Lucid Dreams: The First Virtual Reality :: essays research papers

coherent Dreams The First Virtual RealityPsychologicalSean Pasinsky LibEd 316-2 5 Feb. 1997     For ages people redeem thought of dreamings as curses or blessings that wecould not prevent nor manipulate. This "place" called our dreams has constantlypuzzled us, because it is here where all things argon possible and seem to occur.In our dreams we perform superhuman and wonderful feats that would normally beimpossible in the "awake world". We let the men or women of our dreams,depending on our familiar orientation. While we dream, these wonderful thingsbecome our temporary reality. Yet sometimes objet dart dreaming we may follow out themost horrifying events imaginable, called nightm ars. Everyone has their ownedition of horror, my most terrifying nightmare has been where my family andfriends have been taken control of by evil monsters that cannot be stopped.Rather than kill me they make me watch out of date 1970s television shows over and ov er.For years, men have thought that there should be a way of preventing orcontrolling these nightly events.     Humans must(prenominal), desire any animal, sleep. We do not fully understand why wemust sleep. We only know that if we are deprived of sleep ache abundant that wewill most certainly die. The same is true for dreams and dreaming(1). If wesleep long enough we will reach an advanced stage of sleep where our tree trunk beginsto experience rapid eye movement (REM). It is during this REM period that weexperience most of our dreams. Many scientists try to speculate the reasons fordreaming through biologic our psychological means. This proves to be veryfrustrating for someone trying to find empirical meaning and truth about his orher dreams.     There are countless books written about dreams with just as many diametrical interpretations and meanings for specific dream references. Forpsychics, astrologists, or psychologists who attempt to interpret dreams, thereare numerous factors that must be considered when endeavoring to find meaning ina dream. Because of these numerous factors that contribute to the condition ofdreaming, many different paths have been created for exploration. From Freuds inner symbolism to the current random recollection theories diversity in dreaminterpretation abounds. However, there is a way to dream and not be at the mercyof your subconscious mind.     For the past ten years a bright psychologist at Stanford University, bythe name of Steven Laberge, has been studying dreams and the physiology of thehuman proboscis during the dream state. His research may sound commonplace if itwerent for the added fact that he is training people to control their dreams.