Lucid Dreaming is just another form of Day-dreaming.
The “studies” you cite are mostly just ordinary people saying that they can do something special with their Dreaming.
(Maybe that is True for a couple people, but it is not a general gimmick for most of us.)
No scientists there, no psychologists there … (maybe) a lot of Crack-pots there.
You are portraying it as a panacea. Yawn.
Actually there is legitimate scientific study on lucid dreaming. Yes, most of the stuff out there on the web is just a bunch of exaggeration and/or hogwash, but that shouldn’t discredit the real studies that have been done.
My first introduction to lucid dreaming was a book by Steven LaBerge, who actually acquired his PhD through the study of lucid dreams. He discusses his studies, describing how he used labratory environments and equipment to examine the reality and nature of lucid dreaming. He also explains how the use of lucid dreaming has actually helped some people deal with various (albeit minor) psychological issues, such as lessening the strength of phobias and bring closure to emotional problems.
Most people just write lucid dreaming off as psuedoscience or new age hooha. I don’t blame them, because that’s what you’ll generally find when you start looking into lucid dreaming, since the concept fits so easily into people’s fantasies of unlocking self mastery and potential “power” and whatnot.
Another problem with lucid dreaming’s credibility is that it just doesn’t plain work for most people. Some people can achieve lucid dreaming, but don’t find it produces any effect on their lives, let alone positive benefits. Even more people can’t even achive lucid dreaming in the first place. I think it’s simply one of those things that can be useful for a small percentage of people who just happen to have the type of mind that can be benefitted from the practice, but it’s largely useless to the majority of people.
I tried it for a couple of years, myself. I’m the type who never remembers his dreams, so I had to work on being able to recall my dreams upon waking for quite some time. This consists of writing down your dreams immeditely upon waking as a discipline. At first the entries came very sparringly, but it picked up after a couple of months. Eventually I started waking up and finding entries I had written in the middle of the night without remembering having done so, but the memory of the dream (and the subsequent journalling of such) quickly returned when I read the entry. These occurrences were what really strengthened my ability to remember dreams.
I can say that “dream recall,” or whatever you want to call it, can very much be a skill to be dveloped for some people. It definitely was for me. Up untill I started practicing this, I could count the number of dreams I remembered each year on one hand. After a year of writing my dreams down, I was remembering my dreams with ease and clarity almost every day. I say “was” because I gave up the practice and within a couple of months my dream recalling ability all but disappeared. So, for me at least, it is very much a “use it or lose it” type of skill.
As for the actual practice of lucid dreaming, I had very little success. I achieved lucidity only six times in roughly two years of practice. The first couple of times, the realization of it was so exciting that I woke up immediately. The others lasted a little bit longer, and they were all quite amazing experiences, but that was about all they were.
The birth of my first child put the whole practice to an end, hehe. Those first few months of being a parent made sleep a precious commodity, and I was basically too tired to bother with the practice of journalling my dreams. That was over seven years ago. I may take up the practice again some day. Maybe when I’m retired and have time for things like a full night’s sleep. Ha!
