Keith Hearne

Biography

He is most well known for his research in lucid dreaming (in which the dreamer becomes fully aware of being in a dream, and the dream may be manipulated by mere thought) for his PhD (‘Lucid dreams - an electro-physiological and psychological study’) - completed in 1978 at Liverpool University, England. In the course of that research, he was the first person to discover a method for the dreamer to signal from within the dream (April 1975), using eye-movements - so circumventing the profound bodily paralysis of REM (dreaming) sleep. Hearne has made his PhD available for free download (www.keithhearne.com). The original chart-records are on permanent display at the Science Museum in London.

His first degree (BSc) was attained at Reading University in 1973. He then gained an MSc from Hull University in 1975 (Thesis title: ‘Visual imagery and evoked responses’).

Among Hearne’s many discoveries in his PhD work were: that the lucid dream is a true dream occurring during REM sleep; that lucidity is invariably preceded by a ‘pre-lucid REM burst’; that the dream operates in real time; that the ocular signals may act as event-markers for electro-physiological monitoring of dream events, such as ‘flying’; that respiration may also be altered volitionally in the dream.

In addition, Hearne discovered the ‘scene-shift effect’, relevant to dreams, in hypnotic imagery - a seemingly universal effect whereby (using Hearne’s procedure of getting the high-imagery subject to ‘freeze-frame’ an image ‘projected’ onto a board and then to trace the imaged scene) the individual pictorial elements automatically re-arrange themselves into a different picture for the next scene - maintaining the same number of characters, objects and colours. The implication is that the dream follows a pathway of least-effort in its construction.

Another of Hearne’s discoveries, the ‘light-switch effect’ refers to a consistent report between subjects in lucid dreams, and also in ordinary dreams, that it is not possible instantly to increase the subjective ‘brightness’ in a dream, using a switch say, although a light might be switched off and then on again. It is as if there is a ‘ceiling’ limit on dream brightness, which may vary over time, but cannot be exceeded, suddenly, at that time. The dream-producing process seems to compensate, deceptively fooling the dreamer, by providing a fake reason why the light does not come on (e.g. it is ‘fused’, or strangely ‘missing’).

Hearne suggested the F.A.S.T. (False-Awakening with State-Testing) technique for encouraging lucid dreaming in 1982. Someone enters the subject’s bedroom every half hour or so after say 6am. They may speak and then go out. Since the subject is expecting the person to enter the room, it is likely that they will at some point dream that the person is there. If the subject automatically goes through a series of state-testing tests (e.g. attempt to switch on a light (the light-switch effect can strongly indicate dreaming); attempt to ‘float’; jump off a chair, say (gravity is often reported reduced in dreams); do the objects around look normal?; is your body normal?; outside the window, is the season correct?; is it possible to alter a detail in the scenery?; can you push your hand through an object?; pinch your skin and feel for any strange texture; look in a mirror), no-matter how real the situation seems, they may discover that they are in fact dreaming - so prompting lucidity.

Hearne also invented the world’s first 'dream machine' (US patent 4,420,001), intended to produce an artificial stimulus into the dream, in order to trigger ‘lucidity’. A ‘dream machine’ is on permanent display, along with Hearne’s original ocular-signalling chart records, at the Science Museum in London.

The first academic, printed, publication of his signalling discovery and lucid dream research was: ‘Eye-movement communication from lucid dreams: a new technique and initial findings’ was in April 1977.

Hearne’s book The Dream Machine (free download at www.keithhearne.com) described his pioneering PhD, and other research concerning dream lucidity. In recent years, Hearne has collaborated with David Melbourne on a book, The Dream Oracle (published by The Foulsham Press, UK) which introduced a completely novel way of obtaining direct information from the unconscious in ordinary dreams, without needing ‘interpretation’, using Melbourne’s discovery of the ‘alphabet-dream-code’.

Background

After obtaining a BSc in psychology from Reading University, England, in 1973, Keith Hearne went to Hull University in the Autumn of that year, intending to conduct research for a PhD on hypnotic dreams, following his discovery of 'hypno-oneirography' - a technique for externalizing the internal imagery of good imagers during hypnosis.

He decided instead to use newly acquired computer equipment at Hull university to research electro-physiological aspects of visual imagery. During that time he became skilled in running a sleep laboratory.

He became interested in 'lucid' dreaming (the paradoxical conscious awareness of dreaming within the dream itself) and reasoned that it must be possible for a lucid dreamer to communicate to the world of wakefulness. A problem, though, was the inherent muscular paralysis of REM sleep. In early 1975 it suddenly occurred to Hearne that since the eye musculature is not inhibited in REM sleep, it might be possible to get subjects to signal by making deliberate ocular movements.

On the morning of 5 April 1975, wired up a lucid dream research-subject who was instructed to make a sequence of left-right eye-movements on becoming lucid. A lucid dream was reported at about 8 am, but unfortunately, the monitoring equipment had just been switched off. A week later, on the morning of 12 April 1975, the same subject had another lucid dream. The first signals in the world from a lucid dream were thus recorded.

In 1975 Hearne informed psychology departments at American universities of his findings - Stanford (W. Dement) and Chicago (A. Rechtschaffen). Rechtschaffen replied (September 1975) (23). (Years later, Stephen LaBerge at Stanford conducted similar work to that of Hearne, whose work was the first published in a peer-reviewed article).

Hearne continued to obtain more records over the next months. He wound up the work on visual imagery, submitting it for an MSc and moved to Liverpool University, where he was offered a sleep-laboratory, to research lucid dreams for this PhD, using paid subjects. During the course of this work he discovered the basic electro-physiological features of lucid dreams, and invented the first 'dream machine'. Hearne’s original ocular signaling recordings, and dream-machine are on permanent display at The Science Museum, in London).

Composer

Hearne is also a prolific writer of music. He has composed a full-length ballet in conjunction with Gillian Lynne (who choreographed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the opera, Cats, etc.). Some pieces were recorded for a CD by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Other compositions include a full Requiem, a Musical, a Guitar Concerto, a ‘Cello concerto, a Holocaust Memorial piece, an Anthem for Armenia, and several Songs (including religious pieces separate from the Requiem - Ave Maria, Pie Jesu, Nunc Dimittis, Magnificat, Our Father).

Parapsychological research

Hearne has had 18 scientific papers published in the area of parapsychology (listed below), and a book (Visions of the Future). Initially he conducted laboratory experiments using visually evoked responses (which can detect minute consistent brain-reactions to stimuli) in that field, with positive and negative results. He was the first person to study lucid dreams and ESP in the laboratory. Later he switched to the area of precognition. Among his findings was that females tend to be more prone to experiencing premonitions. Correlational analyses showed that the earlier the females had their first premonition, the more offspring they had in life. Hearne proposed a ‘group replenishment theory’, in that in the early stages of human evolution, a young female child who was able to experience future information, would give advance warning, evade a negative event, and subsequently boost the population again for the tribe. From his data-base, Hearne identified a seemingly very accurate sub-group of precognition - ‘media-announcement premonitions’ - whereby, typically, a person sees or hears (say from a TV programme, radio news item, or newspaper placard) an item of news that is mystifyingly not repeated, but appears days later in the usual way. The event had not happened at the time of the newscast. Hearne studied seemingly gifted ‘seers’ and investigated their specific premonitions. He also conducted a survey of reported premonitions, and a personality assessment of those who have them. On the DVD ‘Premonition’, in the ‘Bonus items’, Hearne is interviewed about the topic.

Hypnotherapy

Hearne is the Founder/Principal of the European College of Hypnotherapy and a therapist of renown. He has lectured widely, and introduced several major new therapeutic techniques. He teaches hypnotherapy, as well as the more esoteric subjects of past-life therapy and spirit releasing therapy. He is on the advisory board of the UK’s General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC).

Books

Dr Hearne has authored or co-authored six books to date:

Other publications

Additional information

Full information about Dr Keith Hearne, including his scientific discoveries, and music samples and orchestral scores may be found at: http://www.keithhearne.com