Imagine you can fly out of the window, through the street and to the countryside. The view before your eyes is spectacular, and the feeling of being free in mid-air is sensational.

Stacey Svetlichnaya ‘11 can do that at will. At least, she can in her dreams.

“Well, the sensation is still a little dream-like,” Svetlichnaya said. “But it is definitely more real than a normal dream.”

Svetlichnaya experiences a state called “lucid dreaming” — aware that she’s dreaming while the dream is still in progress, yet able to actively participate in the dream and even change the course of events.

Controlling impossible, lifelike actions while dreaming has appealed to those from ancient philosophers to modern day college students. Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. ‘80 was one of those students, researching the then-frowned-upon subject 30 years ago. LaBerge wrote his dissertation on the subject and was the first to lay a scientific foundation for the field.

“At first, it was really difficult to get my article published in a scientific journal,” LaBerge said. “The editor could find nothing wrong with my paper, but they refused to believe that it was real.”

LaBerge has come a long way since. He has published several books, runs a business on lucid dreaming and travels extensively to train people in it. Most recently, he conducted a 10-day conference in Hawaii to discuss various aspects of the subject.

“Everyone dreams every night during R.E.M. sleep, which constitutes about 25 percent of [their] entire sleep,” LeBerge said. Lucid dreaming “is only the matter of realizing that we are dreaming, and not waking up after realizing that.”

Indeed, many people who start practicing lucid dreaming find having a stable lucid dream — that is, not waking up — the most difficult step. In ongoing research, LaBerge has been investigating simple, though odd-sounding, techniques to help dreamers to stay inside their dreams longer.

“As long as you realize that you are dreaming, try to spin your dream-body or rub your dream-hand.” LaBerge described. “Our researches have shown that consciousness can only be at one place at a time, either your real body or your dream body. By moving your dream body, you have immobilized your real body; hence you prevent yourself from waking up.”

While LaBerge believes that through practice and genuine desire everyone can master the art and become able to actively participate in his own dream, many lucid dreamers have prior dreaming abilities.

“I think lucid dreaming requires a talent, just like musical talent,” said Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Professor William C. Dement, LaBerge’s dissertation advisor. “Of course, you still need practice to improve it.”

Yonah Berwaldt ‘08 notes that his lucid dreams have occurred without conscious practice, and thinks his sleeping skills are naturally greater than others’.

“If I want to remember my dream,” he said, “the night before I would tell myself to remember my dream, and I would indeed remember my dream in the morning.”

Though the subject may sound unscientific to academic skeptics, LaBerge has always received support from Dement, who believes that the measuring technique LeBerge used and the results obtained are concrete scientific evidence of lucid dreaming.

When asked about the implications of lucid dreaming for the future, the two were very optimistic.

“When we were at the mutually destructive tension with the Soviet Union,” Dement said, “the general could have lucid dreamed to know what a nuclear holocaust would be like. The risk of such [an] event would then be averted.”

LeBerge didn’t go as far as his former advisor, instead expressing hope that this form of virtual reality could help each individual learn from his inner self.

“It can be very educational,” he said. “Your lucid dreams can change the way you see the world, and bring out some of the hidden potentials in you.”

Though some critics are concerned about potential psychological and physiological harms, the duo thinks the subject needs more study.

“There are many things we have not understood about R.E.M. sleep and sleep in general, especially the purpose behind it.” Dement said.

More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle offered pertinent advice.

“A dream is real as long as it lasts,” the Greek philosopher wrote. “Can we say more about life?”