Lucid dreaming, or dreamed reality?

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Facing a six hour drive to Saskatchewan, not so long ago, and encouraged by my friend Mike's positive comments about the medium, I checked out from the local library, somewhat by chance, Robert Waggoner's audiobook, entitled "Lucid dreaming." I immediately got hooked up.

Lucid dreaming can be defined as a dream, in which a dreamer is AWARE that he/she is dreaming. I had this kind of experience myself, so it was easy for me to relate to what Waggoner was describing. I once dreamt that I went to visit with my neighbor across the street in High Level, where we lived at that time. The visit was very pleasant, but at some point I noticed that his living room was opened straight into the street, without any walls. "This is not possible," I remember saying to myself, "I must be dreaming. And if I am dreaming I can wake up." This is exactly what I had done.

After listening to Waggoner's book, I realized that my decision to wake up represented a somewhat wasted opportunity. Lucid dreaming can be, and, in fact, is, used by countless enthusiasts for so many other fantastic opportunities. The author gives many examples of using lucid dreaming for clairvoyance, delivering healing to oneself and others, for communication with the ancestors, and general penetration into the nature of the reality.

What I liked about the book was that Waggoner reports everything in a "matter of fact" manner, with almost scientific attention to what he describes. This book is not meant to create cheap impression, but rather to encourage sober, open minded exploration of the field. He encourages taking notes and scientific experiments (for instance, can two people dream the same dream). He also tries to establish theory that would allow to explain lucid dreaming phenomena.

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Waggoner purports that our "inner self," or "conscious unconscious," has a unlimited potential to use "dream maya" to satisfy our deepest desires, address our inner conflicts, facilitate our healing and integrate different levels of our psyche. Many of you must have had, as I did, dreams of flying - typically very pleasant, joyous and satisfying. Waggoner reports as well as, in his dream, when he was still a young person, he WILLED his dream to be filled with beautiful, attractive women. This, reportedly, happened instantaneously! Now, this is something that could work for me too!

Waggoner suggests further that the "inner self'" is, generally speaking, a very benevolent force, interested in our growth as human beings. In his dreams, author reports, he met many "dream figures" that, either compelled by his requests, or sometimes, seemingly, of their own volition, were trying to help him with the art of lucid dreaming. They also helped him to use lucid dreaming for some higher level education or other noble causes.

Not only the "inner self" doesn't seem to be constraint by physical dimensions, but it also appears not to be limited by time. Reportedly, many lucid dreamers were able to describe, in great detail, physical spaces, existing in reality, they had never visited but in a dream. Many also received "messages" about the things still to come.

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In contrast, I remember distinctively one "dream," in which I visited with myself ... in the past! In this dream, I saw myself playing with other children in the village of Brzeszcze, back in Poland, where I used to spend my vacations. This was a rather strange experience, in which, because of the tremendous heaviness of my head, I had to hold on to the wire fence ... in Brzeszcze! This all didn't seem like a dream - but as a real experience of watching myself, in real time, simply many years earlier!

This experience, and similar examples provided by other people, makes me wonder about the nature of reality and time. If our "inner self," the sphere where we seem to be connected with everything else, at all times, has such an infinite power to produce "dream maya," what stops it from producing the "real maya," (even if it sounds somewhat oxymoronic)?

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Is it possible that we, in fact, live in a "matrix?" And not matrix produced by some nasty machines, but by our own, deep rooted, convictions and desires?

"Wake up!" - seem to be the call of many of our teachers. "Realize your true nature," says Nisargadatta, and many others, "free yourself from the erroneous identification with your own body."

In one anecdote about the Buddha, a beggar, seeing the Buddha radiating with inner joy, asks him who he is. Buddha replies joyfully - "I AM AWAKE!"

Hm, I was able to wake myself up from my lucid dream. Will I be able to wake up from my dreamed reality?