Lucid Dreaming and OBE Discussion Board

OMG OMG OMG!!!! 

The book is awesome and I'm only thirty pages into it!!!  I love how he was inspired to write the book after having integrated a dream character (a discarded aspect of himself) into himself.  Suddenly he had the energy to do it.  The book is so deep on so many levels.  I'd say this is a must for every lucid dreamer out there!!

It is his journey and you can tell that he his a keen explorer investigating the phenomenon from many angles.  He seems to agree with Stephen LaBerge in that lucid dreaming is beneficial and not disruptive of natural subconscious processes in any way.  In fact, asking questions and finding things out about the dream reality and what it may represent while lucid yields more possibilities.

I also like the fact that his brother started with Robert Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body, that's how I started!  Those out-of-bodies that we have post vibrations are certainly interesting and he addresses their connection to lucid dreaming.  I also admire Waggoner for being open-minded to the idea of precognition whilst considering the viewpoint that remarkable coincidences also take place.

What an excellent read. Already I can relate to his experiences with looking at the hands to become lucid and also maintain the dream world.  What a superb book!  I love this bit (also to give everyone a taster):

"Lucid dreamers, particularly beginners, can occasionally behave like "Conquistadors of Consciousness," as thoughtful lucid dreamer and writer Ryan Hurd put it, and proclaim dominion over a dreaming that they fail to understand or appreciate.  I recall reading of a lucid dreamer who flew into a crowded room of dream figures and gleefully announced, "I am your god!" Oh brother, I thought.

Occasionally, lucid dreamers will come up to me after a talk and proclaim, "But I do control the dream!  I fly.  I make things appear.  I tell dream figures to disappear and they do.  I really control the lucid dream!"

My response generally goes something like this: "If you control the dream, who made the grass green and the sky blue?  Who created the new scene when you came around the corner or flew through a wall into a new room?  Did you control all that new scenery and detail into being?"

I also point out that if lucid dreamers control the lucid dream, they wouldn't spend so much time trying to learn how to manipulate things.  If they control the lucid dream, their lucid dreams wouldn't suddenly collapse and end.  Control suggests a fundamental dominance or authority over.  By contrast, lucid dreamers show varying degrees of ability to manipulate themselves within the dreaming.

At this point, the lucid dreamer acknowledges that their "control" seems limited to directing focus.  They don't "control" the color of the various items, the new vista when they fly over a hill, the items in the rooms they just entered, or necessarily the length of the lucid dream itself.  Rather, they direct their focus within the larger dreaming around them.  When unaware of these points, a lucid dreamer stumbles into the philosophical perspective of the lucid solipsist - one who believes that his or her waking self in the dream is the only reality."

LUCID DREAMING: Gateway to the Inner Self - Robert Waggoner; p22/23


I highly recommend this book, everyone!!!  Buy it!!! ^^^

May reading this book inspire you to do more research, particularly where getting to know the subconscious is concerned! 

I literally came online to look for a book to read on the topic and here one is!!!!

Will defs check it out. Thanks Summerlander.

Oh, Luna, you won't be disappointed.  There is also suspense.  It is brilliant.  I recommend that everyone speak to dream characters.  That's all I can say.  I don't want to ruin it for you but this book will open many people's eyes.  There is more to the phase than just having fun and escapism.

It is inspiring for beginners and mind-expanding for more experienced practitioners such as you and me.  This is our next step.  Robert Waggoner shows us how far the rabbit hole goes and it is profoundly deep.  It really is.

I'll definitely check this out (once i finish Robert Monroe's second book).  I often take advantage to speak to dream characters, often get some strange results.

Once i spoke to a man who i took to be my 'higher self', he called himself Joel Noel (i wrote a song about it )

He told me i should eat more pumpkin and use the 'left hand method' more often!

I also remember a dream where i spoke to about 3 dream characters, in a pub like situation. (I wrote it down, its in my notes somewhere if anyone is interested).

The book is really getting deep.  Really do make contact with the characters.  I encourage people to do this.  Ask questions, get information.  Contact with the dead in lucid dreams is also covered in this book.  Waggoner considers many angles and possibilities.  You guys are going to love it.

I'm starting to think that, the deeper you connect with your unconscious mind, the more you will find that you can connect with the universe and everything as a whole.  Even the dream characters that look like the dead people you know... they may be part of your mind but at the same time be them, or the idea that constituted them which is still alive and existent within the sea of mind potential... which is infinite.

I suspect there is only one mind, we are all the same and the phase state may help you to realise this.  Whatever happens, precognitive, telepathic or coincidental (however you want to interpret it) just take what is beneficial and practical from it.

Excellent read. 

You're welcome!

I knew you guys would love it.  I can't stop reading it either.  There are some things that I am willing to try.  Waggoner is great inspiration.

thanks for the suggestion  Summerlander I'll be picking the book up tomorrow i look forward to reading it. On another note does anyone know what happened to Michael Raduga? He seems to have vanished from the forum.

I'm still in contact with him and we are still doing research.  He is also getting ready for seminars.

I'm on page 158, "Healing Yourself and Others".  I've gone past the bit where he postulates a link between dream characters and multiple personality and dissociative disorders.  I enjoyed that part.  His niece's lucid dream where she encountered her deceased great grandmother is also intriguing.

The loss of self state is also understandable.  I've achieved a near-selflessness via meditation.  In the phase state, there have been profound occasions of a similar nature.  Anyway, carry on reading this book, enjoy it and feel free to discuss Waggoner's ideas!

Cool!

21/07/2012:

Having read Robert Waggoner’s “Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Selfâ€

I'm reading it now also, seems very interesting.

I finished the book and enjoyed it.  In fact I also read Celia Green's second book about lucid dreaming.  It was very scientifically informative.  I loved the sense of adventure in Waggoner's though.

Hello again!
I.m back online for a day or two.

I read the book long ago and it inspired me to look at ld4u and then I found this group.

The book is huge.
The shared dream stuff was VERY WEAK.

I found him to be somewhere between Leberge and Castaneda.  He believes that OBE is real...and that is a requirement versus LD, which can be anything.

It was a decent read....
BK

Yes, he started with Castaneda and his friend Ed Kellog also believes OOBEs to be a separate phenomenon.  That's okay, though, as everyone's is entitled to believe what they want - although I also found that a bit naive of Waggoner since lucid dreams, as you rightly pointed out, can provides us with any experience imaginable.  To me, it is as clear as daylight that an apparent separation from the body is no different to what happens in a WILD.  It is all part of the phase state...

On the shared dreaming... I don't doubt that he's had such experiences, however, he does come across as a little biased in his full acceptance that two people or more share the same dreamscape.

Nevertheless, it is an awesome book with a great sense of adventure and it should urge more people to enter the phase.  The most valuable part of the book is where self-integration and "knowing thyself" is discussed.