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Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming

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If you're looking for a way to have lucid dreams I highly recommend this book, it does not overload you with theory and has very practical advice and exercises for you to follow. This book worked very well for me. I would also suggest a supplement called 1 Bottle Galantamine 30 8mg Capsules. I read how it enhances the minds ability to have out of body experiences while dreaming. I remember having my first lucid dream and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. If your truly fascinated with lucid dreaming as I have become, I would also recommend reading Lucid Dreams in 30 Days, Second Edition: The Creative Sleep Program. The two books overlap in some places but for the most part they are a perfect complement to each other. Happy dreaming!

Lucid dreaming, i.e. dreaming with full awareness, is one of the most ecstatic experiences open to human beings. Yet creating this state of bliss has traditionally been difficult - the naive approach of autosuggestion produces only very low success rates.

In "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", Stephen LaBerge discusses far more efficient techniques, including one pioneered by himself - MILD, or Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. He explains how to create conditions conducive to lucid dreaming, how to prolong a lucid dream once one has one, and how to use lucid dreams for creative problem solving, health, entertainment and spiritual growth.

I should point out, however, that there is no miracle method for having lucid dreams instantanously. The techniques that this book offers still need to be exercised, patiently and diligently over a period of weeks if not months before results will start to materialize. But if you are willing and motivated to invest the necessary work and effort, this book will be one of the best guides there is. For those readers who prefer a simple, step-by-step approach, I would also recommend "Lucid Dreams in 30 Days" by Keith Harary and Pamela Weintraub.

LaBerge is a psychologist at Stanford University, currently working on lucid dream research at The Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California. These books detail his discoveries on the waking dream and the methods by which one can experience such dreams. Lucid dreams are very fascinating and are an amazingly creative and fun way of exploring inner reality. The books have a pretty scientific bent and should be seen more as textbooks rather than descriptive or imaginative introductions to the lucid dream world.

Of his two books, I think this one is a far more practical guide.

This book contains a wide variety of techniques for lucid dreaming from different esoteric traditions. The essence of one's success with lucid dreaming though, IS, intention to dream lucidly.

You may be surprised with how many things you can accomplish just like that by beginning with a state of mind that it is easy to accomplish, that it is natural for you to accomplish it, intending the effect and expecting it.

It may take you more time to experience lucid dreaming if you have never invested any effort to work intentionally with your subconscious mind, but on the other hand, if you are experienced working with self-hypnosis, you may find yourself having a lucid dream just by reading through the book because it would plant a suggestion in your subconscious. Perhaps you have already had experiences where you watched something on TV just before going to sleep and then dreaming about it; or reading something before going to sleep and then dreaming about it - it can be as easy as that.

And yes, the practice of conditioning your mind to be aware that you are, even now, awake in your dream - works. Again, if you have never engaged in any spiritual practice, or working with your mind, it may seem that there is a distinction between the "dream" of your waking life (the time when you believe that you are fully awake) and the dreams you dream during the night - but if you'd engage in creating outcomes intentionally in your daily life with your mind - your daily life would soon begin to feel like a dream, just a projection from your mind - one moment you think about something - and the next moment you experience it in your outer reality.

There is a distinction, though - as you'll find yourself able to do certain things while dreaming with your physical body asleep, which you are not able to do with your physical body - such as fly - so any such unusual experiences can serve as a wonderful "cue" to alert you to the fact that you are dreaming and help you to become lucid.

I have to admit this is the best book for the price on the market with scientific proof and probability of occurences for lucid dreaming. I have been trying months to have out of body experiences/partial dream ones and/or lucid dreaming and have to admit this book is very detailed explained and I have accomplished it with this book which many other books failed. I have looked at other books on awareness exercises, this one even talks about it in depth more and not to mention the WILD/MILD techniques are worth the price alone cause I had a lucid experience with those tehchniques atleast once every second day after reading their FAQ, I had to buy the book to support this author and found out there are many more treasures/techniques in this book which I can't wait to try out. This is my second best book on the market I will cherish and come back to many times, the other one is power of the subconscious mind by murphy, two of my favorite psychology books.

LaBerge begins where his first book, LUCID DREAMING, left off, by recapping exactly what lucid dreaming is: the mind realizing that it is dreaming while the body remains asleep, producing a far more vivid dreamscape, one that can be controlled with enough practice.

The book is first and foremost a user's guide: how can we access that wonderfully altered state called the lucid dream? Drawing upon his own research at the Lucidity Institute at Stanford University, as well as techniques drawn from psychology and Tibetan dream yoga, LaBerge has dozens of suggestions for entering the greatest themepark in existence: our dreaming brains. We dream about one-third of our entire lives, so why not make use of this time to enhance the quality of one's life?

LaBerge provides a great deal of sound psychology behind his explanations and techniques, explaining the basic reasons why all humans dream in the first place. He acknowledges that lucid dreaming may be used for pure enjoyment if we want experience adventure, pleasure, or romance. Likewise, he notes that lucid dreaming can also be used to embrace our darker sides (as Jung suggested), turning darker dreams and nightmares into learning experiences to enhance self-knowledge and confidence, ultimately producing personality integration. Additionally, lucid dreaming may be used to practice for athletic or artistic events of any kind. There's simply no limit to the applications of "waking dreams."

LaBerge goes beyond these applications, however, to more serious considerations, showing that lucid dreaming can have the same type of transformative effect on people as near-death experiences if we surrender our egos and allow the dream to take us where it wants instead of trying to always control it. It is in these exciting chapters that we see lucid dreaming as a tremendous technique to reach states of higher consciousness without gurus, how-to books, or seminars. It's all right within our brains.

Some of the techniques are very simple, such as "reality checks" during the day, when we ask ourselves whether or not we are dreaming. Others are as easy as autosuggestion or keeping a dream diary to increase dream recall (very important in all techniques). Other techniques get a bit more involved and can be frustrating (although LaBerge has since manufactured several kinds of dream masks worn at bedtime which detect REM sleep and signal the brain that it is dreaming via tiny blinking lights that do not awaken the dreamer).

Other metaphysical aspects are discussed, such as whether or not the physical body can be healed of disease if the dream body is healed since lucid dreams tap into the brain at a very deep level. And can we share lucid dreams with others or make contact with other dreamers who are aiming for the same dream traget on any given night? LaBerge even notes that he has had at least one precognitive lucid dream that probably saved his son's life.

The practice of lucid dreaming has become more popular over the past decade, but this book remains the most reliable source of information on the phenomenon as well as the best place to research ways to enter the lucid dream state.

It's probably the finest, most comprehensive book on dreams that's in print.

This is THE book on lucid dreaming. It is a manual of how to lucid dream containing every main technique with clear instructions including a detailed description of the technique that the author used to learn to become lucid in his dreams at will. It is also filled with descriptions of the lucid dreaming experiences of many other people. Dr. Laberge is a rigorous scientist and you will not find any irresponsible conclusions about the the topic or pseudo-science.

After becoming interested in lucid dreaming, I scoured the net and read everything about the topic that I could find, but after 6 months I had no success. However this is the book that got me going in the right direction and now I am having lucid dreams regularly.

If you get one book on lucid dreaming, this is the one. His earlier book, called Lucid Dreaming, is also very good if you want a more detailed description of the history of lucid dreaming or discussion and philosophy of lucid dreaming. In short, the book 'Lucid Dreaming' provides lots of background and 'Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming' is the "How to" manual.

In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, LaBerge provides a detailed, albeit borderline "how-to" manual on lucid dreaming, which encompasses a wide variety of techniques, so there is definitely at least one that will work for everyone. Furthermore, LaBerge goes into a thorough description of the applications of lucid dreaming to real life, which proves to be quite interesting and even motivational in a very scientific approach. However, despite this and the very goal-oriented aspects of the book, this scientific approach proves to be very reductionist, so while still inspirational, one should look towards other literature for inspiration as well as motivation is a key component of lucid dreaming. From my personal experience with the book, I highly recommend this book for people new to the concept of lucid dreaming that would like to try it out.

Through the incorporation of psychological studies, Tibetan dream yoga, other dream research and beliefs (such as that of Jung and Freud), and his own research at the Lucidity Institute in Stanford University, LaBerge has created a book capable of teaching even the most closed-minded of people to lucid dream. The book contains every main technique with clear instructions including a detailed description of the technique he pioneered, known as the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, or MILD.

From the very beginning of the book, Dr. LaBerge reveals many personal experiences of other people who have written to him, thus providing a fantastical background on lucid dreaming and the expectations which can be enjoyed from reading this book. Furthermore, LaBerge also provides a FAQ for many skeptics of lucid dreaming (such as myself) who were unsure of the "risks" of lucid dreaming or whether they would be able to. LaBerge also provides a series of tips and tricks for beginners, such as keeping a dream journal, focusing on the idea of dreaming before sleeping, and "reality checks". The next few chapters provide detailed techniques to induce a lucid dream, specifically the WILD and MILD techniques. By Chapter 6, most of the induction techniques will be exhausted, and LaBerge then focuses on showing readers how to improve their achieved lucidity- how to retain their lucidity, prevent premature awakenings, awaken when desiring to do so, and guide dreams intelligently. Towards the last few chapters of the book, Dr. LaBerge even goes through many of the applications of the book, such as enjoyment in action, adventure, romance, and pleasure, spiritual growth, relieving oneself/exploring the dark side of nightmares, and rehearsal of daily life. The applications tie in the greater scheme of why one is to try lucid dreaming in the first place.

After you have reached an advanced stage of lucid dreaming, the book invites you to take a new dimension with expansion of your ability regarding lucid dreaming to break all types of self-defined parameters. You can explore the dream stage to an even greater extent by constantly proving to yourself that you can go another step forward. Laberge discusses seeking out mutual dreams or trying to exercise precognition by getting a dream character to speak or write to you about a future incident. You may also try to alter the course of events of something happening in reality (LaBerge has a very fascinating personal experience with precognition involving his son and how he may have saved a life).

In a quote from the book, LaBerge states, "According to `The Doctrine of the Dream State' an ancient Tibetan manual of lucid dream yoga, the practice of certain dream control techniques lead to the capacity to dream anything imaginable. Tulku makes a similar claim, `Advanced yogis are able to do just about anything in their dreams. They can become larger or smaller or disappear, go back into childhood and relive experiences, or even fly through space". Despite the seemingly extravagant claim, this is all very possible. The Tibetans heavily influenced LaBerge and today's lucid dreamers as they have been lucid dreaming for more than a thousand years. Their experiences and techniques have influenced many of the applications we believe in today and add further credibility to the use of these applications.

Such applications proved to be extremely interesting, and all were further discussed with their own set of a "how-to", thus backed up by a good amount of fact. For example, in the idea of rehearsal of daily life, one could learn how to improve athleticism by learning dance moves or shooting a basketball over and over again. One could improve their confidence in these sports as well as other activities such as public speaking by having lucid dreams involving speaking in front of large crowds.

Other interesting applications were problem solving and healing. A lucid dream can be a stage for all your problem solving purposes. Lucid dreams can provide countless trial and error situations to determine what kind of solution would work in reality. The metaphysical aspect of healing is discussed thoroughly as well, with interesting probed ideas such as whether or not the physical body can be healed of disease if the dream body is healed and whether various avenues of healing can be used in an attempt to help a particular ailing person.

The metaphysical aspect I found most intriguing involved understanding the self. It was how LaBerge showed that lucid dreaming can have a deep spiritual effect toward understanding ourselves if we were to surrender our egos and allow our dream to take us somewhere rather than us trying to control it. Another quote taken from Tulku in this book, truly summed up the power of lucid dreaming; "Dreams are a reservoir of knowledge and experience, yet they are often overlooked as a vehicle for exploring reality." One of the greatest things I have garnered from reading this book is that we can learn so much from lucid dreams about life, death, and the time in between.

If you are new to the concept of lucid dreaming, and would like to try it out, then this book is for you. Before reading I could only rarely recall dreams, and although I am still unable to lucid dream, it has only been a month and I can now recall dreams almost every night and even choose what I dream about before I sleep. I have yet to even try most of the techniques in this book, and I'm still very excited. The applications of this book are outstanding and the how-to sections make lucid dreaming very much possible for everyone. I suggest reading the book before sleeping and with an open mind. If getting bogged down by the steps, take a break and come back to it later. Lucid dreaming should be fun to learn, and from what I can tell, motivation and relaxation are key.

I have noticed that many of the lucid dreaming books are new age airy-fairy fluff...and lose a lot of credibility..This is the classic, a majority of the books on lucid dreaming are spin-offs of the ideas contained in this book. If you seriously trying to learn how to have lucid dreams...this is the source.

This thoughtful guide into the world of lucid dreaming is one of the best in terms of accuracy and readability. Laberge has conveyed the complexities of sleep research in a way that is both entertaining and easily understood, without omitting the necessary details of his Stanford research. The book is one the reader's best tools both for understanding lucid dreaming and for holding one's own experiments