Lucid Dreaming

Lucid Dreaming

Austin based filmmaker Richard Linklater recently released a movie that is a dream. By that I mean both that it is about a dream, and that it is dreamlike. "Waking Life" received mixed reviews, but it also sparked new interest in an idea that has actually been around a long time: lucid dreaming. In this paper I intend to explore the concept of lucidity in dreams, and to concentrate on the research of Stanford University's Stephen LaBerge, who has used lucid dreaming as a tool to better understand the biological phenomena of sleep and dreams.

Basically, "lucid dreaming" is being aware that you are dreaming(1). In the late 19th century, Frederik van Eeden published his observations about his own lucid dreams. He reported the sensation of "being able to freely remember the circumstances of waking life, to think clearly, and to act deliberately upon reflection, all while experiencing a dream world that seems vividly real(2) (3)." Lucid dreams are not reported often, although a 1988 study by Snyder and Gackenbach indicated that as many as 58 % of people report having had at least one lucid dream in their life time, with 21 % having them as regularly as once a month(2). LaBerge was the among first scientists to provide scientific evidence supporting the phenomena in the early 1980s(4). His research has shown several techniques to be successful tools to help an individual learn how to become lucid in a dream.

Lucid Dreaming: Fact or Fiction?

Scientific debate regarding the validity of lucid dreams has existed for some time. Some believed that so-called lucid dreams were not dreams at all, but brief arousals from the sleeping state analogous to day dreaming. As recently as 1985 David Foulkes ...

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...ry, dream lucidity appears to be a valid phenomena and one many people hope to achieve for themselves. Whatever your interest in the topic, you are sure to find an outlet for it in the plethora of internet resources available on the topic.

Internet Sources:

1)Lucidity For All

http://www.ld4all.com/index.html

2)The Lucidity Institute Site: "Lucid Dreaming: Psychophysiological Studies of Consciousness during REM Sleep, by Stephen LaBerge, Ph. D.

http://www.lucidity.com/SleepAndCognition.html

3) The Lucidity Institute: "A Study of Dreams" , by Frederik van Eeden

http://www.lucidity.com/vanEeden.html

4) "Waking the Dreamer", Levity.com

http://www.levity.com/mavericks/lab-int.htm

5) "Dreaming: Lucid and Non Lucid" , by David Foulkes

http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/dreaming.htm

6) The Lucid Dreaming Guild

http://www.geocities.com/lucidguild/