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September’s Moon Dreaming Post
Listen to Miles Davis’s classic Moon Dreams while you read!
Today, the day after the full moon, I looked back into the research on the Moon’s Effect on Dreams done by the College of Metaphysics in Missouri. When I first blogged about their lucid dreaming and moon proposal this past February, I was skeptical because the research program did not seem to have any experimental controls in place.
Turns out my hesitancy was unfounded, as Dr. Barbara Condron did indeed set up a control group of dreamers who were tracking their dreams without knowing about her interest in the moon cycle’s effect on their recall or levels of lucidity.
Condron has published the results of this study, but it is only available for download on the College of Metaphysics website. I hope the study is also submitted to peer-review sometime soon. Unfortunately, Condron did not make publicly available the data contrasting the control group (those participants who did not know the dream recall study was tied to the moon’s phases) and the experimental group.
However, Condron did publish the second chapter of her e-book for free, and some of her results are discussed. Here’s a taste of some of their findings:
- More dreams were lucid during the full moon compared to the new moon.
- Dreamers reported more multiple dreams during the full moon.
- Lucidity during the full moon was less fractured and lasted longer than the new moon.
What remains to be seen is if higher lucidity rates can be demonstrated independently of the expectancy effect. In other words, are we more lucid during the full moon due solely to the cultural stories and mythologies that the full moon is a time of greater awareness, creativity, and madness?
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