Lucid Dreams and the Transpersonal

Title: Lucid Dreams and the Transpersonal.
Researcher: Ina


Introduction and background:

In 1913 Frederik van Eden wrote that in lucid dreams: “…the reintegration of the psychic functions is so complete that the sleeper remembers day-life and his own condition, reaches a state of perfect awareness, and is able to direct his attention, and to attempt different acts of free volition.” (Frederik Van Eden (1913) A study of dreams. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 26).
There has been implicated that lucid dreams have some relationship with transpersonal experiences – “experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos.” (Walsh&Vaughan,1993, p 3). These experiences can include peak experiences- moments of higher happiness, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture (Maslow); mystical experiences, transcendental experiences and many more.
Moreover LaBerge has referred to the (fully) lucid dreams as “instances of transcendental experiences, experiences in which you go beyond your current level of consciousness. Lucid dreamers (at least during the dream) have gone beyond their former views of themselves and have entered a higher state of consciousness” (LaBerge, S, 1985,p 243).
Furthermore, lucid dreams have been strongly associated with transcendental meditation and dream yoga practices.
Lucidity is not a very common phenomenon as some may think, and only about 20% of the US population has experienced it. In all 3 of my short lucid dreams when I realised I was in a dream, the impact was great. My joy at that moment of realisation was great. I felt free, my mind was very clear and at the same time a fear came over me because I thought I had just opened up to a world that I new nothing about controlling. All my lucid dreams were triggered by me flying. Maybe this is why at the same time as feeling free and happy I felt scared. I was doing something (flying) that normally is not possible and I guess I didn’t know how to deal with it. It lasted only a few seconds.

All of these seem to suggest that a possible connection between lucid dreams and the transpersonal is very likely. What I want to explore is this possibility. If lucid dreams are indeed forms of transpersonal experiences then this could be used to help a lot of people come closer to the transpersonal.

So the aim of this research is to explore any relationships between lucid dreams and transpersonal experiences. Is there a connection between these two? Is the theory far from what actually happens? How do lucid dreamers experience lucid dreaming? What is the impact of lucidity on the participants’ lives, how does it affect them?


Methods and Information from participants:

Firstly participants will have to complete a small general lucid dreaming questionnaire. Then they will be asked to write reports of some of their lucid dreams, for example, the most positive, significant dream that they had, or the most negative etc. The participants have to provide in depth reports of their experiences of lucid dreaming. They are asked to do so in as much detail as possible so if I read the report I can know exactly what the experience was like for them. They should not stop writing until they feel they have said everything there is to be said.

The questionnaire form can be found here http://geocities.com/askondra/index.html


Number of participants needed:
As many as possible! If you take part in this research you will be helping me greatly in completing my MSc thesis.

Participants will have to complete the entire lucid dream questionnaire. And write reports on some of their dreams describing their experience in full detail so it is clear what the experience was really like. Complete confidentiality is assured.


Approximate time required to complete the experiment:
Until I get enough results submitted.
Because of the nature of the research it is not possible to say how long it takes to complete this survey. This is entirely up to participant. If you can write all the reports in one day, then that is great. But considering that you will be describing your experience in such detail and depth this might take a little longer. So no pressure, take your time to write the reports and send them back to me. Please send your completed questionnaire to my email. Do not post it in the forum as other participants might be influenced by your responses.
When enough information is gathered and analysed I will post the results of the experiment and discuss my conclusions.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me on the forum or email me. My email addresses can be found on my profile.

Useful Links:

Frederik Van Eden (1913) A study of dreams. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 26 http://lucidity.com/vanEeden.html

Walsh&Vaughan (1993) Paths beyond ego: the transpersonal vision.

Stephen LaBerge (1985) Lucid Dreaming

The lucidity institute: www.lucidity.com

Association for Transpersonal Psychology: http://www.atpweb.org/transperspect.asp

HI ina :!:
Welcome to the Forum and the Research team.
I hope you get some takers on this one! :)

Ina,
I would like to help, I am not sure how useful I may be. Looking through the questionnaire, it would be easier for me to answer the questions if I removed all occurences of the word lucid. I am not a big fan of lucidity.

I prefer to control dreams subconsciously, without realizing "Oh! I am dreaming". I think lucidity is the tip of the iceberg, but if one pushes deeper, they may realize what can be done in a lucid dream can be done in a vivid, albeit non-lucid, dream.

My beliefs go a little further as I believe waking life may be the third tier of this iceberg. In deep meditative states I have actually felt sounds propagate through me. See how this is pulling away from your thesis? Let me know if this will help.

Hi Distant Clone

Thanks for wanting to help!
I believe that you should go on and complete the questionnaire.If you feel you can answer the questions better by removing the word lucid then do so. What you say is very interesting. Maybe your reports will give me a new perspective on my thesis.
Can you really control your dreams eventhough you are not conscious of dreaming?
I really want to know more about this. During those 'vivid' dreams are you not conscious of the dreaming state at all ?
Your input will be surely helpful. But please, when completing the questionnaire, remember to delete the word lucid so I know that you describe non-lucid dreams and discuss the matter in the comments section at the bottom of the form.

altough i have some difficulties to fully understand the purposes of this project - due to language problems-, i find interesting Distant Clone's entry about the indipendence between control and lucidity.
I learnt lucid dreaming when i was a child, and not knowing what it was, i sort of documented my progress while it happened, so i can clearly remember that I learnt control and awareness separately - though mixing the two improved both quite a lot.
Anyway I don't have and i'm not even sure i want to have a philosophical thesis on it.

I'll try again to understand the first post and the questionnaire. :oops:

italianmonkey my project was inspired by LaBerge's view that lucid dreams are instances of transcendental experiences. I want to test this hypothesis. Are lucid dreams somehow related to transpersonal experiences in which our sense of self goes beyond the ego boundaries and can experience higher states of consciousness?
Probably I shouldn't explain it more as participants might be influenced in replying in favor of my hypothesis. People when completing questionnaires have a tendency to agree with what is being asked, to please the researcher in a way and prove his/her hypothesis right. So no need for that. Anyone who has lucid dreams is fully qualified to participate even if their experience of lucid dreaming does not resemble any of the experiences described in the questionnaire.

I just sent you a copy of my completed report. 50 KB of text. Enjoy.

Im not new to Lucid dreaming, i just cant do it but in most of my dreams i have complete control without the awareness that im dreaming, so i will be completely convinced by the story line to complete the task at hand yet i will be able to whats nescessary to complete the task, the reason i brought this up is because it might have somthing to do with what Distant Clone was talking about and if i could help with the survey i would fill it out, just it doesnt work for me when i try to check the boxes in.

maybe this may become another topic... maybe in "general discussion" or "dream control"... should i open it?

edit: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic....p=294840#294840

back to ina... i'll fill it soon :D

Thanks for the questionnaire Distant Clone. I just got it, I'll look at it today.

Lutch the reason you can't tick the boxes is probably because word is in the design mode. In Word go to View,Toolbars and tick Control Toolbox. Then on the Control Toolbox click the Design Mode icon. It's the one with a blue ruler and a pencil on it. Then you will be able to tick any boxes and type in the text boxes. If this doesn't work for you let me know.