Title of the Article: Yep, you can control what you dream about.

Here’s how

Author: Helen Foster

Australian news site

Basically, this article only tells us how we can control our dreams particularly in the form of lucid
dreams. The article started with enumerating several related research findings on the connection
between dreams and health conditions. The article claims that having good dreams could result to
greater health applications.

By establishing this hook to possibly attract readers, the article then proceeds on discussing a particular
type of dreaming – w/c is lucid dreaming. According to Dr. Aspy of the University of Adelaide’s School of
Psychology, lucid dreaming is a state in w/c you become aware you’re dreaming while it happens, and
with practice, could actively choose the direction your dream takes. This means that for lucid dreams,
we could actually control whatever we want to do inside our dreams.

Aspy claimed several instances where lucid dreaming could help improve one’s health and well-being.
One example links l.d. as a means to cope with physical and emotional problems. Through L.d, one could
release of his/her emotional baggages w/c that person cannot readily and expressively take out while
being awake. Another one links to production and release of soothing hormones such as endorphins
which makes one feel better and renewed after waking up from a lucid dream.

The article immediately proceeds to the steps in inducing lucid dreaming:

First, one must wake up after having five hours of continuous sleep.

Second, the person must condition himself/herself that he/she is only dreaming while experiencing a
lucid dream.

For the third and the last one, before going back to sleep, the person must imagine of the kind of dream
he/she wants to be in.

These 3 steps condition the mind according to Dr. Aspy.

So, the article was ended with presentation of statistical figures that confirm the high success rate of
inducing lucid dreams using the steps prescribed by Dr. Aspy.

Now, after discussing the point of the article, the question is “Why did I chose this?”

The topic on lucid dreaming and its connection with physiological responses is a good example to
introduce the topic on the relationship between the physical and the mental. If the previous reporters,
have explicated the physical and the mental as separate notions, now, we will be looking at the
connection or relationship between these two concepts.
But before delving into that, we first need to determine which one is the mental and physical in the
article?

As it may have been obvious, the mental one is the lucid dream while the physical one is the
physiological response out of that dream.

For so long, the relationship between the physical and the mental have baffled many philosophers. For
some, the physical and the mental causally interact. That is, the physical causes the mental and vice
versa.

An example of the physical causing a mental activity would be by hearing a fire alarm which could make
one feel anxious. Another example which now relates the mental causing a physical activity would be
the physiological consequence of our feelings. Say one is feeling anxious and as result, that person’s
heart beats faster.

Now base from these observations, it would be apparent that the brain is the “point of contact”
between the physical and the mental. Fair enough right? Nothing enters the consciousness except
through the brain, and no mental event or condition can have a physical consequence without the brain.
But the question is this:

The brain is itself a physical thing and the “gap” or connection between the physical and the mental isn’t
bridged by something that is itself physical per se. This is the reason why the connection between the
two is quite mysterious.

If we would relate it to the article, lucid dreaming and physiological responses are observed to have a
connection. But what is that connection? The nature of that connection is not evidently discussed. To
add, even until in the present time, the sciences (through psychology) still cannot fully explain lucid
dreaming and its connection with observed physical responses. Perhaps, this is indeed the mystery of
the connection between the physical and the mental.

Indeed, the relation between the physical and the mental seems quite inexplicable. Something happens
in our brains then voila! A state of consciousness results. The fact that we know of no explanation to
these causal connections in no way proves that they do not occur. This is a problem.

Now, to avoid this problem, one approach in philosophy called epiphenomenalism sought to provide an
alternative explanation between the relationship between physical and the mental. This view holds that
physical states cause mental states but the causation never goes the other way. This means that mental
states do not do any causing and this, causally impotent. With this view, an epiphenomenalist would
refute the idea that the physical and the mental causally interact, an idea that had been pointed out
earlier.

With epiphenomenalism, everything we experience is caused by some state of the body, and the
proximate cause of a mental event is always some complicated brain state. Relating to the article, this
means that the lucid dreams are not caused by the mind but is only a manifestation of a brain state
which is a physical activity. Brains states are one of the areas of neuroscience and psychology which
continues to be explored until in the present time.

A consequence of this view will hold that our consciousness represents the brain state we are in. To be
more specific, it asserts that our mental aspect is only a function of our physical aspect. This is a
controversial issue.

Relating to the article, this would mean that inducing a lucid dream was only brought about not by our
mental state but by the various physical activities we have done.

Of course, the topic on epiphenomenalism is one of the several surveys to explain the relation between
mental states and physical states. There are still other views which try to explain the connection
between the two. One example is Materialism which is to be discussed later. So, I guess this it. This ends
my report and my introduction for today’s topic: The relationship between the physical and the mental.
Good Morning everyone!