Lucid Dreaming To Integrate Trauma
A peer-reviewed study of Charlie Morley's work yields remarkable results.
“On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious.” — Dr Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Resonant World #31
Lucid dreaming — or “waking up” in your dream state so you can play an active role in the drama — is not exactly a standard prescription dished out by psychiatrists.
Maybe that could change.
On June 1, researchers at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Traumatology based on some astonishing findings from a pilot study held last year.1
The study tracked the impact of a workshop run by Charlie Morley, a friend of Resonant World, who teaches people how to become lucid in their dreams.
Specifically, Charlie shows people how to use this skill to transform nightmares — a very common symptom for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Lasting Results
Here’s how it works: Charlie shows people how to create a “dream plan” which they enact when they become lucid. There’s lots of ways to do this: You could call out positive affirmations; change the outcome of a recurring nightmare, or intentionally play along with the bad dream to allow it to be fully witnessed and resolved.
The researchers tracked 49 participants in a six-day online workshop where Charlie taught these skills to people suffering chronic PTSD.
More than 85 percent of them experienced such a significant reduction in symptoms that they no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis. (Participants included people who had experienced childhood sexual abuse, or psychological injury while serving in the military, among other forms of trauma.)
What’s more, those results held up after a four-week follow-up — suggesting the relief wasn’t just a blip.
The research team has since conducted a randomized control trial — the gold-standard in medical research — with 100 participants. That data is still being analysed, but the team has described initial results as “very encouraging.”
“A Breakthrough”
There’s obviously a lot more work to be done to provide the kind of validation lucid dreaming will need to be accepted by the establishment.
Nevertheless, the researchers were blown away by the results of the pilot.2
Charlie, who discovered he had an aptitude for lucid dreaming as a teenager, then honed the skill over years of Buddhist practice, had this to say:
“In 15 years of working with military veterans and people with PTSD I have never seen such outstanding results. This truly is a breakthrough in trauma treatment. Although it was a pilot study, it seems like lucid dreaming has the potential to be one the most powerful treatments for PTSD currently available.”
Dr David Hamilton, a scientific consultant on the study, was similarly stunned:
“The results of the study are so compelling that I had to look twice to check I wasn’t misreading the numbers. The research shows that lucid dreaming can be a very potent therapy for people who suffer from PTSD.”
And James Scurry, a UK-based psychotherapist who worked on the study, added:
“As a psychotherapist who works predominantly with clients with complex trauma, I could hardly believe what I was witnessing during the study. Participants were beginning to integrate trauma in a matter of days — some from the experience of having a lucid dream but others simply from being empowered by the process of learning how to lucid dream.”
“Not Knowing”
As a journalist, I’m supposed to be appropriately hard-nosed.
Five years ago, I wrote enthusiastically about the results of a pilot study that used psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) to treat depression, and my own experience on a psilocybin retreat in the Netherlands.3 In retrospect, I could have been more sceptical. Though I’m an advocate for the transformational power of psychedelics, I’ve also developed a more nuanced understanding of both their potential, and their pitfalls, since I wrote those stories. Above all, I try to cultivate a state of “not knowing” in the face of the immense power of these medicines, and perhaps there’s some value in applying this sensibility to all healing modalities.
That said, I’ll confess that I find the lucid dreaming researchers’ enthusiasm infectious.
That’s partly because I know Charlie and James personally, and can attest to their integrity, vision and dedication to supporting people to integrate trauma. (My wife Dr Genevieve von Lob and I featured Charlie in The HSP Revolution newsletter last year, speaking about his new book Wake Up To Sleep: Five Powerful Practices To Transform Stress & Trauma into Peaceful Sleep & Mindful Dreams).
I’m excited about this work for a whole host of other reasons as well, including:
The Approach Engages Non-ordinary States Of Consciousness. It seems abundantly clear that we can only get so far in working with truama if we confine ourselves to the golf ball-sized part of our consciousness that deals in reason, language and logic. As indigenous cultures have always known, and pioneers of transpersonal psychology such as Carl Jung, Stanislav Grof, Jean Houston and many others have since rediscovered, there are enormous healing resources to be found in non-ordinary states — from dreaming and trance, to ecstatic dance and psychedelic journeys. Lucid dreaming opens a portal to this infinite hinterland and the transformational potential it contains.
No Medication is Required. That’s good for all sorts of obvious reasons.
The Work is Scalable. The online workshop can be delivered globally.
An Evolutionary Update. Like many people, I spend a lot of my life bumbling around in a haze of conditioned thinking, unconscious reactivity and perspectives clouded by veils imposed by manifold layers of individual, ancestral and collective trauma. Though I can’t recall a lucid dream myself, I’ve had enough experience of non-ordinary states of consciousness by other means to appreciate their importance. Perhaps lucid dreaming is one of the evolutionary “updates” we need to download en masse to accelerate our awakening at this adapt-or-die moment.
Scope For Community Practice. Resonant World is all about building healing communities, and I would love to know more about the potential for communities of practice to develop around lucid dreaming — not just to heal trauma, but to unlock creativity, insight and wisdom that can serve wider causes. (For an example of a fascinating dream-art collaboration, click here).
Trauma Becomes A Doorway. Integrating any form of trauma — individual, ancestral or collective — is never just about “getting rid” of symptoms. Done right, it will involve encounters with meaning, empowerment, and joy. Lucid dreaming is a lifelong skill that provides people with a new interface with their unconscious — and the realms beyond.
I admire Dr. Edgar Mitchell (1930-2106). Mitchell was the sixth person to walk on the moon, and experienced a profound awakening experience as he neared Earth at the end of his Apollo 14 mission. He developed a profound interest in consciousness as a result, and in 1973 founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which conducted the study.
Happy lucid dreams!
I write Resonant World in my spare time from my editing role at DeSmog, a nonprofit news service focused on investigating the vested interests blocking action on climate change. Support from readers is a huge boost — and that includes reading, sharing, or commenting in response to my posts. Any variety of coffee gratefully received! Thank you.
Yount, G., Stumbrys, T., Koos, K., Hamilton, D., & Wahbeh, H. (2023). Decreased posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following a lucid dream healing workshop. Traumatology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000456
The quotes are from a press release announcing the study.
Sadly, the story I wrote on the pilot no longer seems to be online, because the publisher, Ozy, has collapsed, I’ve just read.
Thank you Matthew for making the case for this no-cost, non-invasive treatment and process for PTSD. Very promising!