lucid dreaming

The seventh type of dreams, which I call lucid dreams, seems to me the most interesting and worthy of the most careful observation and study. Of this type I experienced and wrote down 352 cases in the period between January 20, 1898, and December 26, 1912.

In these 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. Yet the sleep, as I am able confidently to state, is undisturbed, deep and refreshing. I obtained my first glimpse of this lucidity during sleep in June, 1897, in the following way. I dreamt that I was floating through a landscape with bare trees, knowing that it was April, and I remarked that the perpective of the branches and twigs changed quite naturally. Then I made the reflection, during sleep, that my fancy would never be able to invent or to make an image as intricate as the perspective movement of little twigs seen in floating by. ---Frederik van Eeden, A Study of Dreams (1913)

Lucid dreaming is dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. As such, lucid dreaming is your ordinary dream where you think in your dream that you are dreaming. Lucid dreaming advocates strive to control and guide their dreams. Why would you want to guide your dreams? Mostly for fun, though some New Age lucid dreamers believe that lucid dreaming is essential for self-improvement and personal growth.

Listen to Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., the creator of the New Age lucid dream movement for the spiritually challenged:

I want to tell you about a priceless treasure that belongs to each of us. This treasure, the ability to dream lucidly, gives us the opportunity to experience anything imaginable -- to overcome limitations, fears, and nightmares, to explore our minds, to enjoy incredible adventure, and to discover transcendent consciousness.

Ordinary dreams give a hint of these possibilities, through their regular violation of the rules of waking life, and their occasional offering of insights into our lives. The art of dreaming is a learnable skill, and I believe the highest level of that skill is found in lucid dreaming. Lucid dreams are dreams in which you know that you are dreaming, and are aware that the dream is your own creation.

With lucidity comes an astonishing, exhilarating feeling of freedom -- the knowledge that you can do anything, unbound by any laws of physics or society. One of the first joys of many lucid dreamers is flying: soaring like a bird, freed from the restraints of gravity. From there, people can go on to discover the vast power of lucid dreaming for transforming their lives.

If you need help with your lucid dreaming, you can purchase books, tapes, scientific publications and induction devices, such as the DreamLight ($1,200), the DreamSpeaker ($150) or the NovaDreamer ($275), from LaBerge's Lucidity Institute. If that's not enough, for $1,000 you can attend a seminar at a prestigious university such as Stanford where you can learn all the latest techniques to help you tap into your unconscious, an absolute necessity for living the good life. For an additional $35 you can even get 2.0 units of nursing continuing education credit through the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

Why Dr. LaBerge doesn't just advocate daydreaming to do all this wonderful transcendent stuff is explained by van Eeden. When we're awake, we are logical and feel restricted by conventional social rules and laws of nature. Our imaginations would be too repressed by our waking consciousness to allow us to let go and fly with spirits or view intricate twigs. So, we must sleep to free the imagination. Or take hallucinogenic drugs, I suppose.

At first, it might appear that the Lucidites want to teach us to control the content of our dreams. But that is not the case.

Lucidity and control in dreams are not the same thing. It is possible to be lucid and have little control over dream content, and conversely, to have a great deal of control without being explicitly aware that you are dreaming. Nonetheless, becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your deliberate influence over the course of events. Once you know you are dreaming, you are likely to choose some activity that is only possible in dreams. You always have the choice of how much control you want to exert, and what kind. For example, you could continue with whatever you were doing when you became lucid, with the added knowledge that you are dreaming. Or you could try to change everything--the dream scene, yourself, other dream characters, etc. It is not always possible to perform "magic" in dreams, like changing one object into another or transforming scenes. A dreamer's ability to succeed at this seems to depend a lot on the dreamer's confidence. If you believe that you cannot do something in a dream, you will probably not be able to. [FAQ]

This all sounds very interesting and may even be true, but where is the evidence that the more lucid dreams a person has the better off they are? Should our goal be to sleep forever and live in a dreamworld? What is the evidence that lucid dreaming has any significant effect on a person when they are awake? And why would you want to encourage people to do things in their dreams they wouldn't or shouldn't do when awake? And why the claim that lucid dreamers experience flying, "freed from the restraints of gravity"? LaBerge sure makes it sound like the point is to control your dreams so you experience things like flying. But what I really want to know is how will having more flying or surfing dreams transform my life? I can understand the fun of such dreams and insofar as lucid dreaming is fun then it is good. But I think I could have my lucid dreams without spending thousands of dollars on Dr. LaBerge's dream aids.

Here is how another person, not given to New Age exaggeration, explains the joys of lucid dreaming:

You are dreaming. Suddenly, something happens that causes you to realize that you are dreaming. Perhaps something that could not possibly happen in conscious reality occurs, such as you flying, or you having sex with the girl/guy of your "dreams". So, there you are, fully aware that you are asleep and dreaming, but hey, the shit is still happening! You know that it isn't real, and that there are no consequences in the dreamworld, so you can do whatever you wish! Rape, pillage, plunder! You find that every single thought creates the next image. You get what you wish for. If you think it, you get it. Your thoughts control all actions. The only problem is getting so excited that you wake up! [The Lame Man's Guide to the Dream-World]

Rape! Pillage! Plunder! I'm so excited! Now I wake up! What do I do now??!! More rape, pillage, plunder?? No, no. That would be wrong. Society doesn't approve. Go back to sleep. Is lucid dreaming the Gyges ring of the dreamworld? Apparently, some think it is.

Another devotee writes that "Lucid dreaming is funner than shit." This person even posts the testimonials of others as lucid as himself. It seems that the main goal of lucid dreaming is to have lucid dreams, especially dreams of flying and having experiences indistinguishable from OBEs. Most don't want to rape and pillage in their dreams. Knowing that, I think we can all sleep a little better tonight.

In conclusion, it should be noted that some skeptics do not believe that there is such a state as lucid dreaming. [e.g., Malcolm, Dreaming London: Routledge, 1959.] Skeptics don't deny that sometimes in our dreams we dream that we are aware that we are dreaming. What they deny is that there is special dream state called the 'lucid state.' The lucid dream is therefore not a gateway to "transcendent consciousness" any more than nightmares are. But LaBerge has proved the skeptics wrong:

We provided the necessary verification by instructing subjects to signal the onset of lucid dreams with specific dream actions that would be observable on a polygraph (i.e., eye movements and fist clenches). Using this approach, LaBerge, Nagel, Dement & Zarcone (1981)["Psychophysiological correlates of the initiation of lucid dreaming," Sleep Research, 10, 149.] reported that the occurrence of lucid dreaming during unequivocal REM sleep had been demonstrated for five subjects.

That should be proof enough to awaken any narcoleptic skeptic.

reader comments

05 Jul 1996
Dear Skeptic,

Since I have Lucid dreamed, I must tell all skeptics out there that they're being utter and complete rationalists and are probably afraid of their own power. That's why they're skeptics, I guess.

reply: There's nothing more nightmarish than an utter and complete rationalist who's afraid of his own power!

Lucid dreaming simply allows the subconscious realization of what the various faiths have been saying all along, the thought came before the deed, and "as within, so it is without".

reply: I thought it was something like that but I am glad you said it for me. This way I can't be accused of treating this subject lightly. (Actually, though, I think the proper aphorism is "as it is without, so it is within, unless you are within six paces of a Taco Bell.")

Nevertheless, there is a need for skeptics, those who are "faith-challenged". Just as there's a need for this computer, and my fingers, etc., etc..

reply: Is this the famous argumentum ad needium of the scholastics? There is a need for everything under the sun, except for the things that aren't needed?

I'm glad you're getting this out there! Any spur to thought is most welcome.

reply: It depends on whose horse is getting spurred, I think.

Oh, and Lucid dreaming scared the fuck out of me, so of late, I haven't done much of it. Pity.

reply: Well, it certainly has fouled your mouth! Maybe you should lay off the lucity for awhile and wash your mouth out with soap!

Do you TRY anything before you skepicize it? Experience, finally, is the greatest truth.

reply: I try not to skepicize anything, actually. I have tried some of the things I've written about, but generally I do not try silly or immoral acts before I write about them, skeptically or otherwise. Experience is neither a small nor a great truth. Experience can lead one to the truth, but it can also lead one to falsehood and error. Any sentient creature can have experience. If it's truth you want, it's not experience that counts but who has the experience and how critically they can think about it.

29 Sep 1996
I just downloaded your Skeptic's Dictionary, at first being very happy to have found an internet resource which shows all those occult matters discussed and praised on a million webpages from a different light.

Having read through just a few of your articles I am disappointed to find that you do not try to engage in a critical discussion on the various issues, but merely dig up arguments to denounce the various topics. Your responses to the negative comments show that you do not seek the "truth". instead it seems to me, that you ridicule them and dismiss their thoughts and experiences right away.

reply: Glad you noticed. For a while there I was beginning to think I was a voice crying in the wilderness.

I myself am what you probably would call an open-minded seeker, not having experienced many of the occult phenomena. I have been gathering a lot of information on different subjects though and I am assured that those people who say they experience these really do experience them - they are not lying. the question is if they are tricking their own mind.

reply: You don't think anybody lies about this stuff?

Furthermore, I have experimenting with lucid dreaming and would like to comment on your article about it in more detail. All of your claims you make are valid; I just get the feeling you have not investigated much in this subject. Instead it seems to me that you were just seeking to find arguments to disprove lucid dreaming.

reply: Aha. Now the truth as to why you wrote comes out (of course, the astute reader already figured this out, since your comments do appear after the lucid dreaming entry). Anyway, I don't try to disprove lucid dreaming, or any other kind of dreaming, for that matter.

The article starts with the prices for the induction devices, which labels lucid dreaming as an invention of LaBerge's institute to sell their devices. In fact, probably less than 1% of lucid dreamers buy any of these, simply because you can have lucid dreams without anything other than your mind.

reply: I am happy to hear that, although Mr. LaBerge might feel otherwise. But, you are right. His devices sound like snake oil to me. Glad to hear most lucid dreamers wouldn't fall for his pitch.

Furthermore, your article is stuffed with rhetorical questions like "where is the evidence that the more lucid dreams a person has the better off they are ?" Who claimed that ? Nobody said that having lucid dreams should be the goal of our lives. "What is the evidence that lucid dreaming has any significant effect on a person when they are awake ?" All of this sounds like you think people have lucid dreams because they want to improve their normal life ! That is not true for most of them. Lucid dreaming is an addition to their life, like going to a good concert, like spending a day in an amusement park, like trying out some of these new virtual reality machines. It is fun, nothing more and it is a lot of fun. But it is not meant to improve your waking life - simply because even experienced lucid dreamers do not have lucid dreams very often. Also, there are different degrees of control you can have, so it will never be like "okay, tonight I will do something I want to do but I do not dare to do in real life, then after the night I will be able to do it without fear. True, some people, like LaBerge, claim this to be one possiblity, but I do not know of any that actually pursue lucid dreaming because they want to improve their normal life. I think you have been prejudiced after reading LaBerge's website. His website does look like a cult promoting lucid dreaming, promising a lot, offering the induction devices for a lot of money and so on. But there is a lot more to lucid dreaming.

Well, I can see that now.

I have had lucid dreams - not very many, but I enjoyed every one of them. I was skeptical about them before, but I tried to have them anyway and I am thankful I did. It has not changed my life but added some more sugar.
Markus

reply: So, if you want to add some spice to your life, you might join Markus in a dream or two, but remember you don't need all those costly contraptions to fly away home.

09 Dec 1996
I have to respond to your comments regarding lucid dreaming, if for no other reason than you may be missing out on one of life's free treats. I have been doing this for years and it is wonderful. Does it give me any profound spiritual insights? No, I am still a devout atheist when I wake up. Did I spend lots of money to learn how to do that? No, I bought a skinny little book about 20 years ago, that instructed me to remember and write down all my dreams every morning until I began to have lucid dreams. That's all, and it worked. Took about three weeks. Now I can fly, breathe under water, have sex with movie stars and bedazzle villagers with my magical powers. Wheee! It doesn't change anything, it's just fun. Try it!

Leslie Steach

further reading

The Lucidity Institute