ELISA CRIADO | The Independent
Finding yourself naked in public is a common recurring dream
New research finds that those who spot the logical flaws of their dream-world are likely to show greater insight when awake
You’re in a lecture hall giving the talk of your life, when you suddenly become aware of the fact that you aren't wearing any trousers. Embarrassed, you look up to see if anyone has noticed, only to be met by a sea of three-eyed aliens. Do you continue your talk, fearing the repercussions for your career, or do you say to yourself: “Hang on, the only way this could possibly be happening is if this is a dream. Let’s just jump on that passing flying banana and go and have some fun.”
If you’re more likely to do the latter, then you are a lucid dreamer. During your nightly adventures, your brain detects you are in a dream because events would not make sense otherwise.
Researchers at the University of Lincoln have discovered that this ability to pick up on logical flaws in your dream-world translates into a talent for spotting hidden connections and inconsistencies in the real world, leading to greater insight and problem-solving skills.
Dr Patrick Bourke, Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology, says: “It is believed that for dreamers to become lucid while asleep, they must see past the overwhelming reality of their dream state, and recognise that they are dreaming.
“The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated while awake by a person’s ability to think in a different way when it comes to solving problems.”
In order to investigate the connection between our sleeping and waking minds, the researchers examined 68 participants between the ages of eighteen and 25, ranging from frequent lucid dreamers to those who had never experienced the awareness of being in a dream state.
I’ve always been a lucid dreamer & often manage to take control of my dreams, particularly when they’ve been unpleasant dreams verging on nightmares. And, it’s quite true I’ve often found I tend to solve problems differently (these days it’s called “thinking outside the box”, but when I was a kid \i used to refer to it as “spaghetti thinking”!! )
When all is said and done most of us believe something is ‘real’, in a dream or in the waking state,merely because it seems to be real. We do not feel the need to investigate any further. An average dog walking along the street will do no more. I think it is a good exercise to investigate our experiences in dreams. They show that our minds are quite capable of deceiving us. When we dream we believe the objects and people in the dream are separate from our minds, including our own self and this is false. Everything in the dream is mind. If we didn’t wake up from the dream for a hundred years we would experience happiness and suffering attributing it to the objects and people in the dream. If we hurt people in the dream the dream would soon become dark and depressing. If we helped people in the dream the dream would become friendly. If someone in the dream told us that we were dreaming we would not believe them unless we investigated for a long time. In the waking world we believe that we not only have physical bodies but that we are our physical bodies. Since we hold to this thinking we would invariable fall for the same error in a dream. I feel that those who do not hold too tightly to the believe that we ‘are our bodies’ will be the best candidates to dream lucidly and live more fearlessly and compassionately in the waking state.
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