RSS
Home
Interview with Robert Waggoner
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Robert Waggoner is President-elect of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and co-editor of the quarterly publication, The Lucid Dream Exchange. He has logged thousands of lucid dreams and is an international speaker for conferences on lucid dreaming. He is the author of the recently published book Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.
Why is lucid dreaming important? Do dreams have a purpose?
Lucid dreaming is important because it allows you to learn about the subconscious mind and the principles of the dream environment. It helps you deal with emotional issues, and can heal what Jung called the personal unconscious. Lucid dreaming can also help you do what I call ‘seek out the Muse’ and inspire creativity. Many artists, writers and musicians use lucid dreaming to actively seek out creativity instead of waiting for it to come to them. With lucid dreaming you can seek out unknown information, or the larger information of the collective unconscious. Lucid dreaming is a revolutionary tool to scientifically experiment within the confines of the dreaming and discover a truer picture of the Self.
For those who are new to lucid dreaming, what do you think is the best method to achieve lucidity?
Many people use simple suggestion before going to sleep to induce lucid dreaming, such as repeating, “Tonight in my dreams I will be more critically aware, and realize I am dreaming.” Some try Stephen LaBerge’s MILD technique, but it seems to be difficult for beginners, perhaps as a result of the how much you need to focus your intent. There’s also the Castaneda technique, where you look at your hands before going to sleep with the idea of using them as a dreamsign to elicit lucid awareness.
When I tried it I looked at my hands and within three nights I had a dream where I’m walking through a hallway and my hands just pop in front of my face. At my dreaminglucid.com website, I stress the first crucial 30 seconds of the dream or the MEME, (Modulate, Elevate, Maintain and Express) method. First, you modulate your emotions. Next, you elevate your awareness by saying something like, “Greater clarity now!” or rubbing your hands together. Then you maintain, or focus your awareness by reminding yourself every now and then that you are lucidly aware, so you do not slip back into regular dreaming. Finally, you express your intent in the dream.
Why do some people struggle with lucid dreaming while others achieve lucidity more easily?
I think it’s important for struggling people to first identify the fear or concerns that's keeping them from lucid dreaming. Sometimes people don’t remember their dreams because they may see dreaming as insignificant or inconsequential. For others, they may have experienced a trauma and subconsciously decided to no longer remember their dreams. Those who lucid dream easily have developed what I call a ‘lucid mindset’. Through various mental habits of questioning themselves or their environment, they create a more aware mind frame, which naturally elicits lucid awareness in the dream state.
What is your experience with nightmares? Do you have any advice for someone who suffers from chronic nightmares?
As a child, I had this recurring dream where I could sense the invisible man in my house. As these dreams progressed, I wondered, “What if he had some bad intent?” So I grabbed a pair of scissors and knives for protection. Finally, after two or three years of this recurring dream, I decided to run into the garage and get a bucket of paint. I wanted the paint to fall on him when he came into the house so that he would no longer be invisible. After that, I never had the nightmare again. So this dream finally came full circle as part of bringing more conscious awareness into it. My advice for those who suffer from chronic nightmares is to become consciously aware and call the night figure to you, in order to try and understand it.
Are there any films you feel best illustrate the ideas behind lucid dreaming?
I think many of the mainstream Hollywood films are poorly informed. Jake Paltrow’s The Good Night asks the question about whether the life of lucid dreaming is better than waking life. It illustrates the problem of being seduced by what I call the ‘cinema of lucid dreaming’ where you become so entranced by the beauty you don’t explore enough. The ability to dream lucidly must keep growing because there’s so much incredible depth to it. Richard Linklater’s Waking Life was one of the better ones, but the one I feel that best illustrates the ideas of lucid dreaming is a 35 minute documentary called WAKE UP: Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming, where there are dozens of interviews with lucid dreaming experts. You can see the trailer at Lucitopia.com.
Many people use their dreams to inspire their art. How do you use the knowledge from your lucid dreams?
I wouldn’t have been able to write my book without dream advice. About eighty pages into it, I hit a wall. Then an incubated dreaming suggested that I should write the last 120 pages and afterwards, complete the middle of the book. I get advice all the time in my dreams. They inform every aspect of my life.
What do you think we need to do to further push lucid dreaming into the mainstream?
Western society has a dismissive, negative view of dreaming and says that they are meaningless. In my book, I seek to show lucid dreaming as being a possibility for healing ourselves physically and emotionally. It is a way to investigate the nature of consciousness and go beyond the limits of the waking mind. As the mainstream begins to understand the immense possibilities of lucid dreaming to better our waking lives, then I think a lucid dreaming culture may flourish.
Do you have any advice for novice dreamers who would like to know more about lucid dreaming?
The beauty of dreaming is the imagination with all its faculties. In a dream, you can see a white horse, its muscles, listen to its breathing, and can really be there with this horse. Dreaming is the imagination squared. Lucid dreaming offers us the imagination to the tenth power. My advice to novices -- get curious, set aside assumptions and follow the lucid path with integrity and heart.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
