MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Reply to Foulkes
No full textDavid Foulkes is quite correct in noting that when it comes to lucid dreaming we are no longer talking about sleep and dreaming in the “usual” way. Dream lucidity is a paradoxical phenomenon: to resolve the paradox requires a broadening of our understanding of the varieties of dreaming experience and a clarification of our usage of such terms as “sleep,” “awareness,” and “unconsciousness
Near Death, Near Dream
No full textI will describe here an experience of mine which wasin all its characteristics a near-death experience (NDE) except that ultimately there was no evidence that I had been near death, and which, except for my believing I had died, was similar to a number of earlier experiences of mine which had always occurredonly in the context of lucid dreams, that is dreams in which I know I am dreaming
Comments on “Dream Lucidity and Near-Death Experience-A Personal Report”, by John Wren-Lewis
No full textWren-Lewis’s near-death experience (NDE), whose relationship to his later lucid dreaming he questions, was an experience of “no-thing-ness,” a darkness (Wren—Lewis, personal communication, May 31, 1984) which he describes as a void. His is one type of NDE.NDEs reported by others may include visions and light without an experience of voidness (Lundahi, 1982). So what is questioned here is the relationship, if any, of void-type NDEs, rather than NDEs in general, to lucid dreaming. And as the experience of a void is not exclusive to the context of dying, since, for example, it is to be achieved in Buddhist and other meditation, we may really be examining here the relationship of the void-experience, rather than just void-type NDEs, to subsequent lucid dreaming
Dream Lucidity and Near-Death Experience - A Personal Report
No full textAttempts to investigate possible correlations between the incidence of lucid dreaming and near-death experiences (NDEs) have so far been inconclusive (Lucidity Letter, Vol. 1, Nos. 2 and 3). This note reports some observations following my own NDE in November, 1983, which suggest an entirely new approach
Comments on OBEs and Lucid Dreams
No full textIn Chapter 9 of Lucid Dreaming (LaBerge, 1985), I argue that the only necessary feature distinguishing lucid dreams and OBEs is how the person interprets the experience. In order to have an OBE you must merely believe that you have in some sense “left your body.” Of course, the subjective sensations of being out-of-body provide no proof as to whether and in what way you actually have “left your body.” Those interested in the details of my reasoning should read the original
Dream Self-Reflectiveness as a Learned Cognitive Skill
No full textMany prominent researchers subscribe to the notion that dreaming is cognitively deficient relative to normal waking consciousness (Foulkes,1983; Hartmann, 1973; Koukkou & Lehman, 1983). Dreams are perceived as massively non-reflective and single-minded as evidenced by their apparent lack of imagination, lack of lucidity (awareness of dreaming while dreaming), and tendency to be forgotten (Rechtschaffen, 1978). The notion of dream ‘isolation’ from other systems of consciousness has been posited by Rechtachaffen as an inescapable conclusion once these characteristics of dreaming have been understood
Lucid Dreams or Out-of-Body Experiences: A Personal Case
No full textI have just finished LaBerge’s book, “Lucid Dreaming”, and was gratified to learn that the lucid dreams of not a few people have similar characteristics of my own. These included: 1) the testing of gravity to reassure oneself that one is really awake in a dream (I usually do a somersault and find myself floating in the air like an astronaut in a weightless environment);2) the varying degrees of lucidity, some so lucid that one fears that one will become “stuck” in this dream-world;3)the frequent inability to read any written or printed matter;4) the emotionally detached from the dream, prolonging it; 5) the experience of lucidity coming over one gradually or suddenly; and 6) the capacity for voluntary action in this dream-world
A Comparative Psychology of Lucid Dreams
No full textA problem with much of the literature on lucid dreaming has been its theoretical and empirical insularity-a lucid dream, apparently, is a lucid dream, is a lucid dream. Certainly there are important correlations with incidence of out-of-body experience, hypnagogic reports, and waking visual-spatial abilities (Gackenbach et al., 1983), but there seems to have been little effort so far to place lucid dreaming with its “kin and kindred” and thence to draw conclusions concerning the basic cognitive processes involved-to place lucidity in relation to a general cognitive psychology (and vice versa)
Distinguishing Between Transcendental Consciousness and Lucidity
No full textOnly within the last 10-15 years has Western psychology actively investigated the phenomenon of lucidity during dreaming. The recent growth of interest in lucidity, reflected in descriptive and experimental research, has led to a consideration of the theoretical and practical significance this type of dream experience might have. Whereas some researchers have suggested that lucidity offers an important phenomenological tool for the investigation of dreaming processes (LaBerge, 1985), others have emphasized the similarities between lucidity and certain types of meditative states and have suggested that they may promote psychological development in related ways (e.g., Hunt, 1985; Hunt and Ogilvie in press)
OBEs - Are They Dreams?
No full textA great deal of controversy has accompanied the presentation of the theory, as in Stephen LaBerge’s bookLucid Dreaming(LaBerge, 1985), that so-called out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are simply dreams or possibly even pre-lucid dreams. That this is true is not surprising, since, as many who have had such experiences have noted, these experiences often surpass all others in vividness and emotional intensity. They leave one with an extraordinary sense of conviction that what one has just experiences is real, perhaps even more so than ordinary reality. However, this same conviction is often experienced by people in ordinary dreams not involving the OBE feeling. I have often heard recounted, and personally experienced the thought, “This cannot be a dream; it is too vivid, too real.” Upon awakening, however, the dreamer realized that the situation he or she was just experiencing was entirely fictitious--a dream after all