Lucid Dreaming for the future.

I've been thinking a lot lately, and it lead me to this (though I'm sure a thread or two has been made in a similar fashion). :lol:
Where do you all think lucid dreaming will be 100 years down the line? Or even 50? Do you think it'll be as well known as it is currently? Or even more so?
It led me to wonder about the potential amounts of research put into the practice, and where THAT could lead us. Would LDing become the next big thing? Would it lead to people becoming inspired and creating new things? I think it would, especially if it became more well known.
Could lots of research and investments lead to new possibilities in lucid dreaming? Imagine where it could go, or what we could discover. Things we didn't know about lucid dreaming beforehand, or about dreams and reality in general. The science is there, but there's still potential for unknowns. Where do you all think this will lead? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on these matters (and to indulge me in my ramblings). :chuckle:

I definitely think lucid dreaming will become big in the far future, especially with these new Nova Dreamers coming out. Dream Views, if it might still be around, would turn into a "Lucid Dreaming Facebook Website". <;

With the fast change in technology, people will be more exposed to lucid dreaming and can read other people's experiences. There are also so many scientific research projects about lucid dreaming and just dreaming in general. Pretty much everyone I talk to outside of DV has know idea what lucid dreaming is when I mention it. I think a lot of people don't do it because it involves dedication to RCs, having a dream journal, etc. With more technology, hopeful it will be made easier.

P.S. I hope on day in the future there will be a device so that we can "record" our dreams from our POV somehow.

I hate to be the guy to bring the worse thoughts in, but i personally fear that lucid dreaming is something that is fading from us. With all the time we spend watching TV, playing video games, surfing the internet, or just electronics in general, we really shun out alot from our minds. Lucid dreaming is not a well known subject, and the majority of those who do know of it don't really seem to care for the idea.
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On a happier note, i look forward to what people make of lucid dreaming.

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Originally Posted by Tradl3s

I hate to be the guy to bring the worse thoughts in, but i personally fear that lucid dreaming is something that is fading from us. With all the time we spend watching TV, playing video games, surfing the internet, or just electronics in general, we really shun out alot from our minds. Lucid dreaming is not a well known subject, and the majority of those who do know of it don't really seem to care for the idea.
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On a happier note, i look forward to what people make of lucid dreaming.

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You do have a point there. It's the same thing with awareness: we're all so engrossed in technology that we don't care for the world around us. No one can really know what the future holds for lucid dreaming. We can all hope that it doesn't go away with the evolution of electronics.

Lucid dreaming has always existed. I think this century will be the one to master it, just like it was the one to scientifically prove its existence (technically, it was the 20th, but you get my point).

Who knows what secrets about reality its holding. Will it dramatically change the world? I honestly have my doubts. I mean, look at the planet. We used to think it was flat and the sun revolved around it. I'd argue the average person hasn't really changed that much in light of new information on the subjects. I think lucid dreaming will be a similar case.

Do I think it will fade away? Not at all in the case that people don't care about it. But I also don't see it becoming too popular, either. The main reason because it's not easy enough to get into like video games, television, or social networking. And personally, the only reason I'm learning lucid dreaming is for the practical uses that can help my waking life. If all it could do was make a virtual playground which really didn't change anything by the end of the day, I wouldn't judge it worth the work or time needed.

Technology should make lucid dreaming easier, but I honestly hope it never becomes like television or games where anyone can jump into it right away. I think it's important we have to work to have lucid dreams because it weeds out the people who would abuse it. If we're honest with ourselves, people would turn it into a perversion and escape into it as often as possible.

Those are just my quick thoughts on the matter.

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With the fast change in technology, people will be more exposed to lucid dreaming and can read other people's experiences. There are also so many scientific research projects about lucid dreaming and just dreaming in general. Pretty much everyone I talk to outside of DV has know idea what lucid dreaming is when I mention it. I think a lot of people don't do it because it involves dedication to RCs, having a dream journal, etc. With more technology, hopeful it will be made easier.

P.S. I hope on day in the future there will be a device so that we can "record" our dreams from our POV somehow.

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Yeah, the dedication to it can be a turn-off for some. And I was thinking the same thing, a device for 'recording' dreams similar to, say, a video or something would be rather interesting.

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Lucid dreaming has always existed. I think this century will be the one to master it, just like it was the one to scientifically prove its existence (technically, it was the 20th, but you get my point).

Who knows what secrets about reality its holding. Will it dramatically change the world? I honestly have my doubts. I mean, look at the planet. We used to think it was flat and the sun revolved around it. I'd argue the average person hasn't really changed that much in light of new information on the subjects. I think lucid dreaming will be a similar case.

Do I think it will fade away? Not at all in the case that people don't care about it. But I also don't see it becoming too popular, either. The main reason because it's not easy enough to get into like video games, television, or social networking. And personally, the only reason I'm learning lucid dreaming is for the practical uses that can help my waking life. If all it could do was make a virtual playground which really didn't change anything by the end of the day, I wouldn't judge it worth the work or time needed.

Technology should make lucid dreaming easier, but I honestly hope it never becomes like television or games where anyone can jump into it right away. I think it's important we have to work to have lucid dreams because it weeds out the people who would abuse it. If we're honest with ourselves, people would turn it into a perversion and escape into it as often as possible.

Those are just my quick thoughts on the matter.

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In my opinion, that's one of the meaningful things about lucid dreaming. With good amounts of dedication and practice, you get rewarded for it via lucidity, and that's a very fulfilling feeling!

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In my opinion, that's one of the meaningful things about lucid dreaming. With good amounts of dedication and practice, you get rewarded for it via lucidity, and that's a very fulfilling feeling!

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Indeed. In a time where the zeitgeist revolves around less for more, skill over effort, and pleasure over accomplishment, it's actually nice as a lucid dreamer to know that our lifestyle is so process oriented: love the journey, because for every 100 times you reality check, you'll be awake for 90 of them :P

The state of LD'ing a century from now? Probably exactly the same as it is right now.

Sure, we'll invent lots of cool machines, maybe more powerful drugs, and might even develop a machine that clearly records dreams (though I highly doubt that -- we don't dream in production-ready images, and translating meaningful images from the unique firings of millions of neurons is a currently unimaginable task), but ultimately lucid dreaming is an act of conscious will, and it will only be done by the people who care to do it. And, since in a hundred years -- not a long time in evolutionary terms -- the human mind will be pretty much the same as it has always been, so probably the same proportion of people will be interested in exploring their dreams as ever. Indeed, to echo Tradl3s, as technology occupies more and more of our time -- does more for us -- we might become less interested in things that we actually have to sit down and think about.

Pretty dismal, huh? Well, the upside is that I could be wrong. There's been talk over the last few decades -- just talk, mind you -- about a coming singularity, an evolutionary moment of mind that might occur when technology finally improves to a point where it can effect, even change, consciousness itself. Though we seem to be doing everything we can to avoid that moment, like focusing all this technology and computing power on video games, making money, the web, and entertainment, there is an excellent chance that we will manage to develop technology (mostly in the form of incredibly powerful computers, but also in genetics, materials applications, and nanotechnology) that will stimulate our consciousnesses toward rapid and dramatic growth in spite of the barriers we continually build. If we manage to form this singularity of mind, we will likely open doors to new adventures and complexities in thought that we can barely imagine today -- LD'ing will very likely be powerful tool for partaking of these adventures, and also understanding them. Indeed, this evolution of mind, this singularity, will be so powerful, complex, and mentally intimate, that LD'ing skills might be a vital tool not only for incorporating the potential changes/improvements to our minds, but for coping with them. In other words, someone who possesses the discipline and skills necessary to regularly communicate with and exploit the resources of her unconscious will be at the crest of the wave of changes caused by the singularity, rather than on the ground in its path.

So, as with all predictions of the future, LD'ing has a couple of extremely different futures in store for it; one dull, one very exiting. I'm hoping for the latter, myself!

I could go on all day, but I won't -- I said too much already. So here's the tl;dr: LD'ing will likely have the same position in society in a hundred years as it does today, and be just as hard to do, unless a sudden, dramatic evolution of mind occurs during that century. And if it does, then LD'ing will become quite popular, even necessary, and those who already know how to do it will be ahead of the game. So pick one, or just keep on LD'ing, secure in the knowledge that you are doing something that will either remain a unique hobby, or will become a necessary skill for mental success.

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Originally Posted by Sageous

The state of LD'ing a century from now? Probably exactly the same as it is right now.

Sure, we'll invent lots of cool machines, maybe more powerful drugs, and might even develop a machine that clearly records dreams (though I highly doubt that -- we don't dream in production-ready images, and translating meaningful images from the unique firings of millions of neurons is a currently unimaginable task), but ultimately lucid dreaming is an act of conscious will, and it will only be done by the people who care to do it. And, since in a hundred years -- not a long time in evolutionary terms -- the human mind will be pretty much the same as it has always been, so probably the same proportion of people will be interested in exploring their dreams as ever. Indeed, to echo Tradl3s, as technology occupies more and more of our time -- does more for us -- we might become less interested in things that we actually have to sit down and think about.

Pretty dismal, huh? Well, the upside is that I could be wrong. There's been talk over the last few decades -- just talk, mind you -- about a coming singularity, an evolutionary moment of mind that might occur when technology finally improves to a point where it can effect, even change, consciousness itself. Though we seem to be doing everything we can to avoid that moment, like focusing all this technology and computing power on video games, making money, the web, and entertainment, there is an excellent chance that we will manage to develop technology (mostly in the form of incredibly powerful computers, but also in genetics, materials applications, and nanotechnology) that will stimulate our consciousnesses toward rapid and dramatic growth in spite of the barriers we continually build. If we manage to form this singularity of mind, we will likely open doors to new adventures and complexities in thought that we can barely imagine today -- LD'ing will very likely be powerful tool for partaking of these adventures, and also understanding them. Indeed, this evolution of mind, this singularity, will be so powerful, complex, and mentally intimate, that LD'ing skills might be a vital tool not only for incorporating the potential changes/improvements to our minds, but for coping with them. In other words, someone who possesses the discipline and skills necessary to regularly communicate with and exploit the resources of her unconscious will be at the crest of the wave of changes caused by the singularity, rather than on the ground in its path.

So, as with all predictions of the future, LD'ing has a couple of extremely different futures in store for it; one dull, one very exiting. I'm hoping for the latter, myself!

I could go on all day, but I won't -- I said too much already. So here's the tl;dr: LD'ing will likely have the same position in society in a hundred years as it does today, and be just as hard to do, unless a sudden, dramatic evolution of mind occurs during that century. And if it does, then LD'ing will become quite popular, even necessary, and those who already know how to do it will be ahead of the game. So pick one, or just keep on LD'ing, secure in the knowledge that you are doing something that will either remain a unique hobby, or will become a necessary skill for mental success.

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Dismal or not, it's fun to speculate where it'll go either way. Personally, I'm fine with it being both popular OR just as well known as it is today. Lucid dreaming allows you to do so many cool, amazing things, which made me always wonder why more people didn't know about it. Of course, that's because they either just don't know of it, or aren't willing to commit to it, which is understandable. It requires commitment and practice, but the payoff is certainly quite nice.
If it's still at where it's at now a century later, awesome. If it's a big thing by then, that's cool too! We can also take comfort in the fact that we know about and are doing something so cool, a 'unique hobby' as you said. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads, but in the meantime, we can enjoy lucidity and dreams in general and use them to better ourselves, and make life that much more fulfilling.

and to have kick-ass fun-times while we sleep :rolllaugh:

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Originally Posted by Dragonworkz

Dismal or not, it's fun to speculate where it'll go either way. Personally, I'm fine with it being both popular OR just as well known as it is today. Lucid dreaming allows you to do so many cool, amazing things, which made me always wonder why more people didn't know about it. Of course, that's because they either just don't know of it, or aren't willing to commit to it, which is understandable. It requires commitment and practice, but the payoff is certainly quite nice.
If it's still at where it's at now a century later, awesome. If it's a big thing by then, that's cool too! We can also take comfort in the fact that we know about and are doing something so cool, a 'unique hobby' as you said. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads, but in the meantime, we can enjoy lucidity and dreams in general and use them to better ourselves, and make life that much more fulfilling.

and to have kick-ass fun-times while we sleep :rolllaugh:

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I think the fact that you can do whatever you want in a lucid dream (with practice of course) makes people skeptical. In everyday life, there is a limit on what you can do without having consequences. For example, in a lucid dream, you can fly. In waking life, we wish that we can fly, but our mind knows that we can't. So if you tell someone that you can do things like flying in a lucid dream, they already know it's impossible and that they can never do it. People are so used to the limits of everyday life, and it causes them to not even think about breaking those limits like you can do in a lucid dream.

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Originally Posted by owtoty

I think the fact that you can do whatever you want in a lucid dream (with practice of course) makes people skeptical. In everyday life, there is a limit on what you can do without having consequences. For example, in a lucid dream, you can fly. In waking life, we wish that we can fly, but our mind knows that we can't. So if you tell someone that you can do things like flying in a lucid dream, they already know it's impossible and that they can never do it. People are so used to the limits of everyday life, and it causes them to not even think about breaking those limits like you can do in a lucid dream.

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This is what I say to my family and other people - thing is they're too set in their ways. They've gotten used to the limits in waking life that they only believe its done in movies. As soon as I mention the word 'dream' they roll their eyes and don't pay attention.

If lucid dreaming gets into the media a lot more, then maybe people are willing to listen. For example, some people have learned of it from Inception, others from an American Dad episode.

Very true. Some people view lucid stories through the filter of reality, and how bananas flying/teleporting/whatever else sounds.
This is pretty ironic in a way, considering our non-lucid selves usually accept all the crazy things in dreams to make sense. :lol: