Anomalous Cognition in Lucid Dreams (Draft Technical Protocol)

The cover identifies this as an unedited draft titled “Anomalous Cognition in Lucid Dreams,” prepared by Edwin C. May and S. LaBerge on 20 December 1991, presented to the Scientific Oversight Committee, and submitted by SAIC's Cognitive Sciences Laboratory.

Anomalous Cognition in Lucid Dreams Prepared by: Edwin C. May, Ph.D. and S. LaBerge 20 December 1991 ... Presented to: The Scientific Oversight Committee Submitted by: Science Applications International Corporation Cognitive Sciences Laboratory

The protocol states that its objective was to determine whether anomalous cognition could be observed during a lucid dream; it is a proposed investigation rather than a report of completed results.

The objective of this investigation is to determine if anomalous cognition can be observed during a lucid dream.

The background attributes the start of controlled dream research into anomalous cognition in 1962 to Montague Ullman at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

The first serious attempt, however, to examine AC in dreams under controlled conditions began under the direction of Montague Ullman, MD in 1962 at the Community Mental Health Center of the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The draft attributes to Irvin Child the conclusion that earlier monitored dream studies produced significant evidence for anomalous cognition; the draft does not independently verify that extraordinary claim.

The assessment of the AC content was accomplished through independent judges. As described by Child, significant evidence for AC was observed under a variety of conditions.

The proposed pilot would train participants to lucid dream and direct them to proactively seek out and remember the anomalous-cognition target.

In this preliminary pilot study, we will use the skills developed by LaBerge to teach individuals to lucid dream. ... our dreamers will be instructed to adopt a proactive attitude to seek out and remember the AC target.

The planned participant pools were experienced dreamers from LaBerge's research subjects and people said to have demonstrated significant ability in other anomalous-cognition studies; the draft says five and seven people had volunteered, respectively.

We will use two specialize populations from which to draw receivers for this pilot experiment: (1) Experienced dreamers from LaBerg’s research subjects, and (2) Receivers who have demonstrated significant ability in other AC studies. Currently, five and seven individuals have volunteered, respectively.

Targets were to be chosen randomly from 100 National Geographic magazine photographs, and a successful trial required a lucid dream in which the target was examined and later transcribed while awake.

Targets will be chosen randomly from the standard set of 100 National Geographic magazine photographs. ... A trial is defined as a successful lucid dream during which the target material was examined and later transcribed in the waking state.

Lucid-dream training was to combine a Lucidity Institute home-study course with two weekend seminars during a proposed three-month pilot.

They will complete a lucid dreaming home-study course developed by the Lucidity Institute ... and (2) they will attend two weekend seminars, one at the beginning and one at the end of the proposed three-month pilot study.

The DreamLight is described as a sleep mask with lights, eye-movement sensors, and a small battery-powered computer that flashes when REM eye movements are detected.

The DreamLight consists of a sleep mask equipped with lights and eye movement sensors, which are attached to a small battery-operated computer. When the computer detects the eye movements of dreaming (i.e., REM) sleep, it causes the lights in the mask to flash briefly.

For waking baseline trials, a computer would select a target while both receiver and monitor remained blind to the choice; the target was to be about 50 meters away.

an assistant will use a computer random number generator to select a target from the baseline target pool. Both the receiver and the monitor will be blind to this specific choice. ... target material, which is located approximately 50 meters away.

The lucid-dream trial placed a randomly selected target photograph inside a sealed opaque envelope in the sleeping room; using the DreamLight, the participant was to try to open and memorize it while dreaming.

Each receiver will receive a sealed opaque envelope containing a target photograph chosen randomly from a predetermined set of 100. ... Using the DreamLight, they will attempt, while dreaming, to open the envelope, memorize its content, and awaken as soon as possible.

The outcome measure was the intended target's analyst-assigned rank within a five-image packet, aggregated as a per-receiver sum of ranks from which effect sizes and p-values would be calculated.

The rank that is assigned to the intended target represents the value of the dependent variable for the trial. A sum-of-ranks is then computed for all the trials for each receiver, and effect sizes and p-values are determined from the known sum-of-ranks distribution.

The authors explicitly warn that unsupervised home trials could permit target compromise and therefore could not formally establish the existence of anomalous cognition.

Because the trials will be conduced in each receiver’s home and is unsupervised, it is possible that the target material can be compromised. ... Thus we will be unable to conclude the existence of AC in a formal sense in this experiment.

The draft says the home pilot could provide only circumstantial evidence and recommends a careful laboratory study if lucid-dream effect sizes were not significantly smaller than historical or waking-baseline measures.

can provide circumstantial evidence of AC. If the the lucid dreaming effect sizes are not significantly smaller than the historical or base line effect sizes, then we will recommend that a careful, laboratory-based study be conducted.

The appendix reprints Irvin Child's 1985 review, which says evidence for telepathy and psychokinesis was accumulating but “not totally convincing.”

In recent years, evidence has been accumulating for the occurrence of such anomalies as telepathy and psychokinesis, but the evidence is not totally convincing.

The appendix's 1981 LaBerge paper reports that three selected subjects signaled awareness of dreaming while remaining in unequivocal REM sleep.

The occurrence of lucid dreaming ... has been verified for 3 selected subjects who signaled that they knew they were dreaming while continuing to dream during unequivocal REM sleep.

That 1981 paper states two principal conclusions: lucid dreaming can occur during REM sleep, and lucid dreamers can intentionally signal the external environment while continuing to dream.

The two principal conclusions of this study are that lucid dreaming can occur during REM sleep and that it is possible for lucid dreamers to signal intentionally to the environment while continuing to dream.

The appendix's 1986 LaBerge, Levitan, and Dement paper reports 76 signal-verified lucid dreams from 11 selected subjects and elevated autonomic activity during and just before lucidity onset.

Reports of lucid dreaming ... were verified for 11 selected subjects ... Physiological analysis of the resulting 76 signal-verified lucid dreams revealed that elevated levels of automatic nervous system activity reliably occured both during and 30 seconds preceding the onset of SVLDs.

The same 1986 paper reports a concentrated sample: two of 13 subjects supplied 43 of 76 verified dreams, and the authors say they used per-subject summary scores to address unequal observations.

Although four subjects furnished a single SVLD each while another two subjects together supplied 43 (56% of the total) ... Potential problems arising from the unequal N of observations per subject were averted by statistically analysing summary scores for all physiological variables