Video Game Play and Lucid Dreaming as Socially Constructed Meditative Absorption

Jayne Gackenbach & Harry HuntGrant MacEwan University, Brock University

Paper presented at Towards a Science of Consciousness, Tucson,AZ April, 2010

Hero’s Journey in Myth and Gaming

Hero’s Journey in Myth and Gaming

Lost Common Ground

Hero’s Journey in Myth and Gaming

Trailer for a video game “Chronicles of Mystery: Scorpio Ritual”

Gamers and the Vision Quest

Korean Bangs

Social/mythological Gaming

Two LANS in My Home Town

My basement

Lucid Dreams and Video Game Game Play: Concepts Examined

• Bizarreness • Cognition in dreams• Hall and Van de Castle

Content analysis All three in paper under editorial consideration

Gackenbach, Hunt & Dopko, 2010

Hard Core Gamer Defined

• Plays video games on average several times a week

• Typical playing session is more than 2 hours• Played 50 or more video games over your

lifetime• Been playing video games since grade three or

earlier• And increasingly, POV games preferred?

Myth as Dream Bizarreness

• What we now call “bizarreness” was central to traditional “dream centered” tribal societies (Hunt, 1989).

Significant Differences from Male Norms

More dead or imaginary characters appearing in dream reports (21% vs 0%).

Why be human in a game? They have fewer powers than other types of creatures.

Dead or Imaginary Characters

Subject 001- Dream 11 “I dreamt I was a character is Underworld 2, it was a

werewolf character and then I became a 3rd person. It was the two main characters, it was the vampire girl and a hybrid werewolf character”

Gaming and Dream Bizarreness

• Dream content analysis for bizarreness was conducted using the system developed by Revonsuo and Salmivalli (1995).

• distinguishes between types of bizarreness. • In two studies hard core gamers more bizarre

dreams• Lucid-Gaming Bizarreness Associations

Factor Analysis on Game Play, Lucid Related Dream & Bizarreness Variables

Video game history (freq, length, # games, age begin) .760 -.214 .377 .101Video Games played day before dream .694 -.127 .467 -.025Recent Dream - Lucidity .305 -.258 -.746 -.158Recent Dream - Type of Observer (Hi=observer) .271 -.028 -.060 -.806Recent Dream - Control .570 -.239 -.447 .215nonbizarreness mean .071 .706 -.035 -.119vagueness variables mean .322 .371 .129 .196discontinuous mean .047 .642 -.187 .242Incongruous distorted sum .324 .384 -.043 -.311Incongruous exotic sum .378 .482 -.159 .051Incongruous impossible sum .282 -.121 -.243 .355

Gaming with and without lucidity-control but with lucidity-control you have bizarreness

Lucid – Control Dreams & Gaming• Subject #014: Lucidity triggered by an event

Michael: Well, once Jean Grey (a marvel comic and video game character) got loose and started killing people, I was like this is really weird this is

probably a dream and it was like right after that she showed up and I told myself that I need to

wake up. I thought that something bad was supposed to happen and I didn’t want it to happen so I should

wake up.Gackenbach, 2006, 2009a, b; & Kurvilla, 2008;

Gackenbach, et al. (2009).

Parallels Video Gaming/Lucidity

• Video game Play1. video games

technologically constructed alternative realities

2. Video gaming has been associated with improved spatial skills

3. Low motion sickness needed to play a lot

4. High attention & absorption reported by players and researchers

• Lucid/control dreams1. Dream worlds biologically

constructed alternative realities

2. Lucid dreamers show better spatial skills

3. Lucid dreamers have better vestibular systems (not susceptible to motion sickness)

4. Meditation is highly associated with lucidity and is training in developing one pointed attention/absorption

Is the Lucidity – Video Game Play Association Self Selection?

• Yes– To be a serious player you

need to not suffer motion sickness

– For serious game play spatial skills are an advantage

– Most games of serious players cater to boys

– Those who are able to get absorbed should do better

• No– Almost all children

through to young adults play some form these days

– Spatial skills improve with play

– Girl games are being developed and is a large growing market

– Attention/absorption improve with play

Bottom Line

• Gaming is too wide spread to reduce to purely self selection

• There is something enticing about being in virtual worlds

• There is increasing social pressure to play

Percent growth in US 2006-2007

1 2 3 4 5

Clarity of dream -.001 -.446 -.104 .162 .699

Lucidity .391 -.469 -.292 .208 -.143

Type of Observer (hi=3rd per) .121 -.259 .293 .611 -.494

Control .527 -.303 -.495 -.088 .064Nightmare .185 -.262 .575 .397 .285

Electronic media.025 .531 -.393 .574 -.013

mean of audio only media (phone, radio, CD/mp3) .436 .257 .551 -.200 .114

mean of audio and video media (TV/DVD, movie) .413 .518 -.105 .291 .288

mean of interactive media (computer/internet, vid gm) .718 .208 .069 -.110 .056

gamer groups (0 = non-gamer, 1 = low, 2 = mod, 3 =

high).653 -.103 -.004 -.231 -.273

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.Last night, rested dreams, N = 152

Drilling Down

Further Explorations of the Lucid/control and Video

Game Playing Association

The Importance of Point of ViewIs it detachment or practice from gaming?

Importance of Point of View (POV)• Gamer reported an interesting detachment from the dream

events:– As the car was burning I opened the door and leaned out to leave but made

the decision to stay inside instead because I was curious to see what I would look like burning alive. While I felt the heat, smelt the smoke, I didn't feel any pain. I felt detached from the feelings, but recognized that they were my own. (Subject #28)

• He also reported – not a nightmare, not scared, but it was violent

– NOT lucid and no control (I wonder?)

• This is noteworthy because it echoes the descriptions of witnessing dreams that previous research has found among meditators with the same observing but uninvolved emotional reaction (Mason et al., 1995; Gackenbach & Bosveld, 1989).

Importance of Point of View (POV)• Emotions

– Sort of. I knew what the person I saw as myself felt, but didn't share those feelings. Throughout the emotions of disgust, loneliness, or excitement were all ones I thought best fit the "character" of myself based on the situation.

• Thinking about actions– I was constantly thinking about my every move, making sure that

whatever I did was in my best interest. If anything was off-putting (the carnival owner, the desert) I simply moved on.

• Thinking about surroundings– I was constantly analyzing my surroundings...– At the city where I drove my car, I noticed the simplicity of the

environment, which seemed to be constructed out of simple polygons. Obviously that was a video game environment, much like Grand Theft Auto.

Meta-cognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience Questionnaire (MACE)

• Developed/adapted by Kahan (1996)• MACE focuses on cognitive elements to the

dream and their relationship to waking• Question: When gaming is associated with

lucidity what other metacognitive elements in the dream are present?

• From Gackenbach & Kuruvilla (2008)

Factor Analysis: Factor 2 Lucid/GameZ-score for gamer type .023 .466 -.076 .569 -.099 -.063

Predream gaming -.267 .455 -.068 .588 -.248 .036

lucidity in dream .102 .591 -.026 -.270 .327 -.441

Observer POV in dream -.348 .315 -.299 .349 .528 -.006

control in dream -.128 .708 .252 -.238 .095 .120

Choice .385 .102 .249 .067 -.339 -.402

Internal Commentary .473 .354 -.220 -.406 -.278 -.061

Sudden Attention -.167 .037 .589 -.065 .193 -.008

Focused Attention .662 .096 .355 .354 .088 -.092

Thwarted intention .463 -.343 .191 .343 .299 .203

Public self consciousness .388 -.126 -.649 .095 .019 .188

Emotion .352 -.001 -.446 -.158 .458 -.182

Reflective aware own thoughts, feelings .072 .463 -.184 -.172 -.169 .614

Reflective aware own behavior .764 .132 -.062 .129 -.080 .000

Reflective aware external environment .377 .161 .443 -.114 .269 .438

MACE

dreamgaming

Factor 2 Example

MACE Conclusions

• It appears that gaming can add a dimension to the lucid dream such that its full potential for focused problem solving is possible.

• It may be that lucid dreams of gamers are more like waking cognition than other dreams.

Hall & Van de Castle Content Analysis of Lucid vs Nonlucid Dreams of Gamers from 4 Previous Studies

Gender Dream Row totals

male Lucid 53

male nonlucid 219

female Lucid 27

female nonlucid 131

total 430

Dream Type Differences among Gamers

Significant difference variables All gamers Nonlucids

All gamers Lucids

Social Interaction Percents

Aggressor Percent 26% 44%Settings

Familiar Setting Percent 50% 35%Self-Concept Percents

Self-Negativity Percent 85% 65% Dreamer-Involved Success Percent 38% 77%Dreams with at Least One:

Sexuality 03% 10% Success 07% 14%

Gamer – Lucidity Conclusions• Bizarreness

– Gaming & lucidity/control associated with dream bizarreness and supports the mythic fulfilling function of gaming in consciousness

• Cognitive element– Gaming & Lucidity associated with some

metacognition enhancements

• HVDC content analysis – lucid dreams of gamers tend toward an overall

much more positive dream atmosphere.

Implications

• Can video game play be viewed as a type of meditation with some of the same outcomes?– Gackenbach, J.I. (2008). Video game play and

consciousness development: A transpersonal perspective. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 40(1), 60-87.

• Lucidity is very often experienced in various meditators and indeed is valued by them

• The comparison of lucid dreams as a function of gaming suggests that gaming improves the already largely positive lucid dreaming effects