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Lucid Dreaming - Lucid Dreaming History?
By admin | June 19, 2007
Lucid Dreaming History - It’s certainly not a Modern Phenomenon
Lucid Dreaming History actually dates way back, as far as 415 AD. The history of lucid dreaming is extremely colorful as you’ll now doubt see. It’s only really been heavily in the public spotlight for the last couple of decades but there’s no doubt it’s been practiced throughout time by numerous people - the term ‘Lucid dreaming’ was actually coined in 1913 by Frederik van Eeden.
The History of Lucid Dreaming
St. Augustine of Hippo
- In the fifth century, a very early example of lucid dreaming is in a letter written by St. Augustine of Hippo in 415 AD
8th Century Yoga
- As early as the eighth century, Tibetan Buddhists were practising a form of yoga supposed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state.
Sir Thomas Browne
- An early recorded lucid dreamer was the philosopher and physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). Browne was fascinated by the world of dreams and stated of his own ability to lucid dream in his Religio Medici:
“… yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof;”
Dreams and How To Guide Them (1867)
- Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys was probably the first person to argue that it is possible for anyone to learn to dream consciously. In 1867, he published his book Les Reves et les Moyens de Les Diriger; Observations Pratiques (Dreams and How to Guide them; Practical Observations), in which he documented more than twenty years of his own research into dreams.
Lucid Dreaming - Coined
- The term “lucid dreaming” was coined by Dutch author and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in his 1913 article A Study of Dreams.This book was highly anecdotal and not embraced by the scientific community. The term itself is considered by some to be a misnomer because it means much more than just “clear or vivid” dreaming.[17] A better term might have been “conscious dreaming”. On the other hand, the term ‘lucid’ was used by van Eeden in its sense of ‘having insight’, as in the phrase ‘a lucid interval’ applied to someone in temporary remission from a psychosis, rather than as referring to the perceptual quality of the experience, which may or may not be clear and vivid. To that extent van Eeden’s phrase may still be considered appropriate.
The Senoi
- In the 1950s the Senoi hunter-gatherers of Malaysia were reported to make extensive use of lucid dreaming to ensure mental health, although later studies refuted these claims.
Topics: lucid dreaming |