Customer Reviews

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming

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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.

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.

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.

This book is unreal. I could not put it down. I have read many, many books on the subject, and this is the only text that covers the subject in a scientific, rather than SUPERNATURAL way. it's SCIENCE, people! and it's absolutely fascinating. it will change your life. i'm sure you hear that every day, and you can choose to read this review and dicard it, but either way, it's unreal. It will change the way you see your waking life as well as your dream life. NOT just on a short-term basis, as so many self-help books, but in a meaningful, realistic, down-to-earth approach that dates back to Buddhist monks seeking Enlightenment (if you are a hard-core Christian, please don't be alarmed at this point... many of their theories are applicable to you, as well). Anyway, it is a life-changing book. You will begin to see how many people "sleep-walk" through their waking life and "wake-walk" through their sleeping life. I have had 3 lucid dreams since reading this book 3 months ago, and each is more enjoyable than the one before. the last one i had was by far the most exhilirating experience of my life. as good as sex (i won't go as far as to say "better than sex"). it's unreal. just buy it... i SWEAR to you it will be worth every penny.

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.

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.

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

This one is simply the best book on lucid dreaming i've read so far. It's clear, it gives some solid psychological background, enough information to start and continu with lucid dreaming for a long time. It's got everything i read somewhere else and more in it. If you get one book on lucid dreaming, this will have to be it.