Using LDs to surmount psychological or other life issues

I was chatting with some friends and one of them said how they felt that they used LDs and dreaming in general as a crutch. Now I know that DV says that that is one trap that people fall into at times. But can LDs also be used for good?

I wonder though if through dreams you can find your way through issues like anxiety, depression, loss of a loved one, etc. I figure that a persons' subconscious mind is more aware in general and sees things we overlook while awake. Within the realm of your conscious subconscious (ie. LD style dreaming) you are able to live through scenarios where you work through issues/problems you are going through. Could one then possibly self heal if they knew how to LD and were able to coach themselves to wellness in the dream and then the person with good recall could put the information to practical use. I don't know how eloquent that came off, but I think the general idea is clear.

I am curious to hear peoples' thoughts on this...

Well it worked for me.

A crutch?? More like a revelation! It's not something to escape 'real' life, but rather to be able to embrace it in a new and exciting way, and to look forward to all of existence, rather than only what happens during the daytime hours.

Since I came here I've been far more excited with the world than I ever thought I could be! I've paid more attention to all aspects of life, seen things in more philosophical ways, and have generally been a more calm, happy, blissful person :) I feel on top of things for once.

edit: Instead of racing for an imaginary finish line, I'm finally enjoying every minute of my life.

I didn't mean that LDs were going to be a crutch for all who use them, I said only that some people seek to escape real life and the psychological and other issues by sleeping and dreaming as much as possible. Sometimes the dream life is far better than the real life and they just want to get away from the real stuff as much as possible.

I read in the LaBerge book that if your dream life is so good and real life is so bad that you should take what you are doing in your dreams and take steps to make your real life more like your dream life. Actually its possible I read that somewhere else, who knows...

It's all about learning what truly makes you feel good about being alive and awake. People who sleep their life away haven't found their true passion in life. I don't believe there is one person on this planet who doesn't have a burning desire to do something which is good. I had trouble finding mine for a while...

For me, the real magic of lucid dreams is that they activate your right-brain, meaning your brain starts getting ULTRA-creative. My next plan is to write a song during a lucid dream. That's how Paul McCartney wrote some songs (Yellow Submarine I believe).

Lucid dreaming does has it's dark side when it is abused as an escape from reality or to purely act out ones fantasies, however, most of the people who desire to abuse lucid dreaming like this, can never even become lucid because of their selfish nature.

It can also be used to cure hysteria, or at least, help cure hysteria. Lucid dreaming and hypnosis are practically siblings and can both be used to help elucidate psychological hysteria and the emotional catalyst to any other symptons.

What's even more interesting is hypnotically inducing lucid dreaming.. however, it takes a lot of patience as you must sit with the person as they fall asleep and continue to talk to them throughout the stages of sleep to help attain lucidity. However, it is worth the effort. When hypnotically induced lucid dreaming takes place, it is simply to help the individual attain lucidity and vocalise their actions to the hypnotist. The point is to learn what they would do in the lucid dream so as to learn what their true desires are. Your desires have a plethora of psychological reasoning behind them.

Individual lucid dreaming may not have the same results to cure any hysterical symptons though. As it is much easier to elucidate any psychological hysteria with another perspective that isn't clouded with emotions, it is best to have another person nearby to evaluate the dreams.

So, lucid dreaming alone in order to cure hysteria would not be very effective.. unless the person is quite self-aware (and I mean one enlightened individual) simply because of emotions. I would say it would be interesting to be with the person and evaluate their dreams as they come.. but as for individual lucid dreaming to cure hysteria; not likely..

Hope I've been enlightening.

Very enlightening ;)

I disagree about it not being that effective with hysteria, etc.
Confronting fears in dreams and overcoming them seems to be very effective, in my opinion.

Thats the whole point of confronting nightmares - the reverse side to a shrink analysing your nightmare and talking holes in your head.

Wow all this information is very interesting, thanks everyone.

I know that dreams have been useful to me over the years. I have used them when dealing with different family and social situations that arose through elementary and secondary school (aka high school). It serves as a balancing or clarifying tool for me.

happy dreaming everyone...I hope everyone can become a little more enlightened by their dreams or at least open themselves to the possibility that dreaming could enlighten them.