Lucid Dreamer
Lucid Dreamer
Lucid dreaming is when a dreamer becomes conscious while in a dream state. So, you’re dreaming and you know you’re dreaming. You are in control of your dream self. You can fly at will, speak to dream characters, and go wherever you want. 50% of people report having a lucid dream at least one time in their lives. About 20% of people report regular lucid dreams. While these numbers are difficult to prove and based on subjective reporting, the phenomenon of lucidity within the dream state has been proven.
We’ll take a shallow dive into lucid dreaming in this section and uncover some tips on improving dream lucidity.
“Lucid dreams were long considered beyond the pale of serious sleep research and were studied by psychical researchers and parapsychologists. Even in the mid-twentieth century, many psychologists rejected claims of lucidity, arguing that self-reflection and conscious choice are impossible in dreams, so lucid dreams must occur before or after sleep, or during “micro-awakenings.”
They were proved wrong. The breakthrough was made simultaneously and independently by two young psychologists, Keith Hearne at the University of Hull in England and Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University in California…In Hearns’ laboratory, Alan Worlsey was the first oneironaut (or dream explorer) to signal from a lucid dream. He decided in advance to move his eyes left and right eight times in succession whenever he became lucid. Using a polygraph, Hearne picked up the signals. He found them in the midst of REM sleep, a finding that has been confirmed many times.”
A Bit of Dream Science:
Each day your body goes through normal wake/sleep cycles. Science has divided these into three parts: waking, non-REM sleep, and REM sleep. The brain is the least active during non-REM sleep. People awakened from non-REM sleep typically report no dreams, or less complex dream details during sleep.
An EEG during REM sleep resembles waking brain activity, however, people in REM sleep are typically much harder to wake than people in non-REM sleep. This is due to the brain functionally isolating itself, and blocking sensory input during REM sleep. People awakened from REM sleep report complex, longer, and sometimes bizarre dreams. While dreaming can occur outside of REM sleep, and dreaming doesn’t always occur when in REM sleep, this is where most dreams occur.
Two phases of REM sleep have been generalized. During tonic REM sleep, auditory stimuli still activate the brainstem to some extent. During phasic REM, rapid eye movements occur and the brain blocks all incoming stimuli. It also blocks motor commands so that you don’t go wandering around your house while sleeping.
Just as brain scans show imagining something activates the same sensory centers in the brain as doing it does. Dreaming also activates these sensory centers. In a 2001 Louie and Wilson study, rats were trained to complete a maze. When they were observed dreaming of the same activity, scientists could pinpoint where the rat was in the maze…in their dream. This science has also shown that dream activities take about the same amount of time as activities do in waking life, disproving theories that suggest all dreams are constructed upon the moment of waking.
A typical night's sleep consists of four to six ‘sleep cycles.’ Three periods of non-REM and one period of REM sleep make a cycle. The length of time these periods last depends on sleep quality, health, length of time asleep, etc.
Reality Blurred
Blackmore wonders: are dreams experiences? We know they activate the same brain centers as actions do, they create qualia, and they can produce creative original ideas. What do you think Jung would have to say to Blackmores’ question?
Science debates over the evolutionary functions of dreaming. Theories surround the idea that our brain is like a holodeck (Star Trek reference with no shame) within which we can simulate natural threats, disasters, and skills. The simulations help reduce risk when we attempt these actions in waking life. Psychology would suggest a similar stage upon which characters of our psyche play out their simulations to better our Selves.
“Dreaming represents the most audacious and ingenious of nature’s tricks for educating her psychologists” - Humphrey Consciousness Regained p. 85
“Even if we don’t recall dreams or see any value in them, various neurological viewpoints suggest that any brain or mind event creates a “mass action” that touches the entire brain. Every dream, as a real neurological event, affects the brain and mind in some manner as well as our individual and collective reality….
When lucidly aware of the dream, a new synthesis appears as the dreamer mixes both reality and illusion. He or she brings the realities of action, meaning, thought, and beauty to the so-called ephemeral, insubstantial illusion of dreams. Suddenly the boundaries between dreaming reality and waking reality become even more amorphous, as lucid dreaming incorporates aspects of both. The new, synthesized reality begins to call all realities into question and suggest that each is fundamentally a mental construct.” – Waggoner Lucid Dreaming p. 79.
So what are the possibilities of lucid dreaming? I mean, it's fun. You get to float, fly, go anywhere do anything. That alone could (and does) occupy lucid dreamers for a long time. There are, of course, deeper and more meaningful benefits to being lucid while dreaming. You’re suddenly in a land of your unconscious, and your conscious self can directly interact with it.
The following is a dream from author and lucid dreamer Robert Waggoner.
““Who are you? Who are you?”
At the time, it seemed a simple question, which I posed to the young woman in the lucid dream. But this simple question led to profound lessons in lucidity and taught me much about the nature of transformation in dreams, lucid dreams, and waking.
In the dream, I found myself in a farmhouse kitchen in the South. The farm wife cooked on the stove and I sat at the kitchen table with my oldest brother and someone else. When the farmwife placed a pile of cooked beans on my plate, it all struck me as too strange. Suddenly it hit me, ‘This is a lucid dream!’
Immediately, I knew someone stood behind me since I could feel the energy. Realizing that the ‘Shadow’ (or the denied, ignored or repressed aspects of the self according to Carl Jung) often remained behind the person, I turned and discovered an attractive, young black woman there. Picking her up, I brought her directly in front of me, and asked, “Who are you? Who are you?” She returned my gaze, and replied, “I am a discarded aspect of yourself.”
How do you respond to “a discarded aspect of yourself?” What does “a discarded aspect of yourself” even want? For a moment, these questions bounced around my mind. And then I just knew – a discarded aspect wants acceptance — complete, heartfelt acceptance. From my heart came complete and total acceptance of this dream figure, this discarded aspect of myself.
After that, something magically unexpected happened. As I sent complete and total acceptance onto this “discarded aspect”, she began to shrink towards her center point, and then transformed into wisps of colored light that headed straight towards my torso, and entered me with an energetic jolt!
Accepting a Dream Figure Transforms It
Upon waking, I knew the ‘light’ energy had changed me somehow. A week later, the answer became clear: Ever since this lucid dream, I thought daily about trying to write a book on lucid dreams – a project I started two years earlier, but discarded. Now it made sense! The energy of the “discarded aspect” or discarded book project had now re-integrated with me, through my complete acceptance of the dream figure. Moreover, that energy propelled me forward to write my first book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.”
Waggoner experienced a profound ‘transformation’ within this lucid dream. The energy transformed was represented in a dream figure. He also learned that shadow energy seeks acceptance and that full acceptance leads to transformation. I’m suddenly struck with that time-old phrase that always seemed so ambiguous growing up, all answers lie within you.
Fear
It’s not uncommon for individuals, even highly trained psychologists, to fear the unconscious and therefore the dream state. As if our tinkering around in there could somehow disrupt the natural cycles of our subconscious, and that may throw off our waking existence in an uncontrollable way.
Waggoner cautions against becoming cavaliere or superior in the dreamscape, but why should we fear aspects of ourselves? Everything within the dreamscape is a reflection of yourself. It is worth considering how many things we have repressed that we may not be aware of, and how many things exist within the collective unconscious. I don’t believe anyone should fear their unconscious, I think that is counterproductive to personal growth. They should, however, be ready for the unexpected to surface.
“I believe there is no sure way to obtain informed consent from a prospective lucid dream induction subject. Moreover, I believe the desire for lucidity is, to some undetermined extent, insincere. Why? To the extent that one has continued to repress the awareness of unresolved, possibly painful pre-personal memories and issues (and that probably fits most of us to varying extents), the statement "I want to become lucid," implies a paradox. It seems to say: I am willing to become aware of what I’ve been unwilling to become aware of. How can we know ahead of time what we will suddenly perceive through our wide-open dream eyes? How can we know if we’re ready for it?
Lucidity alone may confer the strength needed to deal with the enhanced awareness of heretofore repressed aspects. Maybe lucidity is another name for the readiness to deal with the unknown. One friend of mine suggested that lucidity arises to the degree that one is willing to tolerate inconsistency in one’s life. If this is true, then we need not fear the lucid state. But when I look at the lucid dreams of my clients, as well as many of my own, I have observed that lucid dreams are, on occasion, quite overwhelming…
Encountering independent agents and unexpected events in lucid dreaming can be very troubling. Although at first you might be tempted to rationalize away the events as anomalies or a malfunctioning expectation effect, your viewpoint has been shaken. Lucid dreaming brings you into deeper contact with both the immensity and beauty of your unconscious. With that comes a dawning sense of awe and respect.” Gregory Scott Sparrow, Ed.D.– On the Advisability of Widespread Lucid Dream Induction, 1987
Some studies suggest that Lucid Dream Therapy is not necessarily recommended for certain types of mental illness including forms of PTSD and dissociative identity disorder. The lines of reality can blur to a mind already struggling with what is real.
The best approach to entering your unconscious is to go in with love, respect, and humility. How would you enter a church? Your grandmother's bedroom? Your father's study? You wouldn’t walk in, declare your ownership over it, and then throw a party in there.
Be light of foot and mind. Approach dream figures with mindfulness. Treat this space as if it is sacred. The following dream is from Waggoner in 1999,
"I don't recall how I became aware, but I find myself hurtling through the relative darkness of space. At last, I can seek out the answer. I'm determined to go to the ends of the universe to discover whether evil exists. I fly past stars and constellations, deeper into the darkness. I speed headlong through the cosmos, looking, sensing, for something like inherent evil. I continue deeper until, at last, I come to a place where the stars no longer appear. In front of me looms the edge of the universe.
I stop and look intently at the darkness. Is there evil in there? Then, from within, I hear a voice deliver this message: "The light upholds the darkness." And suddenly I know that behind all apparent evil or darkness there is light; and that it's light that gives us the sense of darkness.
Then I hear: "Everything is sacred and alive." I intuitively realize that the light is in every living creature as a condition of its existence. And then I hear something more clarifying: "Even the space between your fingers is sacred and alive." I look at my outstretched hand and see the space between my fingers, that precious emptiness, and know with clarity that I live in a sacred universe, where even the apparent emptiness is aware and alive. With form or without, all is sacred and alive.
My fear vanished."
Lucid Dreaming Gateway to the Self p. 74
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