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Lucid Dreaming Paperback
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBallantine Books
- ISBN-10034542011X
- ISBN-13978-0345420114
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Product details
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 034542011X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0345420114
- Item Weight : 1.11 pounds
- Customer Reviews:
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He’s conducted verifiable studies that proved lucid dreaming is real.
He has a scientific lineage and his methods are almost universal at this time.
He emphasizes that learning to lucid dream is a detailed study that takes time and isn’t just about superfluous things like you’d see in pop YouTube videos
This book ends up waxing poetic which isn’t as helpful for the necessary points of learning this process, for that I highly recommend Dr Kristin LaMarca ‘learn to lucid dream’ Nonetheless this book must be on your fireside table. It’s most unfortunate that the author he references Paul Tholey isn’t available in English.
I. Short recommendation, what to expect and further reading.
II. Address to those with concerns regarding religious and spiritual backgrounds.
III. Recommendation for those suffering from anxiety dreams or nightmares.
IV. Final notes and thoughts on this particular edition (Kindle Edition) of "Lucid Dreaming" and how it compares to LaBerge's other book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming".
I.
This book is a great stepping stone to a wider world. It is a relatively short book but still has everything necessary for you to start having your own Lucid Dreams, if, you put in the effort and follow closely the exercises presented in the book. Don't ever skip something because it seems stupid. I guarantee if you take to heart what is said and make a genuine effort you will have lucid dreams. Lucid Dreaming is not hard but don't be fooled into thinking you can do it without any effort! You don't need another book but likely you will want to read others just the same and indeed I encourage it. The more you absorb about Lucid Dreaming and the more it occupies your thoughts the more likely you will be to succeed. You can also find many dreaming support forums to help you in your journey.
There is another review somewhere which I can't seem to find now reviewer suggests four other texts as well. I cannot seem to find it at the moment and don't remember all four he mentioned but I myself did pick up his recommendation of "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep" by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. I can also recommend this book if you wish to further your understanding and gain a non Scientific perspective. It is written by a modern day (1998) Tibetan Master and is steeped in Tibet's rich history of teachings.
II.
This brings me to another point. A few reviewers were critical of LaBerge's book precisely because it is scientifically based. Stephen LaBerge has a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in Psychophysiology with an emphasis on Lucid Dreaming.
As such he approaches Lucid Dreaming largely from a scientific standpoint even though he is well read on the subject and intimately familiar with the teachings of the Tibetan masters. that being said if you are coming to or learning about Lucid Dreaming from a spiritual or religious background this may not be the book for you. If you believe dreams to be messages form the beyond or otherwise you may be disappointed with this book. LaBerge asserts that dreams are not messages from the divine or otherwise. However he does acknowledge very much so that you can receive messages in your dreams or just in general learn from them. This may sound contradictory at first but basically what he is saying is that no one is sending you messages unless it's yourself because dreaming is a construct of your own mind. What you learn from your dreams is entirely up to you, your perspective and your eagerness to learn and grow. Personally, I think you can still learn from this book regardless of your spiritual/religious backgrounds and beliefs. Religion/spirituality does not have to contradict one another. Indeed, if you read Rinpoche's book you will see that any Illusion of dualism like this is simply a consequence of living in samsara. Regardless of what your spiritual or religious background if you read this book with an open mind but through your own personal lens you should have no trouble maintaining your beliefs and using the techniques learned from this book to further your understanding of them.
III.
This book excels also for those who struggle with nightmares as there is a dedicated section addressing this issue and many other sections which have overlap application to help with nightmares and/or anxiety dreams. He outlines several methods to dealing with these types of dreams both from within the dream itself and through exercises and practices in the waking state. It is also worth mentioning that this section alone may help you in addressing child nightmares. Though he doesn't focus on this subject he does remark at how much easier it is for children to grasp and utilize the idea of lucid dreams to face their nightmares and even go so far as to turn them into pleasurable experiences. As an example, LaBerge recounts how he helped his niece make friends with a menacing shark!
IV.
Some final notes: This book I am reviewing is the Kindle Edition, as such I did not have access to the Audio CD and cannot comment on the Auditory exercises contained within. I bought this book because I wanted a portable Kindle edition of LaBerge's other book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" but it was not available. I was already familiar with much of the material and just wanted something portable I could reference or re-read with ease. The more often you read and keep lucid dreaming in your thoughts the more likely you are to succeed! However, If you are someone who responds well to learning through listening I would recommend considering buying the hard copy version in order to get the CD as well but it is not strictly necessar. I also suspect that if you buy the kindle edition and contact the publisher they may send the CD along. I would also highly recommend considering the hard copy of his other book instead as it is much more in depth and contains many practices you can do to bolster the aspects of mental acuity you will need to induce lucid dreaming. These include things such as learning to relax, learning how to remember to do things without external reminders and also practices for increasing your will power found in the appendices. Many of these are adapted from Tibetan practices and you will see even more what I mean about balancing science with spirituality. Another note is that there is a misconception among some reviewers that this book is newer than "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", in fact, it is not. The confusion seems to stem from the fact that this version was recently republished and updated (for example the audio logs, and the Kindle edition). This is further evidenced by the fact that In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", LaBerge directly mentions his previous book "Lucid Dreaming". There are some references to truly recent research, however, by and large this book is unchanged from the original publication.
The e-book comes with a series of audio mp3 recordings downloadable from the editorial house's website (as mentioned in the link at the beginning of the book, in the page that follows the table of contents). I found the recordings quite good. The narrator really has a wonderful calm voice, which is great to induce relaxation, but also a clear way of explaining things. Probably, they are good on their own and quite the core of what the book says.
I didn't know about the existence of Lucid Dreaming Inducing Devices (LDIDs) like the NovaDreamer and the DreamLight LDID, and many others that the author does not mention, as they aren't developed by his research institute, but they can be found by asking Mr Google or Amazon. Something new to me.
Firstly, it is not a book as it has just 89 pages filled with too many records of dreams, too many unnecessary quotes, quite a lot of unnecessary verbal weed, plus notes and bio. The core of the "book" is about 40 pages, not more! Besides, the bibliography is really old, the most modern book referenced in the book dates back to 1997!
RENDERING FOR KINDLE
The conversion to e-book was obviously done without the least care and not proofread. There are too many items of misspelling to list them here. It will suffice to say that a period is used at times instead of comma, words that should be capitalised after a period are consistently written in lower case, Dr appears as dr a few times, and the surname Dement (funny enough, the surname of a psychiatrist mentioned in the book) is written in lower case at least two times. If you pay me, I will edit the book for you, dear editor...
MY RECOMMENDATION
If this is your first approach to dreamwork and the first book you start with, it will certainly help you with the basics. However, if you really want to delve in all the nitty-gritty of lucid dreaming, especially in the scientific research on dreaming you need to read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming , written 20+ years ago or so, or Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self because the introduction on the subject in this condensed book is really full of platitudes and generalisations. Otherwise, you can go to the website of LaBerge's institute of Research, Lucidity dot com, where a lot of free material is provided to the general public, probably the same you find in this book. As you will be paying 8+ bucks for this concise e-book, why not paying the same for any of the other books by LaBerge that are more comprehensive?
NOTE
It has been years since I have lucid dreamed, which happened spontaneously while I was a teen. I have been doing dreamwork for a few years now but not lucid dreaming, so I bought this book to use lucid dreaming for problem solving. I haven't gotten any result as yet, but as LaBerge says that it can take up to a month of constant self-training, I will wait and see and add a PS. Wish me luck :)
Top reviews from other countries
5 star for Self-Hypnosis Audio. You can buy it for Audio CD alone.
The reason why I gave this book five stars, is because it has so much information inside of it and it explains everything in great detail.
I would recommend this book to anybody, I am going to buy another copy for my friend because it is that good, I really love this fantastic book.
This book arrived on time which made me so happy and also it arrived in good condition, I am so pleased with my purchase. I have nothing bad to say against this book. Thank you to Amazon.co.uk, and to the seller who sold me this great book.