Exploring Consciousness: Old Habits and New Horizons 63the byproduct of the brain’s frontal lobe “inexplicably ‘wak[ing] up’”
during a dream (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2016, p. 210). As a dream
researcher, it is particularly troubling to see the topic of lucid dreaming
treated in this way. On the contrary, lucid dreaming is a trainable skill that
is far from inexplicable. It is not simply the brain that wakes up in a lucid
dream, it is the person! Lucid dreaming is especially relevant for
psychology as it offers us unparalleled access into the study of
consciousness, both subjectively and objectively.
To their credit, Coon and Mitterer (2015) devote an entire module to
“Exploring and Using Dreams,” and include sections on “Dream Work”
and “Dreams and Creativity.” In the latter section, they describe lucid
dreaming as the “rare but fascinating experience” of being “fully awake
within the dream world and capable of normal thought and action.” While
their definition leaves room for improvement, they rightly suggest that
lucid dreaming “makes it possible to explore dreams with firsthand data
from the dreamer’s world” and “can convert dreams into a nightly
‘workshop’ for emotional growth” and “enlightening experiences” (p.
224). Lucid dreaming is not the only area worthy of consideration when it
comes to teaching psychology students about consciousness. Applied,
experiential approaches such as Coon and Mitterer’s are far more aligned
with the hard problem at the root of psychology than the peripheral and, in
many cases, dehumanizing efforts of other texts, and ought to be included
in any survey on the subject.
Another area worthy of critique is that of drugs and their so-called
effects on consciousness. Once again excepting Griggs (2017), each of the
introductory psychology textbooks reviewed provides a survey of various
psychoactive substances and a discussion on tolerance, withdrawal, and
addiction. The tone of these writings is, without a doubt, driven by a
moralistic imperative. For example, sections on amphetamines are
complimented by disparaging imagery of addicts suffering from withered
skin, lesions and tooth decay (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2016; Meyers &
DeWall, 2015; Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2016). Pastorino and Doyle-
Portillo (2016) employ thematic headings such as “Caffeine: Java Jitters”
(p. 158) and “Nicotine: A Really Bad Habit” (p. 159). Similarly, Meyers