Lucid Dreaming?

[Edward Grefenstette <egrefen@gmail.com>]

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I was introduced to the term Lucid Dreaming by someone I wouldn't  
exactly trust for anything scientific, as he/she has displayed a  
tendency for falling for any spiritualist nonsense, however I've run  
into (or rather "talked into") discussions on the matter with several  
other people since then, some of them trustworthy scientists (some of  
them even oxbridge dons... although that's not necessarily a  
guarantor of validity/trustworthiness :), and must admit that for all  
my skepticism, I cannot help but be a bit curious about the topic.

For those unfamiliar with the topic, "lucid dreaming" is a proto- 
science (in the kuhnian sense of a theory which follows scientific  
method but, being in its infancy or embryonic state, has not been  
[entirely] validated [yet]) which is surrounded by a lot of pseudo- 
science, and deals with the state of being in a dream whilst being  
conscious of oneself being in a dream. This, obviously, not the same  
thing as simply remembering ones dream, or having a realistic dream.

My skepticism on the matter stems from the fact that it seems that  
the only validating experiment is observable only from the standpoint  
of personal experience, and therefore does not really conform to the  
scientific method maxims of repeatability (the conditions change from  
individual to individual, since the act of perception is not only  
central to any experimental observation, but who is observing and  
when is as well). However I'm informed there have been some  
experiments on the matter carried out at Stanford by S. LaBerge,  
which attempt to avoid the "internalization" of observation, and  
produce scientifically verifiable (replicable) results. Such  
experiments have involved detecting REM phases in sleeping test  
subjects, and either trying to prompt lucid dreaming through photonic- 
flash cues, or simply detecting pre-arranged cues from the subject  
while they are in a "certifiable" dream (REM) state (I say  
"certifiable" because I recall reading in some paper or other that  
recent research demonstrates our ability to dream in non-REM sleep  
states).

While as a (would be) scientist, I find this to be a lot less dodgy  
method for investigating the existence and essence of lucid dreaming,  
rather  than taking someone's word for it, it's still very  
unsatisfactory, since it really doesn't tell us much (or anything at  
all, if you want to be rigorous about it) about what lucid dreaming  
is, and is like. This is a shame, since I believe there's quite a lot  
of interesting philosophy to be done on the matter (which, I suppose,  
it a rather obvious statement). For example, we have the notion of  
self, which we use to differentiate the thinking entity (oneself)  
from the object of thought, or potential objects of thought  
(basically, the external world... although I'm fully aware that this  
becomes problematic if you ask what we are thinking about when we  
think about concepts that bear no possible physical tokens). However,  
what is it like to be fully self-conscious within a dream, when the  
dream itself is something that is in the mind. What is it to have  
intentional states about an external environment which is in fact  
internal? Are the waking me on one hand, or the intentional,  
conscious me in a lucid dream on the other hand, the same person, or  
is the latter just a fraction of the former?

Has anyone else looked into the topic at all? Whether you have or  
not, I'd be very happy to hear from you if you have any recommended  
reading on or around the topic, or have any thoughts on the matter  
that you'd like to share.

All the best,
Edward.


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