The sci-fi adventure hit, Inception, has sparked massive new interest in the concept of lucid dreaming.
Lucidity means becoming conscious and self-aware in your dreams, turning the dreamscape into a vivid virtual reality. This enables you to control and manipulate the dream world and its characters in any way you like.
In the movie, Cobb penetrates other people's minds using a fictional piece of technology that enables shared dreams, called PASIV. Inception's creators had to make up an elaborate set of rules to create drama using PASIV. These were rules that don't exist in real life - such as, in order to wake up you have to kill yourself in the dream! Or if you die in a level 2 dream (a dream-within-a-dream) you will be sent to your own personal dream limbo for eternity... Suffice to say that none of this is true in the real world of lucid dreaming.
Check out this scene from Inception, in which Cobb explains about self awareness in dreams. When Ariadne (Ellen Page) realizes she is dreaming, she is shocked and afraid, and her subconscious causes the shared dream to collapse around them...
The dream explorers in Inception use special totems for their reality checks. They know their totem object so well, that if it is slighter heavier, or smaller, or doesn't obey the usual laws of physics... then they must be asleep and dreaming.
You can use your own totem if you like. I prefer to look at my hands. An ideal totem is a digital watch; not only does it chime on the hour (to remind you to check your reality) which you can hear in your sleep, it is also electronic. For some reason, electronics don't work in dreams. Light switches, in particular, often fail to function. And because a digital watch display requires the language centers of the brain to be active, telling the time can be very difficult indeed... This is a dead giveaway that you are dreaming.
In your dreamworld, you face a similar task. Your subconscious will go to extraordinary lengths to convince you that your dream is actually reality.
In Christopher Nolan's Inception, there is a major emphasis on spotting the difference between dreams and reality. You can practice this yourself: because if you have more self-awareness in everyday life, you will be able to recognize the dream state more easily. And when that happens... you become lucid.
By adopting this questioning mentality during the day, you can retain it at night as you sleep. Very soon, you will notice more inconsistencies in your dreams, and you will find it easier to become lucidly aware...
And when you are lucid in a dream - anything can happen! You can fly over great cities, breathe under water, teleport to the edge of the universe, travel through time, and interact with dream figures. The realism of a lucid dream is astonishing, becoming more vivid as you become more aware.
This scientifically-proven phenomenon of conscious dreaming is accessible to anyone who wants it, with simple techniques and mental training.
Ask yourself if you are dreaming, right now. Look at the palms of your hands, and try to push your fingers through a solid object. Is everything normal? By performing this simple reality check several times a day, you are training your brain to become more self aware. This mentality filters through to the dreamworld, so that you may even have your first lucid dream tonight.
Lucidity also gives you direct access to your subconscious mind. This is a deeply insightful place to explore, one-on-one, inside your own personal dream world. Interacting with your subconscious in a lucid dream can change the way you view yourself and the world around you, just as Cobb (DiCaprio) did in his dreams.
But what of dream telepathy and shared dreams? Is it possible to communicate with each other in lucid dreams? Robert Waggoner, advanced lucid dreamer and author of Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, believes it might be. He discusses this idea at length in his book, and provides real life studies to support his case.
Click Here! for more information on lucid dreaming and to learn how to become a lucid dreaming expert.
Tuesday 8 April 2014
Sunday 6 April 2014
How To Remember Lucid Dreams
Learning how to remember your dreams is absolutely essential if you want to learn lucid dreaming. Every lucid dreamer should keep a dream journal in which they record multiple dreams per week. It also helps to sketch some dream symbols and scenes when you feel the urge.|You can take such herbs and supplements from time to time to help produce more vivid dreams and test the full range and power of your dreaming mind. However, this is an optional extra and I wouldn't suggest that anyone needs to take such pills in order to become a better lucid dreamer. Experimenting with dream supplements is entirely up to you.
If you only sleep five or six hours per night, you are depriving yourself of those extra long phases of REM sleep, which are important for processing memories and new information, as well as the therapeutic side of dreaming (such as coming to terms with emotional trauma). What's more, most of my lucid dreams occur from 6 am onwards, and the longest and most lucid dreams occur during lie-ins beyond 8 hours.
Meditation leads to greater self awareness; during the act of meditation, afterwards in waking life, and while asleep in dreams. This can lead to greater dream recall on its own. What's more, if you practice meditation while dropping off to sleep and other time in the night, you'll have the ideal chance to place affirmations such as "I can remember my dreams".It was only when I started writing down and sketching my dreams that I could remember my dreams going back years. If I don't write them down, however, they disappear in minutes or hours and the magic is often lost forever. That goes for some lucid dreams too.
Does it come naturally to you - or do you use specific techniques to boost your dream recall?|If you are continually sleep deprived, you can give up on lucid dreaming right now. For lucidity to occur, your brain should be relaxed and well-rested. What's more, you should have a good eight hours of sleep underway before you can enjoy long periods of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep in the morning when lucid dreams are more common.
The first dream of the night is the shortest, lasting just a few minutes and sandwiched between phases of deep sleep. You're unlikely to remember any of this dream. The second dream cycle occurs about 90 minutes later and is a little longer in length. But it's not until your fourth or fifth REM cycle (from around six hours onwards), that you experience long phases of dream sleep ranging 45-60 minutes.Repeat this trick every 90 minutes until you get up for the day. By morning, you should have written down four or five detailed dreams. This is an amazing technique that significantly boosts my dream recall and I strongly recommend it. Your efforts to wake up every 90 minutes will be rewarded with strong memories of vivid dreams - and of people, places and plots that you had no idea were running through your head.
Have a notebook by your bedside and when your alarm goes off, immediately write down all the details of the dream you were having. If nothing comes to mind, it's likely you weren't dreaming, so just relax and lay quietly for a few minutes and think about what you'd like to dream about next. When dream journaling, write in the present tense and underline unusual characters, symbols, scenes, plots, themes, or emotions. Then set your alarm to go off in 90 minutes' time and go back to sleep.The following techniques will teach you how to remember your dreams more frequently, even if you are terrible at remembering dreams - or think you don't dream at all. Trust me, you do! The average person, sleeping for eight hours per night, will experience 100 minutes of dream time.
To lucid dream, it's very important that you can remember at least one vivid dream per night. This increases your self-awareness while dreaming, and most importantly, it means you can actually remember your lucid dreams.Dream supplements and herbs are taken primarily to increase dream intensity - and one obvious side-effect of this is enhanced dream recall. Dream herbs like Calea Zacatechichi and nutritional supplements like Vitamin B6 produce intensified dreams in which you can have greater self-awareness. You will wake up in the morning with highly memorable dreams to report, and as a result, occasionally lucid dreams too.
The interaction can sometimes be more complicated, though not necessarily desirable. A heavy night of alcohol, for instance, suppresses REM sleep and yet when you're no longer drunk, the body compensates by entering REM rebound the next time you sleep. This can lead to intense dreams and even nightmares.|Many types of drugs can affect your dream life.
Now that you are getting sufficient REM sleep, here is a much more active way to remember your dreams. It involves a dream journal. As lucid dreamers, we are embarking on fascinating inner journeys - and those journeys of discovery are definitely worth documenting.
If your lifestyle doesn't cater to this from Monday to Friday, at least allow yourself a REM rebound on the weekends. Give yourself an extra two hours of sleep and that will be prime lucid dreaming time. If you can't afford to get up late, try going to bed earlier and schedule yourself at least 8-9 hours of sleep once a week.|The act of meditation can appear hard to crack on the surface. A great way to start meditating is listening to brainwave entertainment which relaxes your mind into a calm, receptive state. It's how I was introduced to meditation many years ago and had a profound effect on me.
Tonight, set your alarm clock to go off after you've had 4.5 hours of sleep. This should rouse you during a longer REM sleep phase, producing immediate dream recall. (Dream experts agree that we tend to only remember dreams when we awaken directly from the dream. If we go straight on into a deeper sleep, the dream is lost forever.)|For instance, prescription drugs like Galantamine (most often used to treat Alzheimer's Disease) actually enhances dream recall and intensity and promotes lucid dreaming. In contrast, marijuana suppresses REM sleep, decreasing your dream time and leading to poor dream recall overall.
Your dream journal is also an ideal place to record your lucid dreams. I clearly mark every lucid dream with a capital L in a circle so I can flick through and quickly recall all my conscious dreams over the years. I discovered meditation in my teens and it had a significant effect on my lucid dream practice. Not only are there many proven health benefits associated with regular meditation, such as stress relief, concentration and emotional well-being, but it can positively affect your dream life too.
To learn more about lucid dreaming and how to remember your dreams CLICK HERE!
Meditation leads to greater self awareness; during the act of meditation, afterwards in waking life, and while asleep in dreams. This can lead to greater dream recall on its own. What's more, if you practice meditation while dropping off to sleep and other time in the night, you'll have the ideal chance to place affirmations such as "I can remember my dreams".It was only when I started writing down and sketching my dreams that I could remember my dreams going back years. If I don't write them down, however, they disappear in minutes or hours and the magic is often lost forever. That goes for some lucid dreams too.
The first dream of the night is the shortest, lasting just a few minutes and sandwiched between phases of deep sleep. You're unlikely to remember any of this dream. The second dream cycle occurs about 90 minutes later and is a little longer in length. But it's not until your fourth or fifth REM cycle (from around six hours onwards), that you experience long phases of dream sleep ranging 45-60 minutes.Repeat this trick every 90 minutes until you get up for the day. By morning, you should have written down four or five detailed dreams. This is an amazing technique that significantly boosts my dream recall and I strongly recommend it. Your efforts to wake up every 90 minutes will be rewarded with strong memories of vivid dreams - and of people, places and plots that you had no idea were running through your head.
Have a notebook by your bedside and when your alarm goes off, immediately write down all the details of the dream you were having. If nothing comes to mind, it's likely you weren't dreaming, so just relax and lay quietly for a few minutes and think about what you'd like to dream about next. When dream journaling, write in the present tense and underline unusual characters, symbols, scenes, plots, themes, or emotions. Then set your alarm to go off in 90 minutes' time and go back to sleep.The following techniques will teach you how to remember your dreams more frequently, even if you are terrible at remembering dreams - or think you don't dream at all. Trust me, you do! The average person, sleeping for eight hours per night, will experience 100 minutes of dream time.
To lucid dream, it's very important that you can remember at least one vivid dream per night. This increases your self-awareness while dreaming, and most importantly, it means you can actually remember your lucid dreams.Dream supplements and herbs are taken primarily to increase dream intensity - and one obvious side-effect of this is enhanced dream recall. Dream herbs like Calea Zacatechichi and nutritional supplements like Vitamin B6 produce intensified dreams in which you can have greater self-awareness. You will wake up in the morning with highly memorable dreams to report, and as a result, occasionally lucid dreams too.
The interaction can sometimes be more complicated, though not necessarily desirable. A heavy night of alcohol, for instance, suppresses REM sleep and yet when you're no longer drunk, the body compensates by entering REM rebound the next time you sleep. This can lead to intense dreams and even nightmares.|Many types of drugs can affect your dream life.
Now that you are getting sufficient REM sleep, here is a much more active way to remember your dreams. It involves a dream journal. As lucid dreamers, we are embarking on fascinating inner journeys - and those journeys of discovery are definitely worth documenting.
If your lifestyle doesn't cater to this from Monday to Friday, at least allow yourself a REM rebound on the weekends. Give yourself an extra two hours of sleep and that will be prime lucid dreaming time. If you can't afford to get up late, try going to bed earlier and schedule yourself at least 8-9 hours of sleep once a week.|The act of meditation can appear hard to crack on the surface. A great way to start meditating is listening to brainwave entertainment which relaxes your mind into a calm, receptive state. It's how I was introduced to meditation many years ago and had a profound effect on me.
Tonight, set your alarm clock to go off after you've had 4.5 hours of sleep. This should rouse you during a longer REM sleep phase, producing immediate dream recall. (Dream experts agree that we tend to only remember dreams when we awaken directly from the dream. If we go straight on into a deeper sleep, the dream is lost forever.)|For instance, prescription drugs like Galantamine (most often used to treat Alzheimer's Disease) actually enhances dream recall and intensity and promotes lucid dreaming. In contrast, marijuana suppresses REM sleep, decreasing your dream time and leading to poor dream recall overall.
Your dream journal is also an ideal place to record your lucid dreams. I clearly mark every lucid dream with a capital L in a circle so I can flick through and quickly recall all my conscious dreams over the years. I discovered meditation in my teens and it had a significant effect on my lucid dream practice. Not only are there many proven health benefits associated with regular meditation, such as stress relief, concentration and emotional well-being, but it can positively affect your dream life too.
To learn more about lucid dreaming and how to remember your dreams CLICK HERE!
Here is a video to also give you a few tips on how to remember your dreams.
Wednesday 2 April 2014
What Are The Best Isochronic Tones?
Isochronic tones are a modern and scientifically proven form of brainwave entrainment technology.
By definition Brainwave Entrainment occurs when the brain wave frequency doubled that of the stimuli , be it audio , visual or tactile. This effect can be seen on an EEG ( Siever , 2003).
The best isochronic tones consider two needs: physiological (the actual brain waves ) and the psychological ( how easily you can relax and accept the noise).
High quality isochronous producers cater to the physiological effect . , Choosing the right tone to suit your listening habits , however, is a personal decision . In this article we will look at the impact Isochronics look like they change your awareness of , and where to find the best isochronic tones for lucid dreaming .
~ Huang & Charyton , 2008. Alternative therapies. Volume 14.1
In recent years I have isochronic tones used to induce states of calm relaxation, meditation and dissociative hypnagogic state. This is a valuable practice for lucid dreaming and allows me to other types of boundary phenomena sleep , enjoy , including :
New insights and clarity of observation and thoughtHypnagogic tamper feelings of floating above the bedBodily dissociation and imaginary limbsMemory impressions and thresholds dream scenesOut -of -body experiences and forecasts The primary goal of listening to entrainment to relieve stress and enjoy a good, deep meditation. I recommend all lucid dreamer practice meditation on a daily basis - so if you are not skilled or practiced in the art , then you can make your Brainwave Entrainment be a helping hand.
First Isochronics promote feelings of relaxation and dissociation. You experience every day dissociation , when you exercise , read a movie or a book - it is drawn and you forget about your daily worries at the time .
When you meditate , the dissociation is improved to greater depths , it silences your unhelpful mental chatter and sets the mood in a peaceful and deep insights . It 's like the difference between listening to a pair of gossipy old women compared to administration in a philosophical lecture by a respected professor. What do you think is more to your personal growth and development?
Entering this state consciously on a daily basis is a healthy exercise for body and mind. The benefits are actually something I find hard to describe. I could say , frequent meditation makes me more focused, happy and calm in everyday life but do not start , the difference does it really convey.
What 's more, the meditation is the gateway to altered states of consciousness in which you have lucid dreams, out of body experiences , astral projections (or your own interpretation of it) , mystical experiences , creative insights and much more. It's like a natural mind travel , available for every conscious person in the world.
Isochronic tones create state of meditation with evenly distributed pulses of a single tone , a brainwave entrainment effect. Unlike binaural beats and monaural beats, the interference pattern is created outside of the brain , so it is not necessary to wear headphones (even if you can , if you prefer) .
Isochronics are a powerful form of brainwave entrainment , because the contrast between the sound pulses and the silence is more pronounced. The effect excites the thalamus and causes a frequency following response , where the brain internally creates the frequency and dictates the level of consciousness .
The effect of the isochronous tones can be further increased with visual entrainment. In 1999, the researchers doubled the relaxation effect on the brain with eyes closed photic entrainment. However, this requires special equipment (light and sound machines ) and most people experience a deep, meditative effect alone by listening .
The best isochronic tones are thought to include a pure tone (also called a sine wave ) with a frequency of 150 to 180 Hz . This stimulates the brain ( the physiological effect ), while in a comfortable listening for most people ( the psychological effect ) .
I think the best isochronic tones are mixed with obscure white noise or harmonic sound effects , regular timing . Water sounds , such as rainfall , ocean waves , waterfalls and streams are ideal . However, synthetic sounds such as guitar distortion also be used if you find waterfall sounds are too hippie.
For further information on lucid dreaming click the link below:
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