Imagine that you are in a world where you can control everything. Flying, apparition, transforming into any form, deciding what happen next, massacre or resurrecting, all these things can be done simply by idiodynamics . Is it a world far from reality? In fact, some people could spend nearly one third of a day in such a world which is called lucid dreams. In a lucid dream, dreamers are aware that they are dreaming and then, if they are skilled enough, control the dream. Lucid dream is a vital phenomenon in the research of neuroscience and cognitive science. It helps us to take a deeper look at the connection between neurons’ activity and human consciousness. In addition, it has a clinical application in treating nightmares. Except for neuroscientists,
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Paul Tholey, who is a German psychologist, developed a theory that dream is a reflection of weakness and unsolved problem in the real world. (Tholey, P. (1980). “Conscious Dreams as an Object of Empirical Examination”. Gestalt Theory 2: 175–91.) He took himself as an example. When he was a child, he was abused by his father. Then he always had a nightmare in which he fought with his father. He beat his father in his dreams many times, but the dream occurred again and again. Finally, Paul Tholey tried to communicate with his father in his dream and they forgave each other, he never had this nightmare again afterwards. Therefore, Paul held a strong disagreement about G. William Domhoff’s theory, the latter was a professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, who arouse a technique of facing the danger and conquering during the lucid dream. To be more specific, lucid dreamers tended to create a dangerous circumstance like a monster or powerful enemy, then they will conquer those in their dreams.(G. William Domhoff , Senoi Dream Theory: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork Movement). Another attempt of connecting psychological states with lucid dream was made by Natália B Mota, who is also a Brazilian psychologist. In recent years, a group of researchers led by Mota made a comparison between psychosis and lucid dream. The subjects were divided into two …show more content…
REM sleep, which is short for Rapid Eye Movement sleep, is one of the four statements during a regular sleep in one night. In common dreams, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a part of brain) is inhibited. However, it is still working during a lucid dream and other areas in brain, such as precuneus and frontopolar are also activated. This research is done by Stephen LaBerge. He tested peoples brainwave of difference statements during their sleep and found that “higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) brain wave activity experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process” ( LaBerge S.(1986) Lucid dreaming: physiological correlates of consciousness during REM sleep. Journal of Mind and Behavior 7: 251(121)–8(8).) Another experiment done by professor Ursula Voss of Goethe University also gave a solid proof. Regardless test subjects’ psychological factor, researchers give them the same stimulus of slight electricity flow when they were in sleep, most of the subjects were induced to have lucid dream successfully.(Ursula Voss, Romain Holzmann. “Induction of self awareness in dreams through frontal low current stimulation of gamma activity”. Nature Neuroscience, 11 May 2014) The electricity will not change subjects’ mental state but surely will excite their neurons. So we can draw a conclusion from
Paul Tholey, who is a German psychologist, developed a theory that dream is a reflection of weakness and unsolved problem in the real world. (Tholey, P. (1980). “Conscious Dreams as an Object of Empirical Examination”. Gestalt Theory 2: 175–91.) He took himself as an example. When he was a child, he was abused by his father. Then he always had a nightmare in which he fought with his father. He beat his father in his dreams many times, but the dream occurred again and again. Finally, Paul Tholey tried to communicate with his father in his dream and they forgave each other, he never had this nightmare again afterwards. Therefore, Paul held a strong disagreement about G. William Domhoff’s theory, the latter was a professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, who arouse a technique of facing the danger and conquering during the lucid dream. To be more specific, lucid dreamers tended to create a dangerous circumstance like a monster or powerful enemy, then they will conquer those in their dreams.(G. William Domhoff , Senoi Dream Theory: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork Movement). Another attempt of connecting psychological states with lucid dream was made by Natália B Mota, who is also a Brazilian psychologist. In recent years, a group of researchers led by Mota made a comparison between psychosis and lucid dream. The subjects were divided into two …show more content…
REM sleep, which is short for Rapid Eye Movement sleep, is one of the four statements during a regular sleep in one night. In common dreams, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a part of brain) is inhibited. However, it is still working during a lucid dream and other areas in brain, such as precuneus and frontopolar are also activated. This research is done by Stephen LaBerge. He tested peoples brainwave of difference statements during their sleep and found that “higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) brain wave activity experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process” ( LaBerge S.(1986) Lucid dreaming: physiological correlates of consciousness during REM sleep. Journal of Mind and Behavior 7: 251(121)–8(8).) Another experiment done by professor Ursula Voss of Goethe University also gave a solid proof. Regardless test subjects’ psychological factor, researchers give them the same stimulus of slight electricity flow when they were in sleep, most of the subjects were induced to have lucid dream successfully.(Ursula Voss, Romain Holzmann. “Induction of self awareness in dreams through frontal low current stimulation of gamma activity”. Nature Neuroscience, 11 May 2014) The electricity will not change subjects’ mental state but surely will excite their neurons. So we can draw a conclusion from