Do you practice lucid dreaming and believe that you’re special, that you possess some unique ability, or that your consciousness has some extraordinary feature? If so, you’re mistaken—there are billions of people like you!
Medical Hypotheses, Volume 144, 2020
Although this study was not part of the Elijah project, I’m sharing it with you because it’s important for all of us. It’s strange, but there’s surprisingly little research in this area. We can find some statistical studies on lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis and perhaps a few on out-of-body experiences. But, in general, you won’t find much research on these phenomena. We decided to change this trend and asked people a variety of questions related to this topic.
Keep in mind that we consider lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, and sleep paralysis manifestations of the same phenomenon, which we call “the phase” or “the phase state.” Our survey aimed to find out how common lucid dreaming and phase states are among the general public. We literally went out and asked people about this.
I must mention that Oleg Kuyava helped me with this research and that we are running this project together. I also want to give a big thanks to all the other participants!
Nearly a thousand people participated in our survey. Amazingly, as many as 89% of them had experienced the phase state at least once in their lives, and 37% frequently experience it. When we specifically asked about how common lucid dreaming is, we found that 71% of respondents had had at least one lucid dream in their lives. Interestingly, when we asked about out-of-body experiences, nearly half of the respondents reported having undergone such an experience (however, this result might be inflated, as this ratio seems unusually high). We also found that 24% of people have experienced sleep paralysis, which aligns with other studies, suggesting that our result is fairly accurate. Finally, 45% of people reported having experienced a false awakening. I believe this number should be much higher; perhaps the participants simply failed to recall such experiences.
These results may shock you, but to me, they’re not surprising because I’ve observed similar ratios throughout my life. Whenever I discuss lucid dreaming or phase states with people, I find that most have encountered them in one form or another.
I’ve shared only preliminary results with you here. We’ve gathered a large amount of data that we are still analyzing, and we plan to publish our findings in academic journals in the future.
The most important takeaway here is that experiences with the phase state are incredibly common—in fact, based on our survey results, billions of people have experienced the phase state in one form or another at least once. That’s why I feel it is such an important topic of study.
Don’t forget, we have many ongoing experiments that you can participate in. All you need to do is to enter the phase state a couple of times a month. And if you don’t have any experience, we’ll help you get started.
FAQ
How common is lucid dreaming among the general population?
According to the survey, 71% of people have experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetime.
How many people lucid dream regularly?
The survey revealed that 37% of participants frequently experience the phase state, which includes lucid dreaming.
Are out-of-body experiences as common as lucid dreams?
Nearly half of the respondents reported having out-of-body experiences. Although this might be an inflated result, it still suggests a significant occurrence rate.
How reliable are the statistics on sleep paralysis?
The survey found that 24% of people had experienced sleep paralysis, which aligns with similar results from other studies.
Why is studying the phase state important?
The phase state, which encompasses lucid dreaming and related phenomena, is experienced by billions of people. Thus, it is critical to research this state further so that we can understand its impact on human consciousness.
