From October 18, 2024, to August 24, 2025, Lyon, France, is hosting what may be the largest exhibition dedicated to dreams in history. Its contributors and scientific consultants—Perrine Ruby, Julia Lockheart, and Mark Blagrove, a regular researcher of lucid dreams—have presented an overview of the works.
The exhibition includes eight rooms:
1. Sleep physiology and lucid dreaming
2. Dream incubation temples
3. A door between two worlds
4. Artistic visions
5. Nightmares
6. Dream dictionaries
7. Psychoanalysis
8. Dream diaries
The first room resembles a scientific laboratory. Here, the physiology of sleep is explained, an apparatus that Michel Jouvet used to record the dreams of animals is presented, and a piece of artwork mentions Keith Hearne’s 1975 experiment, in which Alan Worsley signaled with eye movements that he was in a lucid dream. A documentary film about lucid dreams is also shown.
In other rooms, you can see the temples of Ancient Greece, where sick pilgrims came in hopes of being healed in their sleep. A collection of plants used in different countries for altered states of consciousness is also displayed. The theme of another room (not recommended for children) is nightmares. Books about dream interpretation are presented. Next is a room reproducing the interior of Freud’s office, signifying that the visitor is entering the realm of psychoanalysis.
Which exhibit would you be most excited about seeing at such an exhibition?
The article was published in February 2025 in the International Journal of Dream Research.
Details of the exhibition can be found on the museum’s website.
Get all the latest news about lucid dreams via our channels on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter
