Browsing by Author "LaBerge, Stephen"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    At home research project: lucid dreaming exercises and questionnaire
    (1987) LaBerge, Stephen; Gackenbach, Jayne
    A number of techniques facilitate lucid dreams. One of the simplest is asking yourself many times during the day whether or not you are dreaming. Each time you ask the question, you should look for evidence proving you are not dreaming. The most reliable test is reading: read something, look away for a moment, and then read it again. If it reads the same twice, it is very unlikely that you are dreaming. After you have proven to yourself that you are not presently dreaming, visualize yourself in a lucid dream doing whatever it is you'd like. Also tell yourself that you want to recognize a real dream the next time it occurs. The way people usually recognize a dream is through unusual or bizarre occurrences. For instance, if you find yourself flying without visible means of support, you should realize that this only happens in dreams, and that therefore, you must now be dreaming.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Conscious mind, sleeping brain : perspectives on lucid dreaming
    (1988) Gackenbach, Jayne; LaBerge, Stephen
    A conscious mind in a sleeping brain: the title of this book provides a vivid image of the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, in which dreamers are consciously aware that they are dreaming while they seem to be soundly asleep. Lucid dreamers could be said to be awake to their inner worlds while they are asleep to the external world. Of the many questions that this singular phenomenon may raise, two are foremost: What is consciousness? And what is sleep? Although we cannot pro­ vide complete answers to either question here, we can at least explain the sense in which we are using the two terms. We say lucid dreamers are conscious because their subjective reports and behavior indicate that they are explicitly aware of the fact that they are asleep and dreaming; in other words, they are reflectively conscious of themselves. We say lucid dreamers are asleep primarily because they are not in sensory contact with the external world, and also because research shows physiological signs of what is conventionally considered REM sleep. The evidence presented in this book-preliminary as it is-still ought to make it clear that lucid dreaming is an experiential and physiological reality. Whether we should consider it a paradoxical form of sleep or a paradoxical form of waking or something else entirely, it seems too early to tell.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    "Consciousness" during sleep in a TM practitioner: heart rate, respiration, and eye movement
    (1987) Gackenbach, Jayne; Moorecroft, William; Alexander, Charles; LaBerge, Stephen
    Reports of consciousness during dreaming or lucid dreaming have been verified by having the dreamer signal from the dream that he/she is dreaming with a prearranged set of distinctive lateral eye movements (LaBerge, 1985). This basic methodology has subsequently been replicated in other sleep laboratories. Relatedly, a continuation of consciousness from the waking state into the sleep state is claimed to be a key aspect of the experience of "Transcendental Consciousness", which is developed by the practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM; Banquet & Sailhan, 1974).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Intelligence, creativity and personality differences between individuals who vary in self-reported lucid dream frequency
    (1983) Gackenbach, Jayne; Curren, Robert; LaBerge, Stephen; Davidson, Douglas; Maxwell, Pamela
    Well—educated, predominately white adults with incomes averaging $20,000 a year (males 81; females 102) responded to a two—phase mail survey project due to their interest in dream lucidity. Intellectual, creative and personality differences between individuals who differed in the frequency with which they reported spontaneously experiencing this type of dream were the focus of this inquiry. Four scales (i.e., verbal, numerical, spatial, and perceptual completion) from the Comprehensive Ability Battery (CM) were used to assess intellectual differences. The Remote Associations Test (RAT) and four scores (i.e., fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration) from the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) constituted the creativity measures. Personality characteristics assessed included: masculinity, femininity, and androgyny scores from the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), public and private self— consciousness and social anxiety from the Self—Consciousness Scale (SCS) and internal and external risk from the Dane Risk Scale (DRS).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Lucid dreaming
    (1986) Gackenbach, Jayne; LaBerge, Stephen
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Lucid dreaming
    (2000) Gackenbach, Jayne; LaBerge, Stephen
    In this revised and thoroughly updated edition of their classic text, the editors have invited experts to provide definitive reviews and analyses of a wide range of anomalous experiences, from commonly documented sensations and perceptions like synesthesia, lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, and auditory and visual hallucinations, to rarer and more seemingly inexplicable experiences such as anomalous healing, past-lives, near-death, mystical experiences, and even alien abductions ... The book makes a compelling case for the inclusion of these marginalized and under-recognized experiences as not merely incidental, but essential to our understanding of human psychology.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Lucid dreaming
    (1993) Gackenbach, Jayne; Malamud, J.; LaBerge, Stephen; Bosveld, Jane; Aurobindo, S.
    Brings together the writings of key explorers and theorists in the field of transpersonal psychology, including Abraham Maslow's delineation of the psychology of well-being and Ram Dass's examination of meditation
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Negative air ions and lucidity induction: additional data
    (1983) Gackenbach, Jayne; Adler, Thomas; LaBerge, Stephen
    It has been reported that using a negative ion generator in ones bedrooms may be detrimental to falling asleep. The general influence of negative air ions on the brain may be a lower arousal threshold. Too much arousal keeps us awake; but by controlling the negative ion concentration individuals may find that they are able to sleep while retaining a tendency for heightened arousal in dreams. In this way negative ions may be conducive to lucidity. Adler reports that the frequent appearance of rain in his dreams in an ion­ized environment may also express this arousal effect. Sometimes this “rain” assumes bizarre forms: emeralds falling out of the sky, thousands of birds descending, but usually it is ordinary rain. Falling water and rainstorms are the natural source of negative air ions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The lucid dreaming ability and parasympathetic functioning
    (1984) Gackenbach, Jayne; Walling, Jill; LaBerge, Stephen
    The thesis of the present inquiry is that superiority in parasympathetic functioning, especially in women, will be related to lucid dreaming. The hypothesis is based on several lines of evidence. First, age leads to a progressive decrease in sympathetic reactivity and an increase in parasympathetic reactivity (Gelhorn & Loofburrow, 1963). Correspondingly, Gackenbach (in press) reports that among adults, older women were more likely to report experiencing lucidity of dreams. Sympathetic functioning as evidenced by the release of adrenaline has been associated with feelings of anxiety (Cohen & Silverman, 1959). The data on anxiety for women is consistent with the hypothesis whereas for men data are mixed. Specifically, adult women who frequently have lucid dreams reported less covert and overt anxiety (Gackenbach, in press) and less social anxiety (Gackenbach, et al., 1983) while men reported less overt anxiety (Gackenbach, in press) but more social anxiety (Gackenbach, et al., 1983). Finally, the lack of neuroticism has also been related to parasympathetic functioning (Lester, 1980) and the lucid dreaming quality (Gackenbach, in press).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The relationship between field independence and lucid dreaming ability
    (1985) Gackenbach, Jayne; Heilman, Nancy; Boyt, Sheila; LaBerge, Stephen
    It was hypothesized that field independence would be more characteristic of individuals who are able to recognize that they are dreaming while still in the dream (i.e., "lucid dreamers"), than of those who do not possess this ability. In three studies the measures of field independence utilized were: Group Embedded Figures Test, Embedded Figures Test and Portable Rod-and-Frame Test. The hypothesis was strongly supported for men and partially supported for women.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    What goes on in a lucid dream? Results of the April, 1987 OMNI experiment
    (1989) Gackenbach, Jayne; LaBerge, Stephen
    About a 1000 people from across the nation responded to us about an experiment we designed for OMNI magazine on lucid dreaming which appeared in the April, 1987 issue. In the experiment we suggested that the participants do the tasks as often as possible over a two week period before they filled out the accompanying questionnaire (a copy of the questionnaire is available in Table 1 of the Appendix to this article). It was also pointed out that some people may need to practice the technique for weeks before getting results, while others may succeed on the first night. Finally we asked the OMNI readers to fill out the questionnaire whether they managed to have a lucid dream or not. We asked the readers to try four exercises: inducing lucid dreams by waking suggestion and dream reliving; flying in lucid dreams, spinning while lucid in order to stabilize it and/or reach a target and creative problem solving. The exact instructions for each exercise are given in Table 1 in the appendix of this article.