First real-time communication between researchers and lucid dreamers

Motto:  'Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.' (Arthur C. Clarke)

Long time ago i used to write about lucid dreaming. When Stephen LaBerge started to study the phenomenon during the Eighties, many were just thinking that this is some kind of hoax, similar to the astral projection. 

But now, 40 years later, we have the technology to prove that this is real, and some researchers did that, according to the research notes published on 18.02.2021 (link here). 

What are we talking about? While some of us may be naturally gifted for lucid dreaming, others need to work for it, more or less. I found that 3-6 months of training, using a Dream Journal to write what you remember as soon as you wake up (first 60 seconds when you wake up or the memory is gone), and a Reality Check (ask yourself as often as you can during the time you are awake if you are dreaming, and after a while the habit will make it possible to ask if you a dreaming while you are dreaming, so you will realize that you are aware while dreaming). If you realize that you are in a dream, you are in a world you created, having godlike powers (yes, i sound a bit blasfemous, but it is true), and you can do anything you wish, i may correct myself, anything you intent to do, as intention is the force changing the dream, basically anything and everything. The ultimate virtual game. You can drive your favourite car, meet your favourite person to chat or walk or else, you can even have any superpower you like (teleport, freeze time, anything you wish for, but my favourite by far is flying). I could talk about flying and ramble on many pages, but the short version is this, once you realize you are not in the  real world, and you are not bound by the laws of physics, you can fly, like Superman. It is exhilarating and unbelievable transforming. If you were to learn lucid dreaming only for this experience, and it is totally worth it. You can use it for repetitive actions, to master skills faster (like doing 10-100 times same Kata from martial arts or getting better at guitar or violin. Time is relative while dreaming, so one year dream time can be one hour in real life. Just imagine, if you need 10.000 hours to play violin and you do all this hours in 7 nights, you can master violin in one week. Another way to use the lucid dream, as i discovered personally, i call it pogressive exposure to a phobia. You can conquer your phobia bit by bit, creating the trigger and being exposed to it bit by bit. I tried this with public speaking, adding more and more people to crowd listening to me until i was not afraid anymore. Oh, there is so much to talk about lucid dreaming. Once i start i find hard to stop myself talking about it forever. But, let's go back to our bussiness. 

The issues with the research where that the memories of a dream are most often distorted and partial. They devised a method to create a two-way dialogue with a person while lucid dreaming. This dialogue was quite complex, using math problems and yes/no answer. The lucid dreamers answered during the REM sleep - while dreaming, using eye movements and facial muscle signals. 

So, during this experiment they used a previously learned two-way communication method, during polysomnographically verified rapid eye movement sleep (translation in layman terms: while dreaming) using 36 individuals, each of them having different skills in lucid dreaming. During testing, while dreaming, they proved they can perform veridical perceptual analysis of novel information, maintain information in the working memory, computing simple answers and expressing volitional replies. Meaning they can learn about new things, remember them later, answering questions and telling what they want. To do this, they used distinctive eye movements and selective facial muscle contractions. They answered correctly on 29 occasions with 6 individuals tested, showing not only that lucid dreaming is possible, but also that we can peak behing the courtain and find what it is happening while dreaming. 

This is also proof that our awareness can go further than just when we are 'awake', and that we are aware of much more of the reality, even when we are sleeping. Impressive, but nothing new under the stars, as there are similar methods devised by the Indians (Yoga-Nidra) and South Americans shamans (lucid dreaming techniques), some of them being two thousand years older. 

Still, we can be only happy when the science is catching up with the old magic. 

See you soon,

George

Gratitude, slowing down and the magic hidden inside a book

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."
- Melody Beattie -

But more than once we choose to focus on the worst side of our day, and this is a choice too. There are many experiments done in the past five years to show the power of gratitude, and a simple fact such as thinking about 3 things to be grateful every morning can have a dramatic impact on our physical and mental health. So, i would say, why not try it, we have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
- Eddie Cantor -

Being in a hurry will darken our vision and will make the future and the present unclear, acting as a mental fog. While slowing down and trying to relax, we expand our perception and start to see , instead of just passing by and avoid to look. The mindfulness walk is an amazing technique for a tired mind. Take an interval of time out of your very busy schedule, and just walk, slowly, with no rush, being focused on your internal and external sensations. Even 15 minutes per day will be  beneficial, helping you to be less stressed and more focused.

"You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book."
- Dr. Seuss -

And if walking being aware is too much for you, here is another idea. Stress in not the enemy, because it will became real only when we choose to respond to the events in our life by being contracted, depressed and upset.

Have a perfect Sunday!
G.

Solitude, nature and one awareness walk

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."
- Maya Angelou -

We are thinking here at what a tipping point is, and how one apparently unrelated events can transform the life of millions, in good or bad. To give only two examples, the history will be completely different if Einstein was convinced to be a shoe-maker, continuing his family tradition, or Hitler was encouraged by his art teacher to pursue painting instead of politics. You need to be kind, to always help others, for the simple reason that you can be the tipping point to mark a change in the collective destiny of the entire planet. You never know what you can do, what is you full potential or how the butterfly effect will play his role in this daily adventure called life.

"By assaulting nature, we raise the odds that we will assault each other. By bringing nature into our lives, we invite humility."
- Richard Louv -

You maybe didn't know about this, but most of the stress related modern illnesses will simply disappear if you try to have a daily walk, completely focused on the surrounding nature, looking at it as you are seeing it for the first time, thought the eyes of a child, without other distractions. An awareness walk of 30 minutes will completely change your life quality and it will make you to see everything else with another kind of vision.

The eyes can look, but they cannot see

Remember when you walked along the street. How much aware were you about what happen around yourself? Maybe you looked, but you couldn't see. Do not worry, i got the remedy for you, right here, right now.

Watch it:

Enjoy it!

Lucid dreaming - a hobby for creative people

My last book about lucid dreaming is free this week on Kindle, for all my friends who are interested in this creative hobby.
It will help me a lot if you write a review after you read it.
Thank you!

Lucid Dreaming - a hobby for creative people

Slow food

I never get tired to talk about this. In a modern era of being in a hurry every moment of your day, slow food is a luxury you think you cannot afford. But think again, because you need it. It will help you in many ways, some of them unknown to you. While fast food seems to be the easiest way, to eat something of our way to or after work, slow food is a totally opposite concept. To eat for the sake of it, to sit down, switch of your phone, think about what you gonna cook or order, anticipate the taste, the smell, and eat slowly, enjoying every mouthful. Do not let your mind wander, this is an exercise per se. Focus only on eating, and use all your five senses to enjoy this. First you can try with your favorite meals, then later use this method with every meal. Not only you will learn how to focus and not be easily distracted (skill that will help you in any given area of your life), but you will wait gladly and enjoy in anticipation a good food, you will solve a lot of stomach problems that are mostly related to stress and poor dieting habits, and you will even extend this to your whole day. As a method of staying in the present, to live now and here, it is easy to be done, because all of us have our preferred meals, and all of us need a break for past problems and future worries.

Good luck with it, if anything great happen because of this, please let me know,

G.

Quote of the day

"There is a way of breathing that's a shame and suffocation,
And there is another way of expiring a love breath that let's you open infinitely."
(Rumi)

I can remember a research on happiness, done by Barbara Fredickson, when she will give a token gift before tests, a bag of candy (packed, so it is not about the sugar rush). The one who received gifts had better test results, and camera focused on the eyes iris could see that for example in a picture of 3 babies, one in the middle and two side ways, the ones who did not received gifts focused mostly on the middle picture, while the ones who received gifts focused on all three pictures. The conclusion of this complex experiment was that positive emotions (and happiness as a complex set of positive emotions overall) open awareness, expands our peripheral vision, in other words, we see the world with new eyes when we are happy.

1 extra second

On 30th of June we got one unbelievable gift. At 12:00 pm we received one extra second. The scientists said that all this happen because Earth rotation is slowing infinitesimally.

What is one second?

If you work to make a living, if you stay most of the day with your eyes on the phone screen, if you dream about some far away future without doing nothing, if you live without love, if you worry about things that didn't happen yet, then this one extra second is useless for you. 

But if you are near the love of your life, could mean one more kiss, if you are driving or flying, or you are having surgery in hospital, then one second is the diference between life and death. 

In the end it's all about choices, about having higher standards and mostly about awareness. This is what is changing our perceptions and not one clearly definite time interval, being that one second, one month or one life. 

Change your way of seeing the world around you and you will change your life. 

No Nonsense!

-I was a genius once, he start the conversation.
-I know man, i was a genius too! Long time ago, before a lightning hit me and make me normal. The opposite of an super-hero, i could say.
-So you know how it is. I tried everything. Yoga, meditation, bio-feedback. Nothing work. I decline a bit every day. Sorry, what was your IQ?
-178. Yours?
-212 at age of 7, now is only 142.
-Oh yeah, if i think about i had 178 first time i test me, at 18. I do not know what is it know, but i feel it too. Is a bad thing to wish to not be ordinary?
- I heard about samadhi tank in London. I wish to try it. But i think will be expensive.
- I've seen some offer on internet. I think is 45 quid per session. 90 for 3 sessions.
-Hmm, could be alright to try it at least once. Do you think it work?
-Probably, at least for a while.
-Oh, i need to leave the train now, this is my card, you have my email there, contact me sometime.
-Ok, unless i become an evil genius and try to conquer the world.
-Yeah, then i will be obliged to stop you.
'Next station is in Farrington,  you can go out on the left side!'

Teach me now!

I was working as usually, washing dishes in some restaurant in the town centre of Manchester. I do not know what happen, but lately i was not myself. Like something was missing. I think that all started last month when i had a holiday in Peru. A magical place, and what's more interesting, in one of the boat trips in the rain forest we meet a bunch of unusual locals. They called themselves The Lost Tribe. For two days we stayed there. In the evening we gathered together around the fire. And because our guide could understand nomatsiguenga dialect they spoken, he translated for us their stories. A beautiful oral tradition, speaking about our place in the world and our mission in life. They even had their shamans, and next morning i was talking with them for hours, about healing, about plants, about changes and many other things. It was fascinating to found about Camu Camu berry regenerating properties, the lipstick tree - annatto, used as insect repellent and sun protector, Clavillia, cocoa tree, Glaviola fruit, the sacred Icoja bark that can teach you how to heal yourself, Sangre de Drago and many, many others. I could not stop to ask again and again about all this knowledge, that probably will dissapear when the rain forest will be no more, Yavari told me, complaining once again about the massive deforestation. Sadly, we were on the schedule, and we left next day. After we wish each other well and said our goodbyes, one of the old shamans looked at me and I was gifted with one satchel, trying to tell me something. "Put some under the tongue, before you fall asleep!" our guide translated. I look inside and i could see some green and brown plants powder. I thank them once more.And here I am, two weeks later. As soon as I came home i tried the Peruvian remedy. First time was incredibly, and i have no words to describe the experience. At the beginning is was like a shock wave, expanding with me in the centre of it, and i become aware of my house, my town, the entire region, planet, solar system. Maybe this sound like a 'cliche', but I was becoming one with the universe. I could feel the tree in my garden, every being from my city, with their worries, inner thoughts, secret dreams. A rose flowering in my parents place, 2000 miles away. A camel drinking water somewhere close to Abu Dhabi. A child crying in a fast train close to Tokyo. I've seen the events before they happen, only as an intention. I could feel the grass from Anfield Road. Time was there and was not, as i could see stars born only to die a second after. Big Bang, Expansion. Contraction. And after that another Big Bang. I cannot describe This. Like i was aware of everything, like I was becoming the Universe. And next thing that i know, I was asleep. Day by day, a could not wait for night to come. And here we are yesterday, the satchel being empty. I feel like a genie without his bottle. I feel normal, if i can define this as normality. I feel limited, existing only in this place, at this moment. I cannot find my place.
- One vegetarian sandwich, please! You need to wake up, mate. I'm hungry! I could hear a voice behind the counter. I look to the blonde girl in front of me, in her twenties, Tesco uniform. I see her name tag, I read the name and i could not stop laughing.