A matter of science?

the Idea of LD and dream control really interests me, and I want to learn a lot more about it. here's the thing though: I have a science fair coming up and it seemed to me that it would be really cool to do a project on LD and related matters. for example: me and the two other guys in my group all try to have lucid dreams. one does no preparation, one does frequent reality checks and reality questioning, and i listen to a LD inducing CD while i sleep. we all keep dream journals and record any progress we make in having and remembering lucid dreams. Sucsessfully having the dreams is not important as we are graded on how we set up the experiment, not our results. What I am asking you guy's is: before i go any further with this concept, is there a lot of, or at least some, scientific evidence to prove/ back-up the existance of LD (in other words, you guys saying you have had them, even though i believe you, isn't enough.) One of the prerequisites for the fair is that it be based in fact, not theory, so any info you guy's can give me would be greatly appriciated! thanks! :D

Stephen LaBerge was the one who scientifically proved the existence of LD'ing several years ago. Do a Google on him, or check your local library. You'll find LOTS of evidence. Hope it helps! :D
-Tsen :upsidedown:


EDIT: I fixed the spelling in his name (accidentally had an e instead of a), and also, check out info on The Lucidity Institue, a foundation he created for research on lucid dreaming

thanks very much, im sure that will help a lot. :)

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Originally posted by muddyalcapones
the Idea of LD and dream control really interests me, and I want to learn a lot more about it. here's the thing though: I have a science fair coming up and it seemed to me that it would be really cool to do a project on LD and related matters. for example: me and the two other guys in my group all try to have lucid dreams. one does no preparation, one does frequent reality checks and reality questioning, and i listen to a LD inducing CD while i sleep. we all keep dream journals and record any progress we make in having and remembering lucid dreams. Sucsessfully having the dreams is not important as we are graded on how we set up the experiment, not our results. What I am asking you guy's is: before i go any further with this concept, is there a lot of, or at least some, scientific evidence to prove/ back-up the existance of LD (in other words, you guys saying you have had them, even though i believe you, isn't enough.) One of the prerequisites for the fair is that it be based in fact, not theory, so any info you guy's can give me would be greatly appriciated! *thanks! :D

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3 people is not a broad enough sample. You would have to be Triplets, that is, genetically identical as well as being very similar in your Psychological Profiles. The only way to get around the Psychological differences between your test subjects is to employ a large enough test group where the various highs and lows of the individuals involved tend to even themselves out.

Here, you could try this out. Copy up a questionaire about Lucid Dreaming and distribute them to several hundred subjects, asking them if they had had a Lucid Dream the evening before. The next day, redistribute the same questionaire to the same hundred people, and determine whether the implied suggestion of Lucid Dreaming was able to initiate more Lucid Dreams then the Control Sample of the Day Before.

In the end it won't mean much, but that is exactly what I keep telling people here about the Scientific Method -- it is so constrained by systematic Bean Counting that it ultimately comes out conclusive of practically nothing... well, nothing very important.

The 'bean counting' ensures that one oddball who has natural LDs doesn't throw off the results of the experiment and show something normally untrue. It DOES serve a purpose. To me, not counting the beans doesn't give you a good idea of anything other than the tendencies of the individual, which are of little use to the general public.

BTW, if you're aiming to get high marks on your experiment, you might even consider researching a bit more and doing a genuine hypothesis test--you'll need to learn some statistics if you haven't before--but it'll really impress the judges.