A Mind Unhinged

[heliac]

Oh boy... Has anyone read the latest issue of Time magazine?

They mention lucid dreaming but associate it with Jared Loughner's psychosis.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2042358,00.html

I'm reading this and i'm like..what the hell.What does lucid dreaming have to do with what this lunatic did.

They even go so far as to list conscious dreaming as a warning sign for psychosis:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... -2,00.html (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2041733-2,00.html)

[CFTraveler]

I don't know if the reporting agency is just being ignorant about it, or if they're just misinformed. It is alarming that something like lucidity can be confused with the inability to tell the difference between dreams and reality, but that's the problem with the media.
However, it would seem to me that it's possible that he was interested in lucid dreaming because of his inability to hold on to material reality- as an attempt to 'ground himself', which of course messed him up, because he grounded himself in the wrong 'reality', in this case.

In an almost tangent aside, I have noticed lately that many local news agencies have begun alarmist-type reporting of binaural beats as 'gateway drugs', something that is patently absurd- as if there is a push from somewhere to try to dissuade people to do any kind of introspective work. Reminds me of fundamentalist religions telling people not to meditate because it 'opens them up' for demons and the like.

[ButterflyWoman]

Hmmm. If you WERE prone to psychosis AND you regularly experienced lucid dreaming, I can see how there could be a serious problem determining in which reality you were operating at any given time.

However, I did a full on report on lucid dreaming back in my university days, and I did it for a psychology class with a very perceptive teacher. I read quite a lot about lucid dreaming, and nowhere in any of the literature did I see any particular warning that it was in any way associated with psychosis.

Time Magazine is usually better at fact-checking than this. :(

[Beekeeper]

http://dreamstudies.org/2011/01/13/did-lucid-dreaming-contribute-to-the-tucson-shooting/
A response by Ryan Hurd.

[Korpo]

There is a serious influx of concepts into the mainstream. A friend showed me the Law of Attraction referenced on the front of a US teenie mag, and I saw an article about lucid dreaming and astral projection featured on the front of a German women's mag.

Such influx is often paired with massive misunderstandings, but this one is beyond the pale.

Cheers,
Oliver

[ButterflyWoman]

http://dreamstudies.org/2011/01/13/did-lucid-dreaming-contribute-to-the-tucson-shooting/
A response by Ryan Hurd.
This is really good, by the way. I recommend it.

[heliac]

http://dreamstudies.org/2011/01/13/did-lucid-dreaming-contribute-to-the-tucson-shooting/
A response by Ryan Hurd.

It's a good response to the misinformation. Glad Ryan Hurd put that out there, and glad you put it up here beekeeper