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The Story
The lucid-dreaming study found an intriguing signal, but ten trials cannot make precognition reliable.
The study is an intriguing but very small test, not a reliable information channel. Its ten formal trials and multiple judging systems leave room for chance, subjective similarity, and analytic flexibility. Broader precognition research also faces replication and methodological criticism, so the result does not yet show that lucid dreams can consistently identify future random images.
- The formal experiment comprised two sets of five trials, making the evidence a small case study rather than a robust reliability test.
- Chris French describes earlier lucid-dreaming studies as small-scale and marginally significant, with a larger investigation needed for firmer conclusions.
- Critiques of precognition research identify replication problems, selective filtering risks, and the absence of a cogent theoretical explanation.
Deeper Insight
The signal is small, strange, and unfinished. Replication gets the final word.
Before a random-number generator chose one image from 478, a lucid dreamer sketched what they saw. Some AI judges scored above chance on one five-trial set, but ten trials and flexible judging leave plenty of room for coincidence. The next test needs independent teams, preregistration, and no star performer carrying the case.
- The originating report describes a lucid dreamer seeking a future image before a random-number generator selected the target from 478 images.
- A 2017 meta-analysis reported positive dream–target correspondences across Maimonides and independent dream-ESP studies, while also discussing methodological differences.
- A 2025 preprint reported target-identification rates of 28.6% and 31.4% against a 25% chance expectation in dreaming conditions, though it was a preprint.
Sources · 8
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- 1 Forum, video, personal
- 3 Other / unclassified
What do these mean?
- Journals & institutions. Published in a peer-reviewed journal, or from a university, government body, court or other institution.
- Forum, video, personal. Forums, social posts, video, blogs and personal accounts.
- Other / unclassified. A site we have not classified yet. This says nothing good or bad about it.
Featured · Analysis · noetic.org
Recent Research on Precognitive Lucid Dreaming
Other
People have reported precognitive dreams since the beginning of recorded history. Sometimes literal, sometimes symbolic or a blend of the two, these dreams have suggested to many that the nature of time and consciousness seems much more complex than materialistic perspectives. Unfortunately, science has largely neglected precognitive dreaming since it often happened randomly and outside of any con
Read sourceAnalysis · doi.org
On the correspondence between dream content and target material under laboratory conditions: A meta-analysis of dream-ESP studies, 1966-2016
Journal · peer-reviewed
# On the correspondence between dream content and target material under laboratory conditions: A meta-analysis of dream-ESP studies, 1966-2016 International journal of dream research. Published: 2017-01-26. Review. 29 citations. ## Authors - Lance Storm (The University of Adelaide): h-index 12; 926
Read sourceAnalysis · journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
Other
Dreaming precognitively 326 International Journal of Dream Research Volume 18, No. 2 (2025) I J o D R 1. Introduction Conscious precognition can be obtained in different states of consciousness (for a review of conscious and unconscious precognition, see Mossbridge, 2023). Precognition in a dreamin
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