A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (3 page)

up-and-down charting of ink on his polysomnograph machine.

Worsley looks the same as any sleeper does—eyes closed, chest ris-

ing and falling. It’s almost 8:00 a.m., and so far there is nothing

out of the ordinary about this quiet Saturday morning. But in just

a few minutes something incredible will occur.

At this very moment, these two scientists are attempting to

make a discovery that will change history. They are trying to prove

scientifically an esoteric ability that humans have known about for

centuries: We can be consciously awake inside our dreams.

An obvious obstacle stands in the way of this would-be break-

through: How can such a strange and ridiculous claim be proven?

Worsley has experienced plenty of lucid dreams before. It won’t be

hard for him to become conscious inside of his own dream. But

how does he prove that he’s lucid? It’s not as if Worsley can bring

a camera into the dream world and bring back some Polaroids. To

prove such an ability, our researchers will need a way to commu-

nicate from the dream world back to the waking world. They need

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some sort of phone line, a way for Worsley to “call” Hearne and

tell him he’s dreaming.

Since this feat has never been pulled off by modern science,

these two men cannot rely on past experiments to figure out how

to do it.

They are all alone, navigating the uncharted fringes of science.

Luckily, Hearne and Worsley have an idea.

A few basic scientific facts helped develop their clever theory.

You see, while our minds are active during a dream, our physi-

cal bodies are turned off. The body is essentially paralyzed when

we venture off to the Land of Nod; the motor neurons in our

brains are not stimulated,

and the body’s muscles are

In the dream I entered my house at night.

dormant. This is a normal

I flipped the switch to turn on the kitchen

state known as sleep ato-

lights. The lights did not come on (a com-

nia. Fortunately there are

mon problem in my dreams). It caused

me to ask whether I was dreaming or

two parts of the body that

not, which I knew the answer to imme-

remain unaffected by the

diately. I proceeded into the house now

paralysis: the diaphragm,

fully aware that I was dreaming. I saw my

so we can keep breathing,

brother. I remembered that my objective

and the eyes. Our hotshot

tonight was to interact more with dream

scientists came into the lab

characters. —RIchaRd V. W.

that day with a hypoth-

esis: if Worsley moved his

eyes back and forth inside the dream world, the physical eyes of

his sleeping body would echo the same pattern of eye movement.

The eyes would be the phone line, a way to communicate between

these two worlds.

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I’m in a high-rise apartment building with glass windows. a vil-

lain taunts me outside. he’s flying on some sort of skateboard

device. Realizing the absurdity of the situation I realize that I’m

dreaming. “I’m dreaming!” I think to myself and I jump out of

the building wearing nothing but swimming shorts. I fly toward

him, trying to catch up. he is much faster than I am, but I’m able

to mirror his movements and keep up with him. We chase each

other, weaving around and in between buildings. I can read his

subtle movements like we’re two birds chasing after each other.

I put my head down and fly in a straight line no longer follow-

ing his lead. I grab ahold of him! holding the back of his flying

device I fling him high into the air. Not sure what happened to

him after that. I wake up. —MIguel h.

At 8:07 a.m., Worsley finds himself in a dream, aware that he

is dreaming and that his physical body is lying unconscious in the

waking world. He then carries out specific, agreed-upon eye pat-

terns—left to right eight times—in order to signal to the lab that

he is in fact dreaming and doing so consciously. “The signals were

coming from another world—the world of dreams,” wrote Hearne,

“and they were as exciting as if they were coming from another

solar system in space.” The EEG readout confirmed it, charting

Worsley’s brain activity: he was physically asleep, yet he was aware

enough to signal back to the laboratory. He was lucid dreaming.

Three years later, a man named Stephen LaBerge would con-

duct a similar test at Stanford University. Without any knowledge

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of Hearne’s experiments, LaBerge completed his doctoral disserta-

tion, trying to prove the same thing: Conscious dreaming was not

hogwash, but an actual, provable experience. Using the same eye-

signaling technique, he too was successful. More tests were done

to confirm the findings, and the news spread. There was now sci-

entific proof of what the ancients had been telling us for centuries.

We can be awake in our dreams.

Becoming Aware

Before we talk about the fine subtleties of dream adventures,

let’s take a step back and ask the obvious question: What

exactly is a lucid dream? A lucid dream is one in which you become

aware that you’re dreaming. Not to be confused with a very vivid

dream, a lucid dream is the present moment realization that you’re

dreaming, a sudden self-reflective epiphany of, “Wait a second . . .

I’m dreaming!” You may notice that you’re in a location that would

normally be impossible (Wait, how did I get to Hawaii?) or per-

haps you stumble upon something absolutely absurd (Is that an

ostrich driving a car?). Maybe your trigger has more to do with

O-NEIR-O-NAUT-ICS

Oneironaut
is derived from two greek words,
oneira
meaning “dreams” and

nautis
meaning “sailor.” an oneironaut is someone who has learned to travel
consciously in the dream world, exploring its terrain with a high degree of
clarity and awareness.

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