The history of lucid dreaming stretches way further back than its modern conception in the 1980s. References to conscious dream states appear in some of the world’s most ancient texts. The first available textual evidence of lucid dreaming dates back to before 1000 BCE, from the Upanishads, the Hindu oral tradition, which contains spiritual lessons, philosophies, and proverbs. The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is another example of an ancient Hindu text that describes how best to harness conscious awareness within the dream state. Indian influence spread to the mountains of Tibet. The shamanic, animistic traditions of the Bönpo relied on magic to tackle evil spirits. Lucid dreaming is an integral element of their meditations and has been used for over 12000 years.
The intermingling of the shamanic tradition with Buddhism in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a text which has become widely recognised and influential in the modern psychedelic community, dates back (conservatively) to the 8th century. The partial translation of sections of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, in 1935 by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, was the first time a Western audience learned of these ancient practices. Initially, lucid dreaming as a concept was confined to areas of interest or study, such as occultism and history, later expanding into the 20th century, via philosophy and into psychology.
Further evidence of lucid dreaming practices has been uncovered throughout the ancient world. Dreams held a privileged position in Greek philosophy. The early Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (350 BC) all held a deep fascination with our nightly unconscious experiences. There is evidence of Aristotle’s interest in this area his text, On Dreams, he says, “when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which tells us that what presents itself is but a dream.”
Lucid dreaming may have played a role in the early development of Islam too. Mohammed’s Layat al-Miraj is a literal account of a dream encounter with the spirit world. The 12th-century Spanish Sufi (a term for a Muslim mystic), Ibn al-Arabi, intimated that cultivating the ability to control your thoughts while immersed in the dreamworld was an integral skill for aspiring mystics to learn. Several hundred years later, another Sufi mystic, Shamsoddin Lahiji, himself recorded a separate, seemingly lucid dream experience, which inspired visions of the divine presence. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that due to cultural differences and issues with differentiating actual, unconscious dream states, or conscious spiritual visions in historical accounts, making conclusions is tricky. So, it is uncertain whether these experiences originated from dreams. They are certainly lucid, though!
Despite these widespread cultural roots, the rise of Judeo-Christian religions across the world stifled the concept of lucid dreaming. Theologians described the visions, or higher truths, experienced in dreams as ephemeral and often false. In the Middle Ages, Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas reflects this common Christian opinion, even fear of, dreams: “Sometimes…it is due to the action of the demons that certain images appear to persons in their sleep.” This lack of coherent interest in or study of lucid dreaming throughout this period mirrors the lack of cultural use of psychedelics – another interesting parallel.
By the 17th Century, though, lucid dreams surface again in literature. Multiple philosophers and prominent thinkers, such as Thomas Reid, reported conscious dream states. Even René Descartes, well-known for his phrase: “cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”), and widely regarded as the father of the modern scientific method, wrote about his experiences of lucid dreaming in a private journal. This philosophical and scientific fascination with dreams continues into the modern day, with the parallels to the psychedelic experience thrown ever more heavily into light.
Perhaps, though, the concept of “lucid” dreaming as separate from “ordinary” dreams is more a result of a Western culture still enmeshed culturally in Judeo-Christian ideals. Maybe it is how we think about dreaming itself that makes us unconscious in that state, detached from reality, as opposed to experiencing it from an alternate aspect. Are psychedelics’ boundary-dissolving effects a shortcut to at least somewhat of a lucid dream state, or are they entirely separate? Should they even be considered as such? The link between the two appears intuitive, and as we have discussed, is far from a modern observation. New research allows us to move beyond mere metaphor and begin structured analysis of this relationship, so we can understand the scientific underpinning of these parallels.
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