The Difference of Modern Lucid Dreamers (original) (raw)
Related papers
Dreaming with Awareness: Exploring Lucid Dreaming as a Bridge Between Reality and Meditation
Smaratungga: Journal of Education and Buddhist Studies, 2023
The article examines the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, which means a dream where a dreamer is aware of being in a dream state and can often influence the course of the dream to some extent. While some researchers of lucid dreaming compare the lucid dreaming state to a waking state and claim it combines cognitive elements of waking consciousness with the hallucinatory quality of dreaming, most recent researches suggest that some types of lucid dreams might be seen as a spontaneous meditative state. The research question for this article is if modern practice of lucid dreaming is a separate phenomenon that shares some characteristics of meditative experience. In order to answer the research question, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Data collection was done with the help of online surveys. The author chose random sampling to sample a group of lucid dreamers. One hundred sixteen surveys were completed. Based on the research done,the author comes to the conclusion that lucid dreamers share the experiences typical of meditation practice. The author points out that lucid dreaming is not identical to being mindful in the dream state as well. Such commonly experienced sensations during a lucid dream as desire to control, desire to fly, and euphoria differ it from the state that ‘dream yoga’ or similar states in other religious traditions try to achieve.
ABSTRACT Lucid Dreaming: An Expanded Understanding and Definition
International Association for the Study of Dreams 40th Annual Dream Conference, 2023
Lucid dreaming, technically defined, has only one requirement-that a dreamer knows that they dream, while they dream. While useful as a kind of "litmus test", in full lucidity other factors play essential roles. In this presentation I'll share a model for LUCIDITY in a greater sense using a constellation of eight elements, based on my own lucid dreaming experiences and drawing upon Patanjali's Yoga Sutras ( . . . )
Cultural Contingency and the Varieties of Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is a biological anomaly. It is characterized by a mode of "reflexive awareness" made possible by the activation of brain areas that are responsible for executive control and intentionality, which are normally suppressed when dreaming. 1 Lucid dreaming is therefore a form of consciousness that enables one to become aware of the dream state while dreaming and exercise waking volition. What lucidity means, what it appears to make possible, and what it actually makes possible, however, differ depending on the cultural dream theory (or theories) to which the experiencer subscribes.
On Lucid Dreaming: Memory, Meaning, and Imagination
An overview article on lucid dreaming that argue for lucidity as a function of consciousness, not as a special type of awareness in dreams. Highlights the role of memory and imagination in the lucid process.
Shamanistic Realms of Lucid Dreaming: Exploring the Three Tiered Cosmos
Worlds of Lucid Dreaming Conference , 2020
There isn’t a single "world of lucid dreaming" (apologies to Stephen LaBerge), but a multitude of worlds. For myself, a helpful frame for the plethora of these multidimensional lucid realms is the tiered cosmos that is acknowledged in traditional cultures around the world as well as the deep Paleolithic past: the Middle World, and the Upper and Lower Worlds [1]. While I am using the metaphor of “landscapes” or “worlds,” I am describing styles of thinking and acting within the dream. They are cognitive lifeworlds which are available at any time.
Lucid Dreaming: Participating in our Inner Wilderness
Annual Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, 2008
In my eco-psychological critique of the culture of lucid dreaming, awareness and control are often conflated with one another due, in part, to a deep historical bias in which nature is viewed as a wilderness that is separate from, and at war with, humankind. I will present a phenomenological methodology for lucid dreaming that has helped me bridge this conflict within myself, centered on receptivity and connectivity.
Lucid Dreaming as a method for living otherwise
SOCIOLOGÍA Y TECNOCIENCIA, 2021
This contribution explores lucid dreaming as an eccentric method for telling a different story of the pathologization of narcolepsy. Narcolepsy has been frequently misdiagnosed as a psychiatric disorder. The most conspicuous point of confusion is hallucinations and vivid dreams. This article is particularly interested in the ways in which the unusual combination of hallucinatory and lucid dream activity and wake-like reflective awareness allows to regain control of one’s reality and ownership. By introducing one of the authors’ personal experiences with narcolepsy and hallucinations and following Lisa Blackman’s (2012, 2014) and Grace Cho’s (2008) work on non-ordinary conscious states, this article examines lucid dreaming as a method that offers a particular art of living in dream-worlds that are sometimes impossible or terrifying to inhabit. Lucid dreaming opens up a window to explore non-human forms of care (Barad, 2012; Bellacasa, 2017; Dokumaci, 2017) that take place in unearthly worlds, which offer survival for those who inhabit a dream-world that terrifies them and a real-world that pathologizes.
Mini Review Dreaming with a Wakeful Mind: The Gateway to Breaking the Illusion
Illusion is the cornerstone on which the entire edifice of Advaita Vedanta is erected. Of the many classic examples adduced to illustrate the concept of illusion, appearance of silver in the nacre of a conch shell, snake in a rope and the dream experiences are most widely cited. Illusion is a serious matter of concern to a philosopher as it reminds that all knowledge experienced is not always valid and poses epistemological challenge as to how reality can be distinguished from illusion. The central reason for accepting illusion as reality is that we fail to recognize illusion as an erroneous mental representation at the time of experiencing it; we realize its falsity only afterwards. Our inability to realize illusion as a mere false cognition at the time of experiencing it is vital to our falling prey to it. We are carried away by the illusion because it does not occur to us that it could be unreal during its experience. For us, every experience seems real: it’s only at a later time that we realize how we have mindlessly fallen prey to an illusion. But realizing an illusion afterward does not help in enlightenment. Enlightenment is when one wakes up during the occurrence of an illusory experience. Unfortunately, wakeful world normally does not give many opportunities to this effect. Realizing the wakeful experiences as illusory is far harder than admitting the illusory nature of the dream state. Dream is a unique illusory experience that we come across every day. Dream experiences are real as long as they last and every day we enter and exit the dream world without exception. Thus dream is a wonderful opportunity where we know beforehand that we are going to enter into an illusory world. Hence if we somehow learn to keep ourselves awake during the illusory experience of dreams, it would be a sure shot opportunity to enlightenment. Hence dream state is an ideal ground for a practitioner to come out of illusion by practicing to stay put in lucid awareness and realizing the illusory nature during the course of a dream. Tibetan dream yoga is based precisely on this very principle. This paper discusses the significance of dreaming with a wakeful mind to practice surmounting the clutches of illusion and tread on the path of enlightenment. Milam or Tibetan Dream Yoga is one such practice that provides elaborate methodology for spiritual seekers to use dream state as an ideal platform for mastering spiritual enlightenment.
Poligrafi , 2023
The first part of the paper briefly outlines the role of dreams in early Buddhism and their importance in establishing the continuity of the whole tradition, before presenting in the second part entirely new aspects of dreams in the Buddhist eremitic tradition, influenced by the Tantric spiritual horizon, in particular by a transformed concept of the body. The central part of the paper follows an analysis of the soteriological technique of dreaming (Tib. rmi lam) in the tradition of Buddhist yogis and yoginīs, based on the fragments of mahāsiddha Tilopa (Ṣaḍdharmopadeśa), Gampopa’s commentaries, collected in the treatise Dags po'i bka' 'bum, and findings from studies on Buddhist eremitic tradition in Ladakh in the region of the Indian Himalayas. The four stages of dream yoga are also highlighted in relation to other psychophysical soteriological techniques (the six dharmas, Skrt. ṣaḍdharma, Tib. chos drug). The philosophical and soteriological foundations of dream yoga are presented on the basis of the doctrine of consciousness in the yogācāra school, highlighting in particular the three modifications of consciousness presented by Vasubandhu. The last part the paper outlines the significance of training in the dreaming technique in the very process of dying that leads to the unconditioned state beyond life and death, nirvāṇa.