Eva Buto

Staff Writer

evie@psu.edu

Lucid dreaming is a state of consciousness where you are asleep but aware that you are sleeping and able to control your dreams. Most people in dreams see things play out as a movie: things happen and you react to them with no regard to what you actually want to occur. Most people will wake up if they become aware that they are dreaming. The lucky few that do not, however, are able to control what happens in their dreams both in their surroundings and their actions. Eric Wollberg, the co-founder of Prophetic along with Wesley Berry, claims that he had a lucid dream when he was 12 years old and found it to be “just about the most profound experience I’ve ever had.” Anecdotally, many people report mind-blowing experiences with lucid dreaming such as being able to fly or have conversations with people that they are unable to have in real life.

The goal of the Prophetic company is to allow people to lucid dream more easily with a wearable headband piece. This headwear will send electrical impulses while a person is sleeping, which will allegedly help a person reach a lucid dream state and stay in it. These impulses stimulate the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is said to be specifically involved in lucid dreaming. The headband also measures brain activity and sends the data to an app on a mobile device. It claims to be comfortable to wear during sleep with a high-density battery for ease of use. 

Wollberg and Berry believe that their goals go beyond purely scientific and into the spiritual realm. The blog on their site talks about both the visible conscious and the deeply extending subconscious. They claim that lucid dreaming is more than just fun and interesting: people who lucid dream have “heightened assertiveness, an increased sense of autonomy, and elevated self-confidence.” [Doll 2009]. With many disclaimers about not replacing professional mental help, Prophetic claims that lucid dreaming could help people with posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and therefore that their product could help them. Distressing nightmares relating to trauma is a hallmark symptom of PTSD, and is included in the current diagnostic criteria. If a person suffering with PTSD could realize that they are dreaming during these and change their response to the nightmare, it could help them process their traumatic experiences. Their LinkedIn page states that “Prometheus stole fire from the gods, we will steal dreams from the prophets.” The company seems to believe their work is not only scientific, but also enlightening in a metaphorical and spiritual way.

Prophetic is facing scrutiny and backlash for their claims. On Sept. 16, 2023, 124 researchers and scientists signed a letter stating that the integrated information theory of consciousness, which Prophetic’s current research is based on, needs to be labeled as a pseudoscience. Prophetic’s blog fired back at these claims, calling them “Machiavellian” and stated that scientific misinformation is becoming a buzzword to discredit genuine scientific research and new theories. 

Despite the backlash, Prophetic is still moving forward in getting their product on the market. Right now, they are in the alpha testing phase and are looking for experienced lucid dreamers to help fine tune their product. They plan to do a major study on ultrasounds and how they affect the mind in 2024 and engineer their product. Prophetic’s model will not be available for sale until winter of 2025, although they do currently have a waiting list for those interested in getting the product as soon as possible. The question of consciousness is a huge one, and this product could make major waves in the field of neuroscience if it works.