Lucid Dreaming
Another device in the category of metaphysical technology facilitates lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is being aware of the fact that you are dreaming while you are doing so. This allows the dreamer to gain insight into the purpose and symbolic meanings behind the dream, thus facilitating their analysis and the ensuing psychological healing process.
The technology for this process was developed by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., during twenty years of research at Stanford University. Dr. LaBerge developed a device called the NovaDreamer, a mask-like device that detects the time that one is in REM sleep, the state of rapid eye movement that one experiences when dreaming. The device gives cues, such as flashing lights or specific sounds, that remind one to realize the state of dreaming. In other words, one “wakes up” while still in the dream. The purpose is to give the dreamer detachment from the dreaming process during the course of the dream. This provides the impetus for the analytical process of dream interpretation to take place during the course of the dream. Users have reported that having lucid dreams have allowed them to make spontaneous choices that enable them to learn from, and even guide, the dream to constructive ends. Anecdotal evidence of these choices includes suddenly deciding to fly away from situations, empowering the dreamer to feel safer and have more free choice. There are also reports of incidents of making an old friend appear and talking to that person about consequential matters or resolving conflicts. Dreamers report being able to feel textures, hear sounds and smell odors in the dreamscape. The users reported that these sensations were as real as any in the physical world, and they were able to make conscious decisions and choices.