Alan Worsley: Bizarre Thinking in The Phase

[Summerlander]

Alan Worsley, we all know who he is, noticed an ambiguity that sometimes presents itself in lucid dreams. In one of his studies he attempted to carry out certain tasks whilst lucid dreaming in a sleep lab. Everything was monitored. In the lucid dream, he found himself outdoors, in the rain, and, despite remembering that he was asleep in the lab and having the test in mind, he worried about the equipment getting wet. Only upon awakening did he realise how absurd his reasoning had been: How could the equipment get wet in real life when the rain and the wetness that was experienced was as phantom as his dream body?

In subsequent tests, the equipment enabled him to electrically stimulate his forearm by signalling eye movements. Whilst lucid dreaming, he experienced the electric stimuli but reasoned that it couldn't be because he was walking unattached to the machine down a dreamland road. The dream world appeared to have overthrown his logic when the electrical sensations were quite explicit and consistent with his expectations.

From this we can see why sometimes it may not be as straightforward as we think when making the distinction between dreams and lucid dreams. The sort of lucid dream reasoning Worsley describes in those lab tests is not congruous with waking state ratiocination.

Feel free to post your own experiences with this and what you think about this subject.