I researched Lucid Dreaming and wrote this paper last year, I was wondering what you all thought about it. I would really like feedback, because it is so difficult to find other lucid dreamers anywhere other than on the net. Here it is:
"While walking along a lovely tree-lined avenue I realized I was dreaming, and a sense of peace filled me… I felt a sense of wonder that it was possible to behold - purely in imagination – such vivid detail and beauty (Green 11)."
This description of sleep is a model example of a lucid dream. Lucid dreams are important to the study of sleep, which in turn is an essential facet of psychology. Lucid dreaming has been mentioned in the study of sleep since the time of Aristotle. The layperson may be surprised to hear this, because few people know about or experience lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming, also known as Lucidity, is defined as consciousness during sleep, in which the dreamer realizes he or she is dreaming. Stanford University sleep researcher Stephen LaBerge coined the term “awake in your dreams” to describe lucidity (LaBerge 2). It is a difficult definition to understand, and can be easier to grasp through quotes of lucid dreamers. Lucid dreams tend to be more vivid and often very peaceful or spiritual compared to regular dreaming. Although few are aware of the existence of lucid dreams, it can open many new doors to scientists and the layperson alike. When a dreamer opens the world of lucid dreaming their life can be dramatically altered. Consciousness during sleep can improve the dreamer's life physically and spiritually.
80% of lucid dreaming happens during the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. During this phase of sleep, brain activity spikes and the eyes move beneath the eyelids. Typically, physical eye movement follows the visual cues that the dreamer imagines within their dream, and once lucidity has been achieved, the dreamer can consciously control their eyes. Dream subjects use this eye movement to communicate with scientists who study lucidity. For example, dreamers have counted from one to ten in lucid dreams, communicating their counting with up and down eye movements. This experiment proved that time in lucid dreams is equivalent to real time (Hunt). REM communication is the easiest way to contact the lucid dreamer, and has spurred many dream research breakthroughs.
To understand lucidity, it is important to start from the beginning of its history. Around 350 B.C.E Aristotle said, “often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream” (quoted by LaBerge 19). In this quote Aristotle implies that he or someone he knew regularly had lucid dreams. This is the first text that mentions the phenomenon of lucid dreaming. A full description wasn’t written until about 750 years later. The next prominent mention of lucidity was recorded in 415 C.E. by St. Augustine. He wrote about a physician he knew who was taught how to lucid dream by an advisor imagined within his dream (LaBerge 19).
Religious dogma in the middle ages stifled dream research. In this time period, dreams were considered to be associated with witchcraft; so, few studied lucid dreaming for fear of being accused of heresy. This caused a period of limited written research on lucidity. The renaissance and enlightenment eras brought many groundbreaking thinkers, but most focused on the laws of physics and political change. Although philosophers in this time period such as Rene Descartes mentioned lucid dreaming, its study did not experience a revival until the late 19th century.
The scientist who woke up dream research was Sigmund Freud. Freud considered dream symbolism and imagery to be more important to psychology than lucid dreaming, but he recognized the possibility of consciousness during sleep in this quote: “There are some people that are quite clearly aware during the night that they are asleep and dreaming and who thus seem to possess the faculty of consciously directing their dreams” (LaBerge 10). His reasons for ignoring the significance of lucidity are unknown. Many scientists in the 1900s considered it to be associated with speculative spirituality and to be a pseudo-science. This could have been the reason for Freud’s skepticism. Lucid dreamers in the 20th century viewed lucidity as a magical universe, akin to hallucinogenic drugs, instead of giving it the study it needed to be treated as a science. Lucid dreaming wasn’t accepted as a phenomenon among mainstream scientists until the 1980s (Novella). Although researchers today face lots of skepticism, they’ve broken down the negative reputation lucidity had and are conducting experiments to dissect the mystery of lucid dreams. Some of our contemporary thinkers who have made contributions to dream research include Stephen LaBerge, Celia Green, & Charles McCreery, among others. These researchers use techniques like brain wave monitoring and dream recording to support their theories.
Scientific evidence provides the groundwork for understanding lucidity; therefore scientists need to have subjects who can often experience wakefulness in their dreams. Stephen LaBerge has had about 700 lucid dreams in his life and teaches others how to realize they are dreaming. Some people can simply read an article or watch a movie on the subject and be prompted to have a lucid dream. But lucidity most often has to be developed through practice or meditation. This training of the mind can take months and is probably the reason so few people have lucid dreams.
There are also products on the market that can successfully induce lucid dreams. One example is the NovaDreamer, which flashes small LED lights in a dreamer's eyes during the REM stage of sleep. It recognizes the dreamer’s eye movement with motion sensitive electrodes. If the dreamer anticipates these flashing lights before falling asleep, the person can recognize them during his dream. For example the dreamer might interpret the flashing lights as an ambulance within their dream, which they remember to be a symbol of dreaming. To turn off the blinking lights, the dreamer moves his eyes up and down and continues his dream after achieving lucidity.
Another possible way of obtaining lucidity is through the use of the drug dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. Although this drug is illegal in the United States, there are many online accounts of DMT assisting dreamers with lucidity (Mcnowski). It has also been suggested as a possible ingredient in a lucid dreaming pill. If scientists could develop a safe and legal pill, the world of lucid dreams would become more easily accessible to the layperson.
Lucidity drastically changes the third of our life that is filled with sleep. According to Stephen LaBerge “to reap the fullest harvest from the dream state requires lucidity” (LaBerge 4). This harvest that LaBerge describes consists of the unique qualities specific to lucidity that can improve anyone’s life. The exciting and interesting characteristics of lucid dreaming cannot be easily described, they need to be experienced. The best way of imagining the qualities of lucidity is to read accounts of lucid dreamers.
One dreamer, after having a lucid dream said that she was left with “ 'a feeling of bubbling joy' that persisted for a week or more” (LaBerge 10). Non-lucid dreams tend to have a passive or neutral feel to them, while the lucid dream often has feelings of discovery and wonder. This difference between non-lucid and lucid dreams shows one advantage lucidity has over regular dreaming.
A study conducted in 1989 “[listed] the frequency of dream topics in a total of 473 subjects, and [found that] dreams of being attacked or pursued, or of falling [in non-lucid dreams], are frequent” (Green 46). These unpleasant topics are rarely present in lucid dreams because the dreamer can realize that their fears are imaginary. One dreamer’s account describes how he practiced banishing his nightmares with lucidity: “when… danger appeared… I recollected that it was all a dream. The effect of this commonly was that I immediately awoke. But I awoke calm and intrepid… after this my dreams were never uneasy (Green 128). During lucidity the dreamer can spiritually embrace their imaginary enemies, causing them to fade away or become benevolent friends.
The use of lucid dreaming therapy for the treatment of nightmares has been proven to be effective. In a 1981 study “a group of thirty-eight respondents to a Boston newspaper advertisement for people who suffered from nightmares at least once a week… found a strikingly raised incidence of psychopathology” (Green 129). In context, this quote means that the dreamers studied had fewer nightmares by learning how to have lucid dreams. These dreamers learned to reconcile their fears in their dreams through lucid therapy. One possible benefit of nightmare control is the carry over of this confidence into waking life. Many lucid dreamers have an easier time handling similar issues they tackle in their dreams in waking life. This advantage of lucid dreaming is called visualization:
[Stephen] LaBerge says, growing evidence suggests that ‘visualization’ (imagining a desired outcome) can lead to various benefits, from improved athletic performance to accelerated healing. Practicing visualization techniques in a lucid dream might yield still greater benefits (Horgan 1).
The belief that positive thinking leads to a positive life cannot be proven by scientific facts, but it has been shown that in a post-lucid dream state the subject often feels invigorated and filled with happiness.
Along with peacefulness and joy, lucid dreams can provide mystical and transcendental experiences to their dreamers. In this example a subject recounts a profoundly spiritual lucid dream:
"Lucidity faintly pervaded the initial stage of the dream, was lost, but then returned with brief but devastating clarity… I wandered off the road into an open space where multitudes of people were assembled. Then, somehow, sense of time and self were lost… and I couldn’t bear to leave that bliss…but inexorably I was waking up (Green 51)."
This exhilaration is characteristic of most lucid dreams, and can be therapeutic to the dreamer. The next example illustrates a subject releasing stress in a dream; annoyed by a person she was having dinner with:
"I realized with the utmost clarity that I was dreaming and could do exactly what I wanted… I grabbed her by the hair, punched her in the face, and knocked her front teeth out… Then the scene changed and I found myself in another room, walking toward this woman… and we hugged each other (Green 134)."
Although the violence the subject unleashed on the psychologist was therapeutically unethical, she eventually resolved her hostility toward her enemy. Each lucid dream is personally relevant to its unique dreamer. This subject “woke up with a great sense of well- being” uncharacteristic of post- regular dream state; once again illustrating the therapeutic value of lucid dreaming (Green 134). While non-lucid dreams can result in a beneficial post-dream state, lucidity almost always results in the dreamer experiencing an enlightened or happy post-dream state.
Although lucidity has many benefits, it also has downsides. It has been suggested that deprivation of a certain phase of sleep can result in symptoms of regular sleep loss, but the studies that have been conducted show that “selective deprivation of delta or REM sleep seems to result in a ‘rebound’ effect” (Green 143). In essence these studies show that with deliberate deprivation of one stage of sleep from a subject, the subject then naturally experiences more sleep of that type the next night. Even though prolonged lucidity can cause a dreamer’s REM phase to last longer, they naturally “rebound” the next night. Therefore this potential downside of lucid dreaming is highly unlikely to affect a person’s waking life.
The second shortcoming of lucid dreaming can also be considered an advantage. It involves the philosophical questions lucidity raises to the dreamer. When a subject can reach consciousness during sleep, there is little difference between waking life and dreams. Interestingly, this thought process leads to a regular lucid dreamer, “admitting a qualitative distinction between waking consciousness and some ‘higher’ form of consciousness” (Green 147). When the lucid dreamer realizes that lucidity is a higher form of dreaming they can apply this philosophy to waking life. Could there be a higher form of waking consciousness, like lucidity is for sleep? Some lucid dreamers “associate the postulated state of ‘lucid living’ with enlightenment or Nirvana” (Green 148). While this could be considered a shortcoming, causing ambiguity between sleep and wakefulness, it can also become a philosophical advantage. If the dreamer analyzes its significance, they can transform “lucid living” philosophy to a transcendental understanding of life. Therefore, unless lucidity is completely removed from the philosophical viewpoint, the ambiguity between lucid dreams and waking life proves to be an advantage. With this advantage, the dreamer’s life can be improved considerably.
Along with this philosophical and spiritual advantage, lucidity offers more benefits than disadvantages. The alternate universe it opens lets the dreamer live their wildest dreams, flying from place to place, eating their favorite foods, and most importantly finding spiritual enlightenment. Why should humans waste their dream world in passivity? In the words of Friedrich August Kekule “Gentleman… and ladies- let us learn to dream” (LaBerge 5).
Sorry some of the formatting may be messed up, I just pasted it in from a word document. Below is my works cited
Green, Celia, and Charles McCreery. Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 1994.
Hunt, Harry. The Multiplicity of Dreams. 1st ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Gackenbach, Jayne, and Jane Bosveld. Control Your Dreams. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
LaBerge, Stephen. Lucid Dreaming. 1st ed. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1985.
True, Nate. “Face Mounted Lucid Dreaming Mask.” cre.ations.net. 11/1/06. cre.ations.net. 10 Oct 2007 <http://cre.ations.net/creation/face-mounted- lucid- dreaming- mask>.
“Lucid Dream.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 10 Oct 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lucid_dream>
LaBerge, Stephen. “Lucidity Research, Past and Future.” Lucidity.com. 10/10/92. The Lucidity Institute. 10 Oct 2007 <http://www.lucidity.com/Nl53.ResearchPastFuture.html>.
Horgan, John. "Lucid dreaming revisited." Omni 16.n12 (Sept 1994): 44(6).
Academic OneFile. Gale. Sharon Academy. 26 Nov. 2007
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS>.
Novella, Robert. "OBEs and the Astral Hypothesis: Part II - Lucid Dreaming." The New England Skeptical Society. 5/1/2003. NESS. 3 Jan 2008 <http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=17>.
Mcnowski, Bow Dean. "Helps Lucid Dreaming." Erowid. 11/28/03. erowid.com. 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=28775>.
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