For this month's excerpt I am pleased to offer an intriguing article by LDE
co-editor, Robert Waggoner, on the topic of healing and lucid dreaming.
Using lucid dreams to promote healing is a fascinating and broad topic.
Some lucid dreamers have apparently used their lucid skills, and lucid,
will to try to heal their own diseases or conditions with considerable
success. Others have used lucid dreaming as a platform to gather
information or understand the apparent underlying causes of a disease.
Still others have suggested that their lucid dreaming allowed them to
interact with another person's disease or condition in a constructive
fashion (and of course usually with the person's foreknowledge and consent).
Examples of lucid dream healing, in turn, suggest some interesting
observations about the nature of the dream state and lucid dreaming. Most
of us would assume that a person could affect their own condition while
lucid, because obviously one is involved in an intra-psychic field, in
which lucid dream suggestions or actions are performed in one's dream state
or unconscious that somehow alter one's disease or condition. In some
respects, it could be likened to self-hypnosis; you get deep within your
subconscious or unconscious and suggest or visualize a desired physical
result. As we know from hypnosis studies, physical alterations can occur
and be quite dramatic, particularly with "excellent" subjects.
Here is one example of an apparent intra-psychic or personal lucid dream
healing, experienced by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D., taken from his article, "A
Personal Experience in Lucid Dream Healing" (published in the Lucidity
Letter 8(1), pp 6-7, 1989). Prior to the dream Ed had punctured a right
tonsil with a wooden skewer from a fish shish-kebab. His tonsil had
apparently become "horribly infected and swollen, looking about 3 times
normal size, bright red, and with yellow lines of pus decorating the
exterior." Using a "sensory awareness relaxation technique", Ed sought to
have an OBE, but instead had a lucid dream:
"...walking through a house I wake to the lucid dream state, decide to try
healing my throat. I look in a mirror and my throat looks healthy, but the
tonsils look more like the middle section (uvula) than like tonsils. So in
my dream body my throat looks healthy, but different. I program for healing
to occur (using affirmations), and my throat does feel much better on
awakening."
Ed noted, "Subjectively I would estimate that less than an hour had passed
between waking and sleeping, and the pain had almost entirely disappeared.
The next morning my right tonsil looked and felt almost normal, only
slightly red and swollen. At least 95% of the infection had disappeared in
less than 12 hours."
Whether the mode of action is similar to suggestion/visualization, a deep
hypnotic state or some other dynamic, examples like this anecdotally
suggest that intra-psychic lucid dream healing is possible. But what of
extra-psychic lucid dream healing? How can one explain the means by which a
dreamer becomes lucid and seeks to influence another's illness in the lucid
dream state? If valid, what would extra-psychic lucid dream healing suggest
about the broader nature of the dream state?
A possible extra-psychic (or person to person) connection is illustrated by
Ed Kellogg in his aforementioned article. His account begins:
"...Fully lucid...(While staying at S's house in waking physical reality), I go into
(S's and D's bedroom) and announce that we "dream". I ask (S), which knee
needs healing, (S) says the right, but I want to see for myself. I have him
pull up his pants to make sure. The left knee has a sort of metal plate,
and on top of it a bump that (S) says needed healing (note left knee in
waking physical reality needed healing not the right). I place my hand over
the bump, and my left hand under the knee, I do HC chant for S's left knee,
and both blue and green energy (bright, laserlike) comes out of my right
hand. After 10 seconds or so, S says, "That's it" but light still comes out
of my hands for a minute or so. I take my hands off and try applying this
energy to myself, but I hear a phone ringing and return to waking physical
reality."
In his comments, Ed notes that "S noticed marked improvement in the
mobility and strength of his injured physical knee (the left one!), and a
marked decrease in pain associated with the movement, on the day following
the healing. S rated his knee for the week before the healing at about 4
out of a possible 10 (10 = the healthy knee), and for the week after the
healing as 8 out of 10. The functional improvement has persisted, with
continued physical therapy and exercise, S currently rates his left knee,
now over 8 months later, at 9 out of 10." Now 7 years later, (in a personal
conversation) Ed tells me that the knee continues at this level of health.
(For more on Ed Kellogg's experiences with healing lucid dreams, go to
www.asdreams.org and enter the site, click on "Member Pages" and then click
on E.W. Kellogg; there you will find links to his reports of healing lucid dreams.)
[shortcut to Kellogg]:
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/member/files/ed_kellogg.html
While this lone example does not constitute "proof", the reader can see
that extra-psychic lucid dream healing, if valid, suggests a revolutionary
reappraisal of the nature of the dream state. It suggests that multiple
dreamers or dream consciousnesses may interact within the dream state. It
suggests that information and active intent can be transmitted in the dream
state. It supports some aspects of dream telepathy, mutual dreaming, and
psi-related dream states. And finally, it dramatically widens most dream
theories beyond their limited frameworks, as well as the science of
psychology and consciousness.
It is important to note, however, that not all attempts at lucid dream
healing of one's self or others are successful. It may be that certain
types of disease are more amenable to healing in the lucid state, while
other diseases resist change due to additional factors.
In my analysis, the final function of lucid dream healing is gathering
information or understanding on the nature of a disease or health. This can
be seen in some examples from my own lucid dreams.
The first example is a bit sensitive, so please excuse me as I disguise the
details. I became lucid in a dream and I seemed to be seeing a family
member of a friend. I knew this family member had an odd illness. As I
stood there observing in the lucid dream, I thought that there must be a
"reason" why the family member has this odd illness. So I moved in very
close and asked the person, "Why do you have this disease?" Immediately,
the person responded, "I have this for...(this reason)". That response
really surprised me! It was hardly what I was expecting. I decided to wake
up and write it down.
Oddly, a couple of months later, I had a dream in which the dream suggested
that I tell this same friend about this dream and a few others. One
evening, I did just that. Things were going quite well as I expressed the
dreams, and the person responded about how the dreams had picked up on
activities in his life, and various interesting hobbies, etc. Then I came
to the above dream, and told it. Stony silence. I quickly realized that I
was in very sensitive territory, so I made a hasty advance to the next
dream.
Years later, the friend saw me at a function and brought up the dream. He
told me that the dream information was indeed correct and had picked up on
a very sensitive situation that only people in the immediate family would
know. He was quite surprised that a lucid dream could pick up the
information accurately, and didn't know how to respond when I told the
dream.
As I have reported in past issues of the LDE, I have become lucid upon
seeing my deceased father, and in the dream asked him to predict health
matters for a family member. In this case, the information that he provided
has been indicated to be correct -- and it involved a medical condition
that was unknown to me or the family member, and which showed up at the
time indicated in the lucid dream (two years later). An example of a more
general form of lucid dream knowledge comes from the following example:
Robert Waggoner
December 21-22 2002
I am in a room with Wendy and two others. As we talk about some odd issue,
it occurs to me that this is a dream.
I fly out of the room and into the street scene outside. It seems like dusk
and also a bit foggy as I fly across a street and city park setting. A few
people are there. I practice flying at various speeds, including extremely
fast, and feel that I am in good form and highly lucid.
As I fly, I think, "What do I want to do?", and it occurs to me that I
should dream about something for the next LDE on health and healing in
lucid dreams. Flying along, I yell out, "What is the Key to Good Health!!?"
Almost immediately, I hear a voice reply (something like), "All things in
Moderation" or "Moderation in All things."
I think I should wake up and write this down. Suddenly, I am writing down
the lucid dream. I seem to be at a kitchen or dining room table. I am
trying to recall the dream, when I notice that there are three tumblers of
liquid on the table. I realize that we don't have tumblers like that. I
wake up from the false awakening.
Upon awakening, I could not recall the exact words that the voice said, but
I knew I had the gist of it. Then I began to think that excesses or lacks
were the cause of many diseases, and therefore "moderation" may be a key
element in good health. I told my wife the lucid dream, and she said that
the voice's response is the same or similar to a belief that she vaguely
recalls the ancient Greeks or Romans had."
After reading this dream, a friend sent me the following quotes, pertaining
to the above:
"Moderation is best in all things"
Theognis, 570-490 BCE (Greek Poet)
"Moderation in all things."
Benjamin Franklin
Although the idea may not be an 'original' one, at least it is one that has
historic precedence and commonality with some deep thinkers in Western
history. I believe that a more specific question in the lucid state would
have elicited a more specific and personal response.
While I have had some dreams in which I attempted to influence my mood
(with apparent success) and influence other's health (with mixed results),
I feel that "disease" is a relatively complicated aspect of human life and
involves physical, psychological, and even spiritual needs that one may not
fully appreciate.
In that sense, I feel that lucid dream healing is much more involved than
the casual reader would suspect. I do feel, though, that lucid dream
healing points to the potential of consciousness and the nature of the
broader psychic reality in which we seem to reside.
My thanks to Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. for the use of his lucid dreams in this
article.
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