Lucid dreaming as a method for living otherwise

Abstract

This contribution explores lucid dreaming as an eccentric method for telling a different story of the pathologization of narcolepsy. Narcolepsy has been frequently misdiagnosed as a psychiatric disorder. The most conspicuous point of confusion is hallucinations and vivid dreams. This article is particularly interested in the ways in which the unusual combination of hallucinatory and lucid dream activity and wake-like reflective awareness allows to regain control of one’s reality and ownership. By introducing one of the authors’ personal experiences with narcolepsy and hallucinations and following Lisa Blackman’s (2012, 2014) and Grace Cho’s (2008) work on non-ordinary conscious states, this article examines lucid dreaming as a method that offers a particular art of living in dream-worlds that are sometimes impossible or terrifying to inhabit. Lucid dreaming opens up a window to explore non-human forms of care (Barad, 2012; Bellacasa, 2017; Dokumaci, 2017) that take place in unearthly worlds, which offer survival for those who inhabit a dream-world that terrifies them and a real-world that pathologizes.