Transcription
Lucid Dreaming Experience
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner SelfBy Robert Waggoner A selection of 5-star customer reviews from Amazon.com Definitely worth reading, February 16, 2009 - I wholeheartedly recommend this bookto anyone with an interest in lucid dreams. I've read nearly every book about lucid dreaming and I cansay without hesitation this book is one of the best.I wishthis book had been around years ago when I first began mylucid dreaming practice. Love the book. Very informative and valuable information on lucid dreaming. The key to the lucid dreams world, May 4,2009 - I've had my first two lucid dreams on the secondnight after reading first 50 pages. The energy this bookemits shifted my perception on very deep level and servedme as a key to the lucid dreams world. Lucid Dreaming Gateway to the Inner Self,April 7, 2009 - I thought this was an excellent book for thissubject. Written with conviction and real knowledge. An excellent guided tour of lucid dreaming, ranging from the scientific to the paranormal. Very highly recommended. A solid guide and a hearty recommendation, January 8, 2009 Page Turner. Expect a lot more from this author, October 29, 2008 - Expect much morefrom Robert Waggoner's generous and giving spirit in which he writes. His easy to read writing style focuses on reader understanding. I'm hooked. Intelligent and forward thinking, November 6, 2008 - Created with the high level ofintelligence and pioneering quality that I'm sure many lucid dreamers have been waiting for, this remarkable book may serve as a point of reference for those eager to pursue the unknown that patientlylies in waiting just beyond our mundane awareness. .Thank you Robert. Looking forward with greatanticipation to further stimulating books from you in the future! Amazing and enjoyable, March 11, 2009 - An absolute must-read.2Lucid Dreaming Experience
Co-EditorsLucy Gillis and Robert WaggonerGraphic ArtistLaura AtkinsonScience CorrespondentBill MurphyIn ThisIssueList of Contributors LDE Vol 01 No 04Natalie Doucet, Kelly Frappier, Christoph Gassmann,Nigel Hamilton, Kevin Healey, Ed Kellogg, SirleyMarques Bonham, Phoenix Mendoza, Al Moniz,Sharon Pastore, Maria Isabel Pita, Melanie Schädlich,Mary Ziemer, Rick M, Bahram, James, Laurance,Moonbeam, TonyCover ImageAdam Kadmon E. W. Kellogg III, 1998, computer graphicDreamSpeak . 2Robert Waggoner interviews Mary ZiemerStatement of PurposeThe Lucid Dreaming Experience is an independentlypublished reader supported quarterly magazine thatfeatures lucid dreams and lucid dream-related articles.Our goal is to educate and inspire lucid dreamersthrough sharing lucid dreams, exploring lucid dreamtechniques, and discussing the implications of luciddream activities.DisclaimerAll work in The Lucid Dreaming Experience is thecopyright of the respective contributors unlessotherwise indicated. No portion of LDE may be usedin any way without the express permission of theindividual author. Views and opinions expressed arethose of the contributing authors and are notnecessarily those of the editors of The LucidDreaming Experience.Playing with Lights in My Lucid Dreamsand Out-of-Body Experiences. 13Sirley Marques Bonham‘s encounters with light phenomena in lucid states ofawarenessExploring The Tree of Life ThroughLucid Dreaming . 15Ed Kellogg presents an intriguing Lucid Dreaming Challenge to LDE readersLight in (Lucid) Dreams . 23Christoph Gassmann discusses light in dreams as a symbolic of states of consciousnessSubmissionsSend your submissions through our website or viae-mail to lucylde@yahoo.com. Include the word "lucid"or "LDE" somewhere in the subject line. Pleaseindicate at what point you became lucid in yourdream, and what triggered your lucidity. *Submissionsare printed at the discretion of the LDE editors.*The Scientific Study of Color in Dreams . 24A report from LDE‘s science correspondent, Bill MurphyKid Lucid . 25Al Moniz illustrates the comic meta-musings of Kid LucidSubscriptionsLucid Dreaming Experience ( ISSN 2167-616X ),Volume 1, Number 4, March 2013, published quarterlyby The Lucid Dreaming Experience, PO Box 11,A me s ,IA50010.ContactRobertatrobwaggoner@aol.com if you wish to purchase a printcopy for 20. per year. Copyright (c) 2012 by theLucid Dreaming Experience. All rights reserved.To receive LDE for free join our mail list atwww.luciddreammagazine.comNext DeadlineSubmission Deadline for LDE Vol 2, No 1May 15, 2013Publication date: June 2013The Experience of Colours and Light in LucidDreaming: A Sufi Perspective . 28Nigel Hamilton discusses the significance of colour and light phenomena inlucid dreamsLight in Your Lucid Dreams. 31The appearance of unusual or extraordinary light in reader‘s lucid dreamsMy Top 10 . 35Maria Isabel Pita‘s Top 10 Amazing DreamsLDE WebsiteIn Your Dreams . 36www.luciddreammagazine.comReaders share their lucid dream experiences
dreamspeakDREAMSPEAK INTERVIEWWITH MARY ZIEMERBY ROBERT WAGGONER 2013Lucid dreamer, Mary Ziemer, serves as Director of the charity HELP Counselling Centre inLondon. She has an MA in Psychology and Religion and an Advanced diploma inTranspersonal Psychotherapy from the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education,London, where she is the Manager and Research Officer of the Dream Research Institute. Marycan be reached at drimz@ccpe.org.ukHow did you become interested in lucid dreaming?―Lucid dreaming‖ as a concept came to my attention in 2006. Prior to that, I did not realize that thedreams I‘d had since childhood skirted the edges of what I‘d now call ―lucidity.‖ From the onset, lucidityinvolved a strange kind of black light that frightened me terribly (given my fear of the dark). Besidesthat, given the emotional turmoil of my everyday life in childhood, I did not trust the overpoweringfeelings that came with the dreams. Even so, in second-grade, I do recall writing a story about a ―lucid‖dream in which, after many adventures, a prince and princess fly on a ―Lunderbird‖ to a magical castlein the clouds. The teacher had my mother come to school for a conference because she felt concernedabout the ―precocious nature‖ of the story. After that, I kept the dreams to myself.By my teens (when I no longer feared the dark so much), I associated the strong winds, flight, levitationand whirring sounds that often accompanied approaching lucidity with demonic or evil powers—an idearooted in the belief that it was okay for biblical characters to have visions etc., but not a girl fromGarfield Street. Because of all this, I stopped the lucid dreams. Still, I regarded my non-lucid dreamsenough to move from the US to Europe in 1990 based, in great part, on this semi-lucid dream, inwhich, for the first time, I felt truly safe in the dark:At the base of the golden, California hills of summer, I wander through crowded carnival grounds,feeling alone. I only want a friend to go walking with me in the hills. The pressure of the crowds pushesme out into the golden foothills where a man approaches me saying, ―I‘ve heard that you‘ve beenlooking for a friend.‖ His gentleness reassures me. I feel I can trust this stranger who wears a royalblue poet‘s blouse and has wavy shoulder-length blond hair. His fine features and form radiate beauty.As we walk in the hills, we communicate without words. The sea-washed breeze cools us. He invitesme home to meet his family. On the way there, I ask him his name. He answers, ―Gabriel.‖ I turn to himand say, ―You know, that name means ‗Child of God‘.‖ He turns to me with a healing smile and says, ―Iknow.‖ His elderly parents and three sisters greet me warmly. They feed me freshly baked bread and2Lucid Dreaming Experience
DreamSpeakgive me fresh milk. I feel the meal makes me wholeand gives me new life. After supper, Gabriel tellsme we will take a journey into the night. As a child,I had been terribly afraid of the dark, but now it hasbecome a friend. Gabriel and I get into his invisible―car‖ and disappear at an incredible speed into avelvety blackness. With this, I awake.Waking Dream teacher would ask me to touch it.Just as my finger comes within a hair‘s breadthaway, the trout snaps to life and darts down intothe shiny depths.This dream foreshadowed my eventual experienceof full lucidity. But only in 2006, when I started apsychotherapy training program in London at theCentre for Counselling and PsychotherapyEducation (CCPE), did I begin to understand theemotional issues and misconceptions that had keptme from trusting the lucid dreams. At CCPE, wepracticed a dream re-entry technique called theWaking Dream as developed by Dr Nigel Hamilton,CCPE‘s Director, in which we re-experienced thedream more consciously or ―lucidly‖ with atherapeutic guide. This practice quickly transferredover to my dreams as in the following:Allowing lucidity to continue beyond the initial rushof energy came as a new experience to me, so Ihad no idea of what to expect. One of the earlylucid dreams from April 2007 conveys this feeling.The Rainbow TroutFind myself walking waist deep in a creek at thebase of the Eastern Sierras. Sunlight filters downthrough the leafy covering, glimmering on thewater‘s surface and the creek‘s golden sands. Afew feet in front of me, I watch as a massiverainbow trout swims to the surface. The trout lookstoo big to be a creek fish. I decide to catch the fishwith my hands the way my father and I used to do,but then I realize that the fish represents the Spiritand stop myself. I notice that the trout has turnedon its side, revealing a rainbow. It looks exhausted.―How,‖ I wonder, ―can the Spirit be weary?‖ Then Ithink the fish also represents me and that myWhat do you recall of your first lucid dreams?Anything odd, unusual, or unexpected?Lucid Car CrashDriving through the California foothills on asummer‘s day, I lose control of the car, or rather,the car takes control and begins to speed off theside of the road. After a number of futile attempts, Ino longer try to stop it. I calmly make this decision.The car runs over a row of white and blue windcatchers, hitting the side of a golden hill at highspeed. It feels like the car has become a particle oflight and that I travel at the speed of light whereeverything slows down.As the beam of light shatters, my body and thedreamscape disappear. All becomes an expansiveluminous blackness. An incredible pressure andnoise centers between my ―brows.‖ I feel acutelyaware. All goes very silent and still. I know I havebeen dreaming and have the sense that I haveactually died in the dream. With this awareness,although I‘d like to stay in this space, I wake up.Since that time, I have applied the car-crashanalogy to lucidity and ―surrendered‖ to a ―force‖larger than my own. To my mind, wind-catcherssignified the presence of the Holy Spirit. And, justas the body of the car disappeared along with thedreamscape, giving way to a black light, so mydream body and the dreamscape dissolve in theexperience of lucidity that I call ―Lucid Surrender.‖What did you make of that?Well, it felt like dying before my waking death. Ididn‘t quite know what to make of it when mydream body and the dreamscape disappeared.Over time, I have come to realize that an invisible,subtle body of light with enhanced sensorial andLucid Dreaming Experience3
DreamSpeakintuitive capacities replaces my ―ordinary‖ dreambody and mind. Similarly, the light of the new―dreamscape‖ shines luminously like a black void.Also, although the void has a ―black‖ and ―empty‖appearance, my experience tells me that aninvisible, living light fills the void. (Interestingly, lightwithout an object to reflect off of also looks ―black‖in waking physical reality.) I describe this invisiblelight as ―living‖ because the light possesses a rangeof emotional tonalities. Out of this ―void,‖ the blacklight takes manifold forms (as it does in waking life):mineral, vegetable, animal, human, mental, angelic,Divine. Sometimes, when my being gets taken intonew dimensions of light, then a new, visible dreambody of light takes shape.she tallies up the fresh bread and red wine I‘d liketo buy. When I notice the love in her eyes, Ibecome aware the scene has become illuminatedfrom within, bringing semi-lucidity. The womanturns left to look where a young man unpacksrainbow and golden trout for display. Watching theyoung man, I see a piercing white circle of lightdance around him and the fish. The light follows myeye movement, not his, so I deduce it comes fromme. With this, full lucidity comes and I recognizethe market as an image of my ego, mind, or evenbody. I feel jubilant as I bow my head and wait. Thewalls of the shop fall away and open into stars. Ihear a familiar rush of powerful wind and feel mybeing lifted onto the black light .When you become lucid, does it result from aThree years later, I had a more direct apprehension particular induction or incubation technique?of this light as in the following lucid dream excerpt: Or have you simply trained yourself to noticethe unusual when dreaming? .After a long distance in the black, I ―see‖ beforeme three long, very fine, beams of golden, laserPractising the Waking Dream Technique certainlylight radiating out from a vanishing point far off inhelped. Also, in my waking life, I had long cultivatedthe infinite blackness. The golden beams crossan attentive eye for what I think of as ―signs of thethrough four fine arching beams of gold. At thespirit‖— hidden beauties, kindnesses, delightfulpoints where the straight and curved beams meet, incongruities and humour. Often in dreams, Iflashes of shimmering, diaphanous mist rise up.recognize these ―signs‖ and insights as the light of―What is this?‖ I wonder. The answer nearly takesthe Spirit, sparking lucidity.my breath away: ―This is the structure of light and Iam travelling on light!‖ .The beauty and truth ofWhen I pray before falling asleep, I usually becomethis vision fill me with a deep devotional humility. In lucid and sometimes enter lucidity through thethis state, I feel carried to the vanishing point. And prayers. By prayer, I mean a kind of song of thethen the thought comes: ―If I am travelling on light, heart akin to the idea of ―Centering Prayer‖ asthen I must also be light!‖ .taught by Father Keating—taking a sacred hymn orname and repeating it in tandem with the breath,What was it about lucid dreaming that caughtsyllable by syllable. Sufis say that when you findyour interest and attention? What made youthe breath, you find God. This feels true. Thewant to have another lucid dream and pursue it names and songs I call on in prayer and that arisefurther?Not sure I‘d say I pursued the dreams as much as Ilonged for the Spirit and the dreams followed. I paidattention because I felt the dreams alive with Spirit,signposted with the words: ―More to learn in thisdirection.‖ Also, I have a special interest in theappearance of light and colour in dreams because Iassociate both with the presence of Spirit as in thisdream from 2008, ―The Market Opens‖:I stand at the check out counter in a family marketset in Lone Pine, California, at the base of Mt.Whitney. An elderly female cashier smiles at me as4Lucid Dreaming Experience
DreamSpeakspace. Still repeating, ―Oh Holy One, Oh HolyOne.‖ But, after a time, I begin to wonder if I canget back when I choose and in that very instance,In one of Teresa of Avila‘s poems, she describeswham, I feel taken back horizontally through thehow she ―found completeness when each breathmaelstrom, light and tunnel at an amazing speed.silently repeated the name of her Lord.‖ This name, Find myself back in the original dream, flat on myher conception of God, took her to a place whereback on a green yoga mat next to the pool. As I―only light existed.‖ There she asks the Lord if hisrest in Sivasana, the thought comes that I need toHoly name serves as ―the only key to this place.‖rest after such an experience, so I do so in theThe answer comes that ―every prophet‘s name is a dream until I wake up.key as is every heart full of forgiveness and love.‖ Ibelieve the same applies in my own experience.At the Asheville IASD conference in 2010, wemet and I attended your workshop “TheThis dream, ―Two Unicorns,‖ from January 2009Science of Mirrors” on light and mirrors. Wouldserves as an example:you mind sharing the essence of that workshopand how it relates to your lucid dreamAwakened at 4:00 and pray. Start the repetition of experience?the Holy Names with the breath. At some point,feel a deepening shift in my mind. Suddenly, findAt the time, I intended to give attendees anmyself in the backyard of a friend from my teens.experience of the dream-as mirror, in the senseThe scene seems banal. I walk towards the edgethat our imaginations become like a mirror,of the swimming pool and climb up on the back of a reflecting aspects of our psyche, mind, soul,creature that I sense but do not see. As I sit there, Spirit—metaphorically similar to the way the moona dark-haired man enters through the gate, backing reflects the light of the sun. In the Kabbalistica white horse into the space parallel to me. When tradition, I‘ve come across the idea that Godthe horse draws up next to me, I see it is a unicorn! withdrew the Absolute to reveal the mirror ofWith amazement, I think, ―But unicorns don‘t exist, existence—dreams form part of that revelatoryor do they?‖ And then I lean forward and see amirror.massive white horse‘s head with a single horn andrealize I‘m sitting on a unicorn!Symmetry appears fundamental not only to mirrorsbut also to our ideas about the Divine and Beauty,With this, lucidity comes. I say, ―Okay God, here I which have symmetrical attributes, for example,am.‖ Suddenly, whoosh, my being travels along on those of mathematical harmony and balance,my ―back‖ through a black tunnel alive with thequalities seen in sacred sites and heard in music.ecstatic pleasure of the winds. After a long time, Ibegin to ―see‖ bright, pulsing lights ahead. TheyIf you consider your reflection in a mirror as first anradiate out like enormous white orchid petals in aimage and then a symmetrical reflection, you willswirl of bloom. ―This time,‖ I think, ―I won‘t berealize that what you see in the mirror isafraid.‖fundamentally reflected light. This 3-fold way ofviewing what the mirror reflects—as first an object,Getting taken through the white, living light takes a then symmetrical qualities, and finally light—can belong time. Eventually, my being enters ana way of understanding the light in dreams. Theimmense, black-grey cloud or maelstrom thatapocryphal Book of Wisdom compares the Spirit ofmoves so fast I experience its light in slow motion, Wisdom to a mirror:without any violence, just a tremendous pressurethat makes it hard to find my breath. The cloud has She is the reflection of the eternal light.a beautiful texture with flecks of light in it. InUntarnished mirror of God‘s active power.response to the cloud‘s presence, I can only repeat Image of [God‘s] goodness.―Oh Holy One, Oh Holy One!‖ Then my beingmoves into a small incredibly black silent space.In this passage, the order of recognition is inverted:The tremendous pressure of the maelstrom feelswisdom first appears as light,
2 Lucid Dreaming Experience Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self By Robert Waggoner A selection of 5-star customer reviews from Amazon.com Definitely worth reading, February 16, 2009 - 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
