“Lucid Dreaming During NREM Sleep: Two Case Reports

Tadas Stumbrys1 & Daniel Erlacher2

1 Heidelberg University, Germany 2 University of Bern, Switzerland

…REM dream reports are typically longer, more bizarre, more perceptually vivid, more emotionally charged and more motorically animated,

whereas NREM dream reports contain more thought-like mentation and representation of current concerns…

…Yet one lucid dream induction study (Dane, 1984), which used post-hypnotic suggestion as a means to induce lucidity, found an unusually high number of NREM lucid dreams….

REM sleep and NREM sleep seem to have different brain activation patterns (Hobson et al., 2000). During NREM sleep the brain is generally less active than during both REM sleep and wakefulness, while the overall activation during REM sleep is similar to wakefulness…

Cortical areas, which are selectively deactivated during REM sleep and the activation of which is associated with lucid dreaming, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, precuneus, cuneus…are also deactivated during NREM sleep.

…Purcell and her colleagues (1986), who found that overall self-reflectiveness in NREM dreams is lower than self-reflectiveness in REM dreams…

…Findings from the earlier studies…suggest that of all NREM sleep stages lucid dreaming can most often occur during N1, however such lucid dreams usually are quite short…In fact, dreams collected from N1 and REM sleep seem to be strikingly similar…as well as brain EEG activity during both these stages…

…Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreaming (WILD), where the dreamer aims to enter the dream directly from wakefulness by retaining consciousness while falling asleep …and some of these techniques are based on concentration on hypnagogic imagery occurring during N1 sleep…

N2. Lucidity during N2 seems also to be possible… yet much less frequent and usually preceded by some arousal (which might help to initiate lucidity). Lucid dreams are also brief.

N3. Up to our knowledge, no lucid dream reports so far had been obtained from N3 (deep sleep) stage. ..

…One other interesting observation is that all possible instances of NREM lucidity has been observed so far were only from female participants… Although it is premature to assert any gender differences in relation to NREM dream lucidity, this is something that could be taken into account in future studies.

Future studies should also clarify whether brain regions involved in attaining lucidity in REM sleep, namely prefrontal, occipito-temporal cortices, precuneus, cuneus, parietal lobules…are also the ones involved in attaining lucidity in NREM sleep.

…NREM dream reports are usually less vivid with lesser involvement and are more thought-like (Hobson et al., 2000). This parallels a distinction made in Tibetan sleep and dream yoga…

…While dream yoga aims to develop awareness in dreams, the aim of sleep yoga, which is considered to be more difficult to master, is to develop awareness in dreamless sleep, where no dream imagery is present. Therefore it might be possible to speculate that a parallel could be made between dream yoga and attaining dream lucidity in REM sleep, and sleep yoga and attaining dream lucidity…in NREM sleep…“

How does this relate to WILD?

What are the neurological differences between WILD and DILD?

How do neurological and sleep phase differences make WILD and DILD differ from each other in regards to consistency, lengths, and overall experience?

The post Lucid Dreaming In NREM Sleep appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“Big Five Personality Traits And Dream Recall Frequency In Spontaneous Vs. Self-Trained Lucid Dreamers”

Bita Shafiei – Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran – IJoDR

“Acknowledgements – The author would like to thank Michael Schredl for his help with preparing the manuscript.”

Excerpts:

“…lucid dream frequency is moderately associated with lucid dream controlling…

…After the age of 25, a spontaneous onset of lucid dreaming appears to be very infrequent…

…Trained lucid dreamers had shorter lucid dreams but were more likely to take an active role in the development of the lucid dream plot and more likely to try some waking intentions in their lucid dreams, in comparison with spontaneous lucid dreamers (Stumbrys et al., 2014)…

…Internal locus of control…and need for cognition…were found to be correlated with lucid dreaming…

…However, Wolpin, Marston, Randolph, and Clothier (1992) had not succeeded in discovering the relationship between internal locus of control and lucid dreaming frequency…

…Schredl and Erlacher (2004) found small but significant correlation between fantasy and ideas, two facets of openness to experience, and lucid dream frequency. Moreover, in Schredl and Noveski’s (2017) research performed on students, regardless of the negative association between lucid dream frequency and agreeableness, they also pointed out a negative correlation between lucid dream frequency and neuroticism which was considered as a new outcome…

…there was a significant relationship between lucid dreaming and the openness to experience factor. Furthermore, lucid dreaming seemed to be related to the Big Five conscientiousness factor. Additionally, an online survey conducted by Hess, Schredl, & Goritz, (2016) proposed that openness to experience was positively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency, whereas the correlation was negative for agreeableness…

…hypnotic suggestibility…thin boundaries…creativity…and absorption…were found to be related to lucid dreaming frequency…

…In addition, many researches indicated a significant relationship between lucid dream frequency and dream recall…

…As it seems the more people recall their dreams the more chance they have to recall their lucid dreams or in another direction, the more people are familiar with their dreams (i.e. able to better recall them), the more they are likely to recognize them while dreaming…

…openness to experience and extra version were found to be positively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency, while the correlations were negative for agreeableness and neuroticism…

…Some factors such as gender, extraversion, openness to experiences, agreeableness, and dream recall frequency correlate with lucid dreaming frequency among self-trained lucid dreamers. However, only dream recall frequency is in association with lucid dreaming frequency in spontaneous lucid dreamers…

…In addition, the difference between spontaneous and self-trained lucid dreamers regard to lucid dreaming frequency is a considerable finding. Analysis indicated that self-trained lucid dreamers experience lucid dreams more frequently in comparison with spontaneous ones. Lastly, by considering the percentages, self-trained lucid dreamers have the ability of controlling their lucid dreams and take an active role more than the spontaneous group…

…Methodologically, the sample was elicited via a lucid dreaming website, which makes the result biased due to the more interested participants in taking part in this study…

…Based on our finding, there was no gender difference among spontaneous lucid dreamers. However, men seemed more interested in eliciting lucid dreams through training…

…As a result, people who were characterized as extraverted are more likely to experience lucid dreaming. Extraversion is defined as being assertive, active, positive, energetic, and talkative……Extraverted lucid dreamers, by considering those definitions, are willing to talk about their experiences with others which in this case talking about dreams brings about more dream recall…and consequently more lucid dreams…

…Earlier studies demonstrated a positive correlation between openness to experience and lucid dreaming frequency…

…People who score high in this dimension are recognized as creative, imaginary, curious and unconventional. Those with low level are conventional and like the feeling of familiarity…

…Negative correlation between agreeableness and lucid dreaming frequency was another finding…

People with low level of agreeableness are identified as antagonistic, cold and disagreeable (Robbins et al, 2013). Lucid dreamers are more likely to be focused on fulfilling their own needs, and less likely to reflect on the needs of others; they might thus be less agreeable in waking life (Hess et al, 2016)…

…As percentages showed self-trained lucid dreamers appeared to be more active in their lucid dreams…

…trained lucid dreamers were more likely to take an active role rather than a passive role in the development of the dream plot…

…In summary, self-trained lucid dreamers tend to experience lucid dreams more frequent than spontaneous lucid dreamers. Also, openness to experience and agreeableness were negatively correlated with lucid dreaming frequency whereas the correlations were positive between extraversion and dream recall frequency among self-trained lucid dreamers. However, dream recall frequency was the only predictor for lucid dreaming frequency among spontaneous lucid dreamers. Gender had an impact on lucid dreaming frequency only in the group of self-trained lucid dreamers…

…At last, it was demonstrated that self-trained lucid dreamers were more likely to take an active role in their lucid dream…

…Future studies should explore more about the possible differences between self-trained and spontaneous lucid dreamers. It would be also interesting to know what methods were utilized for inducing lucid dreams by self-trained lucid dreamers. Due to the reason that nightmare frequency is correlated with lucid dreaming frequency (Glicksohn, 1989; Hess et al, 2016; Schredl & Erlacher, 2004; Spadafora & Hunt, 1990; Stepansky et al., 1998) and the difference is still not investigated between the two groups of spontaneous and self-trained lucid dreamers, it can be considered as a good idea to fill this gap.” – Bita Shafiei – https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/IJoDR/article/view/59710/60070

Related Topic(s):

Lucid Dreaming And Locus Of Control

About Lucid Dreaming And Its Relation To Mental Health, Personality, Self-Confidence, Behavior Control…

The post Personality Traits Of Lucid Dreamers appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

LDF – Lucid Dream Frequency
CRT – Cognitive Reflections Test
DLPFC – Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Locus Of Control – “…the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, as opposed to external forces beyond their control.” – Wikipedia

“Type 1 – thinking is fast, intuitive, unconscious thought. Most everyday activities (like driving, talking, cleaning, etc.) make heavy use of the type 1 system…
The type 2 system is slow, calculating, conscious thought. When you’re doing a difficult math problem or thinking carefully about a philosophical problem, you’re engaging the type 2 system. – Hacker News – quanticle on June 12, 2012 – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4102848

The below excerpts are from a research paper initially published in the International Journal Of Dream Research – modified by addition of picture(s) – Rizea, A. E., & Malinowski, J. E. (2017). An investigation of a dual-processing hypothesis of lucid dreaming. International Journal of Dream Research, 10(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2017.1.29722 

 “An Investigation Of A Dual-Processing Hypothesis Of Lucid Dreaming

Andreea E. Rizea, University of Bedfordshire, Department of Psychology, United Kingdom
Josie E. Malinowski, University of East London, School of Psychology, United Kingdom

…Neuroimaging research has isolated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as a brain structure associated with lucid dreaming, indicating that higher-order executive functions are involved in the onset of lucid dreaming. The DLPFC has also been implicated in the onset of type 2 thinking…

 …The present study investigated this potential link, hypothesising that lucid dreaming frequency would be related to type 2 thinking…

… The type 2 processing mechanism is believed to be uniquely human as it allows sophisticated reasoning capacities different from those seen in animals…Furthermore, it is thought to require decontextualized processing which tends to reject knowledge or belief-based biases. When confronted with a problem, some people may come up with quick and plausible judgement, while others may discard the immediate response and engage in further reflection… One proposed explanation suggests that people tend to neglect information in their thinking, mostly because the type 1 processing mechanism is used by default due to its low computational expense…This strong bias to default to the least expensive computational mechanism results in humans being less than rational…The fMRI studies available provide support for the qualitative distinction between belief- and reason-based response, with activation in different regions of the brain for the two instances…In addition…found neuroimaging evidence of type 2 processing system overwriting the type 1 processing system that was coming from the emotion centres, thus concluding that the main area responsible for overwriting an emotional response is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex….The sudden insight that one experiences at the beginning of a lucid dream could be attributed to the activation of the rational type 2 processing system that overwrites the dominant emotional type 1 system. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is normally deactivated during REM sleep…shows activation during lucid dreaming… The same area is thought to be involved mainly in linking the information stored in our short-term memory to the organisation of forthcoming actions… Thus, this particular area of the brain that activates during lucid dreams loads heavily on working memory while supporting theoretical thinking which is necessary for the planning of future events. These attributes have been found as defining features of the type 2 processing system. Moreover, the evolution of this rational second system can be seen as a precursor and requirement for the manifestation of lucid dreams because they require conscious rationality. There seem to be a connection between the workings of the second system and lucid dreaming mediated by the activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Thus, it is worth investigating the dual-processing theory of reasoning as a possible explanation for the emergence of lucid dreams…

…A lateral/dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulation caused by syllogism content was noticed in a study conducted by Brunetti et al (2014) when looking at the influence of emotions on reasoning abilities. This is the area that is deactivated during REM sleep, but active during lucid dreaming; thus providing more evidence of the connection between dual-processing theory and lucid dreaming, more precisely the activation of type 2 processing system that corresponds to the sudden realisation that one is dreaming. As far as causality is concerned, it makes sense to assume that the activation of type 2 processing system coincides with the onset of a lucid dream…

…Thus the first study supported previous research in finding a relationship between lucid dream frequency and dream recall frequency, and lucid dream frequency and internal locus of control. However, it did not support previous findings pertaining to openness to experience, nor video game play. Further, it did not find evidence for a relationship between lucid dream frequency and scores on the Cognitive Reflections Test, thereby not supporting a dual process hypothesis of lucid dreaming…

…Overall, the findings of the present paper indicate that there are relationships between prospective and retrospective measures of lucid dream frequency (LDF) and openness to experience, locus of control, and dream recall frequency. However, the dual processing hypothesis of lucid dreaming was not supported: no relationship between LDF and Cognitive Reflective Test scores, nor with scores on a syllogisms test, was found, neither with retrospective nor prospective estimates of LDF. In addition there was no relationship found between LDF and video game play…

…Further research could implement other measures of reflective reasoning abilities or focus on measuring reflective awareness of the environment and of oneself. On the other hand, this was not the first study to fail to find a relationship between lucid dreaming and a task known to require dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation…

… It is likely that lucid dream onset is more complicated than a simple reactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex…it may be that different neural substrates are implicated in different kinds of lucid dreaming, since lucid dreaming is not a unitary phenomenon. Although humans spend one third of their life sleeping, most models of human cognition are structured based upon evidence derived from waking-life cognition. The development of a 24 hour model of cognition is necessary for the further understanding of consciousness. The existence of lucid dreaming reveals higher-order cognitive skills present during sleep; skills that previously have been assumed to be characteristic only of waking life. The question remains whether there is any relationship between the manifestation of higher-order cognitive skills in dreams and their manifestation in waking life. The uniquely human ability to reflect upon ourselves, think about past and plan the future could help illuminate the human condition…

…Conclusion There was no relationship found between rational reflective abilities measured with the Cognitive Reflective Test nor the syllogisms test and lucid dream frequency…therefore providing no evidence for a dual-processing account of lucid dreaming. However, internal locus of control, dream recall frequency, and openness to experience were correlated with lucid dream frequency, supporting previous research.” 

 Related Post(s):

The Relation Of Metacognition And Lucid Dreams; And The Possible Treatment Approaches That Come With It

Lucid Dreaming And Locus Of Control

Prefrontal Cortex and its Role in Lucid Dreaming

Frontal Parts Of The Brain Click Back In During Lucid Dreams Despite Them Normally Being Off During REM Sleep

A Study on Neurological Differences (Prefrontal Cortex) between Long Term Lucid Dreamers and Non-Lucid Dreamers

Neuroscience of Lucid Dreams and Amount of Frontopolar Cortex Grey Matter in Lucid Dreamers

The post A Study Examining The Relation Between Type 2 Thinking (Calculating, Conscious Thoughts) And Lucid Dreaming appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

I wasn’t tested for autism until I was already working in the field of mental health for several years as a case-manager for clients with autism and other similar conditions. One might wonder how I didn’t figure out my own diagnosis after studying and working directly with these traits for years. My ability to adapt to my particular style of processing was so high, it just didn’t seriously occur to me. Sure, I always felt a bit like the “outsider”, the way most people behaved was a mystery to me since I was a child and if you asked my mother what I was like growing up she’ll say I was a rather quiet, unemotional kid who didn’t even go through the typical “Terrible Twos” stage.

From my perspective, however, I was brimming over with emotions. I felt sadness, fear, joy and inspiration like anyone else, but it never occurred to me that I should be sharing those emotions randomly with others, even if they didn’t ask – which, for many autistics, is often how “normal” people seem to behave. For me, it was easy to set my diagnosis aside and focus on my work, my hobbies, my life. But now that I’ve been writing and publicly speaking about my lucid dreaming experiences over the years, these quiet traits of mine have been pulled back into the light. A number of other high functioning autistics in the public eye, after reading my work or listening to my interviews on radio and podcast shows, have approached me with a, “You DO realize you’re also autistic, right?”.

This prompted me to reevaluate just what my particular processing of information, emotions and my sense of self had to do with the lucid dreaming and astral projection I’d dealt with since I was a child. After years of integrating all of this information I’ve come to believe that higher functioning autistics make for natural lucid dreamers, they just might not realize it. But we need to take a step back first before this will make much sense.

What exactly autism is can be hard to nail down – it’s why we generally refer to it as a “spectrum” of traits rather than a hard and fast description. Given that, I can only speak for myself and how my experience of these qualities affects my consciousness, and thus my lucid dreaming. But I suspect many of you who aren’t on the spectrum are going to relate. To begin with, it all comes down to how we each develop a unique relationship with symbolism.

My second book, “Migration” (currently in the final stages of editing)   focuses on our species’ insanely fast transition from the trees to an online world, and what we’ve missed along the way. Today, our species is processing greater amounts of symbolism from outside sources than any of our ancestors likely ever dreamed possible. In a way, we’ve been put to sleep by this heavy stream of information, of media and narratives; we’ve become entranced by it in ways that aren’t so obvious.

I want you all to pause for a moment and think about what exactly popped into your head when you thought about that notion of symbolism. What does it mean to have a relationship with symbolism? Do you perhaps picture hieroglyphs from some forgotten culture or abstract images or sounds that convey some vague, mysterious meaning? If so, THAT is the very disconnect I want to bring to our attention.

Our bodies weren’t naturally wired for these digital, symbolic worlds playing out on our screens, so we are often blindsided by the massive amounts of ‘information representing something else’ that we process today. Even when we read studies that prove, time and again, that about 75% of all of our emails and texts are misinterpreted on some level by others, it goes in one ear and out the other. We forget that applies to our emails and communications too! Why? For most, symbolism is something “another culture”, or someone else deals with, but not us! No, we like to imagine we deal with information directly, without a “middle man”, so to speak. But as an autistic, I’m always aware of how highly subjective and personal all of communication is.

In my case, I tend to translate symbolism without adding in my own personal feelings and narratives. One of the reasons I love other autistics is that they tend to be some of the most direct, honest people without a lot of hidden agendas behind their words; something that often confuses others. For example, someone says to me, “You know, by the end of April 2020, there were just over 58,000 reported deaths in the US from the Coronavirus.” I hear that statement and I don’t judge it or add in my own personal feelings. It’s not that I don’t have feelings about that fact, but as far as the exchange is concerned, all I can be sure of was what was actually shared with me: “By the end of April 2020, there were just over 58,000 reported deaths in the US from the Coronavirus”.

But someone else hears this and their entire personality, their ego and their emotions become entangled in what was said to them and they translate it quite differently: “Well, that sure is some negative information” they might say or, “That information upsets me, so I don’t think it’s true.” Some may even take it to the level where they say, “Not only do I feel you’re being negative, I feel you’re trying to spread fear and I don’t appreciate that.” And suddenly there’s drama and confusion because someone stated a fact.

These are the sort of responses to information that autistic people generally don’t comprehend. Now, personally, I can comprehend it, but I just don’t personally relate to this manner of handling communication, so I experience a sort of “distance” from it all. We autistics often wonder at “normal” people who add random emotions into conversations, and then often pretend that they didn’t (honestly, it can seem like a disability to us). From my perspective, this muddies communication – which I’m always well aware is extremely complicated enough. Oh, how I long for the days when our journalists were bound by an oath to only relate the facts in a dispassionate, neutral manner and let us figure out how we should feel about them. We’ve become so addicted to being entertained by everything, we expect even our facts and news to be stimulating as well. This is often why I say: The World could really benefit from a little more autism right now.

It should be noted that here’s where autism is so often misunderstood. Because I don’t constantly add in my own feelings into what I relate to people nor mix them into what someone shared with me, it’s often assumed that autistics do not have feelings at all! This is a short-sighted assumption. I feel as deeply and as passionately about things as anyone else can. That information about the virus you just handed to me may very much personally upset me, but I have no reason to think the person who mentioned it intended that information to be negative. So, I treat it as such. And unless I have reason to think this exchange needs to get emotional, I’ll probably just not share my emotions about it with you. It does not mean I don’t have any.

I love what Spock’s father, Sarek, said in the 2009 Star Trek film – and of course anyone on the spectrum knows that the Vulcans are basically a race of high functioning autistics! After Spock has engaged in a grand display of emotion, his father tries to console him. “Emotions run deep within our race.”, he reminds his son. “In many ways more deeply than in humans. Logic offers a serenity humans seldom experience. The control of feelings so that they do not control you.” It’s a beautiful quote that helps explain who Spock really is. He’s not some cold, calculating computer. He feels emotions deeply, he just isn’t throwing them onto everyone like a raging toddler.

Now – What does any of this have to do with LUCID DREAMING? How does this “distance” I experience between my identify, my ego and symbolism play into “waking up” to the reality my dream world manufactures?

Try to appreciate what this experience of symbolism means for me: I approach the mind from a far more impersonal level than most others appear to. I can sort of “stand back” from it and not be personally wrapped up in it to the point where I can’t see where my emotions end and my thinking begins, or who I am within all of it. Therefore, it is far easier for me not to be mesmerized by language, by movies or stories of any kind. Instead of being totally lost in the woods, this distance allows me to float above the trees.

My relationship with Narratives in general tends to be far more removed than what the majority out there seems to experience. I’m not at its mercy. Of course, the nature of this “distance” is where the level of functioning comes strongly into play with autistics. That perceived space can make things very, very difficult for you – or you are able to use it to your supreme advantage. It depends on the size of that gap between the ego and the mind, you might say.

From my vantage point, this means I’ve always been able to stand back – even when I was a child – and see all narratives for what they really were: Highly edited versions of reality that can never, ever, NOT WITH A BILLION WORDS truly contain reality. If you and I run across a wolf in “the wild”, we will share a very direct, non-abstract experience of that encounter. But later, what happened to us will never be fully contained by a narrative. Our tale of meeting the wolf, the picture you snapped of it, even the video I took of it – none of that symbolism will or ever could contain our direct experience of it. In other words, no matter what we do, nothing we transfer to others will leave them with the same impression we experienced in the woods. It’s just the natural limitations of symbolism.

Now consider: Our thinking minds operate on symbolism – all the time. When you can really appreciate this, you begin to “wake up” from all the Narratives and symbolism your brain is being exposed to – as well as the ones it creates.

Are you starting to glimpse how this all relates to dreams? Well, stop and think: What is a “normal” dream? Think about the last dream you remember. In essence, a dream is nothing more than an internal narrative, a story your brain has produced with symbolism. When you feel completely wrapped up in that story, you become bound to it; it possesses a sort of authority over you. You are at its mercy and your awareness is led around by it. When your mind and emotions are deeply entwined with these stories, when there is no “space”, it’s nearly impossible to step back and notice how unreal they really are!

In the end, the truth is that we are NOT our stories! We are consciousness. What we are as conscious beings could never, ever be contained by a story or a narrative. When we appreciate that truth we enjoy a natural “distance”, a glorious space that resides between all the symbolism we’re digesting and What We Truly Are. When you can see your dreams for their true nature you will begin to wake up within them. This is what Lucid Dreaming is: The ability to detach your True Self from the Narrative and realize: Oh! This isn’t real! This “space” that high functioning autistics experience from their mind can also be an opportunity to appreciate a deeper nature of reality. So I ask that you try to tap into your autistic nature and use it to awaken from your Story – whether that story is taking place at night while you sleep, or during the day!

Finally, when you wake up in your dreams, another magical thing happens: A door is suddenly made accessible to you. That door leads to an even larger possibility where your very consciousness is no longer bound to the physical body. By waking up to the truth of the stories we hold near and dear, we are truly free. Not figuratively, not symbolically: LITERALLY.

Ian Jaydid

The Lucid Dreaming – Autism Connection:

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 Author of “Tripping The Field”

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“Prolonging Lucid Dreams…

By Stephen LaBerge

Experiment

Lucidity Institute members were invited to compare each of the following…

A. SPINNING…

B. GOING WITH THE FLOW  When subjects were in a lucid dream and the dream began to fade, they were to persist in doing whatever they were doing in the dream before it started to fade…

C. RUBBING HANDS TOGETHER…

Results

…Only 33% of the FLOW TECHNIQUE lucid dreams were prolonged, compared with 90% of the RUBBING and 96% of the SPINNING lucid dreams…

…Overall, the odds in favor of continuing the lucid dream were about 22 to 1 after SPINNING, 13 to 1 after RUBBING, and 1 to 2 after GOING WITH THE FLOW. That makes the relative odds FAVORING SPINNING over going with the flow 48 to 1, and for rubbing over going with the flow, 27 to 1…

Discussion

…both the spinning and rubbing techniques are effective means of prolonging lucid dreams. The fact that the rubbing technique worked as well as it was predicted to supports the theory behind the prediction: that interaction and sensory experience in the dream inconsistent with perception of the state of the body in bed will suppress awakening…

• By Stephen LaBerge – From NightLight 7(3-4), 1995. – Prolonging Lucid Dreams – Lucidity Institute – LINK TO THE STUDY: – http://www.lucidity.com/NL7.34.RU.SpinFlowRub.html

The post Effective Means of Prolonging A Lucid Dream appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“Dreaming the Virtual: Why Lucid Dreamers Should Steer the Digital Economy…

… Beyond simple aesthetics, lucid dreaming and VR share some of the same therapeutic applications. VR can be used to treat PTSD, for example. Lucid dream therapy can do that too. Other applications involve treatment of nightmares and anxieties related to autism—not to mention their use as tools for creative and artistic expression.

But VR and lucid dreaming are different. A lucid dream is limited only by your imagination and determination, while VR is limited by code and—more importantly—by coders. ..

…And if we can cultivate the ability to maintain consciousness while dreaming, we can use that cognitive space to develop flexibility of mind, imagination, intentionality, engagement with the unconscious—in ways that are simply not possible even with the most sophisticated computer systems…

… In a similar way, I suggest that research into lucid dreaming and VR should occur in tandem, spiraling back upon each other…

Let’s make sure the digital economy serves human ends. Let lucid dreamers steer the ship…” By Kevin Healey – THE BLOG – 04/27/2016 09:08 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017 – HUFFPOST –  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dreaming-the-virtual-why_b_9791298.html

The post Lucid Dreaming And Virtual Reality appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“The Relationship Between Energy and Form in Dreams and the Expansion of Consciousness”

 By Dr. Nigel Hamilton – London, United Kingdom

“Energy and matter are interchangeable (Einstein). Yet the energy (field) and matter (form) that appear as pictures/ landscapes in our dreams seem determined by something more primary, our consciousness… 

Indeed, lucid dream experiences can lead to what the Tibetan Dream Yogis call “the dreamless state” a transcendental experience in which there are no images, no sense of time or space, only “clear light” or awareness. In such experiences, emotions take on a subtle, transpersonal character such as a profound sense of serenity, peace and harmony.Just as we can experience a changing sense of time and space in a single dream – and over the course of an extended cycle of dreams covering several years – so we can also experience a shift in our emotions in a single dream or over the course of time. As we become free of our psychological blocks, fear, scripts and our assumptions about who or what we are, the spaces and the images in the dream open up, time dilates and the dreamscapes become more colourful and more beautiful.

Some lucid dreamers have related experiences of timelessness and a sense of the omnipresent. Some have described the changing dream space as a change into another reality, a higher spatial dimension of deeper feeling, knowing, and being. In such instances, the dreamer’s emotional tenor, heart longing and consciousness appear aligned with the source of consciousness in a transcendent state. As a result, the dreamer re-enters waking reality with a fuller, more expanded sense of self and their relationship to the universe. Often, the dreamer’s waking world also becomes more clearly reflective of their heart longing…” – Dr. Niguel Hamilton

Related Post(s):

How Do You Experience Time In Your Lucid Dreams? Have You Experimented With It?

The post About The Changing Sense Of Time, Space And Reality In A Lucid Dream… appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

The practice of contacting loved ones who have passed via “psychic” channels is as old as religion itself, but my aim here is to examine the core dynamics of this phenomenon in a manner anyone, from any background or philosophy should be able to make use of. You’re welcome to view my descriptions through a religious or “supernatural” perspective, but in my experience nothing is beyond nature: All of these phenomena are perfectly natural, not “super” natural. Our sciences just need to catch up with what we can experience first-hand..

If you’re at all familiar with my talks or writings, you might know that I’m an atheist who’s been Lucid Dreaming and “Astral” Projecting for just shy of 30 years. I use a model that describes how consciousness relates to our daily world of mass, energy and, most importantly, the Narratives we cling to. It should be known that the phenomena we refer to as consciousness is not currently understood by any branch of science, so I have my own ways to describe its nature. Consciousness, from my experience, is best described as a “ground state” of all matter and energy in our cosmos; the heart of all energy fields in the cosmos. It’s also important to remember that the map is not the territory; no model, not even the best in cosmology and physics, can ever contain the entire structure it aims to describe. Make use of these descriptions, and then upgrade or discard them when they no longer serve you.

Okay! Now it’s time for a story from my past. To this day, one of the warmest souls I’ve known was Paul Miranda. Paul and I met my junior year in high school through a mutual friend, Jim, who was taking Karate classes with him. Paul was already a black-belt at the age of sixteen when we were first introduced, and never did I sense the slightest hint of arrogance about his abilities. He was as gentle as he was capable of rendering most people helpless in a matter of moments. I don’t believe in regrets, but if I was forced to choose one it would be that I allowed my busy college life to lose touch with Paul. For several years the most I heard was that he had moved to Pennsylvania, got married and had a son. Soon after graduating college I had the most unique Lucid Dream; one with a “flavor” unlike any I’d ever experienced.

After hundreds of experiences moving between Lucid states and the more “typical” dreams stirred up by the subconscious, I had grown adept at knowing when my Lucid visions were originating from my own subconscious, or from beyond my own ego-identity. All I knew for sure was the “feel” of this dream was not rightly coming from “me”.

In the vision I found myself standing on an empty subway platform, fully aware I was dreaming and detached from any notion of “storyline”. I was simply taking in the sights, wondering what this scene had in store for me when a sleek, white train emerged from the tunnel. After pulling to a full-stop, my friend Jim stepped from one of the cars in a deliberate, solemn fashion. When he approached, he handed me what appeared to be a blank greeting card – all the while I’m still trying to identify this foreign sensation beneath it all. It felt like an energy from my past somehow, but it also wasn’t a proper sense-stimulus; it offered nothing to grab ahold of.

“You need to read this,” Jim said sternly. I opened the card to find a small image accompanied by three words. The image was a blood red heart – one that literally dripped blood. A thin, wet stream trickled off the page right passed the phrase, “A Lost Friend”.   

Now, this all might sound terribly ominous and maybe even a bit unsettling, but the experience was rather “matter of fact”, not intended to frighten or console. After I awoke I still had no idea what the deeper lesson might have been. Each and every one of my hundreds, perhaps thousands of Lucid experiences offered some new insight to build from. All I sensed was that the energy beneath the vision felt slightly alien, yet deeply familiar. It wasn’t until later that evening that I got the call from another mutual friend of ours, Andy, who shared the news: Paul had died of a heart attack the previous day.

Paul. Of course.  

The “energy” in the vision was Paul. This was the missing key. Beyond what Paul looked like, sounded like, even smelled like, Paul carried a “frequency” just beneath the surface (again, my vision took place in a subway). What confused me at the time the dream was unfolding was that Paul wasn’t even mentioned. I was operating from my “Worldly Narrative” where we connect to people through our five senses.

If we move our attention to this “sub-energy” dwelling just below the surface of our Narratives, our sight, our hearing, we will have the most important key to connect with anyone, regardless if they are a thousand miles away – or deceased. This energy signature I’m pointing to, known by a hundred different names throughout a hundred different cultures, is still present in the time/space field even when the body has passed. Connecting to these “sub-energies” doesn’t require a monk, a shaman, a psychic or any other kind of “magic” person to act as an intermediary. And once we connect with this core energy, information as well as healing can be exchanged.

Today, physicists like Lawrence Krauss, author of “A Universe from Nothing”, remind us how particles (called “virtual particles”) are forever popping in and out of empty space, even within total vacuums. In particle physics there’s an hypothesis that this sea of virtual particles creates a field of energy that could eventually lead to stable, atomic structures. In other words, it is possible that the most elemental building blocks of our universe could spring from what we call “Nothingness”. For the purposes of working within this model of mine, I’m asking that you consider this very space, this “emptiness” from which the universe emerges, is what consciousness is. Consciousness is not a “thing” at all: it’s no-thing.

Below what we look like, our voice, smell, below our very name and our “story”, our core awareness is literally everywhere, it is forever and it is most certainly not divided up. From this perspective we can appreciate why there is no need to struggle at forging some “magical” connection with others. Rather, we can’t help but be connected. All the strain and effort that goes on in this realm is what appears to divide “this” from “that”, “there” from “here” and “you” from “me”. Our individuality is nothing more than a play of vibration sprouting from a vacuum. Once again, it’s hardly novel to suggest, “We ARE the nature of emptiness”, but I want to make it clear I don’t mean this as a clever metaphor; this is not your Zen Koan for the day. I literally mean, “What we are IS the experience of empty space”.

The reason for my belabored explanation above is to place you, first and foremost, in the right perspective: You’re already “doing” it, so what follows is not a new tactic as much as it’s a “stripping away” of what appears to divide us in the first place. And it’s that mind-set that most struggle with. The more you engage in meditation, Lucid Dreaming, Astral Projection – literally any practice that reminds you that your consciousness already is the source, the more you will naturally begin tuning in to these “sub” energies which every “thing” carries, from people to trees to mountains. But we first have to drop our focus below the surface of sensory perception.

Okay! Now we’re ready to run through a bare-bones technique to “tap” into someone, alive or dead. This practice is all about going below the surface we’re domesticated to, so naturally you need to do this when you can pull back from as much worldly stimuli as possible. Yes, you need to turn off your phone, which is a powerful tether to our daily, “normal” world. Get away from people, noise, even lights if you can, buy ear plugs, an eye mask, or if you have the access, get into an isolation tank; whatever you can do to disconnect your biological senses from your environment. For the next few minutes allow yourself a little vacation from solving the world’s problems. Don’t worry, you can pick them all up again right after you’re done if you wish. If you’re a Lucid Dreamer or a Projector, I recommend trying this in your waking dreams for best results since the sleeping body is about as ‘shut down’ from the world as we can get it. All you need to do right now is breathe. That’s it. Let your body just “be”.

Once your body is “out of the picture”, next focus on your thinking patterns; any concerns or worries you’re wrestling with, plans you’re making, memories you’re reliving, or even stories you’re replaying about this person you’re about to connect with. Allow yourself to just watch them pass. Remember, you aren’t those thoughts, you exist below your body and your thoughts. I often imagine I am the depths of the ocean watching all the waves on the surface pass by – and I’m unaffected by any of it. See your thoughts floating by and let them pass. Even your own name is up there on the surface: It’s just another word that’s been assigned to you. Let it pass by, along with your notion of your “life’s story”. Bring your focus away from your memories and direct it totally to the moment. Remain at the perspective of your center, let the rest float on. If you find yourself caught up in one of the waves, chasing after some emotion, some “thing” you need to do, just be aware that you got distracted, come back to the depths and be happy you noticed you became distracted to begin with!

Once you feel relatively “centered” and quiet (no, you don’t have to be a Zen monk to do this) picture the person you want to reconnect with. Simply call them into your awareness. The biggest obstacle people have at this point is they allow their “inner narrative” to start making comments about this person; specifically comments like, “But, this person is 500 miles away” or “This person is angry at me” or “This person has passed”. Allow these Narratives to fall away for now.

Next what we’re essentially going to do with this person (or even animal, since some people can do this with pets) is to strip away their “layers” just as we did with our own to get to their “sub” energy. As you hold this person in your awareness, try to imagine that you have never known this person’s name; in fact, you’ve never laid eyes on them before in your life. This is the trickiest part, if there is such a thing on this level, so pay attention: Without a name and without an image, what would be left of that person? You might even imagine their physical appearance “peeling” away to reveal what’s left beneath. After all, who someone is is indeed far more than their name or what they look like. Go beneath their appearance, and even go beneath the sound of their voice. Imagine you had never heard that person speak. Below those flesh and blood attributes, how does that person feel to you? With enough practice with this, you’ll find this person you’re connecting with has a raw “frequency”; a vibration beyond all of the sights, sounds, even personality. If you’re anything like me you might find you’re left with a very new impression of their “core” energy. This might appear as a cloud, a formation of lights or maybe colors. My advice is don’t get too attached to this new, abstract representation of their energy either – and if you don’t see or sense this, it’s ultimately not important now. In fact, what you’re sensing may be so abstract your mind may not even know how to process it. What is important is that you’re in touch with their sub-frequency.

Now simply hold their energy in your awareness as long as you feel is right. If another Narrative pops up, let it pass and it will sink back into the depths again provided you don’t chase after it. Just BE with this energy. When you do this, information is being shared between you and this frequency of consciousness even if you aren’t consciously aware of it at the present moment. For some, after “being” with this sub-energy we are left with a basic emotion or “intuition” about the exchange, and it may be days or even months until our awareness is ready to “unlock” the information exchanged during this practice. For others, especially those who can bring this practice into their Lucid Dreams, the transmission is rather intense and can even be overwhelming. Yes, some can even engage in full, back and forth conversations with this individual, but it’s imperative to remain fully aware to the moment and detached from all Narratives. It all depends on the parties involved, how many unresolved emotions we’re carrying about this person and how much information even needs to be exchanged.

The truth is, sometimes those who have passed know that the best thing to transfer to those of us still bound to this world is little more than a sense of peace or resolution. As long as you maintain your focus “below” all the names, the storylines and assumptions, there is no right or wrong. Trust that if you managed to sit with their core frequency even for a couple minutes, what needed to be transferred was transferred to you. You’re welcome to return to this individual’s core-energy as much as you like, but in most cases you’ll eventually find there is no real need to continue the practice as you’ll begin to notice a deeper sense of connection with this person in general; one that permeates your daily life.

For those interested in the full details of how I see these “metaphysical” practices relating to physics, biology and cosmology I’ll direct you to my first novel, “Tripping the Field” or my previous article here entitled, “Schrodinger’s Cat is Both Dreaming and Awake”. An online article cannot hope to contain all the many other aspects and truths connected to a subject this vast, so know that this is simply a tool to point you in the right direction. The rest is absolutely up to you to explore. If you have further questions on this or any other related topic, you’re welcome to contact me at Iboga Moon Productions or any of my social media contacts. I promise I always do my best to offer a genuine, heartfelt reply.

Ian Jaydid

Jan Jaydid is a fine artist, public speaker and author of, “Tripping the Field”, a fictional adventure inspired by his Lucidity, Astral Projection and Shamanic practices. You can find his current projects at Iboga Moon Productions:      http://Ianjaydid.com

Related Topics:

Schrödinger’s Cat is Both Dreaming and Awake: The Quantum Connections To Lucid Dreaming – By Ian Jaydid

“The Avatar Approach” by Ian Jaydid

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The post Statistics About General Knowledge Of Lucid Dreaming And Lucid Dream Induction Techniques appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“DREAMING, LUCID DREAMING AND PERSONALITY…

…Our investigation focused on the frequency of the lucid dream experience and its relationship to mental health; behavioral control…; decision behavior…; and spatial abilities… Data analysis of 89 subjects suggested that frequent lucid dreamers…differ from rare…and non-lucid dreamers… by higher scores on the scales of mental health; free of complaints; assertiveness; autonomy, and self-confidence. With regard to behavioral control, decision behavior, and spatial abilities, no significant differences were found between the three dream groups…

…Altogether, our results confirmed the relationship between lucid dreaming and trait aspects of mental health. The increased scores of frequent lucid dreamers on the mental health supported the view…that mental and also physical health are associated with lucid dreaming…

…in sum, it is conceivable that lucid dreaming influences the management of mental conflicts in a positive way and – with qualified therapeutic accompaniment – may have a favourable affect on waking life…

…However, the sample was not representative of the general population and was mainly comprised of spontaneous lucid dreamers. How a training to induce lucid dreams might affect personality and well-being remains open…

…The hypothesis that lucid dreaming interacts with control of behavior in waking life…was not supported. Obviously, behavioral control in waking life, which includes long-term planning and striving for order, includes a different aspect of control than that involved in lucid dreaming. The difference in the character of reality in dreams and in waking life may also play a role in this context. In contrast to waking life, dreams do not have continuity and are short-term occurrences, whereas the waking world offers a continuous reality of space and time where long-term planning is practicable…

…Altogether, dream recall frequency correlated with lucid dream frequency, but showed other relationships to personality traits than lucid dream frequency. This suggests that lucid dreams are a phenomenon to be distinguished from ordinary dreams…  The correlation found between a positive attitude towards dreams and general dream recall frequency agrees with the results of Schredl et al. (1996) as well as Cernovsky (1984)…”

http://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/IJoDR/article/viewFile/142/pdf_3

Related Post(s):

“Lucid Dreaming for Mental Health” – By Maxwell Hunter, TheRaRaRabbit- Psychology

“Nocturnal Consciousness And Its Importance For The Exploration Of Psychopathology”

Studies on the use of lucid dreams to improve emotional fitness/mental fitness/self improvement such as confidence, positive thinking, etc.

MIXING PSYCHOLOGY AND REALITY CHECKS – Using Awareness Of Emotions To Induce Reality Checks and Positive Thinking

The post About Lucid Dreaming And Its Relation To Mental Health, Personality, Self-Confidence, Behavior Control… appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“Metacognition refers to one’s awareness of and ability to regulate one’s own thinking” – https://sites.google.com/a/uwlax.edu/exploring-how-students-learn/what-s-all-the-fuss-about-metacognition

“…The differences in volumes in the anterior prefrontal cortex between lucid dreamers and non-lucid dreamers suggest that lucid dreaming and metacognition are indeed closely connected… Our results indicate that self-reflection in everyday life is more pronounced in persons who can easily control their dreams,” – Max Planck Gesellschaft –  https://www.mpg.de/8869963/lucid-dreams-prefrontal-cortex

“…85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened…  …new research has found that you can rewire your brain to stop worrying.  It starts with the decision not to believe the misfortune that your worried thoughts see in your future. The part of the brain that causes stress reactions literally has the intelligence of a toddler.” – https://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-joseph-goewey-/85-of-what-we-worry-about_b_8028368.html

“…The process of noticing, and breaking thoughts down will help you immensely in becoming more aware and less reactive to negative thoughts that drain your energy and limit your growth.” – http://onewithnow.com/aware-of-thoughts/

KEEPING ALL OF THE ABOVE IN MIND, HOW ABOUT THIS?

• Throughout the day, OBSERVE YOUR THOUGHTS and emotions.
• Whenever a DISTURBING EMOTION such as worry, guilt, etc. comes up, DO A REALITY CHECK (since we worry so much, this should give ample opportunities for reality checks throughout the day.)
• Follow up and

1. EVALUATE THE THOUGHTS THAT CAUSED YOUR EMOTIONS – WERE THEY IRRATIONAL, UNREALISTIC, SEF-DEFEATING?
2. Come up with RATIONAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF BELIEVING OR THINKING

• REPEAT, repeat, repeat

 I call it EMOTION INDUCED REALITY CHECK – EIRC. 

The post MIXING PSYCHOLOGY AND REALITY CHECKS – Using Awareness Of Emotions To Induce Reality Checks and Rational Thinking appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

I began spontaneously entering conscious Lucidity during REM around the age of 19, just shy of thirty years ago. The impact these experiences had on my mind and worldview could not be exaggerated. It wasn’t long before I was becoming lucid nearly every night, often for hours at a stretch so I quickly grew desperate to understand what was happening to me. I had never heard of such intense states of awareness just occurring out of nowhere and the term, “Lucid Dreaming” was completely unknown to me. This was the early 90s and the internet was still in the stone-age which made finding reliable information on such an occult subject laborious and slow. It required digging through stacks of books, hoping the author had genuine, direct experience. I eventually did zero-in on several helpful resources, but I was mostly left to blaze my own path through trial and error. In retrospect, I’d have it no other way. My lack of resources forced me to enter this realm as a blank slate, free of a Narrative that dictated, “How Lucid Dreaming Works”; a quality so many seeking my advice online are lacking today.

With this in mind, I hope to offer a unique perspective on Lucidity but I also do not want to pile on yet another Narrative that might ultimately hinder personal experience. Afterall, our relationship with Narratives may be the most important factor in the game of waking up within our dream-states. Consider for a moment that ever since our species learned to speak complex languages we’ve carried on a rather bizarre connection with this function of Storyline. Upon developing an oral language, humans also developed this rather odd habit of talking to themselves incessantly. Our heads have become filled with so many, many stories: More so today than ever before, thanks to the information age. Some of those Narratives are based on truth, some built on assumptions or “second-hand information”, some we know to be pure fiction, others we aren’t so sure about. With a vast array of complexity and accuracy, we carry stories about how the world works, how our country operates and how friends and family came to be where they are today. Our brains are story-making, story-editing machines. In fact, they retain information best when it’s presented in the form of a story. We also spin an ongoing, never-ending tale about “Who We Are” and “What We’re Doing”, don’t we?

What I’m directing our attention to here is the most important story of them all: The one that is framing our world right this very moment. I’m referring to the story that you, the reader, are carrying now, about yourself. If you pause for a moment from your reading of this article you’ll realize that, as you read these words in the present moment, there is also a Narrative about “What’s Going On” that’s unique to you. That is, your reading of this article is taking place within a larger, abstract context that we generally pay very little attention to, yet also holds so many of the keys to the realms of Lucidity. From the perspective of the thinking mind, your present experience doesn’t take place within an empty vacuum in space. For example, if I asked you what your story looks like at the moment you may say something along the lines of, “I was at work earlier, then I came home and made dinner and watched some television on the couch and now I’m reading this article before I go to bed, and I have to get up early tomorrow because…etc. etc.”. And beyond that little Narrative, you carry an even larger story about Who You Are, your personality, your attributes, your history and where you imagine your life may be heading. And on. And on.

I’m not suggesting that any of those particular details of your little Narrative aren’t true, I am simply pointing to the fact that you imagine yourself operating within a storyline that moves from the past, which is gone, to a future, which hasn’t happened. And any story, no matter how accurate it may be, is always a highly condensed, extremely edited version of literally billions upon billions of other details and information. Furthermore, rarely (if ever) do we question the validity of that story we carry around. That Narrative of yours simply is what it is as far as we’re concerned. We always accept our Narrative without question about “Who We Are” and “What’s Going On” as cold, hard fact.

And THAT is why we don’t Lucid Dream.

Whether we are awake or asleep, we never stop and question the Narrative we are operating within, no matter how insane, abstract or flat-out impossible that story may be. At night we may regularly accept an abstract storyline without question that we have, say, been a soldier in an alien army on Mars for the last ten years of our life and we’re now on a mission to save the humans from extinction. Seems perfectly reasonable at the time, dreams usually do – that is, until we wake up and we compare our “Daily Narrative” against our “Dream Narrative”. Only in retrospect do we declare how ridiculous it all was. This is the dynamic that must change for us if we hope to start Waking Up.

Lucidity demands that we learn to detach from our operating Narrative – not just at night, but at any point in our life. This does not mean we have to make a judgement about the ultimate “accuracy” of the storyline we find ourselves in, it simply means we realize that what we are is NOT a Narrative. We are a consciousness that can involve itself with storylines, but we are absolutely not a story. When we realize this, we begin to “wake up”, in our dreams as well as in our daily lives. At the heart of it all, Lucid Dreaming is becoming conscious that we are greater than the storyline the mind weaves. It is a magical moment where we stop and declare, “This isn’t what I am! I am beyond this storyline!”. When this happens, we can operate above and beyond the restricted Narrative of the dream – and the possibilities from that point on are limited only by our imagination and attention.

If you can accept this perspective on Lucidity then it shouldn’t be hard to see how the mechanism of Narrative can also be turned on its head, which is what “The Avatar Approach” is all about. In short, I developed what could best be described as a role-player for use in my Lucid realms; a technique that I ultimately chose to discard, but one I feel has great merit, limited and possibly dangerous as it may be. As I mentioned, for approximately the first ten years after my Lucidity “kicked in”, I was entering these highly-charged states nearly every night, often for hours on end and I eventually found myself struggling with all the many possibilities Lucid Dreaming offered. The problem I was encountering was that my daily Narrative of “How the World Works” began infringing into my Lucidity, where the rules don’t – or shouldn’t – apply.

It seemed the longer I moved back and forth between the “real” world and the “dream” world, the more the “laws” of my daily life impaired my ability to, say, walk through walls, run on top of water, or fly. I first noticed signs of trouble when I would be moving around Lucid environments; through houses, over land, water, mountains, etc. In the beginning this arose as a sort of doubt, a quiet reminder in the back of my head that whispered, “But, you can’t walk on water! You can’t fly! That’s not possible.” And as time went on, I discovered it was demanding more and more of my attention to break out of that “Daily Narrative” that kept seeping through the cracks. Before long I was sinking below the surface of lakes or only able to float a few feet off the ground. Though I didn’t really understand it at the time, I essentially couldn’t keep my Narratives straight any longer. And so I developed a solution; a “work-around” that seemed obvious to me at the time, but also one many of the more experienced readers will recognize as risky at best:

I created another Narrative; one about a character who wasn’t impaired by any of these limitations. And then I became him.

That is, I literally sat down one evening with a notebook and I sketched out an entity of my own design and I imbued “him” with all the characteristics I needed in the dream realm. Basically I created a “Character Sheet” for a player in a fantasy/adventure game, but this character was designed specifically for handling the Lucid Realm like an expert. I gave him a name (“Chris”, a purposely common name), a fully-illustrated head-to-toe design (no, it doesn’t matter what kind of artist you are!), and I created an entire list of his attributes – including a simple, nuts-and-bolts “back-story” about how he operated. He had wings so he could fly, his body could act as matter or energy, he could manifest whatever he wished at the tip of his fingers and he could enter any realm possible with perfect clarity and attention. “Chris” was a character who didn’t move between the “real” and the “dream” world like I did; therefore, one who, ideally, didn’t suffer from my confusion with double Narratives. What “The Avatar Approach” boils down to is using this power of Narrative as a “stepping stone” to free ourselves from the most powerful Narratives that have been wired and drilled into us since birth.

Once I familiarized myself with all of my avatar’s details, putting him to use was quite simple. And the results were shocking. In fact, I was blown away with how incredibly powerful and reliable this technique turned out to be! Whenever I found myself “struggling” with performing some feat in the Lucid world, I simply hollered aloud, “I am Chris!”. Immediately I would “shapeshift” into this winged entity. Yes, I could literally see and feel enormous wings stretching out from my shoulder blades; it was nothing short of euphoric. My attention, my abilities and the overall intensity of my environment would instantly multiply. I would even feel different.

The technique was extremely effective, yes, and I believe newcomers and advanced users alike could make use of such a tactic. My own experimentation, however, was born of ignorance. I didn’t really know what I was doing; I didn’t fully comprehend the sort of fire I was playing with yet. Today, thirty years later I know that the ultimate goal of Lucid Dreaming should be to master our own relationship with Narrative, not to throw that responsibility onto a fictional identity, even one of our own design. As any book or movie-lover will tell you, we humans can find ourselves strangely bound to even fictional characters in ways that make us question, “What’s real?”. At the time, I was fully aware that all of Chris’s powers came from me, but it still made it somehow easier to “contain” all that power and make all the confusion of “mixed narratives” less chaotic. The use of an avatar in that realm was simply a mechanism to organize chaos. Afterall, isn’t that essentially what storylines are, anyway? A way to sort and edit billions upon billions of pieces of information into a linear model?

Does this “Avatar Approach” hold incredible possibility? Absolutely. But lacking the proper perspective into what I was doing, “Chris” soon became a crutch, and then an addiction – and then it spiraled out of control. At the time I suppose I had assumed that calling this character a common, ordinary name like “Chris” might keep this “alter ego” from getting away from me. I didn’t want to name him, “Ra, God of Light”, for example, and find myself with a genie on my hands that refused to go back in the bottle. Unfortunately, that’s essentially what happened after about a year of using this avatar. I discovered that any Narrative that we pull into the Dream realm and consciously add attention to will eventually take on a sort of life of its own – that is IF we aren’t fully aware of the dynamics we are playing with.

As many of you know, even the most simplistic, trivial notions and assumptions can have incredible impact in the Lucid realm. It’s as if the full potential of anything and everything in those states of awareness is cranked to Full Blast. At first, Chris was an excellent tool, but instead of learning how to control my own relationship to Narrative, I was becoming dependent on this avatar I had rerouted all of my power into. Furthermore, I eventually started questioning if this avatar of mine had developed its own intentions, somehow independent of my own. Was such a thing possible? Logically I’d have to say, “No.”, but I also had to admit that when it came right down to it, I just didn’t know. At one point along my journey I also had to accept that Lucid Dreaming could indeed act as a doorway to reach Out of Body experiences: Something else that “logically” shouldn’t be possible. So I also had to learn to take all the dictates of “logic” and “common sense” with a grain of salt when it came to those realms.

Eventually I decided the best thing for my development was to consciously drop this avatar of mine altogether. The next Lucid state I found myself in I quietly thanked this Chris for the lesson it imparted and I released its “energy” back into the Void from which it came. “I am NOT Chris”, were my final words on the issue.

As one, final note for thought: When I released “Chris”, I noticed that it didn’t dissipate as much as he “detached” and flew away from me into obscurity. I couldn’t help but feel I had given life to something that was still out there somewhere today, doing god-knows-what. I don’t like to dramatize over the idea, but I admit it manages to sends mild shivers down my spine now and again. Do with this information what you will – just please act responsibly with it and always remember that YOU are the source. And, in the end, isn’t it possible our physical bodies are also just avatars for our true identities?

Jan Jaydid is a fine artist, public speaker and author of, “Tripping the Field”, a fictional adventure inspired by his Lucidity, Astral Projection and Shamanic practices. You can find his current projects at Iboga Moon Productions:      http://Ianjaydid.com

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…In fact, the dream sleep stage…has been suggested as a model for schizophrenia…and there is some evidence that psychosis may be conceptualized as sleeping mentation entering the waking state… The various nocturnal consciousness characteristics that have been related to stress, negative emotion, or psychopathological symptoms include—but are not limited to—traumatic and non-traumatic nightmares…, recurrent dreams…falling asleep…, dream bizarreness, and hypnagogic hallucinations…” Nirit Soffer-Dudek – Consciousness and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel – Frontiers in Psychology, journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00733/full

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Below is some information on studies and articles relating to it.

“LUCID NIGHTMARES – FEAR, INITIATION, AND BEYOND” – BY RYAN HURD

“…Fear plays a huge role in lucid dreams because fear can manifest exactly what we don’t want to see. In lucid dreams this well-known phenomenon is called the expectancy effect…

…The neural pathways that connect fear to certain past experiences are so strong, they are like deep grooves in a dirt road, making it the easiest path for our minds to follow…

… In other cases, especially for young men, there is a real craving for confrontation in lucid dreams. Sometimes we go “looking for trouble,”…

…So here is a potpourri of tactics… Find safe ground…Know your boundaries…Ask for a helper or guardian…Ask threatening dream characters how you can help them…Give a gift… Cultivate gratitude…Take up a body practice…Explore your core beliefs…” – Lucid Nightmares – Fear, Initiation, and Beyond – Ryan Hurd – http://dreamstudies.org/2008/10/13/lucid-nightmares-fear-initiation-and-beyond/

“LUCID NIGHTMARES: A SURVEY OF THEIR FREQUENCY, FEATURES, AND FACTORS IN LUCID DREAMERS” – BY TADAS STUMBRYS

“This article reports the first systematic study on lucid nightmares—terrifying lucid dreams with a lack of dream control….

…According to the reports of lucid dreamers, less than half of them had experienced a lucid nightmare, and only 1% of them could be considered as suffering from lucid nightmares…

…Lucid nightmares are more likely to occur for women and nightmare sufferers, yet also for more frequent lucid dreamers and for those who experience lucid dreams spontaneously rather than them being induced deliberately…” – Lucid nightmares: A survey of their frequency, features, and factors in lucid dreamers – Tadas Stumbrys – Dreaming, Vol 28(3), Sep 2018 – Psycnet – http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fdrm0000090

“LUCID NIGHTMARES & FRIGHTENING NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES” – BY RYAN HURD

“…But not everyone has a good time in their NDE [Near Death Experiences}… frightening experiences include: 

1. Phenomenology similar to peaceful near-death experiences but interpreted as unpleasant
2. A sense of nonexistence or eternal void
3. Graphic hellish landscapes and entities

Brushing off negative imagery as reflections of fear only stigmatizes dreamers and visionaries, and therefore devalues the warnings and messages…

I tell this story because those dreamers who suffer from lucid nightmares often feel persecuted, misunderstood, and that they are “doing something wrong.” Any path (be it for fun, self-knowledge, or self-empowerment) is beset with darkness and light. This is true of dreamwork, spirituality, and any creative process….” – Lucid Nightmares & Frightening Near Death Experiences – Ryan Hurd – http://dreamstudies.org/2008/10/09/lucid-nightmares-frightening-near-death-experiences/

 “LUCID NIGHTMARES: CAN LUCID DREAMS BECOME NIGHTMARES?” – BY REBECCA TURNER

“…And when the unconscious decides to air some anxieties, you have a nightmare…I often relinquish control of my lucid dreams and allow my unconscious to show me what it wants…”Passive lucid dreaming” as I’ve come to call it, can be far more enlightening than my conscious dream choices. .. Think of it as an opportunity to face your inner fears and overcome them…

…The childish method of shouting “WAKE UP” can help at this point – but I recommend confronting your demons or just letting the nightmare play out… – Lucid Nightmares: Can Lucid Dreams Become Nightmares? – Rebecca Turner – https://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/lucid-nightmares.html

“MY LUCID NIGHTMARES AND LUCID DREAMING STORIES” – BY JUSTIN APTAKER

“…I also want to comfort such people by assuring them that I have only pleasant lucid dreams now, so it really is possible to stop having lucid nightmares and begin enjoying lucid dreams…

…After the first time this happened, with fearful results, I could no longer stop it from happening. The simple reason for this is that I would go to sleep afraid that I might have more lucid nightmares, and this very fear planted all the seed-thoughts needed to make the experience repeat itself. ..

…I stopped becoming lucid in my dreams. I think that this happened because my subconscious mind finally registered the fact that I no longer wanted to lucid dream….” – My Lucid Nightmares and Lucid Dreaming Stories – Justin Aptaker – updated on May 23, 2017 – https://exemplore.com/dreams/Lucid-Dreaming-A-Note-of-Caution

“LUCID NIGHTMARES: THE DARK SIDE OF SELF-AWARENESS IN DREAMS” – BY RYAN HURD

In this paper, I will illustrate how some nightmares offer a unique opportunity to dreamers not because they can be transformed but because they transform us. These are lucid nightmares…

…Lucid nightmares are a little understood phenomenon that has been long overlooked, in part due to the cultural reluctance of reporting negative lucid dream experiences…

…Ego psychology is effective at pushing the shadows back to where they belong, and has eased the suffering of thousands of tortured souls. –  Lucid Nightmares: the Dark Side of Self-Awareness in Dream – Ryan Hurd – Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams – 2009 – Academia – http://www.academia.edu/34277759/Lucid_Nightmares_the_Dark_Side_of_Self-Awareness_in_Dreams

“LUCID NIGHTMARES EXPLAINED, AND HOW TO AVOID THEM” – BY STEFAN – HowToLucid 

“…Dreams have been known to act almost like health warnings. Repeated nightmares that show us images or scenarios that relate to health issues or diseases can be a way of our bodies trying to make us aware that something is wrong…

…Facing your fears in your dreams can lessen the terror of similar real life situations and also make future nightmares less frequent…

…Watch the dream as you would a movie…” – Stefan – HowToLucid – https://howtolucid.com/lucid-nightmares/

“LUCID NIGHTMARES: AN EXPLORATORY ONLINE STUDY” – BY MICHAEL SCHREDL AND KELLY BULKELEY

“…Of the 160 nightmarish dreams, 67 could be classified as lucid nightmares with two thirds of the dreams including the inability to wake up. “Including nightmarish elements in the most recent lucid dream report” and “Being able to change the distressing content vs. having a lucid nightmare” was not related to age, gender, education, and ethnicity in this exploratory study. Future studies should focus on the variety of lucid nightmare topics – possibly expand the definition as this is currently focused on the inability to wake up or not being able to change the plot – and intervention strategies, i.e., the most effective ways to deal with lucid nightmares…” –  Lucid nightmares: An exploratory online study | International Journal of Dream Research

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Commonalities Between Sleep Paralysis And Lucid Dreaming

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I began lucid dreaming spontaneously around the age of nineteen. For approximately the next fifteen years I would enter these intense, highly bizarre states of consciousness on a nearly nightly basis – often for hours on end. After my first experience of “waking up” within a dream there was only one thing I was certain of: whatever had just happened to me was unusual and significant, although I had no clue what that might mean. As the months and years went on, my nightly journeys grew ever more strange and elaborate, and my questions only mounted. Some of these environments I was entering appeared quite earthly, others completely alien – and some were a bizarre mix of the two. Many of these lucid landscapes seemed to be inhabited by characters as sentient and intelligent as myself, and disturbingly enough, often every bit as capable of independent thought as the people in my waking life. Each experience brought up more questions than it offered answers, but I slowly learned tricks to maintain focus and control in these realms much in the same way a child has to learn to walk.

This phenomena became so jarring to my sense of perspective and self that soon my routine and worldly concerns took a backseat to my thirst for knowledge on the subject. At the time, the internet wasn’t yet a “thing,” so my success with finding reliable resources depended heavily on whether I managed to find articles and books by authors with real experience and insight. I poured through what little lucid dreaming research I could find, I read thousands of personal accounts, and studied a number of spiritual and religious views on the subject – I even discovered a small handful of scientists and physicians brave enough to discuss it openly. I eventually found that, as with any other phenomena that seem to border on the paranormal, I had to sort through heaps of dogma and wishful thinking to get to the more grounded, practical information I so desperately craved.

After many years of research and hundreds more personal experiences later, I began formulating a few, essential “truths” this phenomena pointed back to over and over again. One of the major lessons lucidity repeatedly exposed me to could best be summarized as: The level of clarity and focus of the environments I was engaged in was highly dependent on the quantity of my attention at my disposal.

What does that mean exactly? For me it meant that the more undistracted, undivided awareness I brought to the dream determined how “real” my lucid world literally appeared to me, as well as how much control I could exert over it.

Specifically, at the lower end of the spectrum of awareness, I’ve had lucid dreams where I was only barely cognizant of the fact I was dreaming; I was still somewhat “caught up” in the storyline the dream was presenting. These visions were “unstable,” objects were dim and out of focus, and I exerted very little influence over how the dream scenarios played out. The way I see it, when too much of my attention is directed on solving some “dream dilemma,” I don’t have enough of it to keep my reality focused or “solid.” However, on the higher end of the spectrum where I’ve brought pure, undiluted attention to the dreamscape, I’ve been treated to environments that looked, felt, sounded, and even smelled somehow more real than anything I’ve experienced in my waking life. It’s as if the full onslaught of my present-moment awareness actively “reaches out” to make my dreamscape tightly focused and intensely hyper-real. I’ve run my hand over intricately carved stonework that was cool to the touch in such visions, where I was left in utter awe at the high-definition detail and textures spread out before me.

In short, the more undistracted attention we bring to our lucid dreams, the more clarity and control we enjoy in them. We might assume this dynamic is only true for dreams, which (we generally assume) are taking place safely in our heads. But does this “solidifying” quality our consciousness seems to possess only work in our dreams? We’ve been taught to consider taking in stimuli from the waking world around us as more of a one-way street where we are simply passive observers, but in lucid dreams we find our experience of our environment is far more a relationship where the very power of our attention is playing an active role in how “real” our surroundings are. Some of what I’m describing about the lucid realm may sound incredible, but to those of you with firsthand experience likely know exactly what I’m referring to.

Which brings us back to our waking reality: What does any of this relationship between attention and clarity have to do with our actual, daily life – here, in the physical world? Modern physics seems to suggest the answer is, well, everything. The idea of quantum mechanics often sounds so complicated and confusing, many of us run for the hills at the very mention of it, but keep in mind that when we talk about this area of study, we are simply referring to how our world operates at the particle level; the atoms, the electrons, the photons and protons: the tiny bits that make up literally everything in the cosmos. And, strangely enough, what particle researchers have been discovering about the nature of “reality” seems to be the exact same dynamics I’ve just laid out: Attention literally pulls the world into focus. Furthermore, we’re even finding that more attention means more focus.

Without getting too bogged down in the math or the complex details, let’s take a brief look at how awareness itself impacts the world from the physics’ perspective. If you recall your high school science class, you were taught that light can act as a wave or a particle. As students, we were just asked to memorize and accept that fact, but rarely were we asked to really consider just how strange that is. Stranger still, we’ve found that all of matter at the quantum level can act like a field of energy spread over an area of space (called a “wave”) or a highly localized “thing” that exists in one place at one time (a “particle.”) One way to think of this is to say that the particles that make up all the objects in our world can exist in an abstract field of energy, or they can be actual, solid “things.” And, here’s the punchline: Observation itself is a factor that can literally shift waves into particles.

You read that correctly: Our reality seems to exist in a “field of possibility,” but only when it is not being observed. Once a particle like an electron is formally measured or observed, only then does it become a particle. To be perfectly clear, physicists have conducted experiment after experiment which demonstrate single particles moving through tiny openings in screens where they behave like waves of energy; where a single particle moves through several openings at once – as long as nothing is observing the experiment take place. But once a device records the particle’s precise behavior everything changes: Only then does the particle behave like a normal object that exists in one place at a time. From Science Daily’s article, “Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality” on particle research conducted by Weizmann Institute Of Science:

“Once an observer begins to watch the particles going through the openings, the picture changes dramatically: if a particle can be seen going through one opening, then it’s clear it didn’t go through another. In other words, when under observation, electrons are being “forced” to behave like particles and not like waves. Thus the mere act of observation affects the experimental findings.”

This notion is illustrated – perhaps a little ominously – in the famous Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment which imagines a cat locked inside a box along with an unpredictable device that may or may not release a poison and kill the poor beast. As long as we don’t open the box, there is no telling whether the cat is alive or dead. Now, ordinary common sense and reason dictates that the cat must either be alive or dead, right? This is not the case with our universe at the particle level.

This may sound like absolute science fiction, but these bizarre properties of our universe have been tested around the globe in every way imaginable. And if this doesn’t sound impossible enough, we’ve uncovered yet another layer to this dynamic in these wave-to-particle experiments: When the capacity of a device to observe particle behavior is increased, the less wave-like properties our particles exhibit. To quote the same article on the Weizmann Institute Of Science research above:

“The experiment revealed that the greater the amount of “watching,” the greater the observer’s influence on what actually takes place.” –  Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality

So, this brings us back full circle, to perhaps one of the most valuable lessons lucid dreaming imparts to us: The level of clarity and focus of the environment we are engaged in is highly dependent on the quantity of our attention.

Sound familiar? Now, is it possible that these exact same dynamics we are uncovering both with lucidity practices and by particle physics is pure coincidence? Of course it is. But it’s irresponsible to cast these independent discoveries aside until we know for sure – especially when there is so much we don’t know about consciousness. I am not a scientist and certainly not a quantum physicist, but there is clearly a profound overlap here with my area of expertise. While I’ve not spent hundreds of hours in labs or science classrooms, I have spent years studying the one area that science is still scratching its head over: Consciousness. Consciousness is the one phenomenon that our friends in the anatomy, biology, neurophysiology and even physics departments don’t have an explanation for – not even a working hypothesis. They can’t say what it is, what it might be made of (if it’s even a proper “thing” at all) or where it might reside; i.e. they don’t understand its nature. But the one thing that modern physicists do agree on about consciousness is that it absolutely has an active hand in how the world around us takes shape. Literally. And more attention means more clarity.

My intention is to reach across the aisle and ask researchers to seriously consider that lucid dreamers and quantum physicists have a lot we could learn from each other. We are both discovering the exact same truths about the nature of awareness, we simply use different tools to explore reality, and a different language to describe our findings. Let’s work to be less suspicious of each other and engage in more open dialogue about our personal and objective findings on the topic of consciousness. This information concerns us all and if we are drawing the correct conclusions from our respective endeavors, the implications of the role our own awareness plays in our moment-by-moment experience of reality cannot and should not be ignored.

If you want to study some of these fascinating experiments discussed in this article in more detail, I suggest starting with theoretical physicist Brian Greene’s videos on The Double Slit Experiments or the research articles I quote above from Weizmann Institute Of Science. If you wish to really dig into the wildest implications of the Observation Effect on reality, pick up the novel inspired by my own lucidity experiences, “Tripping the Field”, an adventure through astral projection, shamanism and shapeshifting which takes place in a world manifested by consciousness.

Ian Jaydid

Author of “Tripping the Field”

See all of his art, cartoon and book projects at  http://Ianjaydid.com

Related Posts: 

About How Ions Control The Neuronal Firing Patterns During the Transition From Sleep to Wakefulness

Applying Quantum Mechanics in Research to Test if the Human Mind can separate itself from the Physical World

The post Schrödinger’s Cat is Both Dreaming and Awake: The Quantum Connections To Lucid Dreaming – By Ian Jaydid appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

I have lucid dreamed since I was a young child just was not very aware in a semi state of control. As I grew into my teens the intensity and control increased and I began researching on the topic obsessively. Most helpful book for me was Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge. Which so happened to be sitting in an old used book store around the corner from my house tucked away on the top shelf in the back corner labeled under psychology books, it seemed like fate to me.

I learned many techniques and had some very profound experiences as I began getting into drug use with psychedelics and smoking pot regularly I noticed that I began to dream less. One day I stopped remembering a majority of my dreams altogether and lucidity ceased. I stopped using the heavier drugs but continued smoking pot and I continued to not dream this is after I turned 20. Fast forward 7 years and this is recently I had a minor manic episode I suppose the medical community would identify it as. I describe it as another level of perception, of our base reality. I was isolated and going through an emotional time with my partner, I hadn’t been smoking pot, my appetite decreased and I hadn’t been sleeping. I began to have these rushes of what seemed to be memories of past lives, and I began perceiving the world in a much different way, my entire life fell apart and even as I write this today I am rebuilding and attempting to come to a regular baseline reality again. I have been eating and smoking pot far less than I have before and I’ve been having these very vivid dreams again almost daily. There’s a difference though, it is almost as if my dream body is living it’s own life in its own world and when I try to impose my choices on its reality were having this tug of war of who’s in control of the dream body, I would relate the feeling to dream paralysis when you feel the vibrations but my dream body and I are fighting each other for control of the body itself.  Very odd experience just happened this evening I will post more info as it comes.

Has anyone else experienced something similar to this? It’s raising some questions for me is this reality a dream am I being dreamt or am I dreaming the dreamer when I sleep or is he dream I when he sleeps on some level. Ha ha very out there I know – please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss the nature of dreaming as it is a topic I put down many years ago and at one point in my life wanted to pursue as a career which I still may do now that I am regaining my abilities all the best.

The post My New Adventure appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“According to Carl Jung this [shadow] is our darker side of our psyche…”We use our dark side or shadow to display activities our ego is not comfortable with.”…” – Psychology Dictionary – https://psychologydictionary.org/shadow/

“According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections remain hidden, “The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power.”^[6] These projections insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.”  – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)

CHARLIE MORLEY is a well known lucid dream mentor, author, and instructor who has integrated “Shadow Work” into his teachings. His articles, books and videos reflect his vast experience with both lucid dreaming and ‘shadow’ psychology. His works are easy and fun to follow as he combines personal anecdotes with humor, a vast knowledge of the topics, honesty and self-awareness.

CHARLIE MORLEY – “THE DARK SHADOW IN A NUTSHELL” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgatVCc7NMA

CHARLIE MORLEY – “WHAT IS THE SHADOW?” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLo6zG3tjdw

CHARLIE MORLEY – “SHADOW DREAMING” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhh6vZVyanE

CHARLIE MORLEY – “WHAT IS THE GOLDEN SHADOW?” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxocZ-Au8SM

CHARLIE MORLEY On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/charliemorleyluciddreaming/

CHARLIE MORLEY’S WEBSITE: http://www.charliemorley.com/

Additional Articles:

Transcending the shadow self through lucid dreaming – Gustavo Castañer – Ascended Relationships –  http://ascendedrelationships.com/integrating-shadow-self/

“Sex with your shadow?” – Reddit – Are You Dreaming? – https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1b6j0s/sex_with_your_shadow/

“Carl Jung on Accepting the Darkness of Self and Others” – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvgmyaSTosg

The post Lucid Dreaming And The Darker Side Of The Psyche – Charlie Morley And Shadow Work appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

“…During lucid dreaming the bilateral precuneus, cuneus, parietal lobules, and prefrontal and occipito-temporal cortices activated strongly as compared with non-lucid REM sleep…

…We further observed increased activation in bilateral frontopolar areas, which have been related to the processing of internal states, e.g., the evaluation of one’s own thoughts and feelings…

…The strongest increase in activation during lucid compared to non-lucid REM sleep was observed in the precuneus, a brain region that has been implicated in self-referential processing, such as first-person perspective and experience of agency…

…Interestingly, we found activation in the bilateral cuneus and occipitotemporal cortices. These areas are part of the ventral stream of visual processing, which is involved in several aspects of conscious awareness in visual perception. While these activations seem puzzling… they are in line with reports of lucid dreamers stating that lucidity is associated with an exceptional brightness and visual clarity of the dream scenery…

…lucid dreaming therefore fits well with the therapeutic effects of lucidity training on recurrent nightmares. If lucid dreaming can also be utilized in the treatment of other dream disorders like terrifying hypnogogic hallucinations or pathological dream vivification is an open question that warrants further investigation.” … – By Martin Dresler, PhD, Renate Wehrle, PhD, Victor I. Spoormaker, PhD, Stefan P. Koch, PhD, Florian Holsboer, MD, PhD, Axel Steiger, MD, Hellmuth Obrig, MD, Philipp G. Sämann, MD, and Michael Czisch, PhD – www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3369221/

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Frontal Parts Of The Brain Click Back In During Lucid Dreams Despite Them Normally Being Off During REM Sleep

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Training The Prefrontal Cortex And Possible Applications

Prefrontal Cortex and its Role in Lucid Dreaming

The post About Brain Activity Causing Consciousness and Vivid Colors In Lucid Dreams appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

I’ve been experiencing lucid dreams for 35 years. Increasingly, getting better at it through time. I remember almost every dream since then. I’ve been in complete control of them for about the last ten years. I started out controlling my abilities. Now I can manipulate everything. The newest addition to all this, is seeing moments of my future. this has only been going on for about two months. I will see something happen days before it occurs. My focus now is to try and control those dreams as well. In high hopes to possibly manipulate my own path in time.

I have on average two to four dreams per night. Some are major cataclysmic events. While others are usually things going on with my life or things I want to happen in my life.

I can either start my dreams by focusing on a subject or person, or I can change things about a dream as it happens. Most of them have to deal with ancient abilities that were told to me from a spirit within my dream. This spirit or entity seems to watch what I do in my dreams and sometimes guides me. It’s as if I were getting lessons on how to do these things from my subconscious while dreaming.

I would like to find a doctor or scientist that would work with me to find out why this is happening. Possible brain tumor? Or something deeper and larger than that?

The post Increased Abilities Of Lucid Dreaming appeared first on LUCID DREAM RESEARCH.

Here is a small paper with some terms I collected to a list about conscious dreaming from the work of Claude Rifat, “Conscious Dreaming And Controlled Hallucinations”.

Links to his work are at the bottom of the attached article.

Excerpt:

“This article is written mostly for people who have the basic knowledge of what conscious dreaming is. This means they have some experiences of conscious dreaming, daydreaming, imaginative visualization, these and other relative concepts are considered known and understood.

To start with, I will list first some terms Claude Rifat used to describe phenomena related to dreams, conscious dreams and in general how our biological memory works. Below the list are parts from Claude’s article [in blue text – everything with black text is my comments] which explain the concepts in the list. The study he made is based on scientific research and with personal observations inside dreams. This is important because until then very few scientists of the mind were exploring consciousness from inside, from the perspective of the dreamer. The study had been written since 1976 until 1989.

When we imagine something or having a memory of something, what we do in neurological level is that we activate a specific memory zone in the brain, and what an expert conscious dreamer do, when he build a scenery for example, is that he have learned to activate and stabilize specific memory zones at will.

The intensity of how vivid is the memory of something, means how much is metabolically active that zone. In comparison of exogenous imagination and endogenus [in a conscious dream] we soon discover that in exogenus, in our natural everyday state, we can imagine only to a certain point and in dreams we can have much stronger visualization to the level of materialization with many senses involved. This is controlled by some regulator mechanisms I will explain below, the attenuator, DRP and SBEM which are responsible for the normal function of our consciousness.

Why we see irrational scenes in dreams or without continuous time sequence? This can be explained with MHV, and MCV “box” concepts along with the previous mechanisms the Attenuator and DRP. So when we are awake, consciously or unconsciously we activate some memory zones, some more and some less intense [with different emotional impression and different meaning each-one so they make different connections with different memory zones involved]. When they are activated they can remain active in the memory for some time [as we imprint in our memory the events some remain and some faint, so when we see a dream of something we would not expect we still remember that but for a reason had stayed in memory. Or we see things that are imprinted with our second unconscious attention]. Now, when we are sleeping the logical reasoning and other functions ceases [not completely and with variations in intensity] but the memory areas are still active and informational objects fall into the oneiric scene, somehow like a collection of unrelated events and objects interacting inside a portion of continuous time of an oneiric episode.

It is not so simple though, because maybe it can be with no logical explanation the sequence of images or the dream scenario, so to seem random but sometimes it follows some internal rules from the instincts or emotional centers, the drives or archetypes, to make some kind of coded symbolic message for our conscious self about a specific matter like a solution to a problem, like a different type of thought processor than everyday rational thinking. Even if usually consciousnes or reasoning are not active but other mechanisms could be driving the dream or are active to involve with the dream.

Claude Rifat was a biologist, his accomplishments include some early research into GHB (γ-Hydroxybutyric acid), including the thymoanaleptic/antidepressant and sociabilising effects of this molecule. So he is referring for examples about cannabinoid hallucinations, cholinergic, hallucinations by NMDA receptors, serotoninergic, and other molecules or about regular state of mind, dreaming state, schizophrenic state etc. I wanted not to write anything about substances but this is his research and I can not just put them out. After all, every serious researcher on the subject who has a real interest to learn has to consider them also which are part of nature.

One last thing I want to mention is that I have not make any official studies on these subjects, I just like to study these concepts in my free time because it happened to have conscious dreams spontaneously and with time I started to interest about the mechanisms of it and finally about the mechanisms that produce our consciousnees and our memory. If some of these are not right, if I have wrong ideas, at least I think this kind of concepts are very interesting and should be studied more. If I have understood Claude’s ideas wrongly please send me a message to know…” – Konstantinos Fakinos

Copyright 2018 Konstantinos Fakinos

LINK TO ENTIRE ARTICLE:  Claude Rifat’s Concepts From Conscious Dreaming And Controlled Hallucinations

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