Lucid dreams are an unusual type of dream in which you become perfectly conscious, with full critical faculties, within the dream state.

On this date in 1975, English psychologist Keith Hearne discovered (in his PhD research, completed in 1978) a way of enabling lucid-dream subjects in the sleep-lab to signal out from within the dream by making coded eye-movements – so circumventing the profound bodily paralysis of dreaming (REM) sleep, which had previously prevented such communication. LUCID DREAMING DAY – 12 th April, each year Hearne (BSc MSc PhD) Psychologist, Composer, Writer Many modern secular lucid dreamers in the West and other regions of the globalized world which have close cultural ties with the West do not practice any Hindu or Buddhist practices of witnessing and non-attachment in lucid dreams, and often see lucid dreaming as a fun activity for personal enjoyment and creativity.Dr Keith M. Lucid dreaming, as practiced by modern lucid dreamers in the West, does not seem to have a goal of transcending one’s ego and achieving non-dual awareness, but it does have that general goal for some practitioners of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies.

Based on the survey of modern western lucid dreamers and previous researchers done in this field the author comes to the conclusion that we can talk about an autonomous face of a modern lucid dreamer who is not much connected with Hindu and Buddhist concepts. The author assumes that lucid dreaming may have more in common with Gurdjieff’s remembering oneself and mindfulness than with the normal waking state. The article examines the phenomenon of lucid dreaming within a broader framework of other states of higher awareness, popularized mostly (but not only) within Hindu-Buddhist tradition.

Free download lucid dreams meaning