Controlled Dreaming; a Literature Review by Lily Wharton

Note: The majority of this research was conducted for our group’s initial scenario, which is referenced in this post. However, I included the research because I thought it was important to show the process of our 2050 scenario and the varied research that went into its development. I also believe that aspects of these dream control techniques could exist in our scenario – though in a more positive way – as people’s issues with sleep deprivation could lead to further attempts to control their sleeping patterns as well as their dreams.

 

The concept of controlling one’s dreams is by no means new. By referring to the varying practices and beliefs regarding dream control in the past, we are able to speculate the possibilities for a world in which people’s dreams are controlled on a mass level, to the detriment of their freedom. As our future scenario deals with the prospect of the government regimenting the public’s sleeping patterns, the possibility of governmental control of people’s dreams becomes more plausible.

Throughout history, many cultures have employed methods to attempt to control their dreams, often involving charms, symbols or amulets. The Baku – a tapir depicted with exaggerated proportions – was regarded as a charm animal in China then later Japan around the 14^th and 15^th centuries. Through several forms and narratives surrounding the animal, it became to be believed that the Baku ate nightmares (Hori, T. 2005). Similarly, Indigenous Canadian culture utilised the Dream Catcher as an amulet, which spread throughout North America and also gained popularity in Japan. Believing the night air to be filled with good and bad dreams, the Dream Catcher was used to trap bad dreams and allow good dreams to slip through its feathers (Hori, T. 2005). These practices typically dealt specifically with eliminating the potential for nightmares rather than to incite good dreams.

Lucid dreaming has been a studied practice in various societies throughout history, understood as “the experience of consciousness or self-awareness within the dream state” (Bulkeley, 2016). Some distinctions exist between lucid and ordinary dreams, including the variations between the common themes and references within them. Although lucid dreaming can occur organically, people have made attempts to induce it and control the content of their dreams. Anthropologist Diana Riboli’s studies of Indigenous Nepalese and Malaysian cultures uncovered that shamanic healers utilised lucid dreaming to heal people as well as to battle and even kill enemy shamans (Bulkeley, 2016). This example represents the capacity for lucid dreaming to become enhanced and ultimately weaponised, a dystopian ideal that could be appropriated in a totalitarian future as a means of torture or manipulation.

Munkyeong Kim, 2014, “Dreame” (an artistic representation of a dream), The Atlantic, <https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/the-ways-to-control-dreaming/360032/&gt;

Government control of a work/rest balance took precedence in the invention of daylight savings during WWI. The British government introduced the practice in 1916 in order to increase working hours and, in turn, increase productivity for those in the production of armaments and others contributing to the war effort. Evidently, a shift in people’s working hours affects all other aspects of their schedules – most significantly sleep. In a totalitarian future, the prospect of government-induced sleep seems entirely possible; therefore control of dreams could be utilised for said government to retain power, perhaps to incite propaganda in the population.

A range of methods of dream control has been speculated about based on studies and scientific developments. The concept of sleep paralysis induction has produced a proven technique to “induce the nightmarish experience of… causing someone to enter a condition in which their bodies are immobilised but their minds are ‘awake’ and vulnerable to terrifying images, thoughts, and sensations” (Bulkeley, 2012). Additionally, technology known as transcranial magnetic stimulation has emerged as a concept, thought to enable direct manipulation of neural activity during REM sleep. Essentially, this practice controls what someone can dream about and instil ideas within their mind (Bulkeley, 2012).

Another form of “mind control” exists in the disruption of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder memory formation. Trauma victims have the capacity to reduce the symptoms of PTSD if they perform a series of distracting cognitive tasks within six hours of the trauma occurring, hence not allowing long-term memories to form. Bulkeley has speculated about dystopian scenarios in which this means is employed to alter people’s memories and notions of reality versus dreams (2012).

Although the concept of the government controlling something as personal as dreams sounds hyperbolic in our current climate, a long history of people’s attempts to control their own dreams as well as developments in psychological techniques suggest that this future could be more likely than we think.

References:

Hori, T. 2005 “Cultural note on dreaming and dream study in the future: Release from nightmare and development of dream control technique” Sleep and Biological Rhythms, vol 3 iss 2 pp 49-55

Bulkeley, K. 2012 “Dystopian Dreaming”, Kelly Bulkeley: Dream Research and Education, WordPress, accessed 17/8/2017 <http://kellybulkeley.org/dystopian-dreaming/&gt;

Bulkeley, K. 2016 “Lucid Dreaming and Pan’s Labyrinth”, ”, Kelly Bulkeley: Dream Research and Education, WordPress, accessed 17/8/2017 < http://kellybulkeley.org/lucid-dreaming-and-pans-labyrinth/

Wen, T. 2014 “The Ways to Control Dreaming”, The Atlantic, accessed 17/8/2017 <https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/the-ways-to-control-dreaming/360032/&gt;