THE DREAM-CONSCIOUS STATE: A PERSONAL JOURNAL OF INNER EXPLORATION
Bruce G. MarcotCAN THIS BE SCIENCE?
In what way can my experiences and experiments with lucid dreaming be considered scientific?
In one way, they most certainly can not. There is no "evidence" or tangible phenomenon to present to others and to quantify and measure. There is only my testimony. Others should strive to test my assertions for themselves and not, as good healthy scientific skepticism would provide, simply take my word for it. But ultimately, there is no way I can present my observations in anything but testimony (short of being wired to EEGs and directly observed for any external evidence while at a valid sleep laboratory).
Also, there are no control measures in my "experiments," which are so important to the traditional statistical model of scientific experimentation and understanding ... unless the non-lucid dream state can qualify as a control condition to be compared with the lucid dream state as the "treatment" in the experiment. Perhaps a pre-lucid condition may be thought of as a "baseline" and thus a control, in a sense.
Another hallmark of scientific investigation is replication and confirmation of findings. I can only lay out my experiences here and hope that others can replicate my work -- either to "falsify" it, or to lend some degree of corroboration to my own findings. Falsification would be problematic; failure in many others to induce lucid dreaming may not constitute valid evidence of its nonexistence and that what I report here is false. That is, failure to replicate my experiences may or may not invalidate my own experiences; I still report what I can, honestly and accurately.
It is possible, I suppose, that what I think I perceive is actually some kind of unintentional self-deception. Although I do not summarily dismiss this possibility, I doubt that it is correct. But to be sure, replication by others is imperative.
I may think of replication of my own experiments by myself as another aspect of corroboration. That is, I am attempting to replicate my own experiments, with myself, so I can at least report on how frequently I observed specific outcomes, and to ensure that one instance is not a fluke. This does not substitute for replication by others, but does help determine the potential, relative rarity of some experiences or outcomes.
So, in the end, is this science? Actually, I don't see why not. Much of ecology -- my own "real world" career -- is founded on corroborative observation and not strict experimentation. In this journal, I am not attempting to prove any specific beliefs -- whether in dream control, the Bardo, Heaven, God, or astral projection -- but rather to simply report results, my "observations." As I've already experienced, to me they are astonishing enough without extraneous explanations.
But, in the end, I also suspect that there are very real phenomena that are, at best, preternatural, that is, just beyond the reach of today's scientific methods and accepted concepts. Lucid dreaming, and the implications it carries for understanding the mind in this life and perhaps beyond, may be part of our preternatural world, some day to be appropriated by science proper.