Browsing by Author "Hunt, Harry T."

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    A deeper inquiry into the association between lucid dreams and video game play
    (2014) Gackenbach, Jayne; Hunt, Harry T.
    After summarizing the previous research on the association between video game play, meditative absorption, and dream lucidity, three types of considerations of lucidity and gaming were explored in this chapter: the association of lucidity in gamers with metacognition, dream bizarreness, and nonlucid dream content. In terms of specific forms of metacognition in dreams, it appears that gaming adds a dimension to the lucid dreams of gamers such that their full potential for focused problem solving is expressed, very much like with the strategies of video gaming. Some research indicated gamers’ dream included an enhanced bizarreness, but lucidity was not found to mitigate that relationship. Finally, comparing the lucid and nonlucid dreams of gamers, it was concluded that lucidity in gamers’ dreams emphasized the already generally positive dream experience of being lucid in sleep, including enhanced aggression that facilitated the sense of empowerment (also typical of video game playing). Not only is there some indication of more lucidity in gamers’ dreams, but that lucidity seems to be further enhanced by the gaming experience.
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    Lucid dreaming as a transpersonal (meditational) state: a potential distinction from dream-work methods
    (1992) Gackenbach, Jayne; Hunt, Harry T.
    As interesting as we find Akhter Ahsen' s (1988) method of variously re­dreaming the dream in wakefulness as an addition to current therapeutic dream-work, it may be a mistake to link his approach to the growing literature on lucid dreams. His comments show that he understands lucid dreaming as a sort of mental waking up in the dream, allowing primarily its deliberate modification. This seems to miss the characteristic sense of clarity and/or peak experience in these dreams that appears precisely when they are not controlled (or over-controlled) and which links them to similar states occurring within meditative practice and other altered states of consciousness. This misunderstanding is widespread and probably stems from the actual proximity of inexperienced lucid dreamers to physical awakening and the tremendous emphasis on dream control in the more popular literature on lucid dreams.
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    Panel discussion: Is lucid dreaming related to higher states of consciousness?
    (1990) Alexander, Charles; Bogzaran, Fariba; Derfler, Melissa; Gackenbach, Jayne; Hunt, Harry T.
    The reason I got into research and wrote on lucid dreaming in the first place is because I was interested in higher states of consciousness. That's always been my passion. As an ASIDE from that, I got involved in dreaming. I'm really glad I did, because my work in dreaming has helped to ground me and ground my work in lucid dreaming. I see lucid dreaming as a bridge from the essential human experience of all dreams --which reflect our activity, our feelings and our experience of daily life --to the transpersonal, the transcendent, the experiences that seem in some sense larger than us.