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for those of you who may not know, "a lucid dream is a dream in which you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. You realize that your body is asleep and that each object and character around you is a creation of your mind. Once the dreamer has achieved this state of awareness, they can control
their surroundings and the content of their dream to varying extents."
i've only had a few of these dreams, but boy oh boy are they fun. depending (i guess) on your personality and psyche, you can exert great control over what's going on in the dream as soon as you figure out it's a dream - which creates a feeling of liberation and great power. think Neo at the end of the Matrix.
the invention can be implemented in either of two embodiments. the first (this is what inspired the idea) is a transdermal patch, much like a nicotine patch, that pumps in some kind of stimulant that accomplishes/increases the possibility of the desired effect. the second would be a small device, preferably smaller than the size of a small tennis ball, which you stick inside your pillow or leave near your bedframe - this device would accomplish the same thing as the transdermal patch by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation.
for those of you interested in more practical ways about inducing lucid dreams, check out some of the linked resources. one 'procedure' that's occasionally worked for me in the past is described below:
1) as you get into bed, tell yourself - repeat, in your mind - that you WILL RECALL YOUR DREAMS. a lot of friends who have trouble remembering their dreams have gotten past that by taking this simple step.
2) after you've hammered in the remembrance of dreams, begin thinking about controlling your dreams; controlling your life; controlling your dreams. let the two thoughts commingle as you go to sleep
3) fall asleep, dammit.
(??) Lucid Dreams Intro
http://members.aol....nka/lucidintro.html
[screwtape, Oct 04 2004]
Lucid Dreams - Accounts
http://www.templeofdreams.com/lucid.html
[screwtape, Oct 04 2004]
The "Lucidity Institute"
http://www.lucidity.com/
yeah, there's an institute for this [screwtape, Oct 04 2004]
prior art
http://www.halfbake...20dreams_20inductor
same end; different means [screwtape, Oct 04 2004]
excellent site
http://www.dreaming...om/introinduce.html
cool 'methods' to help induce LD; gets pretty zany at the end [screwtape, Oct 04 2004]
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wake up, you're dreaming again [screwtape] |
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Wow, that would've been a great first one! I've plummeted to my death a few times as well. Usually I achieve lucidity when large groups of people are throwing rocks at me though. Weird. |
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I'm sorry screwtape, but I'm gonna have to bone this, because even though such devices exist, at the moment there seems to be an element of magic to both of the methods you describe. |
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"I'll blow this place sky high and be home in time for cornflakes!" |
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i'd buy this but it may create the problem of sleep abusers using the lucid dreams as a kind of halucinagenic (sic) , i'd still buy it though |
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//I'm sorry screwtape, but I'm gonna have to bone this, because even though such devices exist, at the moment there seems to be an element of magic to both of the methods you describe.// |
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i think it's a tenable idea; it's been shown that 24 hour nicotine patches almost ALWAYS cause very, very graphic dreams in most users. most of these dreams tend to be extremely sexual in nature - so sexual that some users are forced to either a) quit the patch immediately or b) continue using the patch indefinitely. others have horrific nightmares. |
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in re: the tennis ball TMS, that one's a little bit more out there. i participated in a bioinstrumentation independent study once, a program in which i used a magnetic tms on a live subject daily (my professor), and it was pretty much like killing a gnat with a sledge-hammer. |
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sidenote: my second lucid dream was super kickass. most people simply just start flying around their very first time, myself included. but the second time i had one, i went nuts, flying not just in the sky, but through space wayyyy up, into and through stars, pushing whole planets and comets out of their orbits. it was really neat. im sure some psychoanalyst would have a ball rackin my brain. |
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Apparently they can cause "vivid" dreams, but so can eating pizza just before bedtime, or leaving your electric blanket on it's highest setting while you sleep. Vivid dreams don't necessarily lead to lucid dreams, and until you can explain in greater detail exactly how this stimulant can induce them, I'll consider it magic. Sorry. |
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For some reason flying has never made me realise I was dreaming. |
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there's a good reason why you never hit the ground when you dream of falling. |
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I did, and it doesn't kill you, er, me. |
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// I did, and it doesn't kill you, er, me. // |
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you think that's bad? i had a dream once in which (get this), i was shot in the head point blank from behind. i swear, i felt myself dying slowly...and as i drew in my final breath, i woke up. seriously creepy~ |
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one trick i've heard to give yourself the ability to dream lucidly is this: (i haven't tried this) When you're awake (of course) draw an "X" on your hand. Whenever you see this X on your hand, ask yourself "Am i awake or asleep dreaming?" It may several days of having a giant X on your hand, but a night might come along where you look at your hand (in your dream), see the X, and you'll know to ask yourself if you're dreaming or not, decide that you are dreaming, and voila! You're in. |
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Re: falling... The only dream I have of falling is a recollection of actually falling off a cliff. I hit the ground then, and I hit ground if I dream it. It’s the reason I think it's funny when thumbwax says parachutes are for sissies. It’s my only nightmare, yet I still climb. |
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Back on topic... Lucid dreams are a blast! Inducing them is a cool idea, but how? |
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Play a looped recording of you telling yourself that you’re dreaming all night? |
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//
I'm falling from an airplane.
I can see the plane receding. I can see the ground far below and as I glance down I can see that I'm in my underwear.
I have no parachute and no recollection of having become airborne in the first place, and suddenly it dawns on me. I'm dreaming.
I thoroughly enjoyed the freefall and as I hit the dirt I woke up laughing.
This was my first lucid dream, (for some reason they always seem to be about flying or falling), if you could figure a way to induce them with transcranial magnetic stimulation, I'd buy it.
2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 14 2003
// |
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accidentally hit delete - sorry [2 fries shy of a happy meal] :O |
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<shrugs shoulders> No worries. |
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screwtape - I too am a lucid dreamer, and it is very hard to describe what a lucid dream is like to someone who has not had one, but in fact, as you are aware, the sensation is that of being actually awake (in fact, in my first lucid dream, I still could not believe I was dreaming, even after managing to push my hand through a wall). Worst one I had was a lucid dream being chased by a werewolf through a shopping malll...yikes!
Agree that flying is the best. Many years ago, there was an article in the now defunct OMNI magazine all about lucid dreams. It had several ways of getting them to occur, but the best one I found is the following:
Most dreams include elements of things which happen to us in the day, so create a memory which is a trigger point for becoming aware you are dreaming. During the day, look at your watch as often as you can. Each time you do, try and make thr hands go backwards just by thinking about it. When they don't say to yourself (and saying it is important as it emphasises this moment in your brain): "The hands are not going backwards. I am not dreaming. The next time I look at my wathc and the hands do go backwards I am going to know that I am dreaming and wake up". In this sense "wake-up" meaning your dream-self becoming conscious. Do this as often as you can. You will find, that after a few days, you will do this in your dream, the hands will go backwards, and you will wake up and become self-aware.
You can stay lucid longer if you try "centering" yourself before you start flying around. Stick out your arms (in your dream) and spin round and round, thinking of a particular place you want to be (always choose the same place). This linking to a familiar place and spinning semms to have the effect of heightening the awareness, and making the aware state more stable (as you probably have found out, the lucidity can slip away to become just another vivid dream quite easily).
Incidentally, having experienced lucid dreams first hand, (including one where i floated up over my bed and looked down on myself) I do believe that a lot of near death experiences, out of body experiences, vision s and hallucinations can be explained by people lucid dreaming. I knew I was dreaming the first time and still thought I was awake and walking round the house. in addition (as you will kow screwtape) memories of lucid dreams are as clear as memories of real events - they are not like memories of dreams which tend to fade very quickly, or not be remembered at all. I can still remembr every lucid dream I have ever had as if it had really happened.
What would this feel like if you didn't know about lucid dreams, and you had one? I guarantee you would be not be able to be convinced that this had not REALLY happened. |
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I have had an out-of-body experience but it was not part of a lucid dream; I was able to see something that happened miles away that I was otherwise totally unaware of. |
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I did say a lot, not all. But how do you know it wasn't??? I've read a bit about some of these, and certainly in some cases the person who has a "premonition" of a distant event has actually subconsicously picked up the information during the day, and this information has then risen to the surface when they were dreaming, so it felt like a premonition, when it was just a recollection of unknown information, if you see what I mean. Not saying this is the case in yours, because haven't heard any of the facts, but if you combined the phenomenon with a lucid dream, it would appear to the person involved as being a real out of body experience. It is difficult to get across, unless you've had one and been made aware of it, you really would not know yourself whether it was a lucid dream or not - it really feels like you are really awake. Clearly, if you weren't asleep when it happened then that would explain it! |
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my OoBE happened a long time ago and I don't think I actually fell asleep; I always remember it as being during a hypnogogic state. in my mind, I travelled several hundreds of miles *home* and *saw* someone (restlessly) asleep in my bed. when I got home some week or so later, I asked my mother who had stayed and slept in my bed. my mother was totally incredulous and told me that a neighbour's husband had died suddenly & she had not wanted to spend the first night alone. |
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//parachutes are for sissies// |
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Let's see you survive impact at 120 mph...Besides that, while some of the tamer parachute designs can be...well...tame, there are some high-performance designs that do much more than just slow you down. There are some rather tiny parachutes (smaller than the average bedsheet) that are really more of an inflatable wing than an aerodecelerator, which are capable (in experienced hands) of some amazing performance, up to and including barrel rolls! |
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The lucid dreams I've had have been distinctly unnerving, because it takes some time to work out that the dream hasn't actually happened in the real world. When you're dreaming about other people, that can be problematic. |
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//During the day, look at your watch as often as you can. Each time you do, try and make thr hands go backwards just by thinking about it.// |
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Another useful technique along these lines, one that I've found works well for me, is based on the fact that words are weird in dreams. You might 'read' something the first time, but if you try to re-read something, the words very often either change or are too 'slippery' to focus on. So I make it a habit to look twice at signs, digital clocks, etc. during the day. When I dream and I can't read the sign clearly the second time, I become aware I'm dreaming. |
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The part I find trickier is becoming aware I'm dreaming but staying in the dream rather than waking up completely. |
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The best representation of a very real hallucination (similar to lucid dreaming) I've seen was the season finale of 'House'. Even if you don't like the show in general, you'll appreciate that episode. |
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I have a constantly recurring dream that I'm 'swimming' around the room. Always breaststroke. I've just had a look at some of the dreams posted on the LDE site in the link, and this 'swimming' seems quite common. Looks like it might be quite easy for me to become lucid. Woohoo! I'm going to bed now, will report back in the morning... |
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Chances are, just reading this will set off lucid deams... trick is to recognise it when you are. |
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Had no luck last night. I 'woke up' several times during the night, but whether this was me trying to accept I was dreaming, or me actually waking up, I don't know. I'm just glad that [screwtape] made me aware of lucid dreams. I would never have found out if it weren't for the HB. |
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