The subject of dreaming had always been mysterious and full of fascination, both to the dreamers and the physicians. It had been one of the most intriguing aspects of human consciousness. We lose all consciousness when we enter the deep waters of the ocean of dreams. What is a lucid dream? A lucid dream is one where we dreamed while we were still conscious of the fact that we were dreaming. Lucid dreaming may be termed as conscious dreaming.
The credit for unraveling the mysteries of dreams goes to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis who did the pioneer work by
writing interpretation of dreams. Freud’s theories on psycho analysis are mostly based on his research and interpretation of dreams. Dreams are the only way to peep into the hidden and secret realms of human existence and unconscious. Dreams are the windows of unconscious into consciousness.Thanks to the researches of neuroscientists, by applying electrical current waves to a sleeping person’s brain, the scientist had enabled to induce lucid dreams in persons. The scientists believe that their findings are significant leap towards understanding the deep connectedness between lucid dreaming and brain waves of specific frequency. Such type of lucid dreaming had been shown in Oscar award winning film “inception” by Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan’s movie inception mainly focused on the theme of lucidity and lucid dreams In such type of dreaming the person becomes aware that he is dreaming or becomes
aware of his unconsciousness.The findings have been reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The scientists claim that harmless electrical current to brain of an individual could produce lucid dreams. In an experiment conducted in a sleeping lab a total of 27 volunteers participated. The volunteers consisted of 15 women and 12 men in the age group of 18—26. " The dream reports were similar, in that most subjects reported to 'see myself from the outside' and the dream was watched from the outside, as if it was displayed on a screen," Voss, the leading psychologist of the scientists team , told AFP. Scientists led by psychologist Ursula Voss of JW Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany, claimed this success story.
The volunteers were tested at frequencies of two herz (HZ), six HZ, 12HZ, 25HZ, 60HZ, and 100HZ but the effect was only observed for 25 and 40HZ, both frequencies in the lower gamma frequency band. At the gamma wave and of 40HZ the brains of the test subjects generated brain waves at the same frequency, which in turn induced self-awareness, or lucidity. Gamma waves have been associated and linked with a conscious even before-a process called gamma coherence. But this is first time the scientists have used gamma waves to generate self-awareness during dreams.
