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Do any Christian traditions have doctrines that cover the issue of lucid dreaming? In particular, do any of these cover whether we control our minds at all times or if God can/does sometimes control them?

Are there any examples in the Bible of lucid dreaming? If so does doctrine/tradition interpret these as something controlled by divine intervention or by the dreamers own subconscious?

Many religions acknowledge lucid dreaming as a spiritual gateway. I am not a Christian and I am just curious as to what Christianity views there are on this.

curiousdannii
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  • @user928: I don't think the issue was whether this subject matter was on-or-off topic, only that your question didn't fit the guidelines for the scope of an individual question. I hope you find the edits we've proposed and any answers it generates useful. – Caleb Oct 26 '11 at 14:41
  • Thanks. What happened to the previous answers? –  Oct 26 '11 at 14:42
  • When I asked this question, I didn't realise there was so many different versions of the bible - I saw the bible as one - as this would make sense right? I understand that this is a completely separate question but do these different bibles not contradict each other? –  Oct 26 '11 at 14:46
  • @user928: They have been temporarily deleted since they no longer apply the current question. As soon as they get updated by their owners to match the question we'll undelete them! – Caleb Oct 26 '11 at 14:47
  • OK I guess that makes sense. –  Oct 26 '11 at 14:49
  • @user928: Nobody blames you for not knowing, it's a bit of a confusing landscape. And yes there are different "versions" of the bible. There is a pretty accepted main Canon, but some groups have generated their own translations or included books considered by others to be not-inspired. You must be specific about questions around here to avoid the votes on answers becoming the stage where conflicts between these believes is played out. – Caleb Oct 26 '11 at 14:51
  • Thanks for the advice, I didn't realise how different they could be, I just assumed that they would be a separate religion and not classed under the same name (if you see what I mean). If there is a true god, this must mean that all other versions (and therefore all other religions other than Christianity) are incorrect/inaccurate? –  Oct 26 '11 at 14:54
  • According to many of the various groups, they are different reliegions, but since they all claim the title "Christian" we have this place as a secular public forum where anybody can participate and ask about any of the different groups. Check out the first couple meta topics here for more discussion on this issue. – Caleb Oct 26 '11 at 15:07
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    I studied in my undergraduate studies under a man who was very well versed in the physiology of the brain. According to studies, dreams as we know them can be identified by scientists as sessions of activity in the brain, and those sessions are for very brief segments of time, often on the order of one minute or less. When that occurrence happens that we call dreaming, your brain is not communicating with the rest of the body (scientists are pretty sure this is when the brain reorganizes itself) and when you don't have those sessions, you wake feeling unrefreshed. – jcolebrand Oct 26 '11 at 21:19

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To answer the Bible part of your question, the closest Biblical example I could think of was when (apparently) Paul had a dream (or vision) which he says may have been not a dream but a genuine experience. I think that is pretty lucid.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know — God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows — was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.

Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE
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This may not be the sort of thing that Christian Traditions/denominations from the more liberal end of the spectrum will teach on one way or the other; but for those of a more fundamentalist hue, it's the kind of thing that is likely to send up a red flag and here's why:

While there is no explicit prohibition in the scripture against lucid dreaming, an inference can be drawn that the related practice of controlled dreaming is not beneficial:

Some dreams are evidently a gift from God and should be received by faith after the exercise of appropriate discernment. If on the other hand, there is an attempt to control this as it's happening, the lucid dreamer could be engaged in a form of Simony:

Acts 8 (NIV)

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

Simon wanted 'control' of the gift of the Holy Spirit - this attitude revealed an underlying lack of repentance and bondage to sin. Wanting to control a dream given by God would be an attempt to pervert the gift of God similar to the way of Balaam.

One may argue that "Well I would only try to do this with my own dreams", but this would require you to despise receiving dreams from God as it's impossible to exercise the required discernment while you're asleep.

Dream control has some commonalities with divination and witchcraft as they all seek to exert control over circumstances through so-called 'spiritual' practices. It is therefore a likely path towards demonisation.

...do not give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27 NIV)

bruised reed
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