It's safe to say that practically everyone has experienced a dream at some point in their lives. Loads of dreams, it seems, are nothing but a blur of pictures floating through our minds while we rest. In fact, most people don't consider their dreams to be much besides recollections of previously experienced thoughts or imaginations/fantasies. Indeed, dreams can in fact be any and all of those things. However, the realm of dreams is infinitely deeper than any average person can imagine. What most perceive as enhanced imagination, some actually see as a whole separate reality. It is with lucid dreaming that this reality truly comes alive and can perhaps be utilized. With lucid dreaming, the mind can be expanded well past the boundaries of everyday ordinary comprehension, to a world where one's imagination is one's reality.
[...] Such seemingly strange practices have been used for centuries by this culture. Lucid dreaming has a great significance in Tibetan Buddhism as a pathway for meditation. It is not itself a form of meditation, but according to Tsongkhapa, the founder of a school of Buddhism called the Gelukpa School, meditation can be started by one inside a lucid dream. The interesting thing is that these practitioners use lucid dreaming to learn the doctrine of illusion and to create Buddhas to speak with. [...]
[...] She says he was dreaming of a barren icy landscape, and was shivering cold. He then thought that it would be nice if it were spring, and realized he was dreaming, and willed it to become spring. As he threw his gaze over the ice, everything turned to green and warmth spread around. This is an excellent example of what is possible in a real lucid dream (Faraday 308). Another dream she describes was one of her own. She says it was probably the result of a subconscious grudge she had formed against a particular female anthropologist who had made a rather rude comment. [...]
[...] These various examples of the powers of lucid dreaming all seem to point to the fact that the dreaming mind is capable of far more than the awakened mind if trained properly. The Tibetan Buddhists use it to reach their ultimate goal (LeBarge, Gackenbach 31). In science, it enables far more involving dream research (Bootzin, Kihlstrom, and Schacter 118-119). As for learning, capabilities for memorization during conscious sleep proved to be equal in that study to the capabilities for memorization while awake (Bootzin, Kihlstrom, and Schacter [...]
[...] This is perhaps the final possible goal of life, past which one is truly free, and lucid dreaming plays a key role in it as a way to initially break some of the bonds of the mind (LaBerge, Gackenbach 31). A break exists between the religious significance of dreams and the scientific analysis of dreaming. The problem is that scientists can't simply take dreams and assign meaning to them based on human life without exploring and proving their material existence. [...]
[...] A Russian researcher by the last name Kulikov conducted research on a group of 21 grade school kids, and 15 college students. The subjects were separated into three groups of twelve, each composed of seven children and 5 adults. Subjects in the first group were repeatedly presented during natural sleep with a narrative children's story for the grade school subjects and a description of the nervous system functions for the adults). These subjects were not “prepared”, according to Kulikov, for the intake of information, as they were not given any instructions or suggestions for assimilation and retention of the text prior to its presentation. [...]
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