Lucid Dreaming & Virtual Reality as Means to Explore Gender & Sexuality (transgender perspective)

Lucid Dream Exploration - Sexuality and Gender (10.5 minutes) – The RaRaRabbit

This is a great video by someone I follow on YouTube and Twitter who has fascinating perspectives on lucid dreaming. In this video and a follow-up (below) he explains how lucid dreaming helped him explore gender and sexuality as a transgender man.

Lucid dreaming really helped me…because I could use my dream time to experiment with living as, and being perceived as, male. I could change my appearance to get an idea of what I would look like further down the line. And this helped to alleviate a lot of the dysphoria I was feeling about my body, because I had this little period during the night where I could experience myself in a male body. As well as having this physical representation I also got to experiment with socialization as male…basically I had this little simulator where I could exist as male before I did in the waking world.

He elaborates on that and also talks in general about how lucid dreaming is helpful for experimenting with aspects of gender and sexuality in a safe environment where they won’t be judged or endangered.

That video is from a couple of years ago; more recently he added a follow up video:

I Dream of Dicks (7 minutes) – The RaRaRabbit

Virtual Reality can be similarly helpful for people exploring gender and sexuality. Here is an article by a transgender woman explaining how VR helped her in such explorations, though in her case it was a mixed bag.

For a Trans Person, Virtual Reality Can Be a Conflicting Experience – Laura Kate Dale

Living as a transgender woman, Virtual Reality headsets have been both a blessing and a curse since they came into my life. They’ve made me more conscious than ever before of my body…There is certainly a lot to be said about the potential therapeutic value of VR for gender-experimenting individuals. Experimenting with gender presentation in the real world comes with risks, from the emotional risks attached to acquiring gender appropriate clothing to the risks of being “caught” while experimenting with gender-presented interactions in public…Virtual Reality provides a space to experiment with some of those aspects of identity in a much more private manner. That added sense of safety, security and cohesiveness made it a therapeutic way to explore my own sense of dysphoria.

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility, everyone! (March 31st of each year.)

~ArthurG

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