Controlling Dreams Lucid Dreaming T here is a lot of research being done in dream cont rol, part icularly in t he areas of lucid dreaming and dream incubat ion. Lucid dreaming is a learned skill and occurs when you are dreaming, you realize you are dreaming and you are able t o t hen cont rol what happens in your dream – all while you’re st ill asleep. Being able t o cont rol your dreams would be a very cool t hing t o be able t o do, but it is a dif f icult skill t hat usually t akes special t raining. It is est imat ed t hat f ewer t han 100,000 people in t he Unit ed St at es have t he abilit y t o have lucid
dreams. Alt hough lucid dreaming is ment ioned t hroughout hist ory, it was not unt il 1959 at Johann Wolf gang Goet he Universit y t hat an ef f ect ive t echnique f or inducing lucid dreams was developed, and t rue research int o t he phenomenon began t aking place. In 1989, Paul T holey, a German dream researcher who had been involved in t he research at t hat universit y, wrot e a paper about a t echnique he was st udying t o induce lucid dreams. It was called t he ref lection technique, and it involved asking yourself t hroughout t he day if you were awake or dreaming. More research has indicat ed t he need t o pract ice recognizing odd occurrences, or dream signs, t hat would be a sign t hat “t his is a dream” rat her t han realit y. Stephen LaBerge of St anf ord Universit y, f ounder of T he Lucidit y Inst it ut e, Lynne Levitan and ot her current dream researchers have st udied lucid dreaming t echniques ext ensively. T hey ref er t o a t echnique similar t o
T holey’s ref lect ion met hod t hat t hey call “reality testing.” T his t echnique and one called MILD (Mnemonic Induct ion of Lucid Dreams) have been among t he most successf ul t echniques f or lucid dreaming. T he MILD t echnique involves similar reminders t o t he realit y t est ing met hod but f ocuses t hose reminders at night rat her t han t hroughout t he day and night . MILD begins wit h t elling yourself when you go t o bed t hat you’ll remember your dreams. You t hen f ocus your at t ent ion on recognizing when you are dreaming and remembering t hat it is a dream. T hen, you f ocus on reent ering a recent dream and looking f or clues t hat it is indeed a dream. You imagine what you would like t o do wit hin t hat dream. For example, you may want t o f ly, so you imagine yourself f lying wit hin t hat dream. You repeat t hese last t wo st eps (recognizing when you’re dreaming and reent ering a dream) unt il you go t o sleep. Using t his t echnique, Dr. LaBerge has been able t o have lucid dreams at will. Because t his t ype of t echnique t akes such ment al t raining, however, LaBerge is now doing research using ext ernal st imuli t o induce lucid dreams. While lucid dreaming may just seem like a cool way t o ent er f ant asy land, it also has several applicat ions out side of recreat ion. According t o LaBerge, f or inst ance, lucid dreaming can help in personal development , enhancing self conf idence, overcoming night mares, improving ment al (and perhaps physical) healt h and f acilit at ing creat ive problem solving. LaBerge also st at es on t he Lucidit y Web sit e: “Lucid dreaming could provide the handicapped and other disadvantaged people with the nearest thing to fulfilling their impossible dreams: paralytics could walk again in their dreams, to say nothing of dancing and flying, and even experience emotionally satisfying erotic fantasies. Such sensorimotor practice could conceivably facilitate recovery from stroke.” Finally, lucid dreaming can f unct ion as a “world simulat or.” Just as a f light simulat or allows people t o learn t o f ly in a saf e environment , lucid dreaming could allow people t o learn t o live in any imaginable world; t o experience and bet t er choose among various possible f ut ures.
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