Controlling Dreams

Lucid Dreaming

There is a lot of research being done in dream cont rol, part icularly in the areasof lucid dreaming and dream incubat ion. Lucid dreaming is a learned skill andoccurs when you are dreaming, you realize you are dreaming and you are ableto then cont rol what happens in your dream – all while you’re st ill asleep.

Being able to cont rol your dreams would be a very cool thing to be able to do,but it is a dif f icult skill t hat usually takes special t raining. It is est imated thatfewer than 100,000 people in the United States have the abilit y to have lucid

dreams.

Although lucid dreaming is ment ioned throughout history, it was not unt il 1959at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universit y that an ef fect ive technique forinducing lucid dreams was developed, and t rue research into the phenomenonbegan taking place. In 1989, Paul Tholey, a German dream researcher whohad been involved in the research at that universit y, wrote a paper about atechnique he was studying to induce lucid dreams. It was called the ref lectiontechnique, and it involved asking yourself throughout the day if you wereawake or dreaming. More research has indicated the need to pract icerecognizing odd occurrences, or dream signs, that would be a sign that “thisis a dream” rather than realit y.

Stephen LaBerge of Stanford Universit y, founder of The Lucidit yInst itute, Lynne Levitan and other current dream researchers have studiedlucid dreaming techniques extensively. They refer to a technique similar to

Tholey’s ref lect ion method that they call “reality testing.” This technique andone called MILD (Mnemonic Induct ion of Lucid Dreams) have been among themost successful techniques for lucid dreaming.

The MILD technique involves similar reminders to the realit y test ing methodbut focuses those reminders at night rather than throughout the day andnight .

MILD begins with telling yourself when you go to bed that you’ll remember yourdreams. You then focus your at tent ion on recognizing when you are dreamingand remembering that it is a dream. Then, you focus on reentering a recentdream and looking for clues that it is indeed a dream. You imagine what youwould like to do within that dream. For example, you may want to f ly, so youimagine yourself f lying within that dream. You repeat these last two steps(recognizing when you’re dreaming and reentering a dream) unt il you goto sleep.

Using this technique, Dr. LaBerge has been able to have lucid dreams at will.Because this t ype of technique takes such mental t raining, however, LaBergeis now doing research using external st imuli to induce lucid dreams.

While lucid dreaming may just seem like a cool way to enter fantasy land, italso has several applicat ions outside of recreat ion. According to LaBerge, forinstance, lucid dreaming can help in personal development , enhancing self -conf idence, overcoming nightmares, improving mental (and perhaps physical)health and facilit at ing creat ive problem solving.

LaBerge also states on the Lucidit y Web site:

“Lucid dreaming could provide the handicapped and otherdisadvantaged people with the nearest thing to fulfilling their impossibledreams: paralytics could walk again in their dreams, to say nothing ofdancing and flying, and even experience emotionally satisfying eroticfantasies. Such sensorimotor practice could conceivably facilitaterecovery from stroke.”

Finally, lucid dreaming can funct ion as a “world simulator.” Just as a f lightsimulator allows people to learn to f ly in a safe environment , lucid dreamingcould allow people to learn to live in any imaginable world; to experience andbet ter choose among various possible futures.

Read more at:

http://dor.academy/en/controlling-dreams/