Dreams

amount of possible sensorimotor practice that could possibly be used by stroke or other nerve damaged patients. And finally to quote Dr. Laberge(1), "lucid dreaming can function as a "world simulator." Just as a flight simulator allows people to learn to fly in a safe environment, lucid dreaming could allow people to learn to live in any imaginable world; to experience and better choose among various possible futures." What makes humans extraordinary in the animal kingdom is our awareness of being. It is an awareness of our life and existence coupled with our advanced capacity to reason that makes us different than the other animals of the Earth. I believe that it may not only be our awareness of thought, but the exact capability of being aware somehow of our subconscious motivations. A strong sense of our subconscious can be obtained in a state of sleep where the sleeper is fully aware not only that he or she is dreaming, but that he or she is actually sleeping. Humans can now do this regularly without any type of influencing hypnotic suggestion given by a hypnotist. This state of mind seems to be more powerful than any kind of hypnosis, even self-hypnosis. I believe that somewhere locked inside our minds is an empirical understanding of our existence not just an awareness. REFERENCES 1. LaBerge, S.(1985). Lucid dreaming. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher. 2. LaBerge, S. & Rheingold, H. (1990). Exploring the world of lucid dreaming. New York: Ballantine. 3. Llinas, R. & Pare, D. (1991). Of dreaming and wakefulness. Neuroscience. 4. Watson, J. (1928). The ways of behaviorism. New York: Harper. 5. LaBerge, S., Kahan, T. & Levitan, L. (1995). Cognition in dreaming and waking. Sleep Research, 24A, 239. 6. LaBerge, S. (1990). Lucid dreaming: Psychophysiological studies of consciousness during REM sleep. In R.R. Bootsen, J.F. Kihlstrom, & D.L. Schacter (Eds.), Sleep and Cognition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association (pp. 109-126).