About Robert

Living Lucidly refers to taking the observations and principles noted within lucid dream interactions (and described in Robert’s first book), and adapting them to use in the waking world in order to create, resolve issues, grow and even heal.

One example of Living Lucidly can be found below in his piece on his new invention for those who feel stuck in some aspect of their life.  Robert calls this practice, the DreamResolution (DR) Technique, since many individuals have used it with considerable success to deal with inner issues.

Importantly, these Living Lucidly techniques do not require lucid dreaming — so anyone can use them.   Please read the document carefully if you consider practicing the DR Technique.  [ Disclaimer:  This information is for educational and informational purposes only. ]

by Robert Waggoner © 2026

For fifty years I have explored dreaming and lucid dreaming, where you realize within the dream that you are dreaming, and then can consciously explore and experiment.  I have written two acclaimed books, Lucid Dreaming – Gateway to the Inner Self (now in its 16th printing) and Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple (w/ co-author Caroline McCready), which have been translated into eight languages.  In both books, I have chapters on using lucid dreaming to promote emotional and physical health.

A number of readers have written to me to share instances of emotional healing and also physical healing.  Often times, they sought this alternative path to healing because their medical doctor had no treatment for their particular issue or they had exhausted all traditional approaches with no improvement.

As I thought about their success at using lucid dreaming to promote emotional or physical health, it made me wonder if another approach to healing might exist that did not require lucid dreaming?  An approach that anyone could use, even those who do not recall their dreams?

As I considered this and my own experience with meditation, self-hypnosis and dreamwork, I devised a very simple technique that I call the DreamResolution (DR) technique. The basic idea revolves around the premise that dreaming has a natural function to promote emotional and physical health.

Science shows that everyone dreams.  In fact, each night most people spend about two hours in the dream state. Dreaming and the immediate aftermath also seem one of the busiest times physiologically, where hormones and other neurochemicals get expressed and sent around the body.

Also, research has shown that apparently every animal dreams!  When you consider these facts, dreaming must have some important purposes and positive impacts in order to be an essential feature of all animals.

But how could you join forces with the purposes of dreaming to promote better emotional or physical health?  The answer that came to me seems relatively simple and connects to the ancient technique of dream incubation, where before sleep, you express your intent to dream towards a certain goal. Science has shown that dream incubation may result in an answer to a question or the resolution of a waking problem.  I believe that millions have used dream incubation around the world to resolve difficult issues.

To me, the issue seemed to involve giving the unconscious or dreaming mind your clear intent to resolve issues in the inner reality of dreams. And to do this long enough (30 days) to manifest a real change.

DreamResolution can lead to real transformations within you and the outer situation, even though it all occurs at an inner level.  The idea came to me as I read the Seth material.

Note: 1) You do not need to recall your dreams in DreamResolution,

And 2) If you do recall your dreams in this process, then do not ‘act’ on them in waking reality, since DreamResolution occurs at inner levels.  For example, if you dream that you take a gun and shoot your boss, then please do not do this – instead, realize this as part of the DreamResolution process.

Here’s how you can use DreamResolution:

1) Realizing that our feelings and emotions can seem hard to express or resolve outwardly, get into a meditative state and then ask to ‘discover’ an issue or emotion that seeks resolution.

2) Clarify the issue or emotion.  Instead of ‘I feel mad at my partner,’ you may discover the real issue as ‘I feel unable to express my true feelings to my partner and other people.’  Make the issue clear.

3) Now, you will need to create the DreamResolution incubation statement,

“Tonight in my dreams, I will…..( insert your intent ‘to resolve’ or ‘to express’ here, followed by)
in such a way that no one is harmed,
 and in everyone’s best interest.” 

For example your statement of the issue may read, like this:

“Tonight in my dreams,
I will allow myself to fully express my true feelings,
in such a way that no one is harmed,
and in everyone’s best interest.”

4) Before sleep, read your DreamResolution suggestion three times.  Make it the focus for that night.  Recognize and allow that you wish this resolution or constructive intent to take place, and be resolved at inner levels.

5) In the morning, notice if you feel different.  If so, make a note in your journal and try to describe it.  It might be a new feeling in your body (your muscles, your posture, etc.), or in your emotions or whatever – just write it out.

6) Make this same DreamResolution intent each night for one month.  Do it just before sleep every night, to make your ‘intent’ clear.

Resolving things frees up ‘energy’ in your life — energy that you can use for creativity, joy, other relationships and more. So everyone has much to gain from these nights of DreamResolution. And you may discover that during the day afterwards, something amazing happens which validates that the dream therapy worked.    Best wishes!

Here are some examples of people who used this process:

Case 1) A few years ago, a woman asked me to help her. She said that she had no place to express her emotions, and it was tearing her apart inside. I asked her to help me understand and so she told me her story: her daughter had anorexia/bulimia and so she could never tell her true feelings to her daughter, and her husband seemed a rigid perfectionist who refused to talk about emotions, and then at work, she had to act professionally and keep her emotions inside.

She told me that she had felt like this for about 10 years, and the cumulative effect of not expressing her emotions was really getting to her. On the surface, she looked okay — but inside, there were lots of emotions which had never been expressed.

She did DreamResolution each night for one month. After 14 days, her co-workers told her that she had a wonderful sense of humor, which they had never seen before.  After 30 days, she said that her relationship with her daughter and husband was positively transformed – even though, she did nothing new in the outside world.  The DreamResolution process began to resolve things inwardly, and as the inner resolution happened, the outer world seemed to change.

Case 2)  Another woman heard about the first woman’s success, and asked for help. She had a very powerful administrative job with hundreds of people in her department.

Things changed and new leaders came in to run the large organization.  She kept her powerful administrative job, but now she felt ‘paranoid and persecuted’ – and this feeling remained every day for months.

Talking with her, we developed a two-part DreamResolution statement, which recognized her true feelings at this time, and also recognized where she wished to be.  She suggested this each night, saying this three times:

“Tonight in my dreams,
I will resolve my feelings of paranoia and persecution
so that I feel safe and secure,
and in a way that no one is harmed
and for everyone’s best interest.”

Within a week, she felt different — her speeches to her staff were powerful and full of self assurance and good humor.   Her interactions with co-workers took a more positive tone, and when people asked a question, she did not feel paranoid about it.  She responded with grace and confidence.

Case 3) In a third case, a woman told me that she had an advanced stage of cancer and was also a devout Buddhist.  As I interacted with her, I felt that she may have used her spiritual practice to displace or ignore her feeling self.  I suggested that she might wish to give DreamResolution a try.

Later she wrote me, “I followed your instructions to sit in meditation and listen for what the most appropriate intention would be for me to work with for this practice. The intention that arose was as follows:

Tonight in my dreams, may I healthily express, accept, and resolve grief, anger, and anxiety in such a way that no one is harmed, and in everyone’s best interest.”

”From the first night, very clear dream symbols representing each of these emotions arose….In each dream, or sometimes through a series of dreams, these emotions would “resolve” after being expressed and in some way accepted in the dream.

On night number 7, a new, more complex emotion – jealousy – showed up.”

She went on to say, “Resolution of these emotions (grief, anger, anxiety, and jealousy) came relatively quickly for me in this process.  However, I noticed that these emotions continued to arise in dreams even after finding resolution with them.

As I contemplated this I recognized that resolution isn’t about not having emotions, but rather about healthily expressing and accepting them when they do arise, as they will continue to arise as long as I am human.”

With this new understanding, she began to feel better.  She encouraged members of the Buddhist community to commit to the 30 day DreamResolution practice and apparently some noticed personal life improvements too.

DreamResolution can be used for many situations to help resolve feelings and complex emotional struggles.  When we do this each night for one month, we will notice that our other world has changed and our feeling self has also changed.

Resolving things frees up ‘energy’ in your life — energy that you can use for creativity, joy, other relationships and more. So everyone has much to gain from these nights of DreamResolution.

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By practicing DreamResolution, we actively support the possible dream function of handling small issues in the dream state before they erupt as big issues in the waking state.

I sincerely believe you may discover that during this month of DreamResolution, something amazing happens in your life which validates that the DreamResolution process works.   Best wishes!

Robert Waggoner © 2026