MEDITATION AND

LUCID DREAMING

 

During most dreams, we accept the dream as reality. If we become aware that we are dreaming, however, we become "lucid." Our dream is then said to be a lucid dream. Because lucid dreaming is thought to be an important avenue of self- realization and for preparation for the after-death state, there is increasing interest in developing lucid dreams. Analyzing the nature of lucid dreaming, Sparrow (1976a, 1976b) has proposed that the practice of meditation is a major resource for increasing the accessibility of lucid dreaming. Some statistics have become available that encourage entertaining this hypothesis.

In 1975, the A.R.E. conducted a home-study research project on dreams. Approximately 300 participants recorded dreams for a 28-day period. Besides providing daily ratings of dream recall, participants also kept a daily record of whether or not they meditated. A description of the project and its procedures has been presented previously (Reed, 1976a). Analysis of the data from this project indicated that dream recall was generally greater on mornings following a day that included meditation than on mornings following a day with no meditation (Reed, 1976b; Reed, 1977). What follows is an analysis of the association of meditation with the probability of lucid dreaming.

Data from the participants' daily "Dream Recall Tally Sheets" provided information on 9810 dreams that were rated during the project. For each dream rated, two determinations were made: 1) Was the dream rated a lucid dream? 2) Did the dreamer meditate the day before this dream? Relative contingencies were then computed on the basis of these determinations to decide whether or not a dream preceded by meditation was more likely to be lucid than a dream that was not preceded by meditation.