To understand whether lucid dreaming is a sin, it helps to first understand what is meant by “sin.”
To “sin” means to violate the law of God.
It can also refer to the state of human nature where one is estranged from God. When you sin, you’re acting in a way God doesn’t approve of.
How do we know what God does and doesn’t approve of?
It’s in the Bible.
Now the Bible was written over time over a thousand years ago. The world has changed since then. We need to use our critical thinking to adapt the ideas expressed over time.
When it comes to lucid dreaming, many people can dream lucidly. Sometimes it’s accidental, sometimes not.
We can sin, too. We have free will.
Lucid dreaming is like so many other things; the choice is yours. Are you going to use it for good or for ill?
At worst, lucid dreaming is a venial sin
A venial sin is a minor sin, something that doesn’t signify turning away from God.
I imagine God seeing the commission of a venial sin as you might see a neighbor of yours whom you recognize as an okay person but whom you find to be slightly irritating.
It’s the guy who talks all the time and doesn’t listen.
Someone with bad hygiene.
Someone who’s habitually late when you’ve made an appointment and then makes a lame excuse.
You do not necessarily refuse to have any dealing with them for these faults, but those faults will affect your relationship.
Not so for the person you know who beats up their roommate, pulls a gun on the clerk at the convenience store, or sells methamphetamine to children, for example. Everyone has their standards for acquaintances.
Gossiping about someone could be considered venial. So could speaking harshly and acting impatient on an innocent store employee because you were being minorly inconvenienced.
Whether lucid dreaming is a sin depends on the intention
Are you pursuing lucid dreaming in order to create something positive?
In that case, lucid dreaming wouldn’t be a sin, not even venial.
It would be a creative exercise.
Are you pursuing lucid dreaming to learn something about yourself, to learn how your brain works?
That, too, would be a positive use for lucid dreaming.
You’d accomplish the exercise and then move on to the next phase of the project.
The important thing to remember is that, just as in the Bible, God—or God’s emissaries—can speak to us in dreams. When you sleep and dream, what’s questionable can become clear. When you sleep and dream, you reflect on what you did right and what you did wrong. If you’re gumming that process up by lucid dreaming, you’re not doing yourself any favors. You’re turning what could be an opportunity for self-reflection and growth into something silly.
A person who regularly practiced lucid dreaming wouldn’t know what was wrong (or right) in his life. They’d be too busy going into their dream and seeing what kind of silly illusion they could conjure in their heads.
That would be a sin, a turning away from God and God’s creation.
Venial sins can compound over time and become pretty serious. It’s smart to use the correct terminology and not substitute a word like “trivial.”
Take the issue of gossip. If that was a major preoccupation of yours, the effect on yourself and other people could be serious over time.
So it is with lucid dreaming.
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James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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