Paradigms of Consciousness 
Lucid Dreaming
led by Ron Milestone

Selected Readings from:
Tart, States of Consciousness
Kleitman, Patterns of Dreaming
Jouvet, The States of Sleep

Ron began by talking about how we can study subjective reality. He used the quote from Wittgenstein, the idea being that we have no problem discussing our subjective states to each other everyday. We learn as children that word is associated with a certain sensation and this allows us to converse about our subjective experiences.

The argument was put forth that what one person describes as a subjective experience (for example pain) might be quite different for another person. This, however, is true of any experience that humans have. In other words we might describe something as cold or red and that might mean something different to someone else. However, we all have similar sensing and processing mechanisms and, therefore, it is reasonable to think that our sensations have similar meaning (within the same ballpark). After all, the idea of an independent, objective reality arises from the fact that we all sense and interact with the world in similar ways

Given that we can have a similar understanding of subjective states, Ron argued it is possible to define states of consciousness. Indeed the authors of the papers we read the previous week defined various states of consciousness including: waking, sleeping, meditative, nonREM sleep and others. Some of these states have been characterized through EEG readings and they can be distinguished and are somewhat distinct.

Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes aware they are dreaming within their dream and interact with the components of their dream in an intentional way. Lucid dreamers are found to have EEG readings that match well with that of persons in REM dreaming states; however, these individuals retain some motor control and are able to intentionally move their hands within REM dreaming states. This is distinct from normal REM where individuals are not able to move intentionally.

Meditative states are characterized by feelings of unboundedness and expansiveness. Also, individuals that meditate claim that a profound feeling of peace can be achieved in their deeper states of meditation. These states have also been studied with EEG readings and they are characterized by a great degree of synchronization of EEG waves across the cranium.

Thus we find that we can characterize these state objectively and correlate these observations with subjective descriptions.

There was some discussion suggesting that these various states of consciousness arise from the association of various psychic structures and that it is the specific association of subsets of structures that results in the distinct states of consciousness.