It has been scientifically proven that lucid dreaming is real and that there are millions of people all around the world that do it. Lucid dreaming has been around for thousands of years and if this is true does that mean lucid dreaming is real?
Even though lucid dreaming is well known, there are many people who don’t believe that it is real because of movies such as Inception. This has caused lucid dreaming to be labeled as a fantasy.
The truth is, that it is a real skill and that there are many people that use it. Some people will claim it to not be true because they have never experienced it and find it frustrating to think that they would not be able to do something. This doesn’t mean that it is not real, though.
Lucid dreaming is like someone picking up a new skill. Playing drums, for example, if someone can’t pick up the skill of doing that, it doesn’t mean that drums aren’t real when there are millions of people around the world that can play drums. It is crazy how people’s minds work but we are going to discuss the facts that lucid dreaming isn’t at all a myth.
Is Lucid Dreaming a Myth?
Take a minute and consider all of these facts:
- Most people don’t write down their dreams when they first get up.
- People don’t check to see if they are really awake during the day.
- Some people live in autopilot for many times during the day while they are working, eating and more.
- Some people refuse to try lucid dreaming.
- People don’t know what lucid dreaming is or how to accomplish it.
- Since they don’t know about it, people think it is not real.
People who do things like these facts above are mostly the people that think lucid dreaming is fake. They think this because they have a skill or habits in their life that they have never tried to use. When you first hear about lucid dreaming, it does sound like it would be impossible to do it, but so are many other things.
There are many things in our lives that would seem crazy and before they actually happened, people that did these things were called crazy such as:
- Flying an airplane.
- Communicating with people in other continents.
- Driving a vehicle.
- Going to space on a spaceship.
People will always doubt things that they have not witnessed on their own. It is part of our human nature and so if you don’t believe in lucid dreaming, don’t feel bad, at least just be open minded about it.
Unless you begin to write down your dreams each morning and doing reality checks throughout the day, then you will not have the skill of lucid dreaming. This is a skill that you have to use or you will not have it. Most people don’t practice this skill so they don’t know that it exists, they just think it is impossible.
Scientific Proof
A British parapsychologist, Stephen Laberge, created an experiment where people would go into a lucid dream and they would always be dreaming. He would know this by the way that they moved their eyes in certain patterns and this made it measurable in the labs.
Eye movement can be measured when someone is asleep and the regular pattern is the eyes moving left, left and then right, left and then right, left. This group that was measuring, made sure that the sequence was correct during the dram stage.
The study stayed secret for years so not man people looked at the research. During another study, they found that people who were in lucid dreaming had increased activity in parts of their brain.
The research showed that on the EEG machine that the activity showed increased focus and awareness which was a type of behavior where people would know that they were dreaming. It is almost impossible to prove that lucid dreaming is happening other than based on the eye movement technique because our thoughts are considered objective and we cannot see what someone is actually thinking.
Maybe in the future we will be able to see what people are dreaming like watching it on a movie screen. For now, we only have a few experiments to check out the data.
Knowing You’re Dreaming
If you ask someone that was a lucid dreamer “is lucid dreaming real?” They would tell you that it is real and that they know that it is real. Even though dreaming is complex, dreams are considered subjective and are hard to explain.
Lucid dreaming isn’t something that you can prove like if you could prove you knew how to play the drums. Think about what you are feeling this second while you are reading this article. How do you know that in this instance, that you aren’t really just dreaming? Just think about it.
The laws of the universe happen to us normally such as breathing and gravity and time. Even when you scroll down the page of an article, all of your senses work together and you know that you are awake. You’re in waking life at the moment, just because you know you are.
In the same type of way, when you are dreaming, you have the same senses that are happening. You can look around you and piece all the parts together in your mind but something doesn’t feel the same. It’s not the same and if you can practice with your brain, then you can get good at telling the difference between being awake and dreaming.
So, to answer the original question, “is lucid dreaming a real thing?” the answer is yes. Hopefully this article explained why and that you can understand where this is coming from.
What Does Lucid Dreaming Feel Like?
Lucid dreaming feels like being awake. It is like you know that you are awake but you are in a dream at the same time. You know that nothing you do will have negative consequences and you can do anything you want to in this state such as:
- Fly around the world.
- Look at alien worlds.
- Have sex with whoever you want.
- Sing or make music.
- Remove your fears.
- Anything unimaginable.
How to Practice Lucid Dreaming
Do you want to get to the point where you can control your lucid dreaming? The best way is to just do it. There are some small ways that you can get started but all you need to know is that this is a skill and that you need to practice this skill. Here are some things that can help you:
- Take a class which helps you to have lucid dreams and tells you what to practice.
- Figure it out on your own or watch online tutorials.
- Increase the chances by taking supplements and listening to binaural beats when you are falling asleep.
- Write down all your dreams each morning before you get out of bed.