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This Issue
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LUCID DREAMS
Reprinted with permission from the book DREAMING, SLEEPING & ESP
Research has shown that several dreams can be experienced in the course of a single nights sleep . . . all with widely varying themes.
Dreams appear to have many purposes . . . one is the organization of the days events in which emotions are given an "outlet".
The mystic or occult viewpoint of dreams is that they give people access to different times and places.
The truth is probably a combination of both but it must be pointed out that "dreaming" is a little understood process.
LUCID DREAMS
According to Stephen LaBerge, , a psychophysiologist at Stanford University's Sleep Research Center, lucid dreams are dreams that contain particularly vivid images . . . and the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming.
Learn to dream lucidly, LaBerge says, and you'll have enough control to stop your nightmares before they begin. You may even be able to give yourself a break from mounting daily tension and spend the night on a tranquil Florida beach, for instance, in a self-styled lucid dream.
A lucid dreamer can stop in mid-dream to analyze it. Skilled lucid dreamers can make their dream dissolve into thin air and replace them with another.
According to the Omni science magazine, people who are natural "lucid dreamers" are rare and comprise 1/10th of the general population . . . these people are less likely to be "stressed out" or depressed. They exhibit high levels of self-esteem.
According to Jayne Gackenbach, an experimental psychologist at the University of Northern Iowa . . . most lucid dreams seem to have a mystical overlay.
Lucid dreamers are well balanced emotionally . . . dreamers that become emotional during a lucid dream find that their dreams evaporate rapidly.
Lucid dreamers are also well balanced physically . . . possibly to allow them to perform the common lucid-dream activity of flying. Gackenbach asked subjects to walk along a "balance beam" and found that the better balancers were also the more skilled dreamers.
According to experts, anyone can learn to be a "lucid dreamer" because it is a natural human ability. It may take motivation and training but anyone who is normal can learn it . . . with effort and practice.
Researchers have discovered that lucid dreams most often take place in the early morning hours for people who have normal sleep patterns . . . at approximately 5:00 A.M.
Lucid dreams can fool the dreamer into believing that the dream is real because the dream is so vivid.
Ordinary dreams will automatically become lucid when the dreamer realizes that he/she is having a dream . . . the lucid dreamer is essentially awake in the "inner world" of his/her dreams.