verifiable, lucid dream healing experiment.
June L. entered the hospital in April 2008 for open heart surgery on her
failing mitral valve. Following the surgery, significant drainage occurred
around the heart area and four “garden-hose sized” tubes were inserted into her
chest to siphon away the excess drainage. During the next ten days, while the
drainage continued and the doctors expressed concern, June had a lucid dream.
She became lucid when she looked out the hospital room’s window and saw an
ocean view, which she knew was impossible. At that point, she realized she was
dreaming and could lucidly do whatever she wished. Instantly, she decided to
try and heal the drainage from her heart.
June tells what happened next: “I look down at my dream body and pull the
hospital gown open. There are the four tubes, and I can see the fluid draining
out of them into my “briefcase”[drainage collection device] beside the bed . .
. I concentrate on the tubes and slowly the draining fluid starts turning into
different colored flowers. The tubes pull out of the briefcase and wave slowly
back and forth in the air in front of me, like octopus tentacles. Then flowers
are pouring out of them, floating gently in the air, until I am surrounded by
color and soft flower petals. Other colorful things flow from the tubes, like
hearts and balloons and ribbons. I laugh and smile and enjoy the show.
“Comment: The next morning, to the amazement of the doctors and nurses, the
drainage had completely stopped. The tubes were yanked out, I could finally
take a shower, and the next day, I went home. I really think that had it not
been for that lucid dream, I would have been several more days in the
hospital."
In the lucid dream, June’s healing intent causes the drainage hoses to
disconnect from the “briefcase” and wave in the air. She watches joyfully as
out pour flowers, hearts, balloons, and colorful ribbons that surround her. The
next morning in waking reality, the doctors are amazed to discover that the
drainage has “completely stopped."
When lucid dreaming, the power of directed healing intent seems extraordinary.
In my book’s chapter on healing lucid
dreams, you can read even more fascinating accounts which attest to lucid
dreaming’s potential as an alternative healing modality.
Though these accounts are anecdotes, how could one create a scientific
experiment on physical healing during lucid dreams? Ideally, the experiment
would require a group of lucid dreamers with a non-life threatening,
measurable, persistent physical condition that could not be healed by
conventional means. After appropriate baseline medical tests, the lucid
dreamers would be taught lucid dreaming techniques to direct healing intent on
the physical condition, when lucidly aware in the dream state. They would be
reminded of the mind’s amazing healing powers in altered states of
consciousness, like deep hypnosis. They would be advised to come to the
hospital for medical tests after having a lucid dream in which they directed
healing intent onto their body. Separately, a control group of non-lucid
dreamers with the same condition would be monitored for spontaneous remission.
With the proper education and motivation, experienced lucid dreamers could be
trained to take part in such an experiment. Although individual beliefs and
expectation matter, I feel the results would show that lucid dreamers possess
the ability to affect the healing of their physical bodies.
Lucid wishes,
Robert
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MARCH 16, 2011
Dear
Dreamers,
Almost twenty years ago in The Healing Power
of Dreams, Patricia Garfield presciently observed, “The potential for
healing in lucid dreams is enormous.” Researchers like Stephen LaBerge and
Jayne Gackenbach had already gathered eight anecdotal reports of apparent lucid
dream healing in an OMNI magazine survey in 1987.
Since that time, lucid dream healing has been adopted by some psychotherapists
and others to deal with recurring nightmares in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) sufferers. By most accounts, the psychological tool of lucid dreaming
has been a tremendous success. Normally after the PTSD sufferer becomes lucidly
aware in the nightmarish scenario just once, the nightmares dissipate
significantly or disappear altogether.
The latest special issue of The Lucid Dream Exchange (LDE) focuses on Healing
Lucid Dreams. Co-editor, Lucy Gillis and I asked readers to send in
examples of emotional, physical and spiritual healing lucid dreams that had
touched them.
For the issue, I interviewed a young woman airline mechanic, Hope, whose leg
was crushed by a Boeing 767 rolling over it. During her six months of recovery
from the injury and amputation, she began to have recurring nightmares almost
nightly. She told me that the nightmares felt so horrendous that she came to
the point of “not wanting to sleep, almost.”
Fortunately, she read a book on lucid dreaming and saw its potential to help
her end the recurring nightmares of being chased. Later in the night, she
realized that she was again in the nightmare, running for her life, when it
occurred to her, “Hey, I am running, but I only have one leg.” Now lucid, she
decides to face the nightmarish monster, “As it approached me, I waved at it
and smiled a huge smile and then jumped up and flew away.” She recalled that
the monster looked confused, now that the usual scenario had changed, and Hope
had achieved lucidity. Soon, the nightmares largely ended.
One fascinating thing that Hope decided to do (apparently after reading my book) was to try and return to
the moment of the accident, and see it again in a lucid dream. Incredibly, she
became lucid and began reenacting the event, when something curious happened.
At the moment of the accident, a “black space” (like TV censors might use to
cover nudity) appeared in her visual field, which shielded her from seeing the
wheel crush her leg. Upon waking, she realized that some part of her
“protected” her from re-viewing the traumatic event.
Besides this interview are many other articles and lucid dreams of emotional,
physical and spiritual healings. I hope you will take a moment to look through
this free quarterly magazine and discover the potential of healing lucid dreams.
Lucid wishes,
Robert
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FEBRUARY 11, 2011
A common
misconception among lucid dreamers involves the issue of “control.” In my book,
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, I explain that the lucid dreamer
directs his or her self within the dreaming; the lucid dreamer does not control
the dream. I write: “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.” Lucid dreamers notice this via many unexpected developments
within the lucid dream, such as “independent agents,” i.e., dream figures who
act independently and often in contradiction to the lucid dreamer. When
considered rationally, lucid dreamers realize they do not completely “control”
the lucid dream.
Further support for this realization comes from lucid dreamers who use intent
when consciously aware in the dream state. For example, artists have become
lucidly aware and intended to discover new works of art when they enter the
next room. Strolling into the next room, many see their request realized with a
fantastic creative painting hanging there. The question is, who answered the
intent? The lucid dreamer only intended it; he or she did not consciously
imagine it (the subject, colors, placement, size, etc.) into being.
From such examples, we confront a question Carl Jung wrestled with: Does
dreaming simply reflect a “psychic mirror world” reacting to the contents of
our conscious mind, or does it show more? If more, how do we explain it? The
above example suggests that the subconscious responds, and shows many qualities
associated with consciousness: responsiveness, creativity, affect, and so on.
Moreover, the response does not seem archaic, instinctual, random, or chaotic;
rather, it seems many degrees more creative than the conscious self.
Experienced lucid dreamers can experiment with this question of creativity’s
origin. In my case, certain unusual lucid dreams led to the realization that a
larger, more creative awareness existed “behind the dream.” To test this, I
developed a counter-intuitive lucid dreaming technique in which I ignored all
of the dream figures, objects, and setting (assumed to represent aspects of the
dreamer), and simply shouted my requests and questions to the “awareness behind
the dream.”
Using this counter-intuitive technique, most lucid dreamers routinely receive a
creative and helpful response. Sometimes the response is completely unexpected.
In one example, the response was a direct refutation of the questioner’s errant
assumption. In another case, the response was an analysis of the lucid
dreamer’s inability to handle the magnitude of the request’s manifestation. The
apparent awareness behind the dream exhibited more than creativity and
responsiveness, it demonstrated the qualities that Carl Jung identified as
suggestive of an inner awareness: perception, apperception, affectivity,
memory, imagination, reflection, judgment, etc. By all appearances, lucid
dreaming may be the tool for science to confirm the existence of a “second
psychic system” or inner self, which Jung called “revolutionary in its
significance."
I’ll be addressing the issue of control and inner self at this summer’s
International Association for the Study of Dreams conference in Kerkrade,
Netherlands (June 24–29, 2011). I hope to see you there!
Robert Waggoner
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JANUARY 14, 2011
The
International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) for over 27 years has
served to bring together many of the world’s great scholars, practitioners and
authors in the field of dream research, clinical practice regarding dreams,
sociology, spiritual practices, culture and the arts as well as other fields of
study. Members of the organization adhere to a code of ethics that governs
practices in dreamwork in both small and large contexts.
Since the tragic shootings in Tucson much attention has been focused on the
psychological state and motives of the alleged killer, Jared Loughner.
Information about Mr. Loughner included reports that he kept dream journals and
was involved with practices of lucid dreaming. While it is not appropriate for
IASD to comment on this individual’s state of mind or his practices and how
they related to his abhorrent behavior, we do note that it appears he has a
record of drug use and mental problems. So, it is possible that what he
experienced and recorded may have been hallucinations or delusions rather than
dreams as most people understand and experience them.
Nevertheless, since his lucid dreaming has repeatedly been mentioned in the
media, it seems useful to briefly summarize the best information and most
helpful viewpoints on lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming, or the ability to become consciously aware of dreaming while in
the dream state, has been scientifically accepted since 1980 through the
research work of Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University.
Since then, lucid dreaming has been widely explored by curious dreamers and
scientists. International research indicates that a majority of college
students report having had at least one lucid dream experience. A smaller
percentage indicates that they have frequent lucid dreams. On becoming
consciously aware in the dream, lucid dreamers often report flying through
space, interacting with dream figures and manipulating objects in the dream.
Lucid dreaming has been successfully utilized by psychotherapists to assist
people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), who suffer from recurring
nightmares.
Lucid dreaming also has a long history in various religions, such as Tibetan
Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism. By becoming consciously aware in the dream
state, many religions feel that the lucid dreamer comes to a clearer
understanding of waking reality.
Scientific research has not noticed any harmful effects to practicing lucid
dreaming. Instead, lucid dreamers normally show higher levels of mental acuity
and creativity in some perceptual tests.
Though the recent movie, Inception, used a more extreme
Hollywood version of “lucid dreaming” as a plot device, it’s distorted
representation—gun battles and almost continuous violence—has little to do with
real lucid dreaming. In actuality, lucid dreams normally consist of consciously
creating wonders like flying, making items appear and disappear, and other
Harry Potter-ish actions—all the while, clearly knowing that this is a dream.
Some recent news articles have examined the life of the alleged Tucson gunman,
Jared Loughner, and suggested that his interest in lucid dreaming may have
something to do with his waking actions. Unfortunately this seems pure speculation,
and does not correlate with the experience of millions of lucid dreamers around
the world, who find joy, healing and creativity in their lucid dreaming
experience.
Robert Waggoner, IASD Board Chair
Jodine Grundy, IASD President
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OCTOBER 20, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
Recently,
I learned that a University of North Carolina–Wilmington theater student, Sarah
Burke, felt so inspired by reading my book that she created a multimedia,
collaborative theatrical performance, called “The Dream Project,” which
premiered in Wilmington on October 15, 2010, for a weekend run.
According
to an article by Trey K. Morehouse in the student newspaper, The Seahawk, “Burke had been interested in dreams ever since she read the
book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert
Waggoner. ‘The book opened me up to the crazy possibilities of dreaming,’ said
Burke. ‘It was really fascinating, and it offered a completely different way to
look at dreaming.’ ”
I truly
feel honored and pleased that senior Sarah Burke has created an event for
herself and others to share their collective fascination with this wild and
wonderful thing, dreaming. So often, dreaming (and the subconscious) is ignored
or devalued as worthless or irrelevant, and lucid dreaming is seen as a mere
fantasy. Yet dreaming and lucid dreaming underlie and support what we are.
Without them, we would figuratively, and literally, die.
I hope
Sarah continues her creative expression and produces future
events—like Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, The Musical perhaps!—and wish
to publicly express my sincere thanks to her for creating this
collaborative theatrical event.
Thanks,
Sarah,
Robert
Waggoner
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OCTOBER 18, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
As we seek to remake Inception to be that movie lucid
dreamers talk about for decades, we envision a heart to heart conversation with
Christopher Nolan. In it, we convince him of the spiritual nature of lucid
dreaming and urge him to make Cobb’s “extracting” actions either understandable
or basically ethical.
We begin to outline a new spiritual awakening version of Inceptionwith the pitch that Cobb realizes information exists independently of us all. It waits free
for the taking. He even realizes that his own information exists “out there” in
some meta-web of unconscious knowledge for those who
understand. It’s not a heist; it’s a lucid realization.
In this way, Cobb’s journey supports his understanding that waking reality
seems dream-like and a co-creation of his larger mind within the larger
spiritual system that exists beyond and before Cobb. Yet, Cobb struggles with
accepting this concept fully and advancing spiritually to a more profound state
of realization, because he knows to do so means losing his wife and children. His
spiritual gain means their loss – and he clings to their memory.
In our new version, it is this dilemma that tortures Cobb. How can he advance,
while losing those he loves? He must make a choice. So he lucidly investigates
time and space, and sees their fundamentally illusory nature. Then, he tells
the team that he will seek the path of an “eternalist” – voluntarily creating
mental worlds in which his wife and children live, in which he can hold onto
their memory and his feelings.
In the new draft’s finale, Ariadne follows him into a shared lucid dream, as he
beholds the illusory forms of his wife and children. Ariadne begs him to come
back or be lost forever within lucid dreaming’s reality creating complexity.
Cobb turns one final time, spins his reality checking top and looks at her.
“What have I to lose?” Then as if answering his own question, he murmurs, “All
experience seems dream-like.”
The top spins and spins, as he disappears out the door.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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AUGUST 26, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
Imagine yourself as an experienced lucid dreamer, consulting with Christopher
Nolan about the making of Inception. You want to make the
first lucid dreaming movie that lucid dreamers will love, because it stays true
to what lucid dreamers experience. You want Inception to be that movie lucid
dreamers talk about for decades.
Nolan proudly sketches his first outline for Inception. So what do you do?
You agree to keep the basic subconscious heist story line, since you have
experienced instances of mutual lucid dreaming and played around with dream
telepathy. And you save the wounded-by-grief lead man, Cobb, and his tormented
personal subconscious, since lucid dreamers have issues to work through and
often deal with subconscious projections. You even keep the “lucid dream team”
together, so you can bounce around ideas about realities with sympathetic
friends.
Next, you help Nolan develop a truer plot by shooting scenes compatible with
lucid-dreaming consensus. For example, when lucidly aware, the dream figures
must be shown to vary. Cobb must deal with thought-forms, projections,
independent agents, and apparently consciously aware dream figures. You need a
way to differentiate these figures from the lucid dreamers. Obviously, they
will all act differently; a thought form will sit there or act nonresponsively
when questioned, while an independent agent may try to act contrary to the
lucid dreamer. So in your new version, Cobb and his fellows maneuver through
the complexities of identifying and handling a variety of dream figures.
Then you help Nolan realize that lucid dreamers rely on mental principles, such
as belief, expectation, focus, intent, and will to make things happen. As lucid
dreamers, we intuitively understand that. Like Neo in The Matrix, Cobb can lucidly stare down a bullet and watch
it fall to the ground, because he knows that the bullet has no inherent
existence outside of the mind. Cobb then trains his understudy, Ariadne, to
realize her beliefs and expectations about each situation will help shape its
outcome, so she must recognize her cocreating role in each dream drama.
Changing the lucid dream requires “changing” the contents of her mind.
You’ll show Nolan that experienced lucid dreamers can change levels in the
lucid dream. How? It’s quite simple, actually. Become lucid, and then shout, “I
want to go to the next form” (or “the next level,” if you prefer). Experienced
lucid dreamers instantaneously find themselves in a completely new realm with
subtle differences when they do this.
Then you convince Nolan to have Cobb meet the duped dreamers in a shared
dreamscape and “extract” their secrets. He announces that their secret will
appear when he opens a book or steps into the next room. There in the intended
medium, he discovers their secret. But as lucid dreamers know, he wonders if
the shared secret comes in literal or symbolic form. Has he seen it clearly, or
has his personal perspective distorted it?
In my next blog, we’ll rewrite a powerful, new ending to Inception– one that will make lucid dreamers talk about
it for decades, because it touches on the primary question that every
experienced lucid dreamer faces: the nature of reality.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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JULY 28, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
Recently I was asked by ABC News to comment on Christopher Nolan’s new movie Inception, which I was happy to do. But as it’s
impossible to do the movie justice in a fifteen-second sound bite, I’d like to
offer you my list of ten things I like about Inception.
1. “Dreams seem real while
we’re in them,” Inception’s main character, Cobb, says.
It’s a simple point, but an important one, and the dream sequences in Inception get it right. As theInception team’s newest student,
Ariadne, learns, the assumed reality of our experience, waking or dreaming,
seems to us compellingly real. It’s only when the street disintegrates that we
question reality. Just a few nights ago a dream figure asked me, “How do you
know you’re not sleeping right now?” I blew him off for asking such a
sophomoric question—and woke up in my bed!
2. Inception illustrates the way in
which expectations operate in the dream state. Cut your finger in a lucid dream
and you’ll feel pain—unless you actively expect otherwise. Even in lucid
dreams we carry with us the idea of physical senses. Yet there is an escape
clause: the mind’s expectation about what it experiences. To feel pain in a
lucid dream, you must mentally believe in it. No belief, no pain.
3. The brilliant creativity
accessible to lucid dreamers shines through Inception like the sun—and is equally
taken for granted. Aware in the subconscious, the mind’s warehouse of
creativity stands completely open and ready for requests. Many lucid-dreaming
painters, novelists, song writers, programmers, and engineers access their Muse
while consciously aware in the dream state, and marvel at its beauty and
creativity. Lucidly knock on the door of your subconscious, and Creativity
opens it.
4. Inception offers a cautionary tale.
Lucid-dreamer Cobb fails to resolve major personal issues and they prove to be
his undoing. Dream-architect Ariadne repeatedly begs Cobb to deal
constructively with his guilt and grief; instead, he both avoids and befriends
his guilt and grief, and it accompanies him in each layer of the mind. Cobb
fails to learn the fundamental psychological lesson of lucid dreaming: No
matter where you go, there you are.
6. Inception shows us the vast
creativity of the subconscious in the hands of a psychologically wounded lucid
dreamer who fails to learn his lessons and so accumulates increasingly complex
karmic wounds. Whatever else you may think, lucid dreaming remains,
fundamentally, a spiritual journey. Until you clear away the emotional and
psychic wounds and misperceptions, they distort your view, your understanding,
and the lucid landscape. Once they are taken care of, lucid dreamers see
clearly that lucid dreaming follows a spiritual path of extraordinary beauty,
complexity, and depth.
7. Inception illustrates what most
experienced lucid dreamers know: layers of lucid awareness exist. While Inception relies on the “dream within a dream within a
dream…” metaphor, some lucid dreamers have become consciously aware and moved
to other levels of consciousness. How? Well, they didn’t useInception’s fantasy device, PASIV;
rather, they did it the old fashioned way: they used the power of the mind.
Next time you’re lucid dreaming, shout out, “I want to go to the next level!”
and see what happens.
8. Inception hints at, but never asks,
“How would society respond if technology offered a drug and device that would
place you with others in a stable lucid dream?” Would you give up weekly bridge
games for a few hours in a shared "Holodeck," lucidly aware with
friends? I can only speculate, but a chemical compound that creates stable
lucid dreams may be discovered in our lifetime. Science fiction seems headed
toward science fact. One day those weekly bridge games may collapse faster than
bee colonies, as people swarm to lucid-dream gatherings.
9. Inception presents us with something
lucid dreamers grind their metaphysical teeth on: another type of reality.
Sure, physical reality has physical pleasures: peaches and watermelons in
season, Lady Gaga. But physical reality also has death, taxes, and lutefisk.
Lucid dreaming offers whatever you expect and more in a lucid reality; except
that it’s not real. Or is it? If you step outside of Plato’s physical cave and
stumble into Plato’s lucid dream cave, who’s to know?
10. I like Inception for bringing up these reality-checking ideas,
these “How do I know that I know” questions that push thousands of lucid
dreamers like myself to go deeper and deeper, to play lucid dreaming reality
off of so-called physical reality, to see more clearly the attributes of a
physical, mentally mediated reality (waking) contrasted to a mental reality
with Gumby-like physical forms (lucid dreaming), and to experience, behind it
all, the unseen Architect, the “awareness behind the dream” that I discuss in my book.
So these are the ten reasons I like Inception. Hey, wait a minute. There
are only nine reasons here. My software arbitrarily removed #5—no kidding. I
guess that’s the final reason I likeInception: the minor details and
anomalies our awareness floats over and fills in reminds us of the mentally
“created” aspect of this experienced reality. Who knows, maybe we’re dreaming,
right now, but managed to overlook that, too.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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JULY 12, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
The upcoming sci-fi movie thriller by Christopher Nolan,Inception, raises many fascinating questions that experienced lucid
dreamers (those who become consciously aware of dreaming while in the dream
state) have wrestled with for decades, namely:
If you become consciously aware of dreaming, can you lucidly enter
another’s dream and/or bring them into your dream?
If they share unknown information with you, would this provide evidence for a
shared or mutual dream?
And if that information proves to be valid, what does that say about the nature
of dream
reality?
Do dreaming minds have access to an individual or collective unconscious where
they share information?
In Inception a talented lucid dreamer named Cobb (Leonardo
DiCaprio) is able to bring an unsuspecting dreamer into a mutual dream
environment and then “extract” information from his or her subconscious. The
lucid dreamers in Inception rely on a special machine,
PASIV and a special drug, Somnacin, to achieve a stable lucid dream realm and
enact their underhanded (or under-minded) deeds.
Inception’s basic premise resonates
with many experienced lucid dreamers who have empirically investigated these
questions of gathering information and interacting in an apparent shared or
mutual dream. Though complex, the simple answer to each of the above questions
appears to be “Yes. Lucid dreamers have provided numerous instances of acquiring
unknown information while consciously aware in the dream state.”
In the movie, Cobb explains the three-stage approach to ensnaring another’s
subconscious information while lucid dreaming. First, “We create the world of
the dream,” Cobb tells his understudy. After creating a stable lucid dream, “We
bring the subject into the dream,” he says. And for the finale, “[T]hey fill it
with their secrets.”
Nolan’s cinematic version of shared dreaming offers a glimpse of what actually
happens, according to some experienced lucid dreamers. In fact, Nolan appears
to be personally familiar with lucid dreams. In an April 4, 2010, Los Angeles Times interview with Geoff
Boucher, Nolan comments on the reality of the lucid dream state. “You can look
around and examine the details and pick up a handful of sand on the beach,” he
says. “I never particularly found a limit to that; that is to say, that while
in that state your brain can fill in all that reality.” As to Inception’s plot, “I tried to work that idea of manipulation
and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have,” he
says. “Really the script is based on those common, very basic experiences and
concepts, and where can those take you? And the only outlandish idea that the
film presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to
enter and share the same dream as someone else.”
Nolan correctly observes that nothing keeps a lucid dreamer from trying to
interact with other dreamers in the dream state and obtaining information. In
fact, many lucid dreamers have tried this and some have achieved stunning
results. Let me share a few examples from my book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway
to the Inner Self, in which lucid dreamers “extract” secret information while
consciously aware in the dream state.
In 2006 Ian Koslow, a talented lucid dreamer and university student, wrote to
ask if I truly believed a lucid dreamer could obtain verifiable, unknown
information when lucid dreaming? I suggested that he should devise an
experiment that would prove or disprove the ability to get unknown, verifiable
information in the lucid dream state, and then try it in his next lucid dream.
A month later, Ian surprised me by submitting a lucid dream in which he did
just that. He writes, “I was talking to a girl in my dorm about lucid dreaming,
and we were discussing whether or not the people you see in the dream are
actually real, or just imaginations. To test this out, we decided to do a
little experiment.”
The young woman told Ian that she had “an awkward looking freckle” on her back,
and she invited him to locate in the lucid dream state. Within a week, Ian had
two lucid dreams during which he and recalled the task. In the first lucid
dream, he could not make it to her room due to distracting dream figures. But
in the second lucid dream, he consciously requested that the woman come to him,
and suddenly she entered his room. He recalls, “I finally found her in my lucid
dream and searched her back until I saw a dark freckle on her lower back, dead
center, right above her ass. I remember thinking during the lucid dream that
there was no way this could be the right spot, because I thought I remembered
her hinting to me that it was on the side of her back.”
Waking with this lucidly sought information, he went down to her dorm room and
told her of his discovery. “I went up to her back and pointed my finger at the
spot that I saw it in the dream,” he writes, “and to both of our surprise, she
lifted up her shirt and my finger was directly covering her freckle. Now, I
have no idea what this means, but I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that I
happened to guess exactly where the lone freckle on her back was. All I could
think is that the power of lucid dreaming might be more then I imagined.”
Notice how the freckle doesn’t appear on the side of her back where he thought
she hinted it might be; instead, he found it deep down on her lower center
back. Notice, too, how in the lucid dream he thinks, “there was no way this
could be the right spot” because it runs counter to the suspected hint that he
already considered. Thankfully, when he visits the young woman, he points to
the exact place indicated in his lucid dream. He follows the lucid dream
information faithfully. (Lucid Dreaming, 177–78)
Another talented lucid dreamer, Clare Johnson, consciously sought telepathic
information while competing in the annual Dream Telepathy Contest conducted at
the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) conference. This
educational event is an outgrowth of the scientific investigation into dream
telepathy conducted by Montague Ullman, MD, Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., and Alan
Vaughan in the 1960s and ’70s. Their book Dream Telepathy:
Experiments in Nocturnal ESPsummarizes the fascinating findings in support
of dream telepathy.
On the night of the Dream Telepathy Contest, Clare became aware that she was
dreaming and sought to find the “telepathic sender” who was telepathically
transmitting an image. (Earlier in the evening the “sender” had selected one
sealed envelope with an image from a group of four sealed envelopes and
retreated to her room to open the envelope and transmit the image to contest
participants.) Before falling asleep, Clare incubated the desire to get in
touch with the telepathic sender and discover the target image.
Clare desribes her dream:
I am wandering around with IASD members, commenting on the greenness.
In the distance, a woman's voice is shouting “Tree! Tree!” as if she has just
discovered the answer to some fundamental question. . . . Later [in the dream],
we are all at the conference site in a high-ceilinged room, discussing the
dream telepathy contest. I see Beverly [the telepathic sender] across the room
and know that I'm dreaming this. Beverly looks cheerful but I think she's got
to be tired since she must be having a sleepless night trying to transmit the
image. I ask her how she is feeling. She flings her arms out, grinning, and
says, “I've just been shouting the word inside my head!”
“That's interesting,” I say, “because in my last dream, people were shouting
about trees.” I want to ask her outright if tree is the image she is
projecting, but think this might be cheating. A woman across the room says
excitedly, “I've been getting that, too. Tree shouting.” We get into a
discussion about the nature of greenness. Is green a positive or negative
color? We agree that it is both dark and light. Deep and beautiful. . . . Then,
very slowly, I wake up. I am smiling in the dark. “The telepathy picture really
might be a tree,” I think. (Lucid Dreaming,179–80)
Upon
waking, Clare finally visits the Dream Telepathy Contest table, where all four
images are revealed; however, only one is the “target image.” She explains,
“When I get to Registration with the slip of paper upon which I scribbled down
my dream, there are three images which don’t resonate with me at all, and on
the end is a picture of the tree I tried to draw in my dream.” Clare selects
this image and includes her dream report.
A few days later, Clare discovers that she won the Dream Telepathy Contest.
Moreover, she says, “I was intrigued to learn that Beverly did actually shout
about trees inside her head while attempting to communicate the image. This experience
has given me food for thought concerning receptiveness in lucid dreams.” (Lucid Dreaming, 180)
The next real-life example touches on the plot twist of Inception in which Cobb
must go beyond merely extracting information from another while lucid
dreaming—he must “implant” an idea into another’s subconscious without them
being aware of it. If he can do this successfully, he will win his freedom.
In the following personal example, I manage to “implant” an idea into another
dreamer’s subconscious, which she then showed me in the waking world. My lucid
dream of November 24, 1998, begins as I lucidly observe the inside of a
restaurant and see my friend Moe come inside.
She’s wearing a white T- shirt and black pants. I ask her if she
realizes this is a dream. She seems just a little bit alert, so I walk her around
a bit. Then I decide to hold her and levitate (to convince her we dream). I
keep saying, “See, we’re floating! This is a dream."
Trying to make some impact on her, I get the idea to make a peace sign with my
fingers. Putting them in front of her face, I say, “Look, Moe, do you see this
peace sign? Every time you see it, it can make you become lucid —you’ll know
you’re dreaming.” Again, I put the peace sign right in front of her face.”
I wake.
Four months later, I’m traveling on business on the West Coast and call Moe to
see about having lunch. We make plans to meet. Arriving early, I wait outside
the restaurant and, at last, I see Moe coming down the sidewalk. As she walks
up to me, she gives me a curious look—then suddenly, she reaches up and puts a
big peace sign right in front of my face!
I am completely stunned—I had recalled the lucid dream earlier in the day, but
had never mentioned it to her. Shocked, I muttered, “Why did you do that?” I
asked. She shrugged her shoulders and said nonchalantly, “I don’t know. Just
felt like it.” Later over lunch, I told her about my lucid dream of meeting her
and showing her the peace sign and how shocking it felt to see her mimic my
lucid dream behavior [in the waking world]. (Lucid Dreaming, 182-83)
Moe’s mirroring of my lucid dream action seems impossible to discount as mere
coincidence. Not only had a “sign” been exchanged in the lucid dream, but my
dream action appeared to influence Moe’s waking action. Suddenly, the two
worlds of dreaming and waking didn’t seem so separate. For a moment on a sunny
suburban street corner, lucid dreaming merged with lucid waking.
So, does lucid dreaming allow us access to another person’s mind as Inception suggests? Or do we all connect subconsciously in
a meta-web, mind-grid of a Collective Unconscious, which our ego blithely
ignores as illusory dream fantasies? Could we use lucid dreaming to provide
scientific evidence of a mental realm or shared inner dimension?
Lucid dreaming offers us a new and revolutionary psychological tool to
investigate such questions. Using advanced and experienced lucid dreamers,
scientists could develop experiments that consciously explore the mysteries of
what psychological researchers are now calling a “hybrid state of
consciousness” with features of both waking and dreaming awareness. The dream
theories of Carl Jung, often criticized for lacking an experimental basis,
could be re-examined through lucid dreaming. From my experience, I believe
evidence for a type of collective unconscious or inner communication system
would be uncovered.
Christopher Nolan correctly states that “the only outlandish idea that the film
presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and
share the same dream as someone else.” However, he need not worry about
technology or lucid dream machines. Talented lucid dreamers have already
provided anecdotal evidence of obtaining unknown information while lucidly
aware in dreams. This fact alone should wake up science to the potential of
lucid dreaming to explore deeper aspects of consciousness—an inception that many physicists, lucid dreamers, and others
have long imagined.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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JUNE 15, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
The website BestBookTopTen.com has given my book the first-place ranking out of the “Top Ten”
books on lucid dreams. Using a variety of measures such as sales, blog reviews,
and reader enthusiasm, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway
to the Inner Self garnered the top spot. My
thanks to all of the readers, lucid dreaming bloggers, and others who have
recognized this book’s significant insights into lucid dreaming.
If you like the book, please tell your friends. Announce it on Facebook, tweet
about it, discuss the ideas on lucid dreaming forums—all of these simple
actions spread the word.
You can also include a link to some of the radio shows that have interviewed
me, like a recent one with Dream Talk Radio’s Anne Hill at http://bit.ly/bdcsDQ
You can also spread around interviews and discussion, such asRebecca Turner's
article on the upcoming movie, Inception, which include my comments on lucid dream
telepathy (the movie’s theme).
I truly appreciate your help in spreading the word about my book. The Internet
is a huge place, which means that things can get lost—or virally picked up and
promoted to millions!
My thanks to you, the reader, and to BestBookTopTen.com for your support.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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MAY 13, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
My recent radio show on Iowa Public Radio (Talk of Iowa, April 27, 2010) focused
on health and healing in dreams and lucid dreams. For millennia, dreams have
forewarned of impending illness, prescribed possible cures, and in some cases,
healed the ailing person while they dreamt. To a large degree, the people who
phoned in reported that this ageless tradition continues.
Some callers pointed to dreams that gave them assurance about a difficult
pregnancy or suggested the best option (out of many) to a complicated surgery.
Others called with profound emotional dream healings. A diabetic woman reported
realizing that when she dreamt of being in the kitchen and looking for food,
she needed to wake and get something to eat! On those occasions where she
ignored the dream symbol and continued to sleep, she often came dangerously
close to a diabetic coma.
Another very earnest listener phoned in and asked could we really realize that
we were dreaming, and then alter the course of the dream? I responded to his
first point that yes we can become consciously aware of dreaming, while in the
dream state. Moreover, besides altering the dream, we lucid dreamers could do
something profound: we could direct healing energy or healing intent onto our
disease, while consciously aware in the dream state, and sometimes wake with
extraordinary improvements in health.
Lucid dreaming takes healing in the dream state from a rare and random event to
a conscious act which potentially can be scientifically studied.
As I cover extensively in my book, when lucid or consciously aware in the dream
state, experienced lucid dreamers have repeatedly shown that they can focus
healing intent on areas of illness or disease while lucidly aware. This healing
intent may appear as a beam of light from the lucid dreamer’s hand or simply be
a deeply felt suggestion within the lucid dream. Frequently upon waking, these
lucid dreamers sense a radical change in their illness or condition, e.g., the
signs of infection have disappeared, the plantar warts have turned black
overnight, the bleeding has stopped. Upon personal inspection or by X-ray in
their doctor’s office, they verify that a radical change has occurred.
Though largely unrecognized by science, lucid dreaming provides a new approach
to investigate the connection between lucid awareness and the healing of the
physical body. While neuroscientists like Ursula Voss and Allan Hobson are
beginning to map out the physiological correlates of lucid dreaming as a unique
“hybrid state of consciousness,” experienced lucid dreamers are investigating
its practical applications for the health and wholeness of the body, brain, and
mind.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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APRIL 6, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
The apparent connection between vestibular abilities (that is balance and
spatial orientation) and lucid dreaming has been explored by lucid dream
researchers. Looking at my personal life as a lucid dreamer, I noticed a number
of curious vestibular activities which may have enhanced my spatial abilities.
Let me mention a few.
A year or two before I began lucid dreaming in high school, I taught myself how
to juggle. This seems a wonderful vestibular activity since you must focus on
three moving balls, two moving hands, and coordinate their collective activity
rapidly and sequentially. Now that I think about it, my most active period of
lucid dreaming (30 lucid dreams in a month) occurred coincidentally with my
most active period of juggling, when I tried to master four-ball juggling.
Coincidentally, scientific research has shown that juggling helps dyslexic
students (and general students) with their studies, concentration, and test
scores. Even though a playful action, some researchers suggest that juggling
may help the two halves of the brain make bilateral connections, which allows
for greater communication and coordination. I recall marveling in the midst of
juggling that my hands could anticipate the balls position in space, even
though I visually could not track or think about it consciously. On a deeper
level, the subconscious computations were taking place.
I also realized that in the years leading up to lucid dreaming, I often
performed an unusual stunt on my 15 minute walk home from junior high school.
This is what I did: I would close my eyes and see how far I could walk before
opening them! At first, I’d manage to go ten feet with eyes closed. Then, I
could go twenty, then thirty feet, then more. I taught myself to concentrate on
my feet, the direction of the sun on my face, the visual impression of the
cracks in the sidewalk and such things, as an alternative to sight. Using this
new skill, I could sometimes go almost an entire block without opening my eyes.
However, this practice of walking blind does present hazards. Once, I walked
right into a lamppost positioned at the sidewalk and driveway’s edge. So please
be careful if you try to imitate this skill.
Later, I developed a new skill during waking moments. During the day, I would
often imagine myself flying “as if” in a lucid dream. I would fly to the top of
a building, or around a classroom. In these moments, I could shift visual
perspective and sense the scene from the imagined perspective. These daytime
flights of the imagination reminded me of my joyful lucid dreams, but may have
taught me new spatial skills, as well.
So my advice to lucid dreamers: play with space – strengthen those vestibular
skills, whether physical or imaginal. Expand your relationship with space,
physically, mentally, and emotionally. Bring lucid space into the waking world
and grow the conscious space of your nonphysical mind.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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MARCH 19, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
Recently, I had the good fortune of interviewing an early researcher into the
science of lucid dreaming, Dr. Jayne Gackenbach. Currently she serves as a
professor of psychology at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, where
she researches the influence of video games on dreaming and lucid dreaming.
Yes, die-hard gamers have a tendency to become consciously aware in their
dreams. From what I read on forums, gamers often use their lucid awareness to
blast their way through the dream realm with guns blazing. Who said Grand Theft
Auto and Halo should be limited to cyber-reality when we have a subconscious
with apparently unlimited brain RAM and awesome graphics?
Before this area of research, Gackenbach was noted for investigating the
cognitive characteristics of lucid dreamers. How is a lucid dreamer different
than a non-lucid dreamer? What cognitive characteristics are common to lucid
dreamers?
In her research, Gackenback uncovered that lucid dreamers (along with frequent
dreamers and meditators ) seemed to possess greater field independence and more
advanced spatial skills. Field independent people are those that naturally
understand where they (or other objects) are in space and can separate
themselves from distractions, so they don’t get lost. They process spatial
clues more readily and organize the environmental space more accurately within
their mind. Since they know where they are in space, they would feel
comfortable moving and manipulating in the mental space of dreams.
Through testing, some evidence emerged that a well-functioning vestibular
system (which deals with balance and spatial orientation) allowed for easier
learning of lucid dreaming. Those who showed evidence of diminished vestibular
activity seemed less likely to learn lucid dreaming. These spatial skills and
abilities might be necessary requirements to handle lucid dreaming, since one
flies around the mental space, deals with amazing and unusual spatial actions
(falling, moving through walls, going backwards, zipping through tunnels of
light, etc) while maintaining a sense of coherence throughout.
I recall conversations with a graduate student, Kenneth Leslie, at an ASD
conference many years ago, who presented a research paper titled “Vestibular
Dreams: The Effect of Rocking on Dream Mentation” (Dreaming, Vol 6(1) 1-16, Mar 1996). In Leslie’s experiment, dreamers slept
in sleep lab hammocks which rocked back and forth to stimulate the dreamer’s
vestibular system while asleep. After ten minutes of REM sleep, the subjects
were wakened. It appeared that rocking did increase “lucid mentation” during
the early morning REM periods, when compared to the control group who slept in
the non-rocking hammocks.
Leslie’s research reminded me of a number of dreams in which I shifted rapidly
back and forth in the dream space, and then became lucid. For example, I might
dream of driving a car on a winding road, or flying in a plane buffeted by the
wind, then it dawned on me, “This is a dream!” Waking, I wondered if the
dream’s vestibular activity of being moved back and forth helped activate my
lucid awareness. Perhaps some of you have noticed this tendency in your dreams
a few moments before becoming lucid.
With all the talk about lucid dreaming and vestibular skills, I began to
wonder: Could a person improve their waking vestibular abilities in order to
enhance their propensity for lucid dreaming? Did I see any personal evidence
between lucid dreaming and vestibular skills?
I’ll explore this in my next blog.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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JANUARY 7, 2010
Dear
Dreamers,
When you use lucid dreaming as a psychological tool to investigate the nature
of reality and the psyche and not as an amusing toy to consciously direct
dreams, you begin to understand how lucid dreaming can radically alter numerous
physical and psychological assumptions. Assumptions about the nature of time and
space, assumptions about the boundaries of self and mind, even assumptions
about identity—all of these can be probed by a serious lucid dreamer to expand
their perspective toward a truer understanding of the mystery of apparent
reality.
In my book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway
to the Inner Self, and in these blogs, I have sought to underscore the importance
of that journey and the power of those mind-expanding lucid experiments. I hope
my experience will encourage others to experiment, since these areas have such
dramatic potential for each person and science and culture.
To some degree, these cultural and scientific assumptions act as an “invisible
fence,” which constrain a broader inquiry. Why look beyond those assumptions,
when we are assured that nothing exists outside of them? In lucid dreaming, we
possess a revolutionary psychological tool that can allow us to leap over that
fence of assumptions and experimentally utilize our greater nature and
abilities. As our experiments puncture those invisible assumptions, we begin to
increase our personal and collective understanding. From the awakened sleep
state, we bring greater “awareness” to the waking reality.
In normal dreaming, we also have a reflection of our expanded self and what
seems the truer nature of reality. We can conduct dream telepathy experiments,
intend information unknown to us, and more. However, when consciously aware in
the dream state, we can vastly accelerate those experiments and begin to reach
the broader nature of the psyche. We can more accurately probe this inner
realm, when consciously aware.
Through lucid dreaming, you can discover the rich inner lands of the psyche. My
book, explicitly and implicitly, can serve as a guide to help you make your own
personal discoveries.
In this New Year, I wish you well on your journey,
Robert Waggoner
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NOVEMBER 17, 2009
Dear
Dreamers,
On the popular lucid dreaming forum Lucidipedia.com, one of the hosts wrote a blog about the lack
of evidence for mutual lucid dreaming. He doubted its existence and
furthermore, saw no reasonable explanation for the “mechanism” to explain a
mutual dream or a mutual lucid dream.
This bothered me. In my book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway
to the Inner Self, I have a chapter titled, “Mutual Lucid Dreaming” in which I
provide many examples of apparent mutual lucid dreams with fascinating
interconnections and shared knowledge. Also, a friend of mine in 1997, Linda
Magallon, wrote the book, Mutual Dreaming, and provided numerous
examples of mutual dreams.
So on the Advanced section of the forum, I posted a new topic, entitled,
“Mutual Dreams. Any Evidence? I Think So . . .” In the post, I suggest dream
telepathy as one possible mechanism to explain mutual dreams. Dream telepathy
has been scientifically studied by internationally known researchers Montague
Ullman, M.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., who provided considerable evidence
for the phenomenon. In fact, they received a National Institute of Health (NIH)
grant for their research in the late 1960s and early ’70s.
Unfortunately, some researchers who sought to replicate their studies had
various levels of success and failure. At least one of these researchers later
admitted to creating difficult or inhospitable lab conditions in order to (in
his mind) defend science. Yes, I know that logic seems totally twisted, and
just as that researcher desired, his experiment on dream telepathy showed
negative results. Years later, Dean Radin evaluated all the dream telepathy
experiments and concluded that collectively they showed results beyond chance.
To demonstrate my belief in the validity of dream telepathy, I proposed an experiment
on the forum. I would agree to be the telepathic receiver, if the forum would
find a coordinator (to select a group of target images) and a telepathic sender
to randomly select an image and send it on the night of the experiment. After a
month, a coordinator emerged who found a young woman to be the telepathic
sender. Oddly, I did not even know the full name of the sender; I just knew
some scattered bits of information about her, and that she lived in the
Netherlands.
Our first experimental trial was an incredible success! I sent in five dreams –
all of which mentioned food, cafés, picnic tables and people (it seems rare to
have five successive dreams that mention the same basic subject). Then the
coordinator revealed the image; a drawing of a café with patrons being served
by a young waitress. In my dream reports, I even commented on one woman dream
figure, seated at a table with food, who wore a yellow gold dress – in the
image, the most prominent customer is a woman seated at a table wearing a yellow
gold dress.
You can read my dreams and see the Target Image at
http://lucidipedia.com/forum/index.php?section=viewtopic&t=1610
Because of the existing scientific evidence, dream telepathy offers the
simplest explanation of the mechanism for both procuring unknown information
and creating a consensual dream experience. The mental intent to send and to
receive information acts to allow the communication. Moreover, dream telepathy
likely explains most instances of mutual dreams; two dreamers share a
correspondence of thought, which becomes expressed as similar dream
environments, actions and information. Considered thusly, consensual dream
reality reflects consensual thinking.
Feel free to follow the action on the Lucidipedia forum as we continue with
more dream telepathy tests. However, do yourself a favor. Find a friend and try
dream telepathy yourself. By trying it yourself, you will learn so much more
and develop your own dream telepathy abilities.
Lucid wishes,
Robert Waggoner
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OCTOBER 16, 2009
Dear
Dreamers,
In lucid dreaming, we realize that many of the actions or events occur
according to our expectation about what seems likely to happen. If you lucidly
expect to fly through a wall easily, then normally you will. If you turn around
and fly through the same wall expecting difficulty, then your expectation will
create trouble, and you will likely bounce off that wall. I call this the
Expectation Effect in lucid dreams. Simply stated, the Expectation Effect
suggests that you experience what you expect to experience to the degree that
you expect at that moment.
But does the Expectation Effect explain the lucid dreaming experience? Or is
this more?
In my previous blog, I suggest that the Expectation Effect cannot easily
explain unintended events, and new environments, like the new vista seen when
you lucidly fly around a corner. Some have ventured that the unintended events
and new environments can be explained as the result of a subconscious
Expectation Effect composed of mental models. They suggest that the
subconscious Expectation Effect creates an appropriate action or environment,
which then appears, and this explains how unintended environments and events
occur in a lucid dream.
Like many lucid dreamers, I wrestled with this for years. I noticed quickly
that my expectation created my experience on most occasions. Yet, I became
mystified by the unexpected and unintended actions and events on other
occasions. Finally, I began to realize that I needed to experiment within lucid
dreaming to resolve this dilemma. The experiment? Actively seeking information
beyond conscious and subconscious knowledge – in effect, I sought to discover
the unknown.
By actively seeking unknown information in a lucid dream, the lucid dreamer can
go beyond the limits of conscious or subconscious Expectation Effect, and
journey deep into the psyche, the unknown part of the Self. If the unknown
information (as in telepathic, clairvoyant or precognitive information) later
appears validated, then it apparently comes from beyond my conscious or
subconscious expectations. Unknown information like this must exist outside of
the commonly accepted closed system of my mind.
Castaneda’s don Juan suggested that a “silent reservoir of knowledge” existed
within each of us. In The Power of Silence, don Juan states, “Silent knowledge
is something that all of us have. . . . Something that has complete mastery,
complete knowledge of everything. But it cannot think, therefore it cannot
speak of what it knows.” To access this “silent reservoir of knowledge,” a
person had to touch it – to contact it. So in lucid dreams, I set out to do
that through a number of methods including my counterintuitive technique,
“asking the awareness behind the dream.”
Aware in the dream state, I began to probe for telepathic, clairvoyant and
precognitive information. To my delight, the information seemed routinely valid
or validated by later events. On occasion, the information came in symbolic
form, requiring some interpretation (which could be misinterpreted). Yet
overall, I discovered that lucidly seeking the unknown could result in
consistently valid information. Moreover, I discovered that other experienced
lucid dreamers were discovering the same thing!
In my book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway
to the Inner Self, I chronicle many of these lucid adventures in search of unknown
information, which you can read for yourself.
By lucidly accessing unknown information, the lucid dreamer shows the limits to
the Expectation Effect, as the definitive explanation for all lucid events.
These personal experiments in search of unknown information have shown many
lucid dreamers that they can touch a broader range of knowledge and
information. By all appearances, lucid dreaming shows us that the mind is not a
closed system. It has access to information beyond the conscious self’s
knowing.
In the next blog, we will look at scientific studies on dream telepathy,
conducted at the Maimonides Hospital Sleep Laboratory by Montague Ullman, M.D.
and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Dream telepathy may be the mechanism that explains
accessing telepathic information lucidly, and explains mutual lucid dreaming.
Lucid wishes,
Robert
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SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
Dear
Dreamers,
For many lucid dreamers, the Expectation Effect becomes the castle from which
they understand and view the realm of lucid dreaming. Each and every
experience, they relate back to the Expectation Effect. However, thoughtful
lucid dreamers know that this hardly explains the totality of lucid dreaming,
which stretches across a much larger realm of experience.
Previously, I noted that: “The Expectation Effect suggests that you experience
what you expect to experience to the degree that you expect at that moment. So
“if” you expect in a lucid dream to fly through a wall, then you will fly
through the wall according to your expectation. Expect it to be easy, and you
fly right through with ease. Expect trouble, and you hit the wall and bounce
off.”
That sounds valid, right? So where are the holes in the castle walls of the
Expectation Effect?
Let’s explore a simple lucid dream from Lucy Gillis, co-editor of The Lucid
Dream Exchange (from p.58 in my book):
I turn to the girls and say triumphantly, “This is a dream!” Patty
is exasperated and says, “You mean to tell me we’re all dreaming.” I say, “No,
I am. You are characters created by my mind.” . . . Patty gets angry and
interlaces her fingers with mine . . . Patty bends my fingers back. I don’t pay
attention to her. Instead, I wonder how my fingers can hurt when I am aware
that I’m dreaming.
Like many lucid dreamers, Lucy experiences something completely unexpected when
dealing with a dream figure. Have you ever lucidly asked a dream figure to do
something or answer a question, and they just look at you blankly and walk
away? Or have you ever told a dream figure, “I am dreaming you!” and noticed
the unhappy look on their face? If dream figures exist as a creation of your
expectations, then why do they respond unexpectedly? How does the Expectation
Effect explain the unexpected?
In Lucy’s lucid dream, Patty disagrees with her assessment that she alone
creates the lucid dream and suggests an alternative viewpoint that “we’re all
dreaming.” When Lucy denies that possibility, Patty continues to act in an unexpected
manner, and bends Lucy’s fingers back until they hurt!
So in this case, we have two unexpected developments: on a cognitive level, a
dream figure disagrees with the lucid dreamer’s assessment of the situation and
on an experiential level, a dream figure acts in opposition to the lucid
dreamer. How does the Expectation Effect explain these simple, yet unexpected
activities? Why doesn’t the dream figure simply comply with the lucid dreamer’s
assessment? Why does it “act out”?
The simple answer seems to be that the Expectation Effect does not explain all
lucid dreaming activity. In the complex realm of the lucid dream, there is more
than the lucid dreamer’s expectation.
For example, consider this lucid dream: I become consciously aware on a gravel
path. Feeling great, I come upon a woman dream figure and hold her hand as we
walk down the path. Coming around a corner, I see the mouth of a cave. It is
decorated like a wedding chapel with white lacy fabric and bows. Lucid, I feel
surprised to see this. How does the Expectation Effect explain unexpected dream
materializations, like this cave? Obviously, on a conscious level, I did not
expect to see a cave decorated as a wedding chapel – so how did it come into
being?
Or how about this lucid dream: Lucid, I decide to see how far I can elongate my
arm. With my right hand, I grab my left arm and pull it. The left arm begins to
grow longer and longer. Happy with my success, I look around for my brother to
show him my vastly extended left arm. When I see him, I notice that both of his
arms look like they have been pulled inwards. Only his fingers emerge from his
shoulders! I expected my left arm to lengthen, but did not expect his arms to
disappear. The Expectation Effect seems to explain the success of my arm lengthening,
but does not explain my brother’s arm shortening. So how do we explain this?
As we begin to look for unexpected developments in our lucid dreams, we realize
that the Expectation Effect seems limited to events that we consciously intend
to experience (for example, flying through a wall). It explains these lucid
dream events nicely, while failing to explain many others.
Some may say that I fail to account for a lucid dreamer’s subconscious
expectation, that at a subconscious level, an expectation may exist which
shortens my brother’s arms, which makes wedding chapels appear at the mouth of
a cave, and which creates dream figures who challenge the lucid dreamer. While
subconscious expectation may explain some of it, a lucid dreamer can challenge the
subconscious explanation by lucidly asking for information that the person’s
subconscious cannot know.
Next time, we will explore more deeply the Expectation Effect, as we look at
experienced lucid dreamers whom question the awareness behind the dream for
unknown information. What does it mean when that awareness provides answers
unknown to you or anyone, which later prove to be valid? How can you expect
(consciously or subconsciously) unknown information?
Thanks for joining me as we explore the principles of the lucid dreaming mind
together,
Robert Waggoner
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AUGUST 8, 2009
Dear
Dreamers,
Consciously aware in the dream state, we have direct access to the enormous
freedom of imagination’s source. Space, time, ideas, perspectives, emotions can
be thrown together, smashed apart, reshaped in a million different ways in the
laboratory of the dreaming mind. Some casual observers label this as “chaos” or
“dreaming as psychosis”—but experienced lucid dreamers know it as something
else: the perceiver in the principled infinity of the subconscious mind.
Aware in the dream state, lucid dreamers begin to learn the deeper principles
of dreaming that serve to structure apparent chaos. Lucid, you quickly realize
that your ever-changing thoughts, beliefs, focus, and emotion matter immensely,
since they act as building blocks of your dream experience.
In my book, I call the “most likely to be discovered” principle of lucid
manipulation, the Expectation Effect. The Expectation Effect suggests that you
experience what you expect to experience to the degree that you expect at that
moment. So “if” you expect in a lucid dream to fly through a wall, then you
will fly through the wall according to your expectation. Expect it to be easy,
and you fly right through with ease. Expect trouble, and you hit the wall and
bounce off. Or like me, expect it to be a little bit problematic and suddenly
find yourself stuck half in and half out of the wall! The Expectation Effect
mirrors your (conscious and often subconscious) expectations at that instant,
and to the appropriate degree.
In your next lucid dream, try it for yourself. Expect trouble from a lucid
dream figure, and suddenly you will discover your expectation acts to create
hassles. Expect compliance from a dream figure, and you will discover
compliance. Expect compliance but then doubt that your expectation will
influence the dream figure, and see the results of conflicted expectations.
Needless to say, by changing your expectations you can change your experience
mightily. In fact, if you pay attention to your thinking during a lucid dream,
you can “watch” those expectations adjust the ever changing experienced
reality. You can lucidly flip expectations from “possible” to “impossible” and
from “desired” to “disgusted” and experience the active reality of the dreaming
mind. This immediate feedback teaches lucid dreamers the importance of the
Expectation Effect, which explains its widespread acceptance as a commonly
recognized “principle” of the dream realm.
So, you have to wonder—does the course of regular dreaming simply follow the
dreamer’s “non-lucid” subconscious expectations? Does the apparent “chaos,” the
seeming “psychosis” simply reflect the twists and turns of unrealized,
subliminal expectations bouncing off the non-lucid, focus shifting, association
connecting, dreaming mind? To some degree, I believe it does; however, more
principles exist than the Expectation Effect.
While one could argue that lucid awareness simply overlays the discipline of
the waking mind and its belief/expectation system on the chaos of dreaming, many
regular dreams have those moments where an expectation emerges. And, at that
moment, normally the regular dream follows the expectation. The Expectation
Effect, if you watch closely, even exists in regular dreams to some degree.
Now that I have suggested the Expectation Effect as one primary principle of
your lucid “castle-building” mind, I will return next time to scale the castle
walls and breach the Expectation Effect. Oh yes, any experienced lucid dreamer
can test the apparent principles, probe their many sides and discover their
weaknesses. So in the next blog, watch as the White Knight transforms into the
Dark Knight and teaches you how to conquer the castle of the Expectation
Effect, as we move more deeply into the peculiar and wonderful territory of the
seemingly infinite, yet principled, dreaming mind.
Lucidly,
Robert
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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 athttp://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 authoredControl 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 atwww.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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 thelucid 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
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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
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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 . . .
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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
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