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!
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