About Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming
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Lucid dreams occur during REM sleep after the person becomes conscious and aware of dreaming within the dream.Wikibooks has more about this subject:
Lucid DreamingLucid dreaming is the conscious perception of one's state while dreaming, resulting in a much clearer ("lucid") experience and sometimes enabling direct control over the content of the dream. The complete experience from start to finish is called a lucid dream. Stephen LaBerge, a popular author and experimenter on the subject, has defined it as "dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming."

LaBerge and his associates have called people who purposely explore the possibilities of lucid dreaming oneironauts (literally from the Greek ονειροναύτες, meaning "dream sailors"). The topic attracts the attention of a diverse and eclectic group: psychologists, self-help authors, New Age groups, mystics, occultists, ufologists and artists. This list is by no means exhaustive nor does interest in lucid dreaming apply necessarily to each group.

Lucid dreamers regularly describe their dreams as exciting, colourful, and fantastic. Many compare it to a spiritual experience and say that it changed their lives or their perception of the world. Some have even reported lucid dreams that take on a hyperreality, seemingly "more real than real", where all the elements of reality are amplified. Lucid dreams are prodigiously more memorable than other kinds of dreaming, even nightmares, which may be why they are often prescribed as a means of ridding one's self of troubling dreams.

The validity of lucid dreaming as a scientifically verified phenomenon is well-established. It may be classified as a protoscience, pending an increase in scientific knowledge about the subject. Researchers such as Allan Hobson with his neurophysiological approach to dreaming have helped to push the understanding of lucid dreaming into a less speculative realm.