Scientists have brought science fiction one step closer to reality by creating the first two-way communication between individuals during lucid dreams.
In an experiment that sounds like a scene from the movie “Inception,” REMspace — a California startup that designs technology to improve sleep and lucid dreaming — reportedly exchanged a message between two people as they slept.
The company used “specially designed equipment,” including a “server,” a “device,” “Wi-Fi” and “sensors,” but did not specify exactly what technology they used.
The study participants slept in separate houses as REMspace researchers beamed a word created by a unique language between them.
A neurotech company claims to have achieved the first two-way communication between individuals during lucid dreams
REMspace CEO and founder Michael Raduga said: “Yesterday, communicating in dreams seemed like science fiction
Tomorrow, it will be so commonplace that we won’t be able to imagine our lives without it.
“This opens the door to countless commercial applications that will change the way we think about communication and interaction in the dream world.”
The technology has yet to be evaluated or replicated by scientists. But if validated, it would be a major milestone for sleep research and could have applications in mental health treatments, skills training and more, REMspace said.
REMspace used “specially designed equipment” that allowed two people to successfully exchange a simple message during lucid dreams, the company claimed.
Lucid dreams occur when a person is aware that they are dreaming while still in the dream state.
This allows them to perform self-directed actions in their dreams, rather than randomly interacting with the “dream world” without any sense of control.
This phenomenon occurs during REM sleep, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, when dreams typically occur.
REMspace did not disclose exactly what equipment was used in the experiment, but said the experiment involved a “device” that monitored participants’ brain waves and other biological data during the experiment.
There was also a “server” involved that could detect when participants entered a lucid dream and send messages to them.
Two participants in the study slept in separate houses while their brainwaves were remotely monitored by the device, which sent data to the server.
Two participants in the study slept at home while their brain activity was remotely monitored by the device, which sent the data to the server
Once the server detected that a participant was having a lucid dream, it generated a random word and sent it to the participant through earbuds.
Eight minutes later, the second participant entered a lucid dream. The server sent the first participant’s saved message to her, which she repeated upon waking
When the server detected that a participant had entered a lucid dream, it generated a random word from the special language and sent it to him via earphones.
The participant then repeated this word in his dream, and that response was recorded and stored on the server.
Eight minutes later, the second participant entered a lucid dream. The server sent the first participant’s saved message to her, which she repeated upon waking.
REMspace was able to repeat this experiment with another pair of participants. However, the study needs to be thoroughly evaluated before the company can definitively say that they have achieved dream communication.
Raduga, who is confident in their results, is known for his ambitious—and sometimes bizarre—experiments.
Raduga, 40, implanted an
in his brain to ‘control his dreams’
The electrode implant is made of platinum and silicon. Raduga claimed that electrical triggers sent to this electrode could affect the course of lucid dreams
In 2023, he risked his life when he attempted to implant a microchip into his own brain to control his dreams.
The 40-year-old, who has no qualifications in neurosurgery, compared his extremely dangerous experiment to the film Inception and claimed that his ‘electrode’ could one day have the potential to change the course of lucid dreams.
Gruesome footage of the procedure shows him holding his skin with paperclips as he bulldozes the back of his skull with a drill he found at a hardware store.
He implanted the chip in his brain after spending hours watching YouTube videos about neurosurgery and practicing on five sheep. He told no one about his plans.
The chip was eventually removed after five weeks in hospital.
The extremely dangerous study has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal and is not supported by a university, but Raduga claims he had to do it himself.
“I’m glad I survived, but I was prepared to die,” he told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview last year.
Now he has set his sights on another ambitious goal: enabling real-time communication in lucid dreams.
“We believe that REM sleep and related phenomena, such as lucid dreaming, will be the next big industry after AI,” Raduga says.