For as long as people have been dreaming, there have been those who were able to control their dreams, which is called lucid dreaming.
According to most lucid dreaming experts, the best way is to be intentional about it and practice different methods until you can regularly control your dreams.
But, what if there’s a more natural way? What if science could allow you to lucid dream without all the work?
According to Carl Jung, a professional dream analyzer, there may be a way to help people lucid dream without having to work hard at it. Unlike other dream experts who believe there is symbolism in dreams (like the presence of fleas indicating you’ll soon be lied to), he believed that each person’s dreams should be interpreted on an individual basis.
He wrote, “It should, therefore, be an absolute rule to assume that every dream, and every part of a dream, is unknown at the outset and to attempt an interpretation only after carefully taking up the context.”
Throughout history, dreams have had some definitions and credit for them have had various sources. Some cultures and religions saw dreams as divine messages from powerful spiritual beings whereas other people believed that they came from our unconscious self and were therefore dark and mysterious.
Still, others labeled them as mere mental chatter.
However, as Jung believed, there is much to be learned from dreams, as they are often a reflection of the world around us. They may be the mind’s way of working through a situation during the sleeping hour or the expression of emotions that we are too afraid to face while waking.
Whatever they may be, being able to lucid dream can help in several ways.
Firstly, lucid dreaming allows a dreamer to remember their dream better since they were aware that they were dreaming at the time. This can help with analyzation following the dream since you’re able to remember more details, and the various aspects more clearly. Rather than a fuzzy, vague remembrance, lucid dreamers often remember their dream as well as if they had watched a movie.
The other way lucid dreaming can help people are those who have suffered a trauma and are now experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These people often have horrific nightmares that take them back to the traumatic event that changed their life. If they were able to effortlessly lucid dream, then they could take control of those situations and begin to work through their trauma more easily.
So, how does science help us lucid dream?
This study, which was conducted in Germany, took 24 volunteers who had no history of lucid dreaming. Then, they stimulated their brains with 40 Hz of electricity. This frequency is connected to the brain’s ability to be self-aware, which is the most important part of lucid dreaming. As it turned out, 77% of the dreamers were then able to control their dreams.
There was no way for scientists to control the content of the dreams, however. They were only able to help the brain realize it was dreaming so the dreamer could lucid dream. Although there’s still more research to be done in this area, this could be used as part of a psychological treatment plan for anybody that needs to work through some issues and wants to try to use science and dreams to do so.
For those who love the idea of lucid dreaming and for those who may want to try it for the sake of working through problems, this discovery is good news. Hopefully, if more research is done in this area, this will become more widely available for the people that both need and want it.
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