Thread: Hey! New, and need some help actually!

I am sorry if this is long =( But I really do need some help if people can bare with me here!! It means a LOT!

So, I am not sure if anyone is familiar with College Forensics (also known as Speech Team)... but there is an event called Informative, and I am going to be speaking about Lucid Dreaming. I currently attend Bradley University, and we have the most successful record of any speech team ever, and we've actually won more national titles than ANY intercollegiate competitive team. I don't say this to "brag" by any means, but to let you guys know I'm very, very serious about this, and need help!

I have my speech set up in this format:

1. Introduction. (attention getter, introduce what lucid dreaming is, etc.)

2. Main Point 1 - History of lucid dreaming, and some common ways to induce lucid dreams and help with dream recall. I pretty much explain how to help dream recall skills, and then I split the inducing point into two: provoking your own dreams at home, or getting professional assistance (doctors, machines, etc).

3. Main Point 2 - Current Applications. Here, I talk about the psychological (nightmares, lowering anxiety, phobias) applications as well as the medical applications. HOWEVER. THIS IS A PART WHERE I NEED HELP. Can anyone help me with ways lucid dreaming has been proven to MEDICALLY help someone? I have some vague information about it helping stroke/spinal cord injury patients... but that's about it. Does anyone have any concrete information/sources explaining how lucid dreaming has cured/helped someone?

4. Main Point 3 - Future Implications and Limitations. Here I talk about how scientists are projecting this to maybe help cure mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, etc. But I need more meat here as well, if anyone has any awesome ways that Lucid Dreaming might be able to help society down the line? As far as I know, it has not cured any disorders yet, but that scientists think it MIGHT one day, is this correct? Then I just talk about the limitations (which aren't many...just that it varies from person to person, and that some are born with the ability to do it and some have to work at it).

5. Conclusion. Easy peasy.



Alright... so that's a rough, rough version of what I have so far. But, I need some reliable sources to cite in my speech to not only back up my credibility, but to back up Lucid Dreaming's credibility. And I'm having some trouble finding legitimate research/information because it's still such a new topic in the science field.

Anyway, I'm so interested in this, and PERSONALLY, I have gotten to the point in my lucid dreaming where i'll realize I'm dreaming, then wake up. So, just so everyone knows, I'm very involved with this process and I'm loving the implications of learning to lucid dream. I'm hoping I get over waking up soon so that I can stay lucid in my dreams!

Thank you guys for the time, and please, please let me know if you can provide me with any basic info or sources or maybe point me in the direction of new research?

Thanks!!!!

Ryan