Thread: Convincing Skeptic Teens

I'm doing a project for school. It is an oral presentation and I've decided to do it on lucid dreaming, but I know some people may be skeptical. Anyone have some good ideas for convincing them? Simple arguments?


Thanks

Lucid Dreaming has been scientifically proven, right? That would probably be the best way to go.

Pick up or check out a copy of LaBerge's "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming" and base your argument on the experiments where he proved the reality of lucid dreaming with his eye signals during REM.

And make sure to mention DreamViews.com for those interested in learning more!

Start saying "My presentation is about lucid-dreaming. It is, to be aware that you're dreaming. Lucid is latin, and it means to be aware."
Next, you ask everybody "Have any of you ever been aware, that you were in a dream, while dreaming?"
There should be atleast one person. Ask him/her, what made him/her aware, that he/she was dreaming. Figure out something to add to that.
Then, just start of the presentation. Explain how dreams take place in our mind, and thus, we can do almost anything.
Next, continue with stuff about what we can use it for, why a person would want to become lucid in a dream and some other stuff.

Don't go too much into techniques. Explain the nose reality-check and the watch reality-check, and how reality-checks can help become lucid. Don't get too much into names and such, like WILD, FILD, MILD, WBTB and all that. If anything, only mention reality-checks and dream induced lucid dreams (DILD).


Now, you should've convinced them. Ramble on with different shit, and then done

I'd agree with what's been said so far; give them the scientific hard facts that it's indeed a proven phenomenon, and tell them some basics. I gave a speech on LDing earlier this year-- in the feedback I got most people hadn't ever heard of it, a few were skeptical, but I got three that said they'd had the dreams before and that it was interesting to learn more about.

Really-- the important thing would be not to overwhelm them with technical terms, cite your sources as experts on the subject, and provide examples to prove your points. Good luck!!

This may not be a good project to persue in school, try something more down to Earth for the modern teenager

Don't feel bad if some of them still don't buy it after you give your report, there are those who simply refuse to believe that LDing is possible.

This may not be a good project to persue in school, try something more down to Earth for the modern teenager

I say go for it! I've done 2 projects based on Lucid dreaming and when I'm done the students are actually interested in the whole event and want to know more about it. Though, I say to explain carefully at the start to make sure they understand. The sad thing is their interested in it for the first 15 min after the presentation then after that they would care less like every other presentation that was shown that day.

I myself being a 'modern teenager' wouldn't mind it at all :p

All you really need for the project is to read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge. That's all I needed.

Good luck!

just be sure to explain it like this: for example, when you are dreaming and you just happen to realize it... I'll bet some of them have done it before unintentionally.

I remember on this forum, someone asked what even made possible to be aware while dreaming. Someone else made a very insightful remark: the real question is why do we lose awareness at all.
After all, when dreaming, our brain is as much active as during the day (according to electro-encephalograms, and quite intuitively when remembering the crazy dreams we have), so why the "awareness part" should stay inactive ? This could be a good argument: ask back the skeptics to justify the "non-lucid dreams". Make your audience think about it.

And as final words of your presentation, you should hint that some people could have a spontaneous lucid dream this night just because they learnt about it today

If by awareness, you mean awareness of whether we're asleep or awake, I think it's not that we lose it when we're asleep, it's just that most people never have it.

After all, most people always just assume that they're awake, no matter what happens, and never really consider the possibility that they might be dreaming. The reason it's so hard to change this is that before starting to develop this awareness, years of habit are created of simply assuming you're awake, and that's hard to break.

To further on PJ's reply Id urge you to read this:

http://www.lucidity.com/slbbs/index.html

This shows clearly some of the research done on controlled eye movements and breathing in lucid dreams, and how its even possible to communicate with the outside world while in a dream.