Term Papers on Lucid Dreams: The First Virtual Reality

Term Paper Title	Lucid Dreams: The First Virtual Reality
# of Words	1103
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.41

Lucid Dreams: The First Virtual Reality

Psychological

Sean Pasinsky LibEd 316-2 5 Feb. 1997

     For ages people have thought of dreams as curses or blessings that we
could not prevent nor manipulate. This "place" called our dreams has constantly
puzzled us, because it is here where all things are possible and seem to occur.
In our dreams we perform superhuman and wonderful feats that would normally be
impossible in the "awake world". We find the men or women of our dreams,
depending on our sexual orientation. While we dream, these wonderful things
become our temporary reality. Yet sometimes while dreaming we may experience the
most horrifying events imaginable, called nightmares. Everyone has their own
version of horror, my most terrifying nightmare has been where my family and
friends have been taken control of by evil monsters that cannot be stopped.
Rather than kill me they make me watch old 1970's television shows over and over.
For years, men have thought that there should be a way of preventing or
controlling these nightly events.

     Humans must, like any animal, sleep. We do not fully understand why we
must sleep. We only know that if we are deprived of sleep long enough that we
will most certainly die. The same is true for dreams and dreaming(1). If we
sleep long enough we will reach an advanced stage of sleep where our body begins
to experience rapid eye movement (REM). It is during this REM period that we
experience most of our dreams. Many scientists try to speculate the reasons for
dreaming through biological our psychological means. This proves to be very
frustrating for someone trying to find empirical meaning and truth about his or
her dreams.

     There are countless books written about dreams with just as many
different interpretations and meanings for specific dream references. For
psychics, astrologists, or psychologists who attempt to interpret dreams, there
are numerous factors that must be considered when endeavoring to find meaning in
a dream. Because of these numerous factors that contribute to the condition of
dreaming, many different paths have been created for exploration. From Freud's
sexual symbolism to the current random recollection theories diversity in dream
interpretation abounds. However, there is a way to dream and not be at the mercy
of your subconscious mind.

     For the past ten years a bright psychologist at Stanford University, by
the name of Steven Laberge, has been studying dreams and the physiology of the
human body during the dream state. His research may sound commonplace if it
weren't for the added fact that he is training people to control their dreams.
His subjects are learning to become aware of their dream experience as it is
happening. Once they are aware of their dream they can simply take complete
command of their dream and can consciously cause anything to happen. To the
semi-conscious mind the experience is virtually identical to being awake. This
concept is nothing new, in fact many of us will experience at least one of these
dreams in our lifetime.

     There are a variety of stimuli that he uses to induce this state of mind.
One method is playing a tape recording of the phrase "This is a dream" during
the sleeper's REM. He may also use conditioned tactile stimuli. Light, however,
appears to be the best stimulus means of providing an external cue to the
sleeper that they are dreaming. This is because environmental light seems to be
easily incorporated into dreams and, when properly conditioned, reminds dreamers
that they are d...

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