Introduction
Lucid dreaming—the ability to recognise and control your dreams—has long been a fascinating window into the nature of consciousness, blending psychology, neuroscience, and personal experience. In recent years, this practice has gained popularity in the West, not just for its potential psychological benefits but also for the mysteries it may unravel about the very fabric of our reality. Yet, despite the growing body of research on lucid dreaming, the experience itself remains elusive to scientific inquiry.
This gap between Western science and the subjective nature of dreaming is particularly relevant when we consider new breakthroughs, such as the recent claims from REMspace, a research startup focused on enabling communication between lucid dreamers. These findings open the door to exciting possibilities, suggesting that lucid dreams could serve as spaces for interaction beyond the limits of the waking world. However, they also challenge our scientific understandings of perception, consciousness, and the self.
Lucid dreams push us to rethink how we understand not only the dream state but also the nature of the self—a concept explored in both Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy. What can these dreams teach us about the fluidity of consciousness and the interconnectedness of minds? Are lucid dreams merely reflections of our brain activity, or do they reveal something deeper about who we are and how we relate to the world?
Lucid Dreaming: A Gateway to Uncharted Realms of Consciousness
Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon where the dreamer becomes aware that they are in a dream and often gains the ability to control it. This capacity for self-awareness during sleep offers profound insight into the nature of consciousness itself. For many, lucid dreaming provides an opportunity for exploration, creativity, or even therapeutic healing. But what does it reveal about the mind, and how does it challenge our understanding of reality?
In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold (1991) describe how the mind creates mental models or representations of the world in both the waking and dream states. They write: “You should remember that the dream state and the waking state both use the same perceptual process to arrive at mental representations or models of the world. These models, whether of the dream or physical world, are only models. As such they are illusions, not the things they are representing, just as the map is not the territory, and the menu is not the meal.”
This quote highlights a crucial idea: the perceptions we have of both our waking reality and our dreams are not objective truths, but rather subjective interpretations created by our minds. Just as a map cannot be mistaken for the actual terrain, the “reality” we experience in both states is, in essence, a mental construct—a model of the world, not the world itself. Lucid dreaming, then, offers us a unique opportunity to interact with these models consciously, shaping and reshaping them as we see fit. But it also begs the question: if both the waking and dreaming worlds are equally illusory, where do we draw the line between the two?
The Limits of Western Science: The Elusive Nature of the Self
Western science, with its focus on the measurable and observable, has yet to fully explain the experience of lucid dreaming. The brain activity involved during REM sleep—when most lucid dreams occur—can be mapped and studied, but the deeper nature of the dream experience itself remains elusive. This is especially true when it comes to the fluidity of the “self” within dreams.
B. Alan Wallace, in Dreaming Yourself Awake (2012), addresses the impermanence and non-absolute nature of the self, a concept central to Buddhist philosophy. He writes: “The personal self (…) is not an absolute that exists monolithically, to be found in some distinct and unchanging form or location. What we choose to call our ‘self’ changes from moment to moment and is dependent on any number of factors such as one's mood, one's immediate situation, one's family, one's culture and nationality, and so on. Deep and careful investigation reveals no single, all-encompassing ‘I.’”
This insight aligns with Buddhist teachings that the “self” is not a fixed, singular entity but a fluid, evolving process shaped by our experiences, environment, and perceptions. In lucid dreams, this idea becomes especially clear: the dreamer’s sense of self can shift dramatically, from controlling the dream environment to merging with other figures within the dream. There is no stable, unchanging "I"—only a constantly shifting consciousness.
Lucid dreaming, then, offers a living example of the Buddhist concept of “no-self” (anatta), where the sense of personal identity is fluid, mutable, and dependent on context. In the dream state, this becomes even more evident, as the boundaries between self and other blur and dissolve.
Communication in Lucid Dreams: A New Frontier
One of the most exciting recent developments in lucid dreaming research comes from REMspace, a research startup that has claimed to achieve the first-ever communication between two people during a lucid dream. This claim has generated much excitement—yet, as with any groundbreaking experiment, it’s crucial to clarify what exactly was achieved.
The study did not involve two participants communicating within the dream itself. Rather, the communication was enabled by technology that monitored the brainwaves of participants during REM sleep. The researchers detected when a participant entered a lucid dream state and transmitted a pre-recorded message using a system that converts facial electromyographic (EMG) signals into "Remmyo" sounds. These "Remmyo" sounds are not words in a traditional sense but a new language created by the REMspace team to represent facial EMG activity. The participant then mentally repeated the sound in their dream, and their response was captured and stored.
Afterward, a second participant, also in a lucid dream, received the stored message and confirmed it upon awakening. This experiment marked the first communication between two people in a lucid dream—but it wasn’t communication occurring within the dream itself, rather mediated through an external device that translated dreamer-generated EMG signals into something interpretable.
While this technology has not yet been adapted for use in the awake state, it offers an intriguing possibility. By using the same principles that enable communication in the dream state, it’s conceivable that one could translate EMG signals into actions—such as controlling devices or even sending messages—while awake. This, however, remains a speculative idea for future research.
The exciting aspect of this experiment is the technology behind it, which could one day open up new avenues for shared dream experiences or interactions with the external world from within the dream state. While it doesn’t quite offer "dream conversations" in the traditional sense, it does provide proof that lucid dreamers can, in principle, interact with devices and communicate in ways that challenge our conventional understanding of mind and reality.
The Dream World: A Mirror for Psychology and Spirituality
The exploration of lucid dreaming not only raises questions about the nature of the self but also has profound implications for psychology and spiritual practice. In Western psychology, lucid dreaming has been studied for its therapeutic benefits, such as overcoming nightmares, enhancing creativity, and resolving unresolved emotions. But it also invites us to examine how we view consciousness, perception, and reality itself.
From a Buddhist perspective, lucid dreaming offers an opportunity for self-investigation. In the practice of dream yoga, lucid dreaming is seen as a way to explore the nature of consciousness and to dismantle the illusion of the separate self. As Wallace notes, “You can observe a tennis match but you cannot find some independent object that is a tennis match. It is a conventional phenomenon—we label it by convention, but there is no ultimate, absolute, tennis-match-thing to be found.”
In lucid dreams, we may come to realise that the “self” is just as conventional, just as impermanent, as any object or event. The experience of dreaming allows us to engage with the fluidity of the self in a direct, experiential way. The more we investigate the dream state, the more we might come to understand the illusory nature of the waking state as well.
Conclusion: Expanding Our View of the Mind and Reality
Lucid dreaming offers a unique intersection between science, psychology, and spirituality. The possibility of communication between dreamers, as suggested by the REMspace team, challenges our conventional understanding of the boundaries between self and other, and between the dream world and the waking world. While the technology used in these experiments allows dreamers to interact with devices, it also opens up intriguing questions about the fluid nature of consciousness, the self, and reality.
Lucid dreams expose the limitations of both Western science and Western conceptions of the self. In doing so, they invite us to embrace a more expansive view of consciousness—one that transcends the individual and connects us to a greater, shared field of experience.
Bibliography:
LaBerge, S. and Rheingold, H. eds., 1991. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. 1st mass market ed. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Wallace, B.A., 2012. Dreaming Yourself Awake: Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation. Boston: Shambhala.
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