Abstract
When we dream, we experience a world of various objects, processes, events, concepts, and relationships. These experiences occur in a context or realm of fantasy. When we are awake, we also experience objects, processes, events, concepts, and relationships, although these experiences happen in the more inclusive context of the real world. Objects, processes, events, concepts, and relationships are what constitute a world, whether fantasized or real, created or discovered (Ossorio, 1978). This chapter will explicate the special case of the lucid, or self-aware, dream. Self-awareness is possible in a lucid dream because the dreamer is able to recognize the context of fantasy within the context of the real world; the dreamer therefore recognizes the dream as a dream. Furthermore, the dreamer has the potential to reflect on his or her own motivations for deciding on courses of action within the dream. Within the lucid dream, the dreamer can act self-consciously. We will outline the distinguishing features of both the realm of fantasy and the more inclusive context of the real world. Although it may seem tempting to explore these concepts from the perspective of a dual world conceptualization (that is, two independent and coexisting worlds: one of fantasy and one of reality), it has been apparent, at least since the writings of Hume (1739/1978) and more recently Wittgenstein (1953), that it is the real world that begets the world of fantasy. Fantasy requires the foundation of reality.
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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York
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Schwartz, W., Godwyn, M. (1988). Action and Representation in Ordinary and Lucid Dreams. In: Gackenbach, J., LaBerge, S. (eds) Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0423-5_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0423-5_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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