Formal Prospectus Gabriel Begun WR150 21 April, 2013 Prospectus: On Lucid Dreaming (working title) Lucid dreaming has

been a topic that has interest curious minds for thousands of years. However, there is very little that is actually known about lucid dreaming and its possibilities. In the past fifty years scientific research has pushed our knowledge of the topic to a whole new level of understanding. With the discovery of REM sleep and the developmpet of technologies like EEG (electroencephalography) researchers have been able to conduct studied that had never been possible before. In my paper I will attempt to sumarize what modern sicence has learned about lucid dreams. In addition, my paper will present a short introduction to some of the techniques used to learn how to lucid dream. The main issue with lucid dreaming is that it must occour, by definition, while asleep. Lucid dreaming is a state of conciousness in which the dreamer has realized he is dreaming and, often uses this knowledge to manipulate the content of the dream. The fact that the subject is asleep created a problem for researchers because they have to rellay on the subjects recolection of things in order to do their studies. This is paticularly problematic because dream recollection is almost never perfect and rellays entirely on subjective perspectives. With the discovery of REM sleep a new way of studying lucid dreams soon came to be. The subjects were instructed to do specific eye movments to signal when a lucid dream had been entered. This way the researchers could monitor the subjects state. Subjects have been asked to do think like counting to ten, hold their breath or even sing or dance in order to understand how the brain functions while asleep. I will attempt to use the origianl research material of any claim I make. In most cases, finding the original research paper is not paticularly hard. This is due to the fact that the field as a small

ammount of true experts that have contributed to major changes. Amongs these scientis stand out Stephan LaBerge, Allan Hobson and Celia Green. In addition, I also intend to adress some basic questions of lucid dreaming. If lucid dreaming is simply a specific level of conciousness, what other levels are there? And more importantly, how are they related? What other phenomenas are associated with lucid dreams? In paticular, how are false awakenings and out-of-body experiences related? For the seccond part of my essay I intend to explain the difference between WILD (wake induced lucid dreams) and DILD (dream induced lucid dreams). I also intend to account for some of the techniques I have used to learn how to lucid dream. Lastly, I intend to give a small summary of my personal experience since I started to learn about the topic. Lastly, I will attempt to give an explenation of why lucid dreaming can be of interest to humanity. Both from a scientific and a personal point of view. I will also present Charlie Morley's interesting idea about how lucid dreaming can help humanity understand and solve the problems our collective unconcious encounters.

Annotated Bibliography Hobson, A. (2009). REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Nature Review, 10. 803-813. doi:10.1038/nrn2716 Hobston talks about the relation between different states of conciousness and brain activity. Hobson also presents his AIM model in which he maps the different concious states according to three values. This source is paticularly of interest because it gives a great explanation of how waking vs REM vs NREM states are distinguished. LaBerge, S. (1993). Lucidity Research, Past And Future. NightLight. Retreived from http://www.lucidity.com/NL53.ResearchPastFuture.html LaBerge presents in this essay a summary of all his previous work. He also talks about the goals his research will hopefully take him. In paticular, LaBerge talks about how he cunducts his research (by the use of eye movement signals), how time flow duing a dream and the way the dream works during sleep. LaBerge, S. (2007) Lucid Dreaming. In Barret, D. & McNamara, P (Eds.), The New Science of Dreaming. (pp 305-328). Westport CT; Prager Publishers. In this essay, LaBerge presents a detaild summary of what lucid dreams are and what science has learned of them. LaBerge discusses the WILD and DILD techniques as well as his personal research. This eassay is of paticular use because it provides a great overview of what (and how) science has learned about lucid dreaming in the past fifty years. Turner, R. Dream Yoga: Lucid Dreaming in Tibetan Buddhism. Retreived from http://www.world-oflucid-dreaming.com/dream-yoga.html Turner's whole website is dedicated to explaning what lucid dreaming is an how to achieve the state. Throught her website various miscelaneous posts can be found. This post in paticular briefley explains what dream yoga. Dream yoga is a technique practiced by tibethan budhist monks whose goal is to help the individual seize full power over their

dreams and use them to explore the limits of reality. Aserinsky, E. & Kleitman, N. (2003). Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. Retreived from http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=101837 Aserinsky and Kleitman where the first who identified REM sleep. Without their work, most of our current understanding of dreams and their physical manifestations would be void. Although this essay does not provide esscential information to my paper, it is important to aknowledge the turning point for dream research. This essay was originaly published in 1953 Green, C. (1994). Lucid Dream. New York, NY: Routledge. Green, like Aserinsky and Kleitman, was a pioneer in dream research. In her book, Lucid Dreams (originally published in 1968) Green connects for the first time REM sleep with Lucid Dreaming. LaBerge, S. (1980). Lucid dreaming: an exploratory study of consciousness during sleep. Ph.D thesis, Standford University. 1980 University Microfilms No. 80-24, 691 Barrett, D. (1987). Flying Dreams and Lucidity: An Empirical Study of their Relationship. Retreived from http://library.macewan.ca/lucidity/Issue6_2/LL6_2_Barrett.htm Huford, D. (1989). The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Phyladelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Barrett, Deirdre. Flying dreams, false awakenings, and lucidity: An empirical study of their relationship. Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 1(2) p. 129134, Jun 1991

http://library.macewan.ca/lucidity/Issue6_2/LL6_2_Barrett.htm
Hufford, D. (1989). The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions (Publications of the American Folklore Society). University of Pennsylvania Press.