#indexluciddreaming

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The New Science of Controlling Lucid Dreams

“Engineering” sleeping consciousness could reduce nightmares, treat insomnia—and even induce specific dreams just for fun

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"In lucid dreams (LDs), people maintain consciousness and can make predetermined actions while asleep. Since the 1970s, electrooculography and other sensors have been used to send signals from LDs into reality. In this study, we test whether electromyography (EMG) can help transfer melodies from LDs, which can expand our abilities to transfer information from LDs into reality. Software was developed to translate EMG impulses into sounds. Four LD practitioners were trained to play musical rhythms by straining their arm muscles, which had EMG sensors on them. Then, these volunteers were asked to induce LDs and repeat the task under polysomnographic observation in a laboratory. Each volunteer induced from one to three confirmed LDs. Three of them were able to transfer musical rhythms into reality, as the EMG sensors detected electrical spikes in the arm muscles despite sleep paralysis. The researchers heard the sounds from the dreams in real time and in recordings. The results prove the concept that people can transfer rhythmical EMG impulses from LD, which could be potentially useful for transferring sounds or music from LD into reality. As one practitioner failed to transfer proper EMG signals, the method needs further investigation. Since LD practitioners sometimes create original music in LDs, it could be possible to transfer these insights into reality. These melodies can be broadcasted via the Internet, TV, or radio in real time."

Raduga, M., Shashkov, A., Gordienko, N., Vanin, A., & Maltsev, E. (2023). Real-time transferring of music from lucid dreams into reality by electromyography sensors. Dreaming. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000244

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"You can ask any question in your conscious dream — and receive an answer in just about any form. It may be written on the wall, spoken to you from the sky, or a new dream scene may materialize before your eyes. The answers provided by the inner self may sometimes surprise you, coming from an extraordinary hidden secondary awareness."

— Rebecca Turner

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"This chapter presents a completely different set of approaches to the world of lucid dreaming based on the idea of falling asleep consciously. This involves retaining consciousness while wakefulness is lost and allows direct entry into the lucid dream state without any loss of reflective consciousness. The basic idea has many variations. While falling asleep, you can focus on hypnagogic (sleep onset) imagery, deliberate visualizations, your breath or heartbeat, the sensations in your body, your sense of self, and so on. If you keep the mind sufficiently active while the tendency to enter REM sleep is strong, you feel your body fall asleep, but you, that is to say, your consciousness, remains awake. The next thing you know, you will find yourself in the dream world, fully lucid."

Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (New York: Ballantine, 1990), 60.

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Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold on Tibetan Dream Yoga

The idea of cultivating a state of mind while awake for the purpose of carrying it into the dream state as a means of inducing lucid dreams has been used by Tibetan Buddhists for more than a thousand years. The origin of these techniques is shrouded in the mists of the past. They are said to derive from the teachings of a master called Lawapa of Urgyen in Afghanistan and were introduced into Tibet in the eighth century by Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀The Tibetan teachings were passed down from generation to generation to present times, when we have The Yoga of the Dream State, a manuscript first compiled in the sixteenth century and translated in 1935, which outlines several methods for "comprehending the nature of the dream state" (that is, inducing lucid dreams). Most of the Tibetan techniques were evidently tailored to the skills of practiced meditators. They involve such things as complex visualizations of Sanskrit letters in many-petaled lotuses while carrying out special breathing and concentration exercises. [...] ⠀⠀⠀⠀For beginning lucid dreamers, the most relevant Tibetan technique is called “comprehending it by the power of resolution,” which consists of “resolving to maintain unbroken continuity of consciousness” throughout both the waking and dream states. It involves both a day and a night practice.

Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (New York: Ballantine, 1990), 41.

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"Paul Tholey has recently derived several techniques for inducing lucid dreams from over a decade of research involving more than two hundred subjects. Tholey claims that an effective method for achieving lucidity (especially for beginners) is to develop a 'critical-reflective attitude' toward your state of consciousness. This is done by asking yourself whether or not you are dreaming while you are awake. He stresses the importance of asking the 'critical question' ('Am I dreaming or not?') as frequently as possible, at least five to ten times a day, and in every situation that seems dreamlike. The importance of asking the question in dreamlike situations is that in lucid dreams the critical question is usually asked in situations similar to those in which it was asked during the day. Asking the question at bedtime and while falling asleep is also favorable."

Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (New York: Ballantine, 1990), 38.

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New Frontiers in Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is being used as a research tool to better understand dreams.

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"Lucid dreams suggest what it would be like to discover that we are not yet fully awake. Consider the following analogy: as the state of ordinary dreaming is to lucid dreaming, so the ordinary waking state is to the fully awakened state. Taken in this sense, the lucid dreamer’s wish is for transcendence—the dream of Dreaming True."

Stephen LaBerge, “Lucid Dreaming: An Exploratory Study of Consciousness During Sleep”, PhD diss. (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1980), 120.