Can your dreams be controlled by electrically stimulating your brain?

This is an article about electrically stimulating your brain to cause lucid dreaming.

It says that researchers in Germany asked 27 men and women to spend a few nights sleeping in a special sleep lab in Germany, and when they entered REM sleep an electric current was passed across their skull, stimulating the front and temporal lobes.

They are reporting that 70% of the subjects achieved lucid dreaming.

Now I don't know how solid the science is, or if 70% of 27 people proves anything, but I would like to share a personal experience that makes me buy into this.

About a year ago I went to the chiropractor to get my back and neck popped, and anyone that has been to a chiropractor knows after they get done cracking your spine, they lay you down and put electrodes on your back and neck and send an electrical current through them for 20 to 30 minutes.

Well this time I fell asleep while laying there and I had the weirdest dream, or out of body experience whatever.

I remember very clearly standing over myself looking at myself laying there, and I knew I had to be dreaming.

Then I saw the chiropractor pull open the curtain and walk to the machine and when he said my name it was like I heard it in 2 different places at the same time.

Well the second time he said my name I woke up and thought wow that was weird. I told the doctor that I was having a really weird dream and I saw him come in the room even though I was face down and he just kind of went hmmm and looked at me like I was weird.

I went home and told my wife and after a couple months just kind of forgot about it. Until I read this article.

Now I know the 27 people in this study had a current applied to their frontal lobes and I had 1 applied to my back and neck.

But I knew I was dreaming so I believe there might be something to this.

Anyone else ever fall asleep with those electrodes on them and had a similar experience ?

www.extremetech.com... c-nightmare-sufferers-rejoice

It appears that applying an electrical current to your brain not only boosts your cognitive powers, but it can also help you obtain the mystical ability of lucid dreaming, where you can control the plot and outcome of your dreams. These findings come from a new study that found that lucid dreaming could be induced in a full 70% of participants, with a simple (external) electrical current passed across the frontal lobe. This has obvious applications for body hackers — but perhaps more importantly it may have a medical use, too, in helping people who suffer from chronic nightmares.

A lucid dream, if you haven’t heard of the phrase before, is a dream where you know that you’re dreaming. So the theory goes, if you’re aware that you’re dreaming, you can then exert some kind of control over your brain’s imagination, resulting in some very fun, wild, and vivid dreams. Some people report being naturally lucid dreamers, while body hackers try to artificially induce a lucid dream state with various different techniques (mostly involving meditation or setting an alarm for a few hours after you fall asleep). Scientifically, some studies have shown that during lucid dreaming there’s increased activity in your brain’s frontal and parietal (top/side) lobes — regions of the brain that are involved with higher-level conscious thought. Skeptics think that lucid dreaming is more like small snippets of wakefulness interspersed with normal REM dreaming, rather than a bona fide dream state.

Much of lucid dreaming is about recognizing you are in a dream.


Ive experimented with it for some time, and even used technology to aid in the pursuit (binaural sounds)

The entire process is getting your mind to notice the dream, Binaural sounds will try to trigger the state in the brain using frequencies the brain will try to match.

Direct electric stimulation is just a further step in that direction, by "goosing" those areas of the brain you could trigger that "notice" directly.

a reply to: benrl

Have you been able to accomplish "lucid dreaming".

I normally don't even remember my dreams much less am able to control them.

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
a reply to: benrl

Have you been able to accomplish "lucid dreaming".

I normally don't even remember my dreams much less am able to control them.

As an example, with the 7hz range, I was able to extend a dream, not really lucid, just I had an extremely vivid and exceptionally long dream exp.

I sorta stopped using them for Lucid dreaming after I in-inadvertently triggered a Sleep paralysis episode, something, that if you have not experienced... Well its disturbing.

So I believe I have come near a true lucid dream state with them, just not all the way.

There are supposed to be supplements and vitamins that you can take that help remember dreams, which is an important step in the entire thing.

Start keeping a dream journal next to your bed, no matter how lame it sounds, it can help with recall to write the dream down the instant you wake up.

Gee, it seems like only a short step to altering your memory to affect your beliefs.
They could turn a person from a pacifist into a psychopathic killer.