Lucid dreaming as a transpersonal (meditational) state: a potential distinction from dream-work methods
Author
Faculty Advisor
Date
1992
Keywords
redreaming, dream, therapeutic dream-work, lucid dreams, mental waking up, meditative practice, consciousness, physical awakening, dream control, popular literature
Abstract (summary)
As interesting as we find Akhter Ahsen' s (1988) method of variously reĀdreaming 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.
Publication Information
Gackenbach, J.I. & Hunt, H. (1992). Lucid dreaming as a transpersonal (meditational) state: A potential distinction from dream-work methods. Journal of Mental Imagery special issue Prolucid Dreaming (Akhter Ahsen, Ed.), 97-102.
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
English
Rights
All Rights Reserved