Celia Green

Celia Elizabeth Green (born 1935[1][2]) is a British parapsychologist and writer on parapsychology.[3]

Biography

Green's parents were both primary school teachers, who together authored a series of geography textbooks which became known as The Green Geographies.[4] Green completed a B.A., M.A., and B. Litt. from Oxford University.[1] She studied psychical research at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1958 to 1960.[1]

From 1957 to 1962, Green held the post of Research Secretary at the Society for Psychical Research in London.[1][5][6] In 1961, Green founded and became the Director of the Institute of Psychophysical Research.[1] The Institute's areas of interest were initially listed as philosophy, psychology, theoretical physics, and ESP.[7] However, its principal work during the sixties and seventies concerned hallucinations and other quasi-perceptual experiences. In 1982, while Green was the director, the Institute investigated psychokinetic phenomena.[8]

Writing

In 1968 Green published Lucid Dreams, a study of a phenomenon described by Green as when a dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming.[9][10] The possibility of conscious insight during dreams had previously been treated with scepticism by some philosophers[11] and psychologists[12] and scientific skepticism continued after her book was published.[3]

Green collated both previously published first-hand accounts and the results of longitudinal studies of four subjects of her own. In Lucid Dreams, she proposed a correlation between lucid dreams and the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep.[10][13][14] Green also raised the possibility of training subjects, lucidly dreaming during sleep, to exercise some control over their motor functions, in order to signal to the experimenter.[15] The correlation with REM sleep was confirmed in 1975 by Keith Hearne, who devised an experiment in which a lucidly dreaming subject signalled to him using a pre-agreed set of eye movements.[14]

In 1968, Green also published a collection of 400 first-hand accounts of out-of-body experiences for the benefit of scientists interested in studying the phenomena.[16][17]

With Charles McCreery, Green co-authored the 1975 book Apparitions and the 1994 book Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep.[18][19][20] Apparitions is a taxonomy of 'apparitions', or hallucinations in which the viewpoint of the subject was not ostensibly displaced, based on a collection of 1500 first-hand accounts.[21]

Scientific reception

Green’s research on lucid dreams has been widely recognized by other psychologists. In his historical overview of the field, Stephen LaBerge credited Green’s 1968 book on the subject with providing the foundational conceptual vocabulary and clinical anecdotes that re-energized modern research into the phenomenon.[22]

Sleep researcher Keith Hearne acknowledged that his initial knowledge about lucid dreams directly originated from reading Green’s work.[23]

Psychologist Harry Hunt of Brock University also praised Green’s pioneering research arguing that “her work has offered us the most sophisticated phenomenology we have”.[24]

Green’s 1969 philosophical critique The Human Evasion received positive attention from national literary figures, with reviewer Philip Toynbee praising it for its ‘sparkle”.[25]

Her pioneering work on lucid dreams and false awakenings has received popular attention via press articles and radio and TV programmes. She appeared, for example, in a 1983 Radio 4 programme entitled ‘The Dream Makers’[26], and again in a 1985 episode of the BBC1 Everyman series entitled ‘Dreamscape’.[27]

Green’s book Apparitions received mixed reviews. Kirkus Reviews criticised it for not attempting to verify the phenomena, and regarded ‘the efforts at objective classification’ as ‘minimal’.[28] It was reviewed more favourably by Anthony Powell in The Telegraph, who called it ‘an excellent piece of documentation, soberly treated’.[29]

Aphorisms

Her aphorisms have been published in The Decline and Fall of Science[30] and Advice to Clever Children.[31] Ten are included in the Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams,[32] and three in the Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations.[33] They have been cited in broadsheets.[34][35][36][37]

CDs

The CD titled Lucid Dreams 0096, which includes parts of the book Lucid Dreams narrated by Green for the label Em:t, was released in 1995.[38][39] Earlier Green had contributed a nine-minute track to a compilation CD put out by the same recording label.[40] The track was entitled "In the Extreme" and consisted of readings by the author from her books, The Human Evasion, and Advice to Clever Children.

Selected works

Books

  • Lucid Dreams (1968) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research .
  • Out-of-the-body Experiences (1968) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research[16]
  • The Human Evasion (1969) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research[41]
  • The Decline and Fall of Science (1976) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research .
  • Advice to Clever Children (1981) Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research.
  • The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem (2003) Oxford: Oxford Forum.
  • Letters from Exile: Observations on a Culture in Decline (2004) Oxford: Oxford Forum.
  • The Corpse and the Kingdom (2023) Oxford: Oxford Forum.

with Charles McCreery:

  • Apparitions (1975) London: Hamish Hamilton.[28]
  • Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep (1994) London: Routledge.[42]

Selected papers

  • 'Waking dreams and other metachoric experiences', Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 15, 1990, pp. 123–128.
  • 'Are mental events preceded by their physical causes?' (with Grant Gillett), Philosophical Psychology, 8, 1995, pp. 333–340.
  • 'Freedom and the exceptional child', Educational Notes, No. 26, Libertarian Alliance, 1993. Available as an Online PDF
  • 'Hindrances to the progress of medical and scientific research', in Medical Science and the Advancement of World Health, ed. R. Lanza, Praeger, New York, 1985.

Translations

  • René Sudre. Traité de Parapsychologie, published as Treatise on Parapsychology (1960)[1]

References and notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Green, Celia Elizabeth (1935-)". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "77170613". viaf.org. Virtual International Authority File. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 Heines, Vivienne (13 October 1986). "Lucid dreaming: Making fantasies work for you". Houston Chronicle. A decade ago, LaBerge came across a book called Lucid Dreams by Celia Green, an English parapsychologist. Since many scientists were skeptical that lucidity occurred during the dream state, LaBerge went to the sleep lab to prove that lucid dreaming occurred during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep—the time when most dreams occur. ProQuest 295270295
  4. ↑ The Oxford Times, 8 September 1989, Obituary: Mr William Green, Headmaster and author.
  5. ↑ Renée Haynes, The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982, London: McDonald, 1982, p.52.
  6. ↑ "London's Ghost Tales Diminishing". Reading Eagle. 6 December 1959. p. 62. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  7. ↑ The Psychophysical Research Unit, Oxford: undated pamphlet of 3 pages, in circulation ca 1962-1965
  8. ↑ "Calling All Poltergeists..." Record-Journal. UPI. 15 November 1982. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Green, Celia (1968). Lucid Dreams. Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research. p. 15.
  10. 1 2 Stumbrys, Tadas (2018). "Bridging Lucid Dream Research and Transpersonal Psychology: Toward Transpersonal Studies of Lucid Dreams". Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. 50 (2): 176–193. The first scientific book on the subject was published by Celia Green (1968) who also worked in the field of psychic research. In her book entitled Lucid Dreams, Green provided a comprehensive summary of the phenomenon describing its perceptual features and associations with out-of-body experience (OBE). Additionally, she introduced the notion of pre-lucid dreaming and proposed that lucid dreams are likely to occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. ProQuest 2234966136
  11. ↑ Cf. Malcolm, N., Dreaming. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959, pp.48–50.
  12. ↑ See, e.g., Hartmann, E., 'Dreams and other hallucinations: an approach to the underlying mechanism,' in Siegal, R.K. and West, L.J., eds., Hallucinations. New York: Wiley, 1975.
  13. ↑ Green, Celia (1968). Lucid Dreams. Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research. p. 128.
  14. 1 2 Boggan, Steve (27 January 2021). "Want to master the art of being awake in a dream?". The Independent.
  15. ↑ Green, Celia (1968). Lucid Dreams. Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research. p. 130.
  16. 1 2 "Probably an Eerie Feeling". The Press-Courier. UPI. 1 December 1968. p. 6. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  17. ↑ "Psychics Strive To Erase Stacked-Deck Image". St. Petersburg Times. 9 November 1968. p. 10-A. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  18. ↑ "Dream dreams". The Guardian. 19 October 1994. These case histories have been edited from Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep, by Celia Green and Charles McCreery. Published by Routledge ProQuest 293528536
  19. ↑ Ilman, John (19 October 1994). "Self-awareness in dreams is more common than we think. So why do those who inhabit a shimmering nocturnal world keep quiet about it?". The Guardian. ProQuest 293508330
  20. ↑ Simons, Paul (26 December 1994). "Balls of fire, rain of fish, and other very weird phenomena". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Psychologists Celia Green and Charles McCreery put a lot of these sightings down to an unusual state of sleep. In their recent book Lucid Dreaming (published in Britain by Rotledge [sic]) they explain that the dreamers think they are wide awake but all their electrical brain waves show they're in a deep sleep and their visions are, in fact, dreams. ProQuest 391872813
  21. ↑ Green, C., and McCreery, C., Apparitions, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975.
  22. ↑ LaBerge, Stephen (1986). Lucid Dreaming. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 55–56.
  23. ↑ Hearne, Keith (May 1982). "Keith Hearne's Work on Lucid Dreaming". Lucidity Letter. 1 (3): 15.
  24. ↑ Hunt, Harry (June 1986). "Empirical and Theoretical Analysis of the Psychological Content of Lucid Dreams". Lucidity Letter. 5 (1).
  25. ↑ Toynbee, Philip (18 March 1973). "Out There or Down Here?". The Observer.
  26. ↑ The Dream Makers (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 19 January 1983.
  27. ↑ "Dreamscape". Everyman. 10 November 1985. BBC. BBC1.
  28. 1 2 "Apparitions". Kirkus Reviews. 1 February 1976. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  29. ↑ Powell, Anthony (17 July 1975). "Walking Dreams". The Daily Telegraph.
  30. ↑ Cf. Green, C., The Decline and Fall of Science. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976.
  31. ↑ Cf. Green, C., Advice to Clever Children. Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research, 1981.
  32. ↑ M.J. Cohen, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams, London: Penguin Books, 2001. Pg 452
  33. ↑ J.M. and M.J. Cohen, eds., The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations, London: Penguin Books, 2nd edition 1980. Pg 140
  34. ↑ "The Last Word". The Times. 8 November 2021.
  35. ↑ Kesterton, Michael (13 May 1997). "Social Studies". The Globe and Mail.
  36. ↑ Kesterton, Michael (18 February 2004). "Social Studies". The Globe and Mail.
  37. ↑ Kesterton, Michael (3 January 2005). "Social Studies". The Globe and Mail.
  38. ↑ Lucid Dreams 0096. Nottingham: Em:t, 1995. 5025989 960027.
  39. ↑ Gray, Louise (11 August 1995). "Lucid pink noise". New Statesman & Society. Green reads sections from her book, Lucid Dreams, to a background of music that has a fluctuating, if constant, presence. Bursts of pink noise (an aural static, with the hard frequencies cut out), a sound that Green uses in experiments to stimulate lucid dreaming, is featured. ProQuest 224376255
  40. ↑ Em:t 2295. Nottingham: Em:t, 1995. 5025989 229520.
  41. ↑ "NOTED WITH PLEASURE: [Review]". The New York Times. 26 January 1986. ... He is quoted in The Human Evasion, by Celia Green (Institute of Psychophysical Research/State Mutual Book and Periodical Service). ... ProQuest 425763801
  42. ↑ Reviews of Lucid Dreaming
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