The Luminous Night of the Soul: The Relationship between Lucid Dreaming and Spirituality
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies October 31, 2022 DOI: 10.24972/ijts.2021.40.2.64 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 471 |
| Population | Online sample of respondents, 95% with lucid dream experience and 65% frequent lucid dreamers |
| Topics | Dreaming Lucid dreaming |
| Key findings | Spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. |
Abstract
Lucid dreams, in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, can be a source of spiritual and mystical experiences. This empirical study aimed to explore the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality, taking into account the role of mystical lucid dream experience, in an online sample of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had lucid dream experience and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers. The findings support the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality: spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. Thus having recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences in them may foster spiritual growth, rendering lucid dreaming possibly a viable spiritual practice, especially within the secular context. However, the correlative nature of the present research does not imply causality and further longitudinal research confirming this is needed.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on lucid dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |
| Lucid dreaming: an age‐dependent brain dissociation Students aged 6-19 years | 2012 | Survey | |
| Terror and bliss? Commonalities and distinctions between sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and their associations with waking life experiences Adults aged 18–82 years | 2016 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 1,928 |
| Increased Lucid Dreaming Frequency in Narcolepsy Patients diagnosed with narcolepsy and healthy control subjects | 2015 | Cross-sectional study | n = 979 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 16
- Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta-analysis of 50 years of research Consciousness and Cognition June 20, 2016
- Testing the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in lucid dreaming: A tDCS study Consciousness and Cognition September 8, 2013
- Development of the Sources of Spirituality Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology July 1, 2015
- Do REM (lucid) dreamed and executed actions share the same neural substrate? heiDOK (Heidelberg University) 2008
- My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares? Frontiers in Psychology 2019
and 11 more in the library