Dr. Keith Hearne is a renowned psychologist from the UK who is the first scientist in the world to have confirmed the phenomenon of lucid dreaming (LD) in the laboratory. He invented the ocular-signaling technique (when a lucid dreamer makes pre-agreed eye movements in confirmation of awareness, for example, left/right/left) and the first “dream machine.” Laboratory recordings of his pioneering experiments and the dream machine itself can be found in the Science Museum in London, as part of its permanent exhibition. The results of his study of lucid dreaming were published in his doctoral dissertation, which Hearne presented in 1978 at Liverpool University.
Hearne’s first experiment of confirming awareness in a dream was successfully realized on the morning of April 5, 1975. The dreamer performed a given sequence of eye movements, proving that he was in the LD state. Unfortunately, the equipment happened to be switched off at that moment, and only a week later the same person again demonstrated awareness in a dream, this time with recording devices at the ready. This day, April 12, is celebrated by practitioners around the world as Lucid Dreaming Day.
Hearne is also the founder and principal of the European College of Hypnotherapy and a renowned therapist. He actively lectured and introduced many new approaches in this area – in particular, the method of transforming nightmares into lucid dreams. And his special technique of hypno-oneirography (sequential tracing of dream images) has been featured in TV documentaries.
Over the years, he has frequently appeared in the media, especially on television, in the UK and abroad. He appeared on the BBC and was filmed for the Discovery Channel program about dreams. For over a year, he also wrote a regular column on the subject of dreams in The Express newspaper.
You can learn more about the work of Keith Hearne, read his doctoral dissertation and six other published books on the scientist’s official website.
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