Healing in Dreams

**Empedocles** · 08-05-2013 10:21 PM

Do you think it's possible to heal your own physical body while in the dream state? Or perhaps to accelerate the healing process? I mean since we're in a very deep state of consciousness we might be able to activate our body to work faster when it comes to healing. There is an interesting section in Robert Waggoner's "Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the Inner Self" which talks about this.

Has anyone tried healing in a lucid dream? Please post your experiences.

**Athylus** · 08-06-2013 01:26 AM

Interesting, I've thought of this before but never really tried it or heard of someone doing it. I'm curious.

**Empedocles** · 08-06-2013 01:33 AM

This is from Robert Waggoner's "Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the Inner Self":

Let's look at some examples of healing in the lucid dream state through manipulating the dream body. In the first example, Patricia Garfield, author of The Healing Power of Dreams and an experienced lucid dreamer herself, describes the healing experience of another lucid dreamer, Mattie. Mattie's ankle fracture was severe enough to confine her to a wheelchair for months. To assist in the healing process, Mattie decided to use her lucid dreaming ability. Garfield tells the story:

Whenever she became aware that she was dreaming, Mattie pictured herself "going inside my ankle." There she looked around and saw "all sorts of junk." In these lucid dreams, Mattie busied herself with removing from her injured ankle the debris she found - screwdrivers, bolts, and all sorts of tools. When she was awake, she found her condition improving. For the first time since her injury, Mattie was able to walk.

**SuperOhm** · 08-06-2013 02:15 AM

We actually already do a lot of cellular growth and repair in our sleep. Some parents actually claim they can see their child growing when they watch them sleep. One person I heard said he literally saw his baby's nose "pop" out as it changed shape. The same is true of adults. If we've been exercising, for instance, then the repair of the damage done to our muscles and ligaments is done while we sleep. This is why lost of rest is suggested for those who are exercising in order to maximize the benefits. In fact, if you do a lot of exercise, but do not get enough sleep, you just accumulate the damage and pile on more stress which will ruin your health quicker.

As for what we can do in our dream state to facilitate this process, I'm not sure. I do know that pain can linger from the dream world to the waking world. I've personally experienced this several times. I've even had dreams leave me with bruises (although those could have been sustained in the waking world and "bled" into the dream world). As such, I imagine that certain symbolic interactions in the dream world could help activate our natural capacity for healing as we sleep. That being said, there's a long way to go between "this is theoretically possible" to "and this is how you do it."... although it seems like Gills has suggested at least one possible route.

I can at least speak for the science of it. This is possible. It's even possible without making appeals to anything supernatural. There will be firm limits to what could be accomplished, but for the most part, large swaths of minor and moderate injuries and conditions could find their symptoms reduced through dream therapy.

**Empedocles** · 08-06-2013 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by SuperOhm

We actually already do a lot of cellular growth and repair in our sleep. Some parents actually claim they can see their child growing when they watch them sleep. One person I heard said he literally saw his baby's nose "pop" out as it changed shape. The same is true of adults. If we've been exercising, for instance, then the repair of the damage done to our muscles and ligaments is done while we sleep. This is why lost of rest is suggested for those who are exercising in order to maximize the benefits. In fact, if you do a lot of exercise, but do not get enough sleep, you just accumulate the damage and pile on more stress which will ruin your health quicker.

As for what we can do in our dream state to facilitate this process, I'm not sure. I do know that pain can linger from the dream world to the waking world. I've personally experienced this several times. I've even had dreams leave me with bruises (although those could have been sustained in the waking world and "bled" into the dream world). As such, I imagine that certain symbolic interactions in the dream world could help activate our natural capacity for healing as we sleep. That being said, there's a long way to go between "this is theoretically possible" to "and this is how you do it."... although it seems like Gills has suggested at least one possible route.

I can at least speak for the science of it. This is possible. It's even possible without making appeals to anything supernatural. There will be firm limits to what could be accomplished, but for the most part, large swaths of minor and moderate injuries and conditions could find their symptoms reduced through dream therapy.

Great post.