Thread: Lucid Dreaming Officially Disproved!

I'm sorry guys, but it seems that this site's whole reason for existence has just been disproved, as of March 28th. According to research scientists at the San Diego Institute for the Research of Sleep and Dreams, who have uncovered a ground-breaking technology for monitoring brainwave activity during REM periods, lucid dreaming is simply not real. They've discovered a method for mapping conscious and subconscious thought patterns using an electromagnetic interference field device, or EMIFD. This basically allows the scientists to discern whether a test subject is conscious within his or her dreams. Apparently the brain emits different signals depending on whether the conscious or subconscious is in charge.

What this means is that by comparing activity patterns, they can actually tell if a person is truly conscious and thus lucid in the dream, or if the subconscious is in control, deceiving the person into believing they are conscious. I'll let the press release speak for itself:

Originally Posted by San Diego IRSD

[...] First our scientists prepared the subjects by using various methods of suggestion, from mnemonic induction to hypnosis. The subjects were monitored over a period of two weeks, with daily naps in the early afternoon lasting approximately two hours being the main focus of observation. The electromagnetic interference field device was active from just before entering sleep paralysis until shortly after awakening. To the surprise of our research team, 70 of our 200 subjects claimed to have achieved a lucid dream within the first week, with another 32 joining those by the end of the second week.

An average of 8 lucid dreams per test subject were reported, however the monitoring equipment provided very different information. None of the test subjects exhibited any signs of transitioning from subconscious brainwave activity to the more intense and controlled patterns evident with conscious thought. Our equipment has been tested and calibrated to exacting standards, and we are certain of these results. In order to become 'lucid' within a dream, one's brain must shift from the usual—and somewhat random—subconscious activity that creates the dream world and makes it seem real, to a more 'awake' and logical pattern of activity common to consciousness.

This shift never occurred in any of our test subjects. Further interviewing by our panel of psychologists revealed that the so-called 'lucid dreams' experienced by the test subjects most often consisted of either the test subject carrying out an action or actions that they had planned to do if they 'became lucid', or simply becoming easily distracted and losing 'lucidity'. This causes us to believe that this 'lucidity' was nothing more than a construct of the subconscious mind, or, more simply, another dream. The subjects in fact dreamed that they became lucid within their dreams. This phenomenon is not dissimilar to the oft-experienced 'false awakening' which many of our subjects also experienced just before truly waking from their REM periods...

There is more, but that's the gist of it. I must say, this explains a lot. Here's the link to the press release. http://www.sdirsd.org/press/luciddreamstudy.html/