An Historical View of “Dreams and the Ways to Direct Them; Practical Observations” by Marie-Jean-Leoa Lecog, le Marquis d’Hervey-Saint-Denys

Abstract

In 1867, Librairie d’Amyot at Paris published a book entitled Les Rêves a 1es Moyens de les Diriger; Observations pratiques (1) ( transl.: Dreams and the Ways to Direct Them; Practical Observations.) Henceforth we will refer to it as Les Rêves. Originally the work appeared anonymously but eventually it authorship was attributed to the famous French scientist, le Marquis d’Hervey-Saint-Denys. With its publication, for the first time in Western history, a detailed personal report on lucid dreaming over a period of 32 year period was available. Among other things, St. Denys describes his interest in dreams from the age of thirteen, how he develops lucidity in them, and how he partially masters the direction of his dreams. Almost every book on lucid dreams refers to St. Denys work (e.g. Patricia Garfield (2), Celia Green (3), and Stephen LaBerge (4) & (5)). Although we may consider the author of Les Rêves the father of modem lucid dream research, very little information about the book or its author are available. Thus the purpose of this article is to present new information as a result of a search for the original publication of Les Rêves.