Lucid dreaming: Encyclopedia II - Lucid dreaming - History of lucid dreaming research

Lucid dreaming - History of lucid dreaming research

Even though it has only come to the attention of the general public in the last few decades, lucid dreaming is not a modern discovery. It is in the fifth century that we have the earliest written testimony of a lucid dream — in a letter written by St. Augustine of Hippo in 415 A.D. And even as early as the eighth century, the Tibetan Buddhists were practising a form of yoga supposed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state.

An early recorded lucid dreamer was the philosopher and physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). Browne was fascinated by the world of dreams and stated of his own ability to lucid dream in his Religio Medici: "... yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof;" (R.M. Part 2:11).

The Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was probably the first person to argue that it is possible for anyone to learn to dream consciously. In 1867, he published his book Dreams and how to Guide Them, in which he documented more than twenty years of his own research into dreams.

The term "lucid dreaming" was coined by Dutch author and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in his 1913 book A Study of Dreams (originally published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 26, 1913) [2]. This book was highly anecdotal and not embraced by the scientific community. The term itself is considered by some to be a misnomer because it means much more than just "clear or vivid" dreaming [3]. A better term might have been "conscious dreaming".

(see also Senoi people of Malaysia)

The 1950s research — in which lucid dreamers apparently communicated the content of their dreams in real time using eye movements — prompted philosopher Norman Malcolm's 1959 text Dreaming, which argued against the possibility of checking the accuracy of dream reports in this way.

The first book on lucid dreams to recognise their uniqueness and scientific potential was Celia Green's 1968 study Lucid Dreams. Reviewing the past literature, as well as new data from subjects of her own, Green analysed the main characteristics of such dreams, and concluded that they were a category of experience quite distinct from ordinary dreams. She predicted that they would turn out to be associated with REM sleep, a prediction which was subsequently confirmed by Keith Hearne in the UK and Stephen LaBerge in the US (independently of each other). Green was also the first to link lucid dreams to the phenomenon of false awakenings.

The enthusiastic endorsement of lucid dreaming during the 1970s by New Age proponents such as Carlos Castaneda did little to enhance its scientific credibility.

However, during the 1980s, further scientific evidence to confirm the existence of lucid dreaming was produced [4], and lucid dreamers were able to demonstrate to researchers that they were consciously aware of being in a dream state (usually again by using eye movement signals [5]). Additionally, techniques were developed which have been experimentally proven to enhance the likelihood of achieving this state [6].

One outstanding question on the neurophysiological nature of lucid dreaming concerns the electrical activity in the frontal cortex, which is generally suppressed during normal sleep. The behavior of the frontal cortex has not at present been crucially analyzed with respect to lucid dreaming.

There is a substantial cottage industry based around the technique of lucid dreaming, with an array of induction devices (usually based around flickering light arrays) commercially available to allegedly allow induction of lucid dreams. Their proponents also sometimes claim that these devices help achieve a higher level of spiritual consciousness, and associate it with other New Age concepts such as astral travelling or dream sharing. Regardless of these claims' validity, lucid dreaming as a scientifically verified phenomenon is well-established.

Some proponents of the technique claim they can use symbolic methods to research, program, and modify their nervous system itself. Memory management, creative solution generation, accelerated healing, autoinduced priapism, and ecstatic envelopment of one's body are among the various claimed techniques.

There are thought to be some insights into the workings of the brain that can be found by lucid dreaming. In particular, in surveying the experiences of lucid dreams, many have noticed that the brain, at least while in dreaming, has the feature whereby it is possible for a single individual thought, memory, definition, belief, etc. to be incorrect while the rest of the mind appears to be working normally. An example would be where the "lucid" dreamer was walking around the dream world, knowing he was dreaming, retaining his full sense of identity and waking memories, yet believing for some reason a locked door can only be opened with a fish, and not a key (many lucid dream reports contain this kind of phenomenon). This is contrary to normal experience of brain malfunctions, which are usually more general, such as wholesale memory loss, or broad emotional imbalance. It is helpful to propose a construct of consciousness that is more on a continuum and that certain functions (such as reflective awareness) might be selectively activated. This is a fluid process, moment to moment, in the context of the lucid dream, and it is experienced as discontinuities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of lucid dreaming research", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki