HISTORY OF LUCID DREAMING

Lucid dreaming dates as far back as the early eight century AD in Tibet. Tibetan Bhuddists were able to

 make the real world an illusion through their lucid dreaming processes.

 Not only did Tibetan cultures encourage lucid dreaming, but Islam

culture saw that if a person could control their thoughts in a dream,

then they would gain overall greatness and an attainment of the

abilities that they desire (De Castle, Robert L.). Being able to dream

lucidly was seen as having greatness. It was a way to see into a

different world, a world that may have belonged to the gods or just to

a new view into one's own identity.




Once the 19th century rolled around, lucid dreaming became a bigger topic for researchers. Many

different scientists toyed around with the idea of lucid dreaming.

Frederick Van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist, is generally accredited

for coining the term "lucid dream." Van Eeden used lucid dream to

describe dreams when he "had full recollection of (his) day-life and

could act voluntarily" (De Castle, Robert L.). Van Eeden realize

that through certain actions, he could control his voice and his

movements while dreaming.




Hugh Colloway discovered lucid dreaming independently in 1902.

Colloway described a lucid dream where everything felt so

real because he realized he was dreaming and able to experience the vividness of the world surrounding

him. Colloway, in his lucid dreams, felt "free as air, secure in the consciousness of my true condition and

 the knowledge that I could always wake if danger threatened" (De Castle, Robert L.).

It was not until the 90's that lucid dreaming became popular as a

topic in the United States. Carlos Castenada introduced lucid

dreaming in the US, yet he introduced it by writing about his

experiences with a Yaqui sorcerer, Don Juan. In 1972, Castenada

claims that Don Juan taught him how to achieve a state of lucidity

while dreaming by telling him to "look at his hands in his dreams in

order to awaken his consciousness within the dream...because

they'll always be there" (De Castle, Robert L.).

Castenada also explained how if you concentrate all of your

attention on something in a lucid dream, for example your

hands, and they become fuzzy, you can choose a new object

to focus your attention on. He explains how accessible you are

 to power in a lucid state finding countless facts as you can

control whatever you want to.


Patricia Garfield devoted an entire chapter of her Creative Dreaming novel on lucid dreaming,

describing how you can learn to become your conscious while dreaming. From there, the research

surrounding lucid dreaming has become more and more sufficient. Researchers, scientists, writers,

scholars and students everywhere seem to have varied interests on the topic.


Sources Used:

De Castle, Robert L. "History of Lucid Dreaming." The Gazette (Montreal) 1294th ser. 0384 (1995):

B4. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.