Review: Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming by Nick Barrett

Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming

by Nick Barrett

 Book Review by Bob Peterson

Author Nick Barrett was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming and I recently finished it. I had heard of Nick before, from facebook. Whenever I saw his name, it would unconsciously bring to mind a silly song by Alestorm titled "Barrett's Privateers". (Alestorm is a Scottish heavy metal band that sings about pirates and their misdeeds. It's not even one of Alestorm's better songs; "Keelhauled" is much better.) So without knowing anything about him, I had already envisioned Nick Barrett dressed like a pirate. When I looked in the back of the book for the section titled "About the Author", I found a photo of him, and guess what? He does kind of look like a pirate! Yar har!

Okay, enough silliness.

This book, which I'll abbreviate SGLD, was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for me. It's not just the OBE- versus-Lucid-Dream thing; it's the subject of spirits in general. Sure, if you can harness the power of spirits (or your spirit guide), it can be a big step in your spiritual evolution (spoiler: that seems to be the whole point of the book). Yet anyone who's read my book, Answers Within, knows that I've always been cautious, paranoid, and even downright mistrusting of "spirits." At the same time, I still developed a very close rapport with my "inner voice." For years I struggled with whether my inner voice was external--a "spirit"--or whether it was part of my own psyche; a communications channel to my higher self. After many years of hard work, my inner voice has earned my trust, but spirits in general are another matter. So let's talk about spirits.

Some overly religious people say that what we do--out-of-body experiences, astral projection, lucid dreaming, and the like--are all tricks of the devil. They say that we're surrounded by demons and devils (spirits?) whispering in our ears, trying to lead us into sin. This is complete nonsense, I know, but it's something I've heard my whole life, so I've always approached spirits with extreme caution.

My distrust of spirits also comes, in part, from my Catholic upbringing. Having read the Bible, I knew full well that it forbids interacting with spirits. For example, Leviticus chapters 19 and 20 forbids communicating with them. Of course, I'm not so sure how seriously we should take Leviticus; it forbids a lot of things people do today, such as body piercing or even shaving the wrong way, while at the same time it seems to condone slavery. Nonetheless, it affected me when I was young and impressionable.

There's another reason why I'm paranoid about spirits: I'm also a paranormal investigator; a ghost hunter. I first started doing ghost investigations around 1980 when I was at the University of Minnesota. Today I'm an active member of a team called Nightweb Paranormal Investigations. Ghost hunters are a lot like cops: cops often become jaded because they only see the negative side of society. That also adds to my distrust of ghosts and spirits.

So yes, I'll admit I am very jaded and overly cautious when it comes to spirits. That's my problem, my limitation, not Nick Barrett's, and I've always been that way. And it did affect how I viewed this book.

In my out-of-body travels, I've basically encountered two types of spirits: ordinary spirits, and helpers (or "guides").

Spirits in the first group are just like you and me: ordinary people who have crossed over--died--and that makes them no better or worse than us. You can see them, talk to them, and they go about their business like ordinary people. They may have different perspectives than us foolish incarnates, but they have their own motivations and values. Like ordinary people, they may have good intentions or bad. They may want to help us or harm us. They need to earn our trust.

The other kind of spirits are the helpers, or guides. They seem to have a strict non-interference policy, and won't do anything unless you ask. If you ask, they're always willing to help. They can take you anywhere, show you anything, and they'll gladly answer your questions. But the strange thing is: they're always invisible, at least to me. Over the years, I've come to trust these invisible guides because they have always shown spiritual motivations, spiritual intentions, and spiritual lessons.

Now getting back to SGLD: When Nick Barrett talks about his spirit guide, he talks about someone he can see (at least in his lucid dreams) and that makes me think of the first kind of spirit, which makes me automatically cast and eye of suspicion and mistrust. Sadly (for me), this is the mindset I had going in to the book.

My first impression of the book was the image on the front cover, which made me feel very defensive. It looks like a teenage girl, kind of goth, and she's embraced by a ghostly white figure. I'm sure this is supposed to look angelic, and I'm sure the spirit is surrounding her with loving protection. It's a powerful image (and good artwork!) But to me--paranoid about spirits--it seemed downright eerie. A normal person might think this girl is all "I'm loved. I'm guided. I'm protected." But I was thinking, "This girl is in the clutches of a ghost! Somebody help her!" Yet diving in, Barrett sets good expectations on the very first page of his foreword:

"...Paradoxically speaking, this voice is already a part of your higher self. The higher self is incredibly wise and has ascended to the celestial domain eons ago. A cosmic guru if you will, that has been evolving for thousands and thousands of years. This voice is, in fact, you and the essence is from an omnipresent source. Although it may appear that its energies could be located outside of your being, this is not the case. The spirit or higher-self part of your spiritual makeup knows you extremely well, overseeing your every thought, action and dream..." (pg. 7)

"When you and your higher self come together consciously, the connection becomes stronger and unbreakable..." (pg. 7)

Then, at the very end of the book, page 126, he reiterates his position:

"The help and guidance you seek is within you right now and has always been there, even as you're finishing this book! Your spirit guide is always present, and is internally within you, not outside of you. The spirit is you, and you will always be spirit. It is one and the same." (pg 126)

From this discussion, it sounds like Barrett is talking about his "inner voice," not about a "spirit" as an external entity. Yes, I realize that picture is colored by my own worldview, but that makes me feel more comfortable with the idea. Elsewhere in the book, he's not so clear; his spirit guide acts like a separate person.

My spirit paranoia reared its ugly head again when Barrett used language like this:

"...Low self-esteem became a barrier and I thought way too much of what others may (or may not) be thinking. This demon within me affected my relationships, my career and my close friendships." (pg. 30)

Now, I absolutely know at an intellectual level that Barrett's talking about the problem of low self-esteem as having been his inner demon. But just the language, "demon within me," made me all paranoid and defensive. It conjures up negative images in my mind. Another example:

"Then I met my spirit guide. All of my inner fears and demons came to the surface and showed themselves to me." (pg. 31)

Again, I know what he's is trying to say. It can be quite enlightening to face yourself and your fears. But the way he said it just made me defensive. Here's another example:

"I can safely say that my life truly began to be awakened when I finally sealed the bond with my spirit guide." (pg. 44)

I firmly believe in cooperation and trust, especially with my inner voice. I enlist the help of the "guides" all the time in my own OBEs. But "sealed the bond" sounds too final, too immutable. It sounds a bit too much like writing contracts with the Devil or something. I know it's meant to be innocent. My intellect interprets the words correctly, but the wording just brings too many negative emotions to my spirit-distrusting mind. I would have chosen different words.

Another problem I had with the book was a slight lack of organization. It wasn't anything major, it was just little things. For example, on page 68, Nick uses the acronym "WBTB" but it isn't spelled out as "Wake Back To Bed" until page 71. If you're already familiar with the genre, no problem. Other readers might feel a bit lost.

But don't let me give you the wrong impression. I enjoyed this book a lot. It intrigued me, partly because of my spirit-paranoia, and partly because of my own relationship with my inner voice.

There were a lot of good things in there to talk about. For example, Barrett talks about spirituality being more important than religion, and I agree wholeheartedly. Nick's spirituality is not unlike my own; it seems more Taoist than anything, and that really resonates with me. The Tao Te Ching is one of my favorite books of all time. Plus, Taoist philosophy is unusual and refreshing in the genre. I've actually described my own personal philosophy as somewhere between "Seth Speaks" and "Taoism."

Here's something else I liked: On page 17, he writes:

"Selling my television was the best decision I ever made." (pg. 17.)

That right there gave me a lot of respect for Nick Barrett. He goes on:

"I took long walks out into nature not knowing where the trail ended and connected to Mother Earth's beauty. Old friendships an acquaintances that were not in accordance to my higher self gradually diminished. I documented my dream entries daily..." (pg.17)

Man, did that ever sound familiar! In Answers Within, I wrote about how I developed my inner voice, often by taking long walks in nature. It seems that Nick Barrett and I have a lot in common.

Where this book really shines is the techniques. He has a good long section of useful techniques that are different from most books in the genre. Much of this assumes a working knowledge of conventional lucid dreaming techniques, but he goes the extra mile with some really creative ideas. He even talks about lucid nightmares, which was fascinating. (Nightmares often cause me to become lucid, but I always dispel the illusion of the dream environment and find myself out-of-body.)

Another plus: His discussion of polyphasic sleep is fascinating and unique in the genre.

He also talks about synchronicity and seeing numbers: He often sees the number 8 everywhere, and he talks about its spiritual significance to him. My experiences and philosophy are very similar, but I always see the number 414. I was born on April 14, and I see that number constantly. Just last weekend I saw a police car with number 414 painted on it, and received a phone call from a guy whose phone number ended in 0414. But I digress...

From reading this book, I get the impression that most of Nick Barrett's spirituality was self-taught, much like Graham Nicholls and me. Nick has developed an unprecedented level of cooperation with spirit, whether you want to call that your "inner voice" or your "spirit guide." It's interesting then, how similar our home-spun philosophies are.

As to the content: The book is 127 pages, with decent-sized pages and a small enough font, which means it has a good amount of content, unlike some of the ultra-thin books in the genre. The spelling is stellar, but the grammar, not so much (but not bad for a pirate!). It has good information and good techniques. It has some personal experiences, but I would have liked many more. Barrett says he has benefited greatly from his relationship with his spirit guide, but in my opinion, there were too few narrations of his spiritual adventures in the book.

If you're not spirit-paranoid (or if you can use logic to overcome it), you can get a lot out of this book. All in all, this is a good book, and I do recommend it, though I do wish he had worded things a bit differently at times.

Bob Peterson
July 10, 2014