Consciousness and abilities of dream characters observed during lucid dreaming.
Perceptual and Motor Skills April 1, 1989 P Tholey
In lucid dreams, dream characters can perform complex cognitive tasks such as drawing, writing, naming unknown words, finding rhymes, making verses, and solving arithmetic problems, though arithmetic performance was poor. Nine male experienced lucid dreamers instructed dream characters to complete these tasks, and some succeeded. These findings do not contradict the idea that dream characters have consciousness in a specific sense. The authors conclude that in lucid dream therapy, communication with dream characters should be treated as if they were rational beings. Psychophysiological experiments could further investigate whether dream characters possess consciousness.