Lucid Dreaming is an Ancient Practice. Introduction Lucid dreaming was taken very seriously by some cultures during ancient times. For example, in the 8th Century, TheTibetan Book of the Dead described of a form of Yoga designed to become conscious while dreaming. Yoga of the Dream State “Milam,” the Yoga of the Dream State is one of many different types of Yogas practiced by Tibetan Buddhists. The intention of this form of Yoga is to help to attain spiritual power and enlightenment or “awakening.”
The word “Buddha” means “one who has awakened.” The Yoga of the Dream State or Tibetan dream Yoga is a philosophical practice that includes lucid dreaming. Just like lucid dreaming in the Western world, the objective of Tibetan dream Yoga is to awaken the consciousness in the dream state, however Buddhist monks have a more secret and deeper knowledge of the power of dream consciousness that is possessed or understood only by a few. Another common element of ancient lucid dreaming and lucid dreaming today is dream recollection. Living Inside Your Dreams: Astral Projection.
Dream Awareness, Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection By Robert Zucker "Living Inside of Your Dreams" is a condensed version of two manuscripts developed during a college independent study in the late 1970s. The subjects of dreams, hermetics and cultural similarities were explored. Hundreds of pages were condensed from thousands of pages of notes. The University of Arizona department of Anthropology, Journalism, Judaic Studies, Psychology and Sociology provided sponsorship for three years to allow me to compile this massive information.
Over the course of those years, I produced three manuscripts entitled, "Hermetics" (1976) and "The Magic of Your Mind" (1977). A reprint is reprinted on this web site. Email author: Robert Zucker Read more about this project Full bio Astral project while you sleep Every night while your body is asleep, your mind is making its way through a world of imagery and activity. The twilight of consciousness is the period in between falling alseep and being awake. The biology of dreaming. O one would normally consider David Maurice, Ph.D., professor of ocular physiology in the Department of Ophthalmology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, a revolutionary. Nevertheless, he has reignited a decades-long controversy that could spark a revolutionary re-evaluation of an entire field of behavioral research. Dr. Maurice has developed a startling new line of scientific inquiry that, when added to other findings, could change our understanding of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and the nature of dreams.
What Maurice has done is to suggest an alternative explanation for the phenomenon known as REM sleep, the stage in which the eyes rapidly move and most dreams occur. Dr. Maurice isn't convinced by currently accepted theories about why REM occurs, including the widespread belief that REM exists mainly to process memories of the preceding day's events during dreams. Maurice's interest in REM began a few years ago. Interpretation vs. observation Drs. No final answer in sight 1. There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences. Mobbs and Watt argue that neuroscience can explain seeing bright lights, meeting the dead, or being convinced you are one of them, suggesting that there is nothing paranormal about these experiences. Instead, near-death experiences are the manifestation of normal brain function gone awry, during a traumatic, and sometimes harmless, event.
They engage several basic features of near death experiences (awareness of being dead, out of body experiences, tunnel of light, meeting deceased people, euphoric emotions) and note the brain regions whose perturbation by electrical stimulation or ischemic strokes can induce each phenomenon. Some can be observed in normal individuals under particular conditions of sensory stimulation (I've done posts on the Blanke experiments on out of body experiences). Their arguments are of the "may be" or "could be" sort, and their summary seems to to be particularly vague hand waving... LUCID DREAMING. Psychophysiology of Lucid Dreaming. By Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. Lucid Dreaming Physiologically Verified Although we are not usually explicitly aware of the fact that we are dreaming while we are dreaming, at times a remarkable exception occurs, and we become conscious enough to realize that we are dreaming.
"Lucid" dreamers (the term derives from van Eeden, 1913) report being able to freely remember the circumstances of waking life, to think clearly, and to act deliberately upon reflection, all while experiencing a dream world that seems vividly real (Green, 1968; LaBerge, 1985; Gackenbach & LaBerge, 1988). This is all in contrast to the usual past characterization of dreams as typically lacking any reflective awareness or true volition (Rechtschaffen, 1978). Lucid dreaming is normally a rare experience. Though most people report having had a lucid dream at least once in their lives, only about 20% of the population reports having lucid dreams once a month or more (Snyder & Gackenbach, 1988).
Figure 1. Figure 2.