Hi, I am a serious noob.

Which means I am a noob who is serious about lucid dreaming.

I am not a noob, I guess, in the complete sense. I am a middle aged male, and have had maybe a dozen total lucid dream expweriences in my life. Only in the last two months though, have they been voluntary.

However, over the last year or so, I have had a few LDs that were not voluntarily initiated, and I decided that I should look into this as a form of do-it-yourself therapy. After all, what do we pay shrinks to do that our subconscious and conscious minds can't already do for themselves without an intermediary?

So, I read, Laberge's primer, and am now reading a book by Woodward and one by... some other guy who's name presently escapes me.

I have heard that Castaneda was very good, and also that he was a complete charlatan. As yet, I have not read him, only a few excerpts.

Anyway, my goal is to get my conscious and unconscious minds working cohesively, and not trying to kill each other as they have for the last 40 years or so. I am not interested in flying or having dream-sexual-threesomes with Beyonce and Martha Stewart. ;-)

If there is anyone who can offer me some advice as to what to read or do, I'd greatly appreciate it.

It sounds like you're on the right track. Be sure to check out the wiki. There are some good guides in there that will (hopefully) complement the things you are currently reading.

I'm not a big fan of Castaneda. Mainly because of the whole charlatan thing. He got pretty carried away in his later years. I think there is some good advice in his early books, as long as you keep in mind that the stories are fiction (or dream reports), and not autobiographical.

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Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

It sounds like you're on the right track. Be sure to check out the wiki. There are some good guides in there that will (hopefully) complement the things you are currently reading.

I'm not a big fan of Castaneda. Mainly because of the whole charlatan thing. He got pretty carried away in his later years. I think there is some good advice in his early books, as long as you keep in mind that the stories are fiction (or dream reports), and not autobiographical.

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Thanks for the advice. I will definitely have a look at the wiki.

As to Castaneda... the fact that he was doing the "Hey baby, I have mystical powers, want some, well, just put your head down here..." thing would constantly be in the back of my mind whenever I was reading him, I'm afraid that even what good he had to offer I'd take with a jaundiced eye. :(

That is the same problem I have with him. I can't get over his creepy cult activities.