Post by bluefedish on Apr 7, 2008 9:52:54 GMT -5
Reality testing (or reality checking) is a common method used by people to determine whether or not they are dreaming. It involves performing an action with results that will be different if the tester is dreaming. By practicing these tests during waking life, one may eventually decide to perform such a test while dreaming, which may fail and let the dreamer realize that they are dreaming.
Common reality tests include:
* Looking at one's digital watch (remembering the time), looking away, and looking back. As with text, the time will probably have changed randomly and radically at the second glance or contain strange letters and characters. (Analog watches don't usually change in dreams, while digital watches have great tendency to do so).
* Flipping a light switch. Light levels rarely change as a result of the switch flipping in dreams.
* Looking into a mirror; in dreams, reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred, distorted or incorrect.
Dream Signs
Another form of reality testing involves identifying one's dream signs, clues that one is dreaming. Dream signs are often categorized as follows:
* Action - The dreamer, another dream character, or a thing does something unusual or impossible in waking life, such as being able to fly, or noticing photographs in a magazine or newspaper becoming 3-dimensional with full movement.
* Context - The place or situation in the dream is strange, and includes fictional characters or places.
* Form - The dreamer, another character, or an object changes shape, is oddly formed, or transforms. This may include the presence of unusaul colthing or hair, or a 3rd person view of the dreamer.
* Awareness - A peculiar thought, a strong emotion, an unusual sensation, or an altered perception. In some cases when moving one's head from side to side, one may notice a strange stuttering or 'strobing' of the image.
* Cohesion - Sometimes the dreamer may seem to teleport to another location in a dream, without a noticeable transition.
Prolonging Lucid Dreams
One problem faced by people wishing to lucid dream is awakening prematurely. This premature awakening can be frustrating after investing considerable time into achieving lucidity in the first place.
Stephen LaBerge proposed 2 ways to prolong a lucid dream. The first technique involves spinning one's dream body. He proposed that when spinning, the dreamer is engaging parts of the brain that may also be involved in REM activity, helping to prolong REM sleep. The second technique is rubbing one's hands. This technique is intended to engage the dreamer's brain in producing the sensation of rubbing hands, preventing the sensation of lying in bed from creeping into awareness. LaBerge tested his hypothesis by asking 34 volunteers to either spin, rub their hands, or do nother. Results showed 90% of dreams were prolonged by hand rubbing and 96% prolonged by spinning. Only 33% of ludid dreams were prolonged with taking no action.\
Stephen LaBerge
Is a psychophysiologist and a leader in the scientific study of lucid dreaming. He began research lucid dreaming for his Ph. D at Stanford University. He developed techniques to enable himself and other researchers to enter a lucid dream state at will, most notably the MILD technique (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), which was necessary for many forms of dream experimentation. In 1987, he founded The Lucidity Institute, an organization that promotes research into lucid dreaming, as well as running courses for the general public on how to achieve lucid dreaming.
His technique of signalling to a collaborator monitoring his EEG (Electroencephalography - the measurement of electrical activity produced by the brain as recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp) with agreed-upon eye movements during REM became the first published, scientifically-verified signal from a dreamer's mind to the outside world. The first confirmed signal came from Alan Worsley under study in England; however his group didn't publish their results until later. Though the technique is simple, it opens broad new avenues of dream research and pushed the field of dream reseach, or oneirology, beyond its protoscientific and largely discredited psychoanalytic roots, establishing it as a fruitful and respectable discipline.
Research Results
Results from LaBerge's lab and others include:
* comparison of subjective sense of time in dreams versus the waking state using eye signals
* comparison of electrical activity in the brain when singing while awake, and while in a dream
* various studies comparing physiological sexual arousal and in-dream sex, and most interestingly, orgasm.
Bibliography
LaBerge has produced several books about lucid dreaming.
* 1985 Lucid Dreaming: The power of being aware and awake in your dreams
* 1987 Controlling Your Dreams (audio cassette)
* 1990 Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, with Howard Rheingold
* 2002 KISS guide to dreams, with Lisa Lenard
* 2004 Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life (a short book bundled with a CD)
Selected Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEG
Common reality tests include:
* Looking at one's digital watch (remembering the time), looking away, and looking back. As with text, the time will probably have changed randomly and radically at the second glance or contain strange letters and characters. (Analog watches don't usually change in dreams, while digital watches have great tendency to do so).
* Flipping a light switch. Light levels rarely change as a result of the switch flipping in dreams.
* Looking into a mirror; in dreams, reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred, distorted or incorrect.
Dream Signs
Another form of reality testing involves identifying one's dream signs, clues that one is dreaming. Dream signs are often categorized as follows:
* Action - The dreamer, another dream character, or a thing does something unusual or impossible in waking life, such as being able to fly, or noticing photographs in a magazine or newspaper becoming 3-dimensional with full movement.
* Context - The place or situation in the dream is strange, and includes fictional characters or places.
* Form - The dreamer, another character, or an object changes shape, is oddly formed, or transforms. This may include the presence of unusaul colthing or hair, or a 3rd person view of the dreamer.
* Awareness - A peculiar thought, a strong emotion, an unusual sensation, or an altered perception. In some cases when moving one's head from side to side, one may notice a strange stuttering or 'strobing' of the image.
* Cohesion - Sometimes the dreamer may seem to teleport to another location in a dream, without a noticeable transition.
Prolonging Lucid Dreams
One problem faced by people wishing to lucid dream is awakening prematurely. This premature awakening can be frustrating after investing considerable time into achieving lucidity in the first place.
Stephen LaBerge proposed 2 ways to prolong a lucid dream. The first technique involves spinning one's dream body. He proposed that when spinning, the dreamer is engaging parts of the brain that may also be involved in REM activity, helping to prolong REM sleep. The second technique is rubbing one's hands. This technique is intended to engage the dreamer's brain in producing the sensation of rubbing hands, preventing the sensation of lying in bed from creeping into awareness. LaBerge tested his hypothesis by asking 34 volunteers to either spin, rub their hands, or do nother. Results showed 90% of dreams were prolonged by hand rubbing and 96% prolonged by spinning. Only 33% of ludid dreams were prolonged with taking no action.\
Stephen LaBerge
Is a psychophysiologist and a leader in the scientific study of lucid dreaming. He began research lucid dreaming for his Ph. D at Stanford University. He developed techniques to enable himself and other researchers to enter a lucid dream state at will, most notably the MILD technique (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), which was necessary for many forms of dream experimentation. In 1987, he founded The Lucidity Institute, an organization that promotes research into lucid dreaming, as well as running courses for the general public on how to achieve lucid dreaming.
His technique of signalling to a collaborator monitoring his EEG (Electroencephalography - the measurement of electrical activity produced by the brain as recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp) with agreed-upon eye movements during REM became the first published, scientifically-verified signal from a dreamer's mind to the outside world. The first confirmed signal came from Alan Worsley under study in England; however his group didn't publish their results until later. Though the technique is simple, it opens broad new avenues of dream research and pushed the field of dream reseach, or oneirology, beyond its protoscientific and largely discredited psychoanalytic roots, establishing it as a fruitful and respectable discipline.
Research Results
Results from LaBerge's lab and others include:
* comparison of subjective sense of time in dreams versus the waking state using eye signals
* comparison of electrical activity in the brain when singing while awake, and while in a dream
* various studies comparing physiological sexual arousal and in-dream sex, and most interestingly, orgasm.
Bibliography
LaBerge has produced several books about lucid dreaming.
* 1985 Lucid Dreaming: The power of being aware and awake in your dreams
* 1987 Controlling Your Dreams (audio cassette)
* 1990 Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, with Howard Rheingold
* 2002 KISS guide to dreams, with Lisa Lenard
* 2004 Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life (a short book bundled with a CD)
Selected Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEG
