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Lucid Dreams 1

Lucid Dreams a State of Consciousness Alberto De La Rosa

University of Texas at El Paso

Lucid Dreams 2
Everyone has had a dream in their life, but have you ever had one in which you where fully conscious of what was happening. From others and personal experience, in this dream state you can control or influence your dream however you want. In this subconscious state you know the meaning of the dream and where you are physically in the real world. This is the place were you can truly do whatever your heart desires. This research paper is going to talk about the history, scientific research, and one of the big questions; can one control a lucid dream or increase your chances of having one?
According to Voss eight out of ten people have had a dream in which they were conscious when they were dreaming at least once in their life. This state is referred to as lucid dreaming, conscious dreaming, or dreams of clarity (Klartraume) (Holzinger, 216). According to Tholey, “Dreams of clarity (Klartraume) are those dreams in which the dreamer has complete consciousness and awareness about the fact that one is dreaming and can therefore interfere or influence, even create the dream as he or she wishes” (as cited in Holzinger, 216). Although lucid dreams as a phenomenon was defined in the twentieth century, it can be traced all the way back to ancient history. It was especially practiced in Tibetan Buddhism in the eighth century as a form of yoga called dream yoga. Holzinger stated that “this type of yoga was used to practice maintaining consciousness during sleep”. Then Tibetans did this in order to maintain consciousness in the event of death so one can consciously find the path to the other world (Holzinger, 2009, p. 217). Holzinger also mentioned “dream yoga, as the Tibetans call lucid dreaming, marks in their spiritual world the possibility of overcoming karma” (p. 217). A century later, Thomas of Aquin (1224/26-1274; 1947: 430) said that lucid dreams arise towards the end of sleep and that, such dreams were frequently reported by people with a strong
Lucid Dreams 3 imagination. In the nineteenth century Marquis d’Harvey de Saints Denys was the first author known to deal with lucid dreams analytically. According to Sigmund Freud (1900/1960) “Marquis d’Harvey claimed to have won such an influence over his dreams that he could accelerate them as he wished and give them the direction he desired”(as cited in Holzinger, 217-18). In the year 1913 at the meeting of the society for Psychical Research Frederik Willems van Eeden, who came up with the term lucid dreams, presented 352 reports on his lucid dreams collected between 1898 and 1912. Freud (1900/1960) proclaimed dreams to be the road to the unconsciousness only then did lucid dreaming became an area of interest for scientists (as cited by Holzinger, p218).
The twentieth century is where the term lucid dreaming increased in interest, however only during the past 30 years, did lucid dreaming become acknowledged by scientific research. Some of the most admirable researchers of this phenomenon were Paul Tholey and Stephen LaBerge. LaBerge invented the eye-signaling-method and performed the first scientific research studies about lucid dreaming at Stanford University. According to Voss, the eye-signaling-method is a method which consists of the subject being tested to signal by moving their eyes from side to side when in the lucid dream state (2011). LeBerge’s ‘eye signals’ method was proven to be successful in many of the subsequent studies, one of which, was conducted 1980. In a different study in 1982, LaBerge and Dement showed that it was possible to practice voluntary control over breathing during a lucid dream. In 1980 and 1981 Paul Tholey made seven different conditions of clarity in order for a dream to be defined as a lucid dream. The seven conditions are the following: Awareness of the dream (orientation); Awareness of memory functions;

Lucid Dreams 4
Awareness of identity; Awareness of the dream environment; Awareness of the meaning of the dream; and Awareness of the concentration and focus (the subjective clarity of that state) (Holzinger, 2009, pg219) Thoely states, for a dream to be defined as lucid it must meet all seven conditions, but according to Stephen LaBerge and Holzinger factors 3-7 meet the requirements for a dream to be called lucid (Holzinger, 2009, p.219). In 2009 (Voss, 2011) Voss’s team took a closer look at the brain activity of lucid dreamers and concluded that the rippled mantle on the surface of the brain play a major role in lucid dreaming. She also stated that the frontal lobe seems to work in lucid dreaming as much as it does in the waking state.
Although controlling a lucid dream is really hard to do, according to (La Berge/1980) lucid dreaming is a learnable skill. According to Holzinger (2009) “there are two possibilities that could help dreamers realize that they are sleeping” (p.222). In addition Holzinger also mentioned the first possibility can be done by putting tape recordings of the phrase ‘this is a dream,’ which is condition tactile inducement, and light during REM state. The second possibility is done by teaching dreamers mental techniques to recognize that there are in the dream state, since there are some certain things on dreaming on which one can rely as ‘dream remainders’ (Holzinger, 222). There is other ways on how to get lucid, as reported by Hamzelou (2011) five steps on how get lucid are by: get into a habit of questioning reality; plan ahead the dream you want to have and how you want it to be; write a short note of your dreams as soon as you wake up; focus on high concentration task during the day; and waking yourself up early.
In conclusion, lucid dreaming has been around for a very long time it can be traced back all to the way to ancient history from where the Tibetans used dream yoga to control their dreams in order for them to be able to maintain conscious during the event of death. There has being a lot
Lucid Dreams 5 scientific research done on it form LaBerge eye singnaling method to controlling the breathing during sleep to signal. There has also being ways developed to able to achive the lucid dream state, like Holzinger two possibilities or Hamzelou five steps. Learning to control the lucid dream might be extremely difficult but just like any other thing it is something that can be practiced and perfected through time.

Lucid Dreams 6 References

Hamzelou, J. (2011). Reality gets a kick via dream control, New Scientist, 2844/2845 (212). p4-5. Holzinger, B. (2009). Lucid dreaming-dreams of clarity, Contemporary Hypnosis, 26 (4) , 216-224.
Voss, U. (2011). Unlocking The Lucid Dream, Scientific American Mind, 22 (5). p33-35.

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