Some people can control their dreams. While they're fast asleep: they fly, create new worlds, live other lives. But Wendy isn't one of them. So in today's episode, Wendy and the Science Vs team find a scientifically approved method to try to lucid dream. We test it out — and bizarre things start happening. We also explore how scientists are trying to harness the strange powers of lucid dreaming to help people, as well as to crack huge scientific mysteries, like: What is consciousness? And what exactly goes on in all of our heads when we're asleep? To do all this and more, we talk to psychologists Dr. Denholm Adventure-Heart and Dr. Brigitte Holzinger, as well as cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Başak Türker. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsLucidDreaming In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Let's Fly! (04:24) Does Reality Testing Work? (11:30) Does the MILD Technique work? (14:10) Wendy and the Team Try to Lucid Dream (17:37) Can Drugs or Masks Help You Lucid Dream? (19:28) Inside the Mind of a Lucid Dreamer (26:24) Strange Windows of Consciousness (27:58) The Lucid Dreaming Brain (34:53) Can We Use Lucid Dreaming to Help Us? (38:32) Did the Science Vs team have a Lucid Dream? This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman, with help from Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang, Joel Werner, Meryl Horn and Ekedi Fauster-Keeys. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Sam Bair. Music written by Bobby Lord, Bumi Hidaka, So Wiley, Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to including Dr Karen Konkoly, Dr Benjamin Baird, and Professor Ken Paller. Also thanks to the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Whoa, this is incredible. And I like flew around in like big loop-de-loops. I'm up high. I'm looking down at the trees. I'm feeling the wind in my hair and just totally going for it. I felt like I'd unlocked something like super magical. Then I really did have the sensation. I was like, this feels to me like what it would feel like to be flying in the sky.
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. Today on the show, we're pitting facts against flying as we swoop into the world of lucid dreaming. There are people that have a superpower where they know that they're dreaming and sometimes can even control what happens next. And in their dreams, people all over the world are saying, Okay, great, let's fly.
Yeah. And that's what I did. I was just flying up and down the staircase.
I found myself flying through a beautiful landscape, I guess similar to New Zealand.
And the insanely almost magical thing about lucid dreaming is that people who do this will tell you that it feels real. It's not like closing your eyes and imagining that you're flying or doing whatever. You're really there.
It feels so real. You're like, how is this possible? It feels so real.
And like you can hear, you can smell, you can even taste. You know, I've had lucid dreams where I've just gone to a banquet and just tried all the different foods on the table. I could also have superpowers and go on epic missions into outer space. And it was just this like playground in your own mind.
A playground to be whoever you want to be. And for some folks, this isn't just a bit of fun. They're also trying to use lucid dreaming to improve their mental health, overcome fears, and to understand themselves better. That's how my friend Archer used lucid dreaming. He's the guy going flying down the staircase. Archer is a trans man. He wasn't born with a penis.
And for years now, he wished that he had one.
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