Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self [Paperback]

Robert Waggoner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self is the account of an extraordinarily talented lucid dreamer who goes beyond the boundaries of both psychology and religion. In the process, he stumbles upon the Inner Self.

While lucid (consciously aware) in the dream state and able to act and interact with dream figures, objects, and settings, dream expert Robert Waggoner experienced something transformative and unexpected. He was able to interact consciously with the dream observer-the apparent Inner Self-within the dream. At first this seemed shocking, even impossible, since psychology normally alludes to such theoretical inner aspects as the Subliminal Self, the Center, the Internal Self-Helper in vague and theoretical ways. Waggoner came to realize, however, that aware interaction with the Inner Self was not only possible, but actual and highly inspiring. He concluded that while aware in the dream state, one has both a psychological tool and a platform from which to understand dreaming and the larger picture of man's psyche as well. Waggoner proposes 5 stages of lucid dreaming and guides readers through them, offering advice for those who have never experienced the lucid dream state and suggestions for how experienced lucid dreamers can advance to a new level.

Lucid Dreaming offers exciting insights and vivid illustrations that will intrigue not only avid dreamworkers but anyone who is interested in consciousness, identity, and the definition of reality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In this remarkable book, Robert Waggoner has brought lucid dreaming to a level that is simultaneously higher and deeper than any previous explorer has taken the topic. Both autobiographical and historical, theoretical and practical, psychodynamic and transpersonal, as well as adventurous and cautionary, Lucid Dreaming offers its readers instructions and insights that they will find nowhere else in the literature. They will learn how they can become awake and aware while asleep, and how this talent can change their lives. --Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, San Francisco, Coauthor of Extraordinary Dreams and How To Work With Them

Lucid Dreaming IS a gateway to the Inner Self. Robert Waggoner s unique storytelling style is compelling reading an impressive exploration of the subject. The work is scholarly, fascinating, and, most of all, practical. --Christine Lemley, Executive Producer, DREAMTIME Series, WFYI/PBS-TV Indianapolis

Robert Waggoner admirably fulfills his aim of bringing lucidity to lucid dreaming. His book is distinguished by its wealth of first-hand experience, and his clear recognition that, instead of seeking to control and manipulate our dreams, we should use the gift of lucidity to navigate a deeper reality and grow into connection with a deeper and wiser self. He offers practical techniques and fascinating travelers tales to encourage us to experiment with interactive and precognitive dreaming and to explore the process of reality creation inside the dream matrix. This is an invitation to high adventure. --Robert Moss, Author of Conscious Dreaming and The Three ONLY Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination

About the Author

Robert Waggoner is President-Elect of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and a graduate of Drake University with a degree in psychology. He is also the coeditor of the online journal, The Lucid Dream Exchange dreaminglucid.com. He is a frequent speaker at national and international dream conferences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Moment Point Press, Inc. (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193049114X
• ISBN-13: 978-1930491144
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Dreams
  • #94 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > New Thought

More About the Author

For 30 years, I have utilized lucid dreaming, or the ability to become consciously aware while dreaming, to explore the nature of reality, the dream state and consciousness. Recently, I authored the new book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self (Moment Point Press: 2009) to share my insights and help others create a deeper and richer lucid dreaming life.

My passion for lucid dreaming can also be found at www.dreaminglucid.com where I co-edit the quarterly e-zine, The Lucid Dream Exchange, and at my book's website, www.lucidadvice.com which has links to my blog, feedback from happy readers and reviews.

Currently, I serve as the President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, www.asdreams.org and often speak at conferences, colleges and other venues on lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming provides a revolutionary tool to investigate the unconscious mind, which Freud called, "the true reality of the Psyche." In my book, I highlight experienced lucid dreamers who have used lucid dreaming to apparently heal their physical body, while consciously aware in the dream state. Additionally, I investigate how lucid dreamers can access a hidden reservoir of knowledge and information, similar to the collective unconscious. Lucid dreaming has enormous potential for personal transformation and growth.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth reading, February 16, 2009

By 

K. Cramer (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self (Paperback)

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in lucid dreams. I've read nearly every book about lucid dreaming and I can say without hesitation this book is one of the best.

There are plenty of how-to books geared toward readers who seek to experience lucid dreams for the first time. While this book contains some techniques for that purpose, it offers so much more than that. Robert Waggoner takes lucid dreaming to a whole new level. Through his investigation of the profound inner awareness ever-present in our dreams, he demonstrates the vast potential for exploration and personal growth available to us lucid dreaming. This aspect of the book resonated deeply with me because it echoes my current approach to dreaming.

It is rare to find a book that approaches lucid dreaming from this angle, especially one that so thoroughly details the ways in which the dreamer can explore the hidden -- and often meaningful -- aspects of the dream. I wish this book had been around years ago when I first began my lucid dreaming practice.

Waggoner's enthusiasm for dreaming is evident on every page. Whether you are an experienced lucid dreamer or new to lucid dreaming, I recommend adding this to your personal library.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just awesome, October 28, 2009

By 

Daniel Westman (Umeĺ, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self (Paperback)

I've read my fair share of books about lucid dreaming and there are certainly better how-to books, but I'm glad that this isn't another how-to book. No other book on lucid dreaming has fascinated and inspired me as much as this one.

Before I read this book I just saw my lucid dreams as a playground where I could live out my fantasies. Now it's so much more than that. It feels like I've just started out on a great adventure into the unknown.

All the others that gave this book five stars have said it better than me, this really is a great book. This book has earned it's place in my lucid dreaming library, next to Stephen LaBerge's books. But if you're a beginner and want to learn step by step how to have lucid dreams, I recommend that you buy Steven LaBerge's book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming instead. If you can afford it, buy both books. They complement each other.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Page Turner. Expect a lot more from this author., October 29, 2008

By 

Seeing Eagle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self (Paperback)

"Lucid Dreaming, Gateway to the Inner Self," by Robert Waggoner. Robert Waggoner guides you through his own personal learning experiences of over 30 years, as a trained psychologist, blazing a self-energizing path to enlightenment and advanced state of awareness. There is at least one additional chapter I would like to see Waggoner add to this easy-to-read page turner, the impact of the internet. The advent of the internet enables the most esoteric dream images and experiences to now be field-tested against our collective reality and knowledge base by the individual, as soon as one wakes up. The result of field-testing through the internet leads quickly to the transformational profound discovery that factual information that exists in our reality is knowable and instantly attainable merely through seeking it. The mass experience of internet confirmation of places, ideas, theories, and concepts holds the potential to quickly alter a species into an entire new level of consciousness and understanding.

Expect much more from Robert Waggoner's generous and giving spirit in which he writes. His easy to read writing style focuses on reader understanding. I'm hooked.

All my physicists and scientists friends are encouraged to read his Chapter 12 with an open mind. Page 153, Waggoner quotes a passage from Jane Roberts in her 1977 book, " The `Unknown' Reality " as Waggoner discusses discoveries made by scientists from many fields through their focused lucid dream explorations in which they set about to find scientific answers to frontier level questions of science through the lucid dream experience:

The trouble is that many in the sciences do not comprehend that there is an inner reality. It is not only as valid as the exterior one, but it is the origin for it. It is the world that offers you answers, solutions, and would reveal many of the blueprints that exist behind the world of your experience.

The true art of dreaming is a science long forgotten by your world. Such an art, pursued, trains the mind in a new kind of consciousness - one that is equally at home in either existence, well-grounded and secure in each. Almost anyone can become a satisfied and productive amateur in this art-science; but its true fulfillment takes years of training, a strong sense of purpose, and a dedication - as does any true vocation.


To some extent, a natural talent is a prerequisite for such a true dream-art scientist. A sense of daring, exploration, independence, and spontaneity is required. Such a work is a joy. There are some such people who are quite unrecognized by your societies, because the particular gifts involved are given zero priority. But the talent still exists...

A practitioner of this ancient art learns first of all how to become conscious in normal terms, while in the sleep state...


The true scientists understands that he must probe the interior and not the exterior universe; he will comprehend that he cannot isolate himself for a reality of which he is necessarily a part, and that to do so presents at best a distorted picture. In quite true terms, your dreams and the trees outside of your windows have a common denominator: they both spring from the withinness of consciousness."