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I’m a very understanding person. I always put myself in the other person’s shoes and try to understand what they’re feeling, what they’re thinking and where they come from. I try to never be judgemental and to always give people the benefit of the doubt.

The DreamZ App Review



DreamZ Lucid Dream AppLucid dreams have stimulated the minds of millions, and inspired famous movies like Inception, Vanilla Sky and The Matrix, and all with a very good reason. It is the ultimate virtual reality; a world we can change and shape as we please.


The ability to experience lucid dreams is generally considered to be reserved for a small percentage of lucky individuals that are able to gain awareness during a dream, mostly after intense training.


For this purpose we created DreamZ - the first iPhone app to facilitate advanced lucid dream algorithms previously found only in $500+ devices such as the NovaDreamer. With a beautiful design and clean and simple interface, DreamZ brings some of the most advanced algorithms in modern dream research to allow everyone gain awareness while dreaming without any special equipment, and with a minimum amount of training.


As you sleep, you go through different phases, ranging from deep sleep to light sleep. The most critical phase is called the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) in which most dreams occur.


During the night's sleep, the mattress you are laying on moves in correspondence with your body movements, and those vibrations are recognized by the iPhone's powerful accelerometer. DreamZ records your activity, and calculates a Sleep Score to each minute. This is the core of the algorithm. The Sleep Score is used to dynamically build a graph of the sleep phases, which allows us to identify in real-time the most important sleep phase: REM.


Recording REM SleepStudies show that during REM, our mind reacts to outside stimulation, such as light, sound or touch, and integrates them into the dream's content.
DreamZ utilizes this fact and plays a specially made audio cues as soon as you enter an REM sleep phase. The audio cue is designed to interweave inside your dream, giving you enough awareness to perform a reality check.


The most effective triggers are blinking lights, unique sounds and vibrations. DreamZ app uses unique audio cue triggers. A specific audio message that you choose or record will be played every time you reach the REM dream stage. An optimized audio cue should be able to blend into your dream, in a way that you will recognize it without waking up. This is very similar to the feeling you get when hearing a phone ring, and then experience this ring within the dream.


After an adaptation period of several dreams, your mind will learn that this audio message is only played during a dream, and it will help you become aware that you are dreaming each time you will hear the audio cue.


The audio cue is the most important aspect of the app's operation. It's important to choose the right audio cue to maximize the probability that you will hear it in you dream and recognize it as a trigger. Most of the sounds that we hear during the night are filtered away by our mind, or blended into our dreams. The audio cue needs to fulfill the following conditions:

It should be unique - During the night there are sounds that we hear often: a clock ticking, a loud air-conditioning, our spouse's snores and more. Our mind filters those sounds out so that we will not be woken up. It should not be an alarm sound - The recorded dream message should not be something that you relate to an alarm clock, since we wake up when we hear this sound. So, no songs and no annoying beeps. It should be hard to blend - To keep us from waking up, our mind blends sounds into our dreams. If the sound is very easy to blend, like a phone ring, we will not recognize it inside the dream. Several audio triggers will wake us up immediately - For example, hearing your own name while you are sleeping will usually wake you up, even if uttered as a whisper. Those triggers should be avoided. It should make you think - A good practice is to record audio cues that forces you to think rationally during the dream. Instead of recording yourself saying: "You are now dreaming" say "You are supposed to be asleep. How can you be here? This doesn't make sense."

The Audio Cue Prompts a Reality CheckChoosing an effective audio cue is important, but it is also important to know what to do when you hear the audio cue inside a dream. Usually, on the first nights you will use DreamZ, you will remember hearing the audio cue during the dream, but it will not invoke enough awareness to experience lucidity. You will probably remember simply silencing the iPhone during the dream, or throwing it away, or anything of that sort. To use the audio cue to experience lucid dreams, you need to practice performing a reality check every time you hear the audio cue.


When we are dreaming our brain behaves differently than when we are awake. The key to having lucid dreams is to understand those differences, and test them whenever you want to check if you are dreaming or not.


For instance, during a dream it is often difficult to read characters and numbers because the area of the brain responsible for those tasks is shut down. Thus, if we look at our digital clock twice during a dream, the number will be blurry or different each time. The same goes for reading. When performing a reality check, try and read a sentence twice. If you are dreaming, the sentence will change the second time you read it.


The best way to experience lucid dreams is a combination between a good audio cue, and a good reality check performed each time you hear the cue.

Read - Read a sentence twice and see if it changes.Breathe - Hold your nose and mouth shut and breath. During a dream you will have no problem breathing without oxygen.Digital clock - During a dream the numbers of a digital clock will appear blurry and morphing.Mirrors - Does your reflection looks normal in the mirror?Jump - Try jumping, in a dream you will feel like you are floating down.Run - During a dream you will feel like you are running in slow motion.

As wonderful as our lucid dream has been, it's worthless unless we can remember it afterwards. Remembering dreams is believed to be natural for some people and impossible for others, but the truth is that everyone can remember their dreams. There are two conditions that must be fulfilled:

You need to write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. The more you write about the dream, the more likely it is for you to remember it. The traditional way is to keep a journal and pen next to the bed and simply writing down everything you remember. DreamZ makes this even easier by showing you a dream log screen as soon as you wake up, where you can both write down your dreams, and record yourself talking about the dream out loud. This is a much faster method of recall that will greatly increase your ability to remember dreams. We are likely to remember dreams only if we wake up during or immediately after an REM phase. Since DreamZ monitors your sleep phases, we are able to offer a revolutionary feature, unique to the DreamZ app, which wakes you up as soon as the last dream of the night ends! To use this feature, you simply set an alarm time, choose the Memory Mode in wake-up mode, and DreamZ will play the alarm sound within a 30-minute window, as soon as your last REM period ends.

We believe that the IOS environment is the best and optimal playground for DreamZ. Bringing a beautiful design and clean and simple interface, DreamZ is very easy to use. In order to start your lucid dreams, you need to follow these easy steps:

Set the alarm clock. Just like your regular alarm clock.Choose the desired Sleep Mode. Alarm Mode as a regular alarm clock, Memory Mode maximizes lucid dreams and its memory, and Fresh Mode creates the best fresh awakening.Choose a dream sound - or record your own message to yourself. This audio cue will be played during the night when you enter REM sleep.Choose the alarm sound - from a given list or your iPod.Press Start and place the device next to you. Then go to sleep.

The DreamZ Lucid Dream AppDon't expect to have a lucid dream with your first use of DreamZ; the ability to become lucid is very individual, and sometimes needs practice. But the more you use it, the better your mind will get used to idea of lucidity during your dreams. Also, it might take one or two nights to calibrate the device to your own bed and body movements. But once you have your first lucid dream, you will want to have them every night!


Having a lucid dream is known as one of the best, mind-blowing, crazy experiences the human mind can achieve. DreamZ will help you become anything you've ever dreamed about, inside your own wild fantasy world.


DreamZ is the product of months of research, and was tested by a large group of lucid dreamers with outstanding results. For more information visit the DreamZ App website. DreamZ is available on the App Store for $1.99.

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The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track Review

Dreaming itself is a healthy biological function; we all dream every night (even if you don't remember) and we all experience varying states of consciousness while awake. To lucid dream simply means combining these states. Hence: conscious dreams.

Sounds simple, right? So why do I receive countless emails every week from people who claim it's impossible for them to become lucid? They all love the idea of controlling their dreams, and they say they've been practicing, but to actually attain consciousness while they're asleep just seems like a paradox to them.

Most often, I find the problem is inadequate education. They've picked up a few techniques from the internet and rushed into things without fully developing the mindset of a lucid dreamer. I know that lucid dreaming is a learnable skill, and with the right tutorage, anyone can pick it up. Sometimes within just a few days.

That's why I created my own hands-on approach to learning lucid dreaming. In my view, it blows other beginner courses out of the water. It's specifically designed for every reader who lands on this website crying, "I can't lucid dream! It's too hard!"

Well, I've got news for you...

I discovered lucid dreaming as a teenager - it was in some paranormal magazine alongside bigfoot sightings, UFO theories, remote viewing and tales of the legendary chupacabra. (Of course, lucid dreaming is the only scientifically proven concept among all of these alleged phenomena.)

Like anyone with a pulse, I really wanted to try lucid dreaming for myself. I wanted to feel the freedom of doing absolutely anything inside my own private virtual world. So over the following weeks I studied lucid dreaming and read up as much as I could. I kept a dream journal and practiced self-hypnosis.

Soon, I acquired the mindset - and had my first lucid dream.

It was a breakthrough moment for me. Suddenly, for the first time ever, I "woke up" inside my dream world. My environment surged into focus and I existed entirely in that reality, much like how you exist entirely where you are sitting right now. It was not fuzzy or vague. It was real. I was there.

I did a reality check - pushing two of my right fingers through the palm of my left hand - and marveled at the feeling. My lucidity became stronger.

Then I made a rookie mistake. I got all excited and ran outside to tell one of my fellow dream characters I was lucid. I found a woman I didn't recognize and shouted in her face. She didn't react, but just looked straight through me. In the last moments of my dream, I kept shouting at her: "I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!"

By then I was so excited, I accidentally woke myself up.

Over the following weeks and months I experienced many more lucid dreams. Most of them were short-lived and never lasted longer than a few minutes. That was before I learned how to prolong my dreams.

Mastering lucid dreaming is not just a case of knowing how to "wake up" in your dreams. It requires special knowledge to stay lucid and manipulate the dreamscape. Though some people are naturals at this, most people need to be given specific instructions in order to learn how to:

Become fully conscious / increase the dream intensityProlong the dream - potentially up to an hourControl your own movements with accuracy (eg flight)Change the dream scene to program a new adventureSuccessfully interact with other dream figuresObtain information from your subconscious dreaming self

It took me a long time to become a proficient lucid dreamer, because I never realized the importance of developing this lucid skill set. I just bumbled along in my lucid dreams, wondering why I sometimes couldn't fly (once I just stood in a field willing myself to go up, and felt totally frustrated when absolutely nothing happened). I also made the mistake of frequently pursuing sexual encounters - when I didn't even know how to stay fully lucid when things got exciting, nor how to interact with dream figures (tip: they rarely behave how you expect them to).


Eventually, I got some good tutoring and found the answers I needed. There were simple solutions available to me all along, if only I'd realized. For instance, if you're semi-lucid, vaguely aware that you might be dreaming but not really focused enough to do anything about it, you can quite simply rub your hands together to stimulate kinetic sensation. This awakens your senses and the conscious part of your brain, thereby heightening your lucidity immediately.


After I learned these new dream control techniques, my inner world became a rich and infinite source of fascination. I was no longer held back by my own illogical beliefs ("I can't fly, I'm too heavy") nor my own lack of lucidity. Now I had access to the complete lucid universe, able to teleport around the world in a flash, soar so high above the clouds I would end up in space, and work with my fellow dream characters so we all got something out of the experience.


Now, after 14 years of lucid dreaming, I'm experienced in the surreal workings of the subconscious dream world. I know how to induce lucid dreams and program my dreams in advance, plus (more importantly) how to understand and shape my dream world to achieve anything I want when lucid. I'm also now an avid explorer of passive lucid dreaming - dreams in which you allow your subconscious dreaming self to show you anything it wants, and lead you down the rabbit hole...


The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track is a comprehensive collection of all these lessons and more. It was designed to educate and inspire, arming you with valuable tips and tutorials as taught by leading lucidity experts like Dr Stephen LaBerge, Dr Alan Wallace and Dr Jayne Gackenbach. Indeed, the course finishes with an exclusive interview with Robert Waggoner, lucid dream author and advocate of using conscious dreams as a gateway to communicating with the inner self.

Here is a breakdown of the course contents:

The Art of Lucid DreamingPart I: The Art of Lucid Dreaming:
The Pursuit of Conscious Dream Control

In this comprehensive 111-page ebook you'll learn many tried-and-tested methods of lucid dream induction and dream control. It contains a goldmine of information for beginners including first-hand insights and troubleshooting.

You'll learn the background of sleep and dreaming, hands-on techniques to apply to your dream life, specific lessons in dream control, and lucid dream challenges and ideas.

The book is illustrated with dream-inspired fantasy art by Jeremiah Morelli.

By following the step-by-step instructions in this book, you will discover:

How to dramatically boost your dream recall - enabling you to recall up to 4 or 5 dreams per night (page 40).How to have your first lucid dream - using the step-by-step tutorials described here (pages 40-61).How to visualize your way to a lucid dream - entering your own imagined world on any night you choose (page 51).What dream herbs will intensify your dreams - the lazy man's way to a night of vivid dreaming (page 65).How to prolong your lucid dreams - using tactics which can potentially extend your lucid dreams up to an hour (page 74).How to program your dreams in advance - by visualizing your desired dreamscape or dream plot before sleep (page 48).How to summon dream characters and share intimacy - by reaching out to dream characters on their level (page 87).How to stop nightmares and turn them into lucid dreams - by lucidly turning the nightmare in on itself (page 93).How to interact with the awareness behind the dream - by specifically addressing your subconscious inner self (page 99).The Guided Meditation HandbookPart II: The Guided Meditation Handbook:
Meditation Advice for Lucid Dreamers

Modern lucid dream research has shown meditation can enhance your ability to lucid dream, as explained in this practical 26-page ebook.

It features step-by-step visualization tutorials to induce lucid dreams and OBEs as early as tonight. You'll learn how to visualize effectively and create intricate landscapes and scenarios in your mind's eye which can lead directly to lucid dreams (WILDs).

You'll also learn how to hypnotize yourself and place active affirmations in your subconscious mind to help program your dream content in advance. This is also excellent practice for entering altered states of awareness on demand - helping to trigger more lucid dreams in both the short and long term:

How to visualize effectively - and create intricate dream landscapes in your mind's eye.How to do guided meditation - to relieve stress and take an inner journey to find new insights and creativity.How to hypnotize yourself - and place active affirmations in your subconscious mind to program your dreams in advance.How to do night-time meditation and conscious dream entry - using your natural hypnagogia (the swirling lights and fleeting impressions on the sleep-wake border).Part III: Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis Sessions

The Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3Hypnosis is a powerful way to plant instructions in your subconscious mind - such as the intention to recognize when you are dreaming and become lucid.

Narrated by voice artist Gale Van Cott, I created two deeply relaxing hypnosis recordings to lead you into a blissful trance state whenever you listen.

Once under, you will be led into a natural wonderland that you will come to visualize in vivid detail, engaging multiple senses. This is your trance-state gateway to a lucid dream. Besides encouraging meditative states and incubating lucid dream triggers under hypnosis, the recordings may even prompt spontaneous lucidity.

Set to beautiful and haunting digitally-mastered music, you can listen to these hypnosis MP3s as often as you like to:

Help you relax when you get into bed - by systematically relieving your body of tension and silencing your inner monologue.
Hypnotize yourself into a semi-dream state - from which you are primed to receive the lucid dreaming autosuggestions.
Go on a guided meditation - molding your hypnagogia which can lead your mind directly into a lucid dream.
Help you program your dreams in advance - by laying down vivid content and lucidity cues to help you have more lucid dreams.

Lucid dreaming isn't just about flying to Mars or getting intimate with your favorite celebrity. In my course, I discuss more powerful applications such as:

Improving your creativity - Simply explore the lucid dreamscape and ask the dream to show you new things. Artists can find new inspiration by browsing their own in-dream gallery, full of original and surreal art which they can replicate upon waking. And my partner Pete regularly uses his lucid dreams to create new instrumental songs (his first was aptly named Lucid). It's quite amazing to follow the free-flow of ideas from the subconscious mind without your analytical left brain becoming critical about it. Overcoming your fears - Behavioral psychologists say that phobias are ill-conceived subconscious fears projected onto a specific stimulus. So, your irrational fear of spiders may be about a whole lot more than just the perceived weirdness of the eight-legged freaks. The solution when lucid is to summon a giant tarantula and talk to it - you can even pet it and make friends with it! Though surreal, the spider can talk freely about what part of your subconscious it represents and why you may be feeling so anxious about encountering it. The lucid dream world is a safe place to realign your miscalibrated childhood beliefs and overcome these fears with confidence. Communicating with your subconscious mind - By the same token, you can have profound and life-changing conversations with the best therapist in the world: your inner self. For instance, any time you are lucid, approach another dream figure and ask them what they represent. Ask if you can help them achieve something in particular or if they have anything they want to tell you. My course discusses more ways to interact with your inner self and ask probing questions - the answers to which could leave you truly awe-inspired.

Once you know how to induce lucid dreams (virtually on demand, but that's just a matter of commitment) and remain fully conscious for prolonged periods of time, there is unlimited potential for advanced lucid dream exploration.


In Dream Yoga - the Tibetan Buddhist's approach to lucid dreaming - the ultimate goal of lucidity is to dissolve the dream state. Deprived of physical stimulus (from the physical body) and conceptual stimulus (from the dreaming mind), you have the unique opportunity to observe the purest form of conscious awareness.


Whether you are religious or atheist, tuning into these rare states of altered awareness make way for some profound experiences. I'll show you how you can use your lucidity to explore your personal beliefs about the nature of being. Touching "God", having out-of-body experiences, and exploring beyond the outer reaches of our universe are all exciting vehicles to explore the nature and meaning of human consciousness in our own way. We'll explore this concept further in the course.


I invite you to explore the exceptional realm of the lucid dream world... An incredible simulated reality that is all at once intense, exciting, mind-expanding, thrilling, erotic, surreal, magical and fun.


Best of all, your dream world is unique and personal to you - it is your own private playground to use as you want. Whether you seek the ultimate physical freedom, sexual fantasies, evolution of the mind, or a spiritual quest, there are no rules, limitations or boundaries in your own lucid universe.


Creating The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track is my way of touching lives with this extraordinary concept. You can gain instant access to this fully downloadable course, sleeping sound in the knowledge that if you don't have any lucid dreams, you have 60 days to claim a full refund. I'm pleased to say that 96% of customers choose to keep the course. Plus, all customers have the option of receiving free lifetime updates, so any new materials and expansion packs will land in your inbox absolutely free. Click here to kick-start your lucid adventures and join the club.


Best wishes,

Rebecca Turner

Rebecca Turner
Creator, World of Lucid Dreaming

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What Do Lucid Dreams Feel Like?

AppId is over the quota
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Home > Introduction to Lucid Dreaming > What Do Lucid Dreams Feel Like?

What Do Lucid Dreams Feel Like?So you know the psychological definition of lucid dreaming and how it's all supposed to work - but what do lucid dreams feel like?

Years ago, before I had my first lucid dream, I had a very specific idea about what a lucid dream would feel like. I thought it would be very intense and magical and perhaps a bit spooky. Turns out I was right on all fronts.

But there is a heck of a lot more about the sensation and perception of lucid dreams that I have learned about since then. While no two lucid dreams are the same (and while it's no substitute for experiencing a lucid dream first-hand) I have tried to define my own experience of a lucid dream for the uninitiated.

I've broken it down into physical, mental and emotional components:

Your physical experience is made up of sensory interpretations, like the feel of the ground underneath your feet, or the smell of the ocean. In waking life, this information is received via the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. The stimulus is real and your brain interprets the data.

In dreams, this information is 100% synthesized by the mind - from memory and imagination. And yet, when lucid, it can feel just as "real" and vivid as waking life. Sometimes that's very intense and pleasurable (which is why many beginners go in search of lucid dream sex) or sometimes it can be dulled down (often when you lose lucidity or are directing your focus elsewhere).

Here are some examples of physical lucid dream experiences:

It may be a cliche that women love chocolate - but it's a cliche for a reason.

Eating in Lucid DreamsSo naturally, I have eaten some truly delicious chocolate cake in my lucid dreams.

Imagine the smoothest, richest, creamiest chocolate cake in the world. It's perfection embodied in a dessert. Now intensify that experience and you're getting close to lucid dream cake...

When lucid eating, chewing and swallowing takes less time and it's all about the flavor and texture of the food. What's more, your taste buds never become accustomed to the flavor so each bite is like your first. And of course there's no need to feel guilty about consuming unnecessary calories.

While chocolate cake is right up there, you can of course eat anything imaginable in a lucid dream. It can be a favorite childhood meal or even something you've never tried before (would that taste be authentic?)

Remember that your expectation of it being totally delicious makes it so. Which means you won't get gristle in the world's best beef burger, nor a floppy bit of lettuce. Expectation is why eating in lucid dreams is so awesome.

Aside from skydivers, base jumpers and other extremists of that ilk, most people have never experienced the physical sensation of flying freely. Yet the lucid dreaming mind simulates it in extraordinary physical detail.

Flying in Lucid DreamsIn my flying dreams, the sense of weightlessness, whooshing and wavering in the air is incredibly authentic (or at least how I imagine it to be). This awareness is critical to the experience, and your mind can even play tricks on you, like suddenly falling and simulating that stomach-dropping feeling.

Your dreaming mind may add more sensations such as feeling the wind in your hair, rain hammering on your skin, or the warmth of the sun on your face. If you have any doubts about your new skills, you may unexpectedly whack into a powerline mid-flight - which brings me to the subject of pain in lucid dreams...

The lucid dream is co-created by two players: the subconscious dreaming mind (the one that loves surreal symbology) and the conscious ego ("you"). In normal dreams, the subconscious has basically all control. In lucid dreams, the conscious ego steps in and starts to tweak little things as it desires.

Both can technically create pain in lucid dreams, although it's most likely the subconscious mind that produces this experience. (I'm yet to meet anyone who has deliberately induced pain in lucid dreams.) Pain is a result of pre-conceptions and established neural pathways: if you hit your thumb with a hammer, what do you expect? The brain simulates dream pain because this is its reality.

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) by Salvador DaliSo, if you fall onto a bed of spikes in your lucid dream, you might just find out what it feels like to be impaled. But fear not - you can will the pain to stop instantly or even wake yourself up. And I'm sure it won't be a patch on the real life experience of being impaled - but rather a toned-down imagined version.

The few times I've experienced pain in a lucid dream, it was very different from real pain. It was inconsistent with the cause, and stopped abruptly when the dream moved on. What's more, there was no psychological component, which can make real life pain so much worse.

I have also experienced choking and drowning while in a lucid nightmare and my dream self automatically moved out-of-body where it was no longer painful.

Now let's move to the cognitive experience of lucid dreams: how it feels to be aware, process information, recall memories and mentally control the dream.

In lucid dreams, your focus is expanded somewhat compared to normal dreams, but in my experience it is still very different from real life.

For example, sitting at my desk right now, I am aware of the room around me, the house beyond that, the garden, the village, the New Zealand landscape, and even a sense that I am on planet Earth. I know my location in the grand scheme of things and I know this is a solid, reliable construct.

Dream AwarenessBut the lucid dream world is much more fluid. When lucid, I am most often in unfamiliar places which have no GeoTag. I accept this automatically, knowing that I can teleport to a new location any time. It's as if my brain has no intention of placing my location (why bother?) so instead focuses my awareness only in the current one. The best way I can describe it is becoming absorbed in a video game or a movie and forgetting the real world exists beyond it.

Of course, with conscious effort, you can recall that your real body is lying in bed and that you are going to write an article about this tomorrow.

But generally (for me, anyway) the default setting is to focus on the pretty colors in in front of my face right now. This is why it's a good reason to set up a lucid dream intention while awake, because it's hard for the conscious dreaming mind to imagine new places from scratch. If you have no pre-set intention, just allow the dream to take over and show you an unlimited amount of cool new stuff. This is where the best creativity arises anyway.

Your memory works differently in the dream world. In normal dreams, you have little memory of your real life, and sometimes you even have false memories to make the dream scenario fit. Lucid dreams are only a notch or two above this.

The minute I become lucid, I try to recall my intention. It has to be recently ingrained or I won't have any passion for it. Sometimes I can't remember, which is frustrating, but I always have a backup plan to either explore the dreamscape, ask questions of fellow dream figures, or let the dreaming mind take over.

I haven't spent much time exploring long term memory in lucid dreams but in general I can say that it's off the radar. Like the location awareness, unless you are specifically trying to access a piece of information, the awareness of past memories are simply absent - or out of focus. This is equally true of thinking about my real life future. My lucid dream self lives in the present moment.

Dream control is a cognitive aspect of lucid dreaming because it's all done through willpower and mental focus.

Contrary to popular belief, when you become lucid you don't automatically have total control over your dream environment. Lucid dreaming only means to have conscious self-awareness within the dream state. Sometimes this means controlling many aspects of it, sometimes just a few key expectations, and sometimes you may choose to relinquish all control altogether.

"The sailor does not control the sea," as lucid dream researcher Robert Waggoner puts it. You may navigate your ship (consciousness) through the ocean (the dream) but you do not have to consciously populate every dream scene with every leaf and blade of grass and wisp of cloud. The dream populates itself while we consciously frolic within it. Sometimes that means a bird flies of its own accord, or a dream figure behaves autonomously. It is all still classified as lucid dreaming.

Beginners often run into the trap of trying to control major features of the dream with only a partial sense of lucidity. This can be frustrating and disheartening. To overcome this obstacle, employ these tricks for increasing and prolonging your lucidity. Only then can you master full dream control (if you so choose).

When you do exert greater control over the dream, the world is your oyster. You can paint the sky with a sweep of your hand. You can burrow down into the ground and journey to the center of the Earth. You can fight zombies, become Iron Man, or even create an entirely new civilization. Absolutely anything is possible - unless you have a preconceived limiting belief about it.

Dream Control and ExpectationsFor instance, if I told you it was impossible to fly into the sun in a lucid dream (and you really believed me) and then attempted it, you'd probably hit some kind of psychological roadblock. Perhaps you'd melt and emerge in a new scene. Or perhaps you'd hit a wall like Truman Burbank when he reached the edge of his "world".

When it comes to dream control, your expectations are paramount. And if you have no conscious expectations of a certain event, your subconscious will fill them in for you, guiding the dream on your behalf.

Lastly, what is the emotional experience of lucid dreaming and is it possible to enhance the intensity of emotions while lucid?

The intensity of feelings in lucid dreams are exactly the same as feelings in real life. The only difference is that because you're having such a jolly wonderful time, the emotions are more along the lines of awe, ecstasy, excitement, lust, gratitude, love and all that other fluffy stuff.

The big problem here is being overcome with excitement the first few times you achieve lucidity. It's tempting to jump for joy, shout and tell everyone in your dream that you are in fact dreaming (which they don't really want to hear anyway).

So in your early lucid dreams I recommend taking extra care to stay focused and not run away with yourself. All it takes is a calm acknowledgement that if you carry on like a raving lunatic, you'll wake up. And you don't want that.

This isn't a major issue though. After a few lucid dreams I managed to put a lid on my excitement and retained enough mental focus to have more meaningful lucid dreams. Eventually you won't need to ground yourself at all and you can let your emotions run free. But until you've mastered that minimum level of focus required to keep the dream running, just tone down the jubilation please.

Eventually you may start to look for a deeper meaning in your lucid dreams. Don't get me wrong; you'll still have plenty of ego-gratifying activities you want to do. But none of it will be too original. That's when it's time to turn inwards.

One of the more profound applications of lucid dreaming is to communicate with the dream itself by asking questions. This is like talking to your subconscious inner self. Instead of focusing on your physical needs, focus on your emotional needs.

Ask questions of the dream, such as: "How can I feel at total peace with myself?" or if you're really bold: "What is my greatest fear?" Then let the dream reveal itself.

When you probe your dream self you will very likely start to experience more intense emotions and take-home lessons in your lucid dreams, learning about the true nature of your basest self. For more ideas on this, see Robert Waggoner's insightful book Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.

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Why Am I Being Jolted Awake?

When trying to WILD, sometimes I keep feeling myself jolt back to alertness, much like if I were sitting in some boring lecture and trying not to fall asleep. Does this mean anything?


Rebecca says: This sounds like a hypnic jerk (described in Inception as The Kick which brings you back to reality). I think it's a glitch in the onset of sleep paralysis, or maybe the brain "just checking" to see if the body is still awake. It may also be a dream body movement which escapes the paralysis and affects your physical body.


I get this occasionally as I'm falling asleep and starting to dream, and always involves falling off the kerb on the sidewalk. My little brother says when it happens to him, he's also walking along the street and dreams of falling down a manhole. It's amazing how the mind and body co-orindate to synchronize the experience... but it's nothing to worry about and seems fairly common. Just let it happen and move on.


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The Stages of Sleep


Each and every night, your brain passes through five stages of sleep. Passing through all these stages takes about 90-110 minutes and marks one full sleep cycle. So, if you sleep soundly for eight hours per night, you're getting five full sleep cycles.

The Stages of Sleep


Let's take a closer look at the five stages of sleep:

Stage 1 is a light sleep and you are easily woken. You begin to lose muscle tone, causing twitches and hypnic jerks (suddenly jumping awake from a doze). You have hypnagogic hallucinations, swirling light and color patterns which hypnotize your mind into a restful sleep. Stage 1 also marks the loss of self awareness and most sensory attachment to the physical world. Your brainwave frequencies descend from ALPHA through THETA state (4-7 Hz). Stage 2 is marked by a loss of nearly all muscle tone (sleep paralysis or REM atonia) so your physical body can't act out your forthcoming dreams. Although your brainwaves have slowed further, they do show brief bursts of higher brainwave activity called sleep spindles in the lower BETA range at 12-16 Hz. You spend around half of all your sleep in Stage 2; a light dreamless sleep. Stage 3 is the beginning of a deep sleep, also known as Slow Wave Sleep. It is harder to rouse someone from a deep sleep, but if you are woken you will feel especially dopey and confused for a couple of minutes. Brainwaves have descended to the DELTA range of 0.5-4 Hz, the slowest frequency you'll ever experience. Once again this is another dreamless stage of sleep, however it is also the most likely time for sleepwalking to occur. Stage 4 is the deepest kind of Slow Wave Sleep. This stage replenishes your energy both physically and mentally, and without enough deep sleep (such as when sleeping on a long-haul flight) you won't feel refreshed in the morning. Your brainwaves are now exclusively in the DELTA range. REM Sleep marks the onset of dreaming. After submerging itself through the deeper stages of sleep, brainwave activity returns to the THETA range (4-8 Hz) through BETA (12-38 Hz) and Rapid Eye Movement denotes dreaming. If you are woken from REM sleep you'll dive back into this stage when you next return to sleep. REM sleep is important to healthy brain functioning for many reasons, including the creation of long-term memories. This is also where lucid dreaming occurs, signified by even greater brainwave frequencies sometimes as high as the GAMMA range of 38-90 Hz, marking a highly active brain state.Your longest and most memorable lucid dreams will usually occur in the fourth and fifth sleep cycles (after about six hours of sleep). This is where periods of REM sleep become longer, as shown below:

The Stages of REM Sleep

The graph shows REM sleep occurring at the end of each sleep cycle. This is your dream time - which finishes off each sleep cycle.

If you don't wake up to an alarm, you'll find you often wake directly from a dream, which makes it much easier to remember. When this happens, don't move and just allow yourself to gently re-enter the dream, while thinking "I'm dreaming".

This graph also shows how it's essential for lucid dreamers to get sufficient shuteye and not miss out on REM sleep by cutting sleep short. Indeed, the more chances you have to sleep in, the better. Sleeping-in allows extended REM time in the morning, more vivid dreams, and more chances to become lucid.

When you're deciding how many hours to sleep each night, also consider how many sleep cycles that will give you. For instance, a 7-hour sleep will wake you up in the middle of your fifth sleep cycle (assuming each cycle takes 90 minutes). This cuts you short and prevents your fifth REM phase. It's much healthier to wake up after the cycle is complete and in a light Stage 1 sleep of your next cycle.

Do you repeatedly wake up "on the wrong side of the bed" each morning? It's likely your alarm clock is interrupting your final sleep cycle at a crucial point. If you can, allow yourself to wake up naturally each morning. Otherwise, go to bed earlier and give yourself the extra minutes needed to complete the cycle.

So, how many sleep cycles should you aim for each night? Four? Five? Six? It seems that the amount of sleep required differs from person to person, however as a rough guide experts have come up with the following chart based on age:

We can measure the length of dream time using an EEG machine which reads brainwave activity. Dreams are directly correlated to REM sleep - to the extent that your eyes can move and track in the same direction you are looking in the dream.

The brainwave readings tell us that REM sleep at the end of the first sleep cycle lasts only a few minutes. Much of the first cycle is dedicated to non-REM sleep, driven by the need for physical rest. So, these early dreams are often fleeting. You are unlikely to remember them and they're unlikely to yield lucid dreams.

As you sleep on through the night, your REM phases grow longer in each sleep cycle. By morning, your fourth or fifth sleep cycle (ending when you wake up for the day) may allow for 45-60 minutes of uninterrupted REM sleep. It's perfect for lucid dreaming.

"My dream lasted a lifetime!"

Every now and then I hear an urban myth or even a first-hand claim that someone had a dream that encompassed an entire lifetime.

I've only once had such a dream, while taking the dream herb, Calea Z. Time seemed to stretch and I felt like I was in this dream for years. But as vivid as the dream was, I didn't literally experience those years, minute-for-minute. It was more like watching an epic movie that spans 200 years in the space of two hours, yet you feel like you were there longer.

Generally, the timeframe of regular dreams are in line with reality. However it's always difficult to judge the length of a dream from the first-hand perspective of dreaming it. Whether you're lucid or not, time can be distorted in dreams - and there are few "constants" against which you can measure the passing of dream events.

So, if you feel a dream lasted for days or years, it's just your perception of events in the dream that made it seem to last so long. I don't believe that such dreams - however mind-blowing in their realism and adventure - are comparable to the experience of real time passing in the waking world.

This also means you can't get "stuck" in dream limbo for 70 years ;)

Like regular dreams, lucid dreams can last anywhere from a few seconds up to an hour (and possibly even more). For me, a typical lucid dream lasts 10-20 minutes.

Most beginners find their lucid dream collapses within a few seconds because the emotions of becoming lucid are so overwhelming. However with a few simple dream stabilization methods, you can massively prolong your lucid dreams.

As soon as I learned how to prolong my lucid dreams, it opened up a world of possibilities. My dream world posed a new adventure playground, in which I could travel anywhere and do anything I wanted to with complete clarity and awareness. What's more, these stabilization techniques serve to enhance the dream clarity and my ability to control it, while preventing me from waking up prematurely.

For more lessons in lucid dreaming, check out my course The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track, which teaches anyone my proven strategy for having lucid dreams.

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Site Build It: An In-Depth Review

After writing my SBI review, I got many emails from readers with specific, in-depth questions about Site Build It. Understandably, they wanted definitive answers before embarking on their own online business. So I decided to publish the most common questions and answers here to help you if you're in a similar position.

Here are the most common questions I hear about running a website with SBI.

Always a popular question, so I'll get right to it.

Below is a graph of my monthly website income since launch - all values are USD.

In July 2008, I made my first US $60 in advertising income, even while the site was just a handful of pages and I still knew very little about online business. After that, the business grew steadily (with some bumper months, like May 2009 when I did an interview with StevePavlina.com and July 2010 with the release of Inception).

The latest growth spike began in late 2011 when I started to focus on sales of my own product, The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track. This proved to be a huge hit and should provide a growing revenue stream going forward. In April 2012 I launched my own affiliate program so bloggers can make money selling my product too.

Website IncomeThe graph demonstrates my level of online income today and the overall upward trend during what has been nearly four years of global recession.

Below you can see a comparison of my website income against the minimum wage in the US, as well as my last day job income as a financial journalist in London (adjusted to US dollars, all amounts are before tax).

Website Income Comparison Day JobIt took two years (July 2010) before I could match my old day job salary, which was a decent paying job for my age and experience. During those two years I have:

Built online business assets which are forecast to generate US $80,000 this financial year. If I were to sell them today, these passive-income generating websites would conservatively be valued at $400,000+. Enjoyed a relaxed work-at-home lifestyle which beat my stressful city job hands down. I took unlimited vacation days and sick days, including a month-long overseas trip to Europe while my business ran itself.

I'm not an overnight millionaire. I'm a self-employed business owner who took the time to create income-generating assets and build increasing revenue over time. This is the epitome of the Site Build It business model.


SBI also teaches you how to make passive income via your website. This is important. I don't clock in from 9 to 5 in order to guarantee a take-home pay. I work when it suits me. And I can take time off at the drop of a hat.


All the while, my business continues to generate increasing profits based on content I've created in the past. Growing web traffic enables me to make money from my past and current efforts, with revenues hitting my bank account automatically.


Of course, I won't retire now. The benefit of continuing to work hard on my websites is to keep growing them as assets, providing a greater scale of income in future. This means I can have an ever improving quality of life while working when it suits me.

There are several main routes (and dozens of sub-routes) to make money with your website. Most SBI users go with:

Google AdSense (get paid per click, usually a few cents per visitor)Affiliate commissions (get paid 5-75% per sale of a partner's product)Own product sales (get paid 95-100% on your own product sales)Site Build It will help you decide which route to go down first, but the reality is, the proof is in the pudding. You have to test a few different methods and see what generates the best level of income for your site.

For example, many websites make good money from Google AdSense - blocks of text and image advertising placed throughout the website content. The ads are automatically generated by Google, so once you put them in and find a placement that works well, you can pretty much forget they exist.

I then turned my attention to affiliate programs, where I recommend my favorite lucid dreaming products and get paid a commission per sale. Once I test the product and write my review, I generally do no further work to it. Readers find the review as they navigate my site and sales are made without my intervention.

At the end of each month, my affiliate partners add up how many sales I made and send my commissions to my bank account. Passive income 101.

I also make money from sales of my own digital product. It took me a while to get there, but I figured if people like my website content, they're likely to be willing to pay for further content, if it's something they can't get anywhere else. And so my digital lucid dreaming course was born... (see below).

Here's a little more on some specific income sources that work well for me:

The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track - This is my own information product teaching anyone how to have lucid dreams. Producing your own ebook is similar to creating website content; planning is crucial. And because it's digital there are no production or shipping costs because it's all delivered online. I make 95% per sale (5% goes in PayPal transaction fees). I also run my own affiliate program, so other people with similar websites can sell my course and earn 65% per sale. Meditation Power - As is a creator of digital brainwave entrainment, Meditation Power's affiliate program pays out 75% commission per MP3 sale. There are many vendors to choose from, but this is my favorite because it offers the best prices for the latest technology, a huge range of products, and a 60-day money back guarantee. Be careful about choosing which affiliates you work with, because you are endorsing them personally. Amazon Kindle Books - I have now written or co-written three books sold on the Amazon Kindle marketplace. This platform enables anyone to self-publish for free, and instead of selling paperback books, they sell digital books to people with e-readers (Kindles). This generates 70% author royalties for me on every download. I write my books based on my knowledge of lucid dreaming, and though I don't sell the books on my website, it makes an obvious way to monetize my knowledge and experience.

How you decide to monetize your website is up to you.


You may find there are no affiliate products you want to sell, so just stick to pay-per-click advertising. Or you may exclusively create and sell your own e-goods.


When you develop a serious following, you may look at producing your own teleseminars, conferences and workshops.


An SBI website can also support your local offline business, such as a restaurant, hairdresser or real estate agent, and use it to generate new customer leads. It really does dependon your website niche and what you're offering.

I always knew I had a strong interest in lucid dreaming, but I never thought I could make a living out of it. That was, until I started using SBI's Brainstorm It feature.

With this tool, I made a list of all my hobbies, passions, expertise and areas of interest, and ran them through SBI's comparison of web searches. It then analyzed my favorite topics for searchability, competition and profitability.

In the end, it was mostly a numbers game. Based on my chosen topics, SBI used its special formula to calculate what the most popular and profitable website niche would be for me. It also took into account how much I liked each topic.

And that's how I ended up making a website about lucid dreaming.

My other early site concepts included unexplained phenomena, science fiction, playing piano, photography, travel, New Zealand, cake recipes, writing, stock market investing, natural vision improvement and paranormal activity.

You don't need to be the world's most foremost expert on a particular subject to make a website about it. You are creating a personal project, not a Wikipedia page.

As long as you have: a starting knowledge, a passion for your subject, and some level of first-hand insight to make your website unique. It may be your favorite travel destination, your experience of owning a pet lizard, or your fascination for psychology that gives your niche website a unique and personal edge.


Personal development is a huge industry and a lot of people want to hop on the bandwagon. It is, after all, very fulfiling to think up ways to improve yourself.


There are also countless ways to monetize a personal development website. The internet is chock full of self help courses, conferences and webinars.


As a result, there is huge competition in this area, so you might find it hard to rank well on Google for personal development keywords. You may find yourself a small fish an in enormous ocean - and it will take a much bigger investment of your time (eg - a lot more article writing) before you become a true player in this field.


If you are a great writer, a great thinker, and have the ability to be truly original, then I see no reason not to develop a website on the broad subject of personal development.


However, not everyone is as original as they'd like to think. If what you've got to say has been said a hundred times before, then what value are you adding?


If you don't have the fresh angle to compete with some of the leading personal development experts in the world - then I recommend selecting a sub-niche. There are many sub-niches to choose from within personal development, like:

Stress reliefMemory improvementAlternative medicineSelf hypnosisDream interpretationRaw food dietsBetter relationships

...and so on. These are just off the top of my head and I'm sure you could create an enormous list if you wanted to. You can even Google it for inspiration.


Then you can plug your brightest ideas into Site Build It and find out which ones are popular enough to make a website about. In this field, I'm sure there are many - and with the focus narrowed, you'll find the competition a lot less daunting.

One big reason why I like Site Build It is that it simplifies the technology behind site building. It gives you a proven, step-by-step methodology for creating a successful website. This significantly reduces the number of challenges involved.

So I think the real challenges are personal:

Some people have a problem with motivation. They might start a business with all guns firing but then give up a few weeks later when they don't see instant results.

Building a business takes time, and even though Site Build It is there to hold your hand, there is no getting away from the fact that your future online career is 100% dependent on your own motivation and work ethic.

Your website will require your hard work and creativity. It's not an automated money making machine - at least not until you build it.


Yes - their solution is called Content 2.0 and it actually encourages a lot more user interactivity than your average blog comment field.


When a reader wants to comment on one of your articles, they fill out a form on your webpage, allowing them to tell a story and even add pictures.


SBI automatically creates a whole new page of content for it - so your website visitors actually end up building new content on your behalf.


The page is submitted to Google instantly and your website grows on autopilot, the way Facebook grows exponentially without Mark Zuckerberg lifting a finger.


In this way, reader comments can effectively build your business - for free. And why do they do it? Because they want to.


The rapid rise of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube shows that internet users are gagging to create their own content. The fact that it is hosted by you just makes your website even more popular.


To learn more about this feature, SBI has an informative page on Content 2.0.


I hope that helps flesh out your understanding of the SBI process and what sort of difference it could make to your life. A few years ago - at the very start of the global recession - I was in the same boat you are now. I was fed up with the rat race, desperate to forge a more creative career and kick the 9-to-5 routine.


When I started using Site Build It, I found exactly what I was looking for. SBI is responsible for the birth of this website and how far it has come. I'm yet to see anything like it in the marketplace, offering everything a beginner needs for success.


So check out Site Build It yourself and see how you can build a profitable website based on your hobby or passion... and change your life in the process.


Rebecca Turner

Rebecca Turner
Editor, World of Lucid Dreaming

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What Are The Best Isochronic Tones?

What Are The Best Isochronic Tones?Isochronic tones are a modern and scientifically proven form of brainwave entrainment technology.

By definition, brainwave entrainment occurs when the brainwave frequency duplicates that of the stimuli, whether it's audio, visual or tactile. This effect can be seen on an EEG (Siever, 2003).

The best isochronic tones take into account two needs: the physiological (the actual brainwave response) and the psychological (how readily you relax and accept the sounds).


High quality isochronic producers take care of the physiological effect. However, choosing the right tone to match your listening preferences is a personal choice. In this article we'll look at the effects of quality isochronics (beware of scams and free audios that simply don't work), how they change your level of conscious awareness, and where to find the best isochronic tones, in my view.

Note that isochronic tones are proven to be far more effective than binaural beats, and I find these the best audio entrainment for meditation.

In recent years, I've used various isochronic MP3s to induce states of dissociative meditation. This is valuable practice for lucid dreaming and also enables me to enjoy other kinds of borderland sleep phenomena, including:

New insights and clarity of thoughtHypnagogic observation and manipulationFeelings of floating above the bedBodily dissociation and imaginary limbsMemory impressions and emerging dream scenesOut-of-body experiences and projectionsThe Enchanted Forest by Jeremiah MorelliThe primary goal of listening to entrainment is to relieve stress and experience a good, deep meditation. I recommend all lucid dreamers practice meditation on a daily basis - so if you're not skilled or practiced in the art, then brainwave entrainment can be considered your helping hand.

Initially, isochronics promote feelings of relaxation and dissociation. You experience dissociation every day when you exercise, watch a movie or read a book - it's all about being drawn into the moment and forgetting about your daily worries.

When you meditate, dissociation is enhanced to greater depths; it silences your unhelpful mental chatter and tunes you into more peaceful and profound insights. It's like the difference between listening to a pair of gossipy old women vs taking in a philosophical lecture from an esteemed professor. Which one do you think will contribute more to your personal growth and development?

Entering this mindful state on a daily basis is a healthy practice for mind and body. The benefits are actually something I find difficult to describe. I could say frequent meditation makes me feel more focused, happy and calm in everyday life but this doesn't begin to convey the difference it actually makes.

What's more, meditation is the gateway to altered states of awareness, during which you can have lucid dreams, out of body experiences, astral projections (or your own interpretations thereof), mystical experiences, creative insights and more. It's like a natural mind trip, available to every conscious human being in the world.

Isochronic tones create states of meditation with evenly spaced pulses of a single tone to create a highly effective brainwave entrainment effect. Unlike binaural beats and monaural beats, the interference pattern is created outside of the brain so it's not necessary to wear headphones (although you can if you prefer).

Isochronics are a powerful form of brainwave entrainment because the contrast between the sound pulses and the silence is more pronounced. The effect excites the thalamus and causes a frequency following response, where the brain internally recreates the frequency and this re-shapes the level of conscious awareness.

The effect of isochronic tones can be heightened further with visual entrainment. In 1999, scientists doubled the relaxation effect on the brain with eyes-closed photic entrainment. However, this requires special equipment (light and sound machines) and most people can experience a good effect audibly with just an MP3 player.

The best isochronic tones are thought to comprise a pure tone (also called a sine wave) with a frequency of 150-180 Hz. This stimulates the brain (the physiological effect) while keeping within a comfortable listening range for most people (the psychological effect). Note that alternative entrainment technologies like clicks entrain the brain better but most people find them too annoying to properly relax.

I find the best isochronic tones are mixed with white noise or harmonic sound effects to disguise the regular pulsing. Water sounds, such as rainfall, ocean waves, waterfalls and running streams are ideal. However, synthetic sounds like guitar distortions can also be used if you find waterfall sounds are too hippy.

The Lucid Dreaming MP3I don't recommend isochronics which contain a spoken voice (as in hypnosis or guided meditation) or any kind of music. This can be mentally distracting enough to override the very entrainment effect you want to experience.

In terms of the best isochronic tones: if you like relaxing to sounds of nature, I currently enjoy Meditation Power's isochronic tones.

Meditation Power has many different brainwave MP3s to choose from but I would start with Lucid Dreaming, Astral Projection or Out of Body Experience to guarantee dissociative meditation.

Now just relax... and enjoy!

Below is a summary of scientific studies into brainwave entrainment. This list is by no means exhaustive but should provide a starting point for your own research.


Howard, C. E., Graham, L. E., 2nd and Wycoff, S. J., 1986. "A comparison of methods for reducing stress among dental students." J Dent Educ. 50, 542-544.


Lane, J. D., Kasian, S. J., Owens, J. E. and Marsh, G. R., 1998. "Binaural auditory beats affect vigilance performance and mood." Physiol Behav. 63, 249-252.


Leonard, K. N., Telch, M. J. and Harrington, P. J., 1999. "Dissociation in the laboratory: a comparison of strategies." Behav Res Ther. 37, 49-61.


Morse, D. R. and Chow, E., 1993. "The effect of the Relaxodont brain wave synchronizer on endodontic anxiety: evaluation by galvanic skin resistance, pulse rate, physical reactions, and questionnaire responses." Int J Psychosom. 40, 68-76.


Ossebaard, H. C., 2000. "Stress reduction by technology? An experimental study into the effects of brainmachines on burnout and state anxiety." Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 25, 93-101.


Rosenfeld, J. P., Reinhart, A. M. and Srivastava, S., 1997. "The effects of alpha (10-Hz) and beta (22-Hz) "entrainment" stimulation on the alpha and beta EEG bands: individual differences are critical to prediction of effects." Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 22, 3-20.


San Martini, P., Venturini, R., Zapponi, G. A. and Loizzo, A., 1979." Interaction between intermittent photic stimulation and auditory stimulation on the human EEG. Preliminary investigation through power spectral analysis." Neuropsychobiology. 5, 201-206.


Williams, J., Ramaswamy, D. and Oulhaj, A., 2006. "10 Hz flicker improves recognition memory in older people." BMC Neurosci. 7, 21.


Williams, J. H., 2001. "Frequency-specific effects of flicker on recognition memory." Neuroscience. 104, 283-286.


Joyce, M. and Siever, D., 2000. "Audio-Visual Entrainment (AVE) Program as a Treatment for Behavior Disorders in a School Setting." Journal of Neurotherapy. 4, 9-25.


Kliempt, P., Ruta, D., Ogston, S., Landeck, A. and Martay, K., 1999. "Hemispheric-synchronisation during anaesthesia: a double-blind randomised trial using audiotapes for intra-operative nociception control." Anaesthesia. 54, 769-773.


Padmanabhan, R., Hildreth, A. J. and Laws, D., 2005. "A prospective, randomised, controlled study examining binaural beat audio and pre-operative anxiety in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for day case surgery." Anaesthesia. 60, 874-877.


Wahbeh, H., Calabrese, C. and Zwickey, H., 2007a. "Binaural beat technology in humans: a pilot study to assess psychologic and physiologic effects." J Altern Complement Med. 13, 25-32.


Wahbeh, H., Calabrese, C., Zwickey, H. and Zajdel, D., 2007b. "Binaural beat technology in humans: a pilot study to assess neuropsychologic, physiologic, and electroencephalographic effects." J Altern Complement Med. 13, 199-206.


Kumano, H., Horie, H., Kuboki, T., Suematsu, H., Sato, H., Yasushi, M., Kamei, T. and Masumura, S., 1997. "EEG-driven photic stimulation effect on plasma cortisol and beta-endorphin." Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 22, 193-208.


Nomura, T., Higuchi, K., Yu, H., Sasaki, S., Kimura, S., Itoh, H., Taniguchi, M., Arakawa, T. and Kawai, K., 2006. "Slow-wave photic stimulation relieves patient discomfort during esophagogastroduodenoscopy." J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 21, 54-58.


Solomon, G. D., 1985. "Slow wave photic stimulation in the treatment of headache--a preliminary report." Headache. 25, 444-446.


Budzynski, T., Jordy, J., Budzynski, H., Tang, H. and Claypoole, K., 1999. "Academic Performance Enhancement with Photic Stimulation and EDR Feedback. Journal of Neurotherapy." 3, 11-21.


Patrick, G. J., 1996. "Improved neuronal regulation in ADHD: An application of fifteen sessions of photic-driven EEG neurotherapy." Journal of Neurotherapy. 1, 27-36.

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The Human Mind


Advanced lucid dreaming means exploring what it means to be conscious. Are there different levels of consciousness we can experience in dreams? How does the brain process and make sense of this information? Who's in control of the experience?


Another philosophical point raised by lucid dreaming is this: if our dreams can be so realistic as so mimic real life, can we even trust our waking senses? How do we know what's real? Are we living in a dream world? How would we know?


This latest section aims to take apart our automatic assumptions of consciousness and reach more meaningful conclusions. These are philosophical questions, and in no way do I attempt to give definitive conclusions, but to help you probe your own beliefs and evolve them for a better understanding of reality and the human mind.


What Is The Self?What Is The Self?


What is the self? Do I have a soul? Am I just a series of biological processes? Comparing bundle theory vs ego theory and their implications for the self.


Is Free Will an Illusion?Is Free Will an Illusion?


Is free will an illusion? On the surface, this seems like an odd question to ask. But when you break down the neurological processes, free will is nowhere to be found.


Where do we draw the line between fantasy and reality? Is something real because I imagined it? What if we share the same delusion?


Nick Bostrom's Simulation Argument is a probabilistic theory that states we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation created by future humans.

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What Do Blind People Dream About?


What do blind people dream about? This article highlights the latest studies into the dreams of blind people, colorblind people, and black-and-white dreamers.


In 1999, dream researchers at the University of Hartford analyzed 372 dreams of 15 blind people. They found that both the congenitally blind and those who went blind before five years old did not have any visual dreams at all.

That's because our dreams are made up of real world experiences and our innermost thoughts, anxieties and desires. So for someone who has never perceived images or light (or can't remember any) their dreams simply can't manifest visually.

People who go blind after seven years of age do report visual dreams in the same way we perceive them. It seems the longer you experience the world with sight, the longer you will go on dreaming visually. Someone who goes blind in their senior years can experience vivid dreams for many years after losing their sight.

Of the people who went blind between five and seven years the results were mixed; some went on to have visual dreams and some did not. However, regardless of the visual dream content, all groups reported rich and imaginative dreams, suggesting visual imagery is no measure of dream intensity on its own.

So, what do blind people dream about if there is no visual imagery involved? As a sighted person it's pretty hard to imagine. But we can say that blind people's dreams are representative of their real lives, charged with sound, touch, smell and emotion.

Because they lack the sense of sight, their brains automatically compensate by putting more emphasis on the remaining sensory data. They can build up a highly detailed perception of the world (especially with advanced development of the senses such as echolocation) and these senses create a vivid dream world.

In one study of dreams, 60% of blind people reported dreaming about transport (compared to 28% of sighted people) which is understandably a big cause of anxiety for blind people because of the danger it presents.

Research has also shown that blind people who never dream visually show very little or no Rapid Eye Movement during the REM phase of sleep. They are still capable of having vivid sensory dreams, but they don't show any eye movements.


This highlights an interesting function of REM sleep: the only reason our eyes are darting all about the place is because they are scanning a visual dream world. The dreams of blind people suggest there is no other reason for it.


What does this mean for colorblind people - do they dream in color?


As you might expect by now, your waking experience dictates your perception of dreams. So someone who has a red-green color vision defect since birth (affecting a surprising 8% of males with Northern European ancestry) will dream in the same colorblind mode.


If you were born with full color vision but later became colorblind, you may have full color dreams if you have sufficient intact long term memories of them. This aspect of visual memory is interesting; for instance people who became blind later in life report how familiar faces become blurry with time - and they never age.


Do you dream in color? For sighted people, this seems like a pretty odd question. If you see in full color during the day, then you dream in color at night - surely?


Curiously, in 2008, researchers at the University of Dundee surveyed generations of people who grew up with black-and-white television (which emerged throughout the entire first half of the twentieth century). Even though they saw in full color in everyday life, they still recalled dreaming in black and white. By the 1960s, when color TV became more widespread, people reported fewer black-and-white dreams and shifted back to full color.


Incidentally if you can't recall any colors from last night's dream, this doesn't mean it was in black and white. It just means you don't recall that particular detail - and increasing your dream recall and practicing lucid dreaming will improve this.


Yes, I believe so. Blind people can have a highly attuned sense of self awareness, just like sighted people. In fact, they are more accustomed to using what we consider "back-up" senses as primary senses, meaning they can be more aware of their own environment. This could enhance your ability to notice whether you're dreaming and become lucid. What would those lucid dreams be like...?

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Sleep Paralysis Visions


Sleep Paralysis VisionsWith Halloween around the corner, it's socially acceptable to talk about ghosts and spirits for the next couple weeks. We decorate out homes with fake gravestones and spider webs, dress ourselves up as scary-sexy zombies-vampires, and watch creepy movies on the television. After November 1, all the costumes and decorations go into a box, the Halloween candy is shipped to remainder stores for deep discounts, and we forget about the ghosts and ghouls until next year.


Unless you regularly experience sleep paralysis, that is.


For those few of us with a penchant for SP and its attendant visions, the veil between worlds is always a bit thin. For those of us who wake up and find we cannot move, nor cry out, and - what's more - there's a vampire standing in the doorway, every night contains a prospect for encountering this spooky underworld of consciousness.


Chances are, if you are a lucid dreamer who has tried lucid dreaming methods that disturb the sleep cycle - such as wake-back-to-bed (WBTB) or supplements like galantamine - you have run into sleep paralysis once or twice. You may have also found that the rules are a little different with SP. That's why I recommend all lucid dreamers familiarize themselves with this misunderstood state of consciousness, and, in particular, look into it as an opportunity for a powerful spiritual experience.


By "spiritual" I don't mean the vague, scented-candled and New Aged concept about the interconnectedness of the universe, but actually the experience of contacting spirits. This is the original definition of spiritual.


Spirits: what else to call the monsters, ghosts, and wispy creatures that show up at the foot of the bed during a bout of sleep paralysis? They aren't human, they certainly are not from this material realm, and calling them "hallucinations" is only a distancing method that banks on character assassination, an attempt to rationalize that what's plainly here is not here. When someone uses the term hallucination, it deflates the experience and suggests it is meaningless.


So I call these uncanny encounters sleep paralysis visions. This restores their potential value and primary reality, and is closer to the other traditions of the world that are more accepting of seeing nebulous things in the night. SP visions are not random, but have powerful psychological effects that influence a person's beliefs for the rest of their lives.


Why do I think these visions are meaningful? They are one of the original sources of fairy tales, myths and religious stories around the world, including visitations from the dead, encounters with angels, sexual molestation by demons, succubi and witches, and quite possibly some modern alien abduction narratives.


They are real encounters, happening when the mind is awake and alert. But let's not be fundamentalist about what "reality" is either. These encounters are not happening in what we term consensual reality, that realm we ordinarily share and make group observations, but rather occur during a range of altered states that are most easily accessed through sleep, but also can be accessed by trance, hallucinogens, and shamanic techniques such as drumming and chanting.


I prefer to call this liminal reality, an anthropological term that comes from the Latin as "threshold." When we are in sleep paralysis, we are in between worlds: ordinary reality where our bodies are sleeping, and the dreamworld, where our imagination is keeping company with some very old and powerful creative energies that appear to play with everything we think we know and turn it upside down. In sleep paralysis, we are literally trapped in the threshold between worlds.


At this point, I should point out that while we know quite a bit about the physical mechanisms of sleep paralysis, we know very little about the visions themselves. Rebecca's introductory article is an excellent place to start, covering the causes and the symptoms of this hybrid state of awareness, as well as how sleep paralysis relates to REM sleep. An easy way to think of it is Mind Awake, Body Asleep. Knowing that SP occurs as REM intrusion into Stage N-1 sleep - the lightest stage of sleep - may be helpful for those who think they are going insane.


Let me be clear: you are not going insane. No, apparently this is part of normal life; we just aren't allowed to talk about it in polite society because it is the reservoir for just about every taboo our culture holds.


The physiology of REM defines many features of this unique vision state, including the predominance of negative emotions - especially fear and horror, as well as intense sexual longing and unparalleled access to long term memory. In other words, our childhood fears and longings are prevalent in SP visions, as our the myths, tales and belief structures that cemented when we were young and more accustomed to dealing with extreme fear and existential horror.


This modified REM brain state allows for the default expression of SP visions:

the scary encounter with an unknown figure that simply watches from behind a hooded cloak the terrifying experience of ghost rape that nonetheless results in orgasm contact with a vampire, alien or teethy creature that seems to drain you of will, courage and possibly more.

But physiology is not destiny. Many people, myself included, have had SP encounters with figures that are warm, inviting, and radiating with healing light. Others speak of contact with the recently deceased, or of figures dressed in period clothing that want nothing more but to ask a few questions. What starts as a SP attack can transform into an otherworldly journey - the kind we see in the Old Testament - as well as out-of-body experiences and lucid dreams.


Positive sexual encounters in SP are possible too, although I suspect they are under- reported due to the nested taboos of admitting the enjoyment of intercourse with a ghost or invisible being. Interestingly, just a few weeks ago the pop star Kei$ha admitted to having sex with a ghost, and her account was immediately denounced as a PR stunt to correspond with her new single Supernatural.


Maybe, maybe not.


When you go looking, you find these encounters are hidden in plain sight. Kei$ha isn't the first celebrity to admit having sex with a ghost: ten years ago, Lucy Liu says she went there (and enjoyed it), and Anna Nicole Smith also publicly recounted a having multiple sexual encounters with ghost when she lived in Texas.


Skeptics may doubt the power of these encounters, but don't worry about them: skeptics are just trying to protect their world view. As lucid dreamers, we know that reality is malleable. The same is true of SP encounters. Our own beliefs about what is possible while we are in contact with the "Stranger in the room" can influence what we perceive. In many cases, I have watched the sleep paralysis entity shape-shift as my own thoughts, fears and attitudes shifted.


Like lucid dreams, the figure is unstable, and often has a "doppelganger" effect that mirrors our own beliefs. You can see a similar effect in lucid dreams when standing in front of a mirror. It can be an intense exercise - as you flow back and forth between self- love and doubt - but it's well worth the trouble.


Yet, I am convinced the identity of the Stranger is more than our psychological projection in the moment; it is not "just" a recreation of our worse nightmare. Rather, each night visitor should be considered a unique, autonomous constellation of energy that has a range of visages. I wish I had a pat answer on who they are and where they come from, but I would be lying to say I understand. As a researcher, and in my own SP encounters, I try to maintain openness to the experience and a suspension of disbelief. This is called the phenomenological attitude: it's basically a Western version of meditation.


Notice your thoughts; notice your attitudes and fears as they occur, but then set them aside and breath in the new moment.


I have found this practice to be very difficult, but ultimately rewarding. In my experience, the identity of the SP entity can shift into a more communicative figure, although there is still a tremendous range of identities possible. On the other hand, sudden spikes of fear or distrust can cause the Stranger to take on a more "trickster-like" role, and the event can quickly go downhill into full-on nightmarish horror again. If this happens, you can always wake yourself up using a variety of SP awakening techniques.


The phenomenological attitude doesn't wash away the presence, but rather can be seen as a process of cleaning the doors of perception. When you're stuck in the threshold between dreams and waking, in that liminal space, a clean threshold comes in handy.


So when you find yourself face to face with the ghosts, goblins and werewolves of sleep paralysis visions, remember that the each moment brings new possibilities. Some may always choose to wake up, and that's fine. However, if you choose to go through the threshold - using the mind's ability to be open, discerning and above all compassionate - many new doorways will open beyond this first gate.


For more about the history, culture, science and - most importantly - how to work with sleep paralysis visions, I invite you to check out my ebook on the topic: Sleep Paralysis Kit.


Ryan Hurd, author of Sleep Paralysis KitRyan Hurd is a dream researcher, blogger and author of several books and e-courses on sleep, nightmares and advanced lucid dreaming. He is the editor of DreamStudies.org and a board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. In late 2012, look for him at TEDMED.com as a Challenge leader, tackling the problem of sleeplessness in our society.

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What is the difference between a lucid dreaming and day dreaming?

What is the difference between a lucid dreaming and day dreaming? At the end of the day to clear the dreamer knows what dreams and that they dreamed of, so isn't it, they are awake, just day dreaming?

Rebecca says: When a person is lucid dreams, his body sleeps. When a person NAPs, his body is awake. It is a physiological-the main difference which we know about, because we can scientifically measure things, such as:

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) -Lucid Dreams occur during REM sleep, when the eye of the flick in the direction you are looking for in your dreams, often around. Daydreams in wakefulness, when there is no REM. eyes can be open, closed, or still moving, but none of these is not responsible for the availability of fast eye movements of sleep. Brainwave measurements -Lucid dreaming, creating brainwave frequencies, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma-ranges when you are physiologically in a dream. A NAP is limited to the typically casual Alpha mode, though physiologically awake. The fact that lucid dreaming there will tell you that consciousness does not have a clear indication of the wakefulness ... so knowing that you encounter a false reality does not mean you have to be awake and just day dreaming. Muscle tone measurements -when lucid dreaming, you usually have no awareness of the body in bed (with the exception of the transitional moment when you wake up). Your body is in a State of REM atonia (sleep paralysis) to prevent you from your dreams. After a NAP, you maintain a partial or full consciousness of the waking world, even though one can imagine another world in your mind. The brain is not a fictional Inspectorate motor neuron signals; two is not hooked up, when there is a wakefulness.

The differences between the other sleeping body and waking the body explained in the article, why do we sleep? These help the body during States of clarity and day dreaming.

But what about a spiritual experience? Again, lucid dreams and day-dreams are very different, although they are more difficult to measure. Because both of them are internally generated, reporting States parties is subjective. I'll give you my point of view, which I think is the most lucid dreamers roughly agree:

Even though the daydreams are fun (research shows our day dream of 70-120 minutes per day), they are really only wakes up ideas. Slip in and out of daydreams, visualizing, hopes and fears for the future of the past, and wonders, fantasia. Maintain awareness of the outside world, to some extent, and you can stop and start the attention is directed, if fantasy reality. Day dreams are quite intangible, so when you have a day to dream of running in the sand, feeling is certainly not; just imagine.

Lucid Dreams are asleep and moved on to the real world means to you fully immersed in sleep-literally see, hear, and touch the bike on the road in a way that can vividly recall the reality. The brain is experiencing the lucid dream world vividly, as if it was waking up to the reality and completely tuned in to the experience. The dream world is essentially self-generating (though you can consciously edit parts of it) and makes it illogical and unexpected creations appear on the subconscious mind.


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Scientists Measure Dream Content

Scientists Measure Dream Content with the Help of Lucid DreamersHow we laughed at this year's April Fools joke - a machine that monitors and records your dreams. And yet, a group of European scientists have begun to crack the code that will actually make such a reality possible. Could you one day be able to record and playback your lucid dreams? These scientists are already laying the groundwork...

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, the Charité hospital in Berlin, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences teamed up with a handful of lucid dreamers and an MRI machine.

Sleeping in the lab, the lucid dreamers were told to signal the moment they became lucid (through the classic method of eye movement signals). They were also asked to consciously clench their right dream fist for 10 seconds, then their left one.

At the same time, functional magnetic resonance imaging scans enabled the researchers to gain a live view on what goes on in the brain during this lucid action.

Interestingly, the same areas of the brain were also active when the lucid dreamers clenched their fists in real life - or even simply imagined doing so.

The scientists now have a basis for translating specific brain signals into both physical and dream actions. In time, they can build up whole a database of signals and their meanings - ie what's happening in your dream at any given moment.

"With this combination of sleep EEGs, imaging methods and lucid dreamers, we can measure not only simple movements during sleep but also the activity patterns in the brain during visual dream perceptions," explains Martin Dresler, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry.

This means that it will soon be possible to interpret and record your dreams just by having your brain scanned while you sleep. But how will dream playback occur?

A separate team of researchers at UC Berkeley are already on the case...

It turns out this brain-scanning-your-thoughts idea is a hot area of research. Scientists are UC Berkeley have been scanning the blood flow in their own brains in an MRI machine while watching Hollywood movies.

They fed the data into a computer program which matched up brain activity with motion picture information. Soon, the computer had built up an enormous “rule book” of brain activity which it could use to decode what the brain was actually seeing.

This team went one massive step further than the European experiment. They put 18 million seconds of random YouTube clips into the computer to give it a "paint palette" to work from. Then, using some remarkable programming, the computer pieced together videos of its own creation, aiming to replicate what the subjects were seeing from within the MRI machine.

Here's the result: on the left you'll see the movie clip being watched by the person. On the right, you'll see the computer's attempt to reconstruct the clip from a library of YouTube images - based only on information about brain activity and blood flow.

Amazing.

Of course, both experiments offer tantalizing leads into the future realm of mind reading and mind recording. If a portable brain scanning device were to be developed (as opposed to sitting in an MRI machine) people all over the world could record their lucid dreams, design video games with their imagination, and even share their live perceptions with other people, a concept explored in the movie Being John Malcovich.


Other applications of its offspring technology might include telepathic video calls and using mind control to drive your car or operate your computer… Fascinating stuff.


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Video: Kia previews its Super Bowl baby commercial, far cry from Adriana Lima

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AppId is over the quota
KIA MOTORS' SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL WILL ANSWER THE AGE OLD QUESTION OF "WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM?"

"Space Babies" Takes Viewers on A Journey Nine Months in the Making to Introduce the Family-Friendly 2014 Sorento CUV and Kia's Next Generation UVO eServices Voice-Activated Infotainment System

Director Jake Scott helms 60-second mini-movie set on the distant planet "Babylandia;" Sneak preview available this weekend in movie theaters and at youtube.com/kia

Second phase of Sorento's "It has an answer for everything™" campaign is scheduled to air in the fourth quarter of the big game and appear on movie screens nationwide starting February 1

IRVINE, Calif., January 25, 2013 – For generations, inquisitive young minds have asked the burning question that all parents dread. A question that leaves many moms and dads stumbling to find the right words to carefully, and sometimes creatively, navigate the most delicate of situations. On February 3, with more than 100 million people watching, Kia Motors America (KMA) will tell the story that hasn't been told as a flustered father shares an epic tale with his curious young son from behind the wheel of the new 2014 Sorento CUV. Scheduled to air in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII and directed by Jake Scott, "Space Babies" reveals the existence of a faraway planet known as "Babylandia" and follows infant boys, girls, dogs, pandas and more on their journey to Earth to join their new families. After taking it all in, the curious child begins to offer an alternative theory passed on by a friend but his quick-thinking father calls upon UVO's voice-activated jukebox feature to hurriedly change the subject and survive another day in the adventures of parenthood.

"As the marketing event of the year, the Super Bowl is a high-profile platform that Kia has used very successfully in each of the last three years to launch new vehicles and raise consumer awareness and perception for the brand," said Michael Sprague, executive vice president, marketing & communications, KMA. "Every day is an adventure in parenting, and 'Space Babies' is an entertaining look at life's challenges and the many ways the Sorento's long list of technologies and amenities can make getting through the day just a little bit easier."

Created by David&Goliath, KMA's advertising agency of record, a special expanded version of "Space Babies" will be viewable at YouTube.com/Kia leading up to the big game. As one of the fastest growing car companies in the U.S. over the last five years[1], Kia returns as a Super Bowl advertiser for the fourth straight time. After becoming the first advertiser to debut a Super Bowl commercial in movie theaters before the big game last year, "Space Babies" will air on more than 33,000 screens nationwide beginning on February 1 as part of ScreenVision and National CineMedia's FirstLook. "It has an answer for everything™" is a fully integrated marketing campaign incorporating TV, cinema, digital, print, social media and in-dealership components.

"Tight Space"

In the first spot of the Sorento's "It has an answer for everything™" campaign, titled "Tight Space," parental creativity is in high gear when two of the CUV's available features – power-folding mirrors and power liftgate – help a determined father make the slimmest parking garage space manageable while his skeptical wife and children look on. Created by David&Goliath, "Tight Space" spot was directed by Peter Darley Miller and Colin Jeffery and is viewable now at YouTube.com/Kia, and on television.

2014 Sorento

The 2014 Sorento[2] is no mere mid-cycle refresh. It rides on an all-new platform and suspension system, and offers a new V6 engine and more passenger room as well as a new top-of-the-line trim level known as the SX Limited. From a styling perspective, redesigned front and rear fascias incorporate new lighting elements, the 17-inch and 18-inch alloy wheels have been redesigned and a larger 19-inch alloy wheel is offered on the SX as well as the new SX Limited. Inside, the center rack, gear shift, instrument clusters, and soft-touch surfaces all feature a new look. Other new features include second row sliding sunshades and heated seats, panoramic sunroof, a programmable powered lift gate, segment unique, heated second row seat bottoms, and more. The 2014 Sorento will be the first Kia vehicle to offer the next generation voice-activated telematics system, UVO eServices.

Kia: One of the World's Fastest Moving Global Automotive Brands

Kia Motors America is one of only three auto brands to increase U.S. sales in each of the past four years, and in 2012 the company surpassed the 500,000 unit mark for the first time. With a full line of fun-to-drive cars and CUVs, Kia is advancing value to new levels of sophistication by combining European-influenced styling – under the guidance of chief design officer Peter Schreyer – with cutting-edge technologies, premium amenities, affordable pricing and the lowest cost of ownership in the industry. Kia recently joined the exclusive ranks of Interbrand's "Top 100 Best Global Brands," and is poised to continue its record-breaking momentum with seven all-new or significantly redesigned vehicles arriving in showrooms in 2013. Over the past decade Kia Motors has invested more than $1.4 billion in the U.S., including the company's first U.S. assembly plant in West Point, Georgia – Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) – which is responsible for the creation of more than 11,000 plant and supplier jobs. The success of the U.S.-built* Optima and Sorento in two of the industry's largest segments has fueled Kia's growth and is complemented by Kia's comprehensive lineup which includes the Sportage compact CUV, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Optima Hybrid, Forte compact sedan, 5-door compact hatchback and Forte Koup two-door coupe, Rio and Rio 5-door sub-compacts and Sedona minivan.

About Kia Motors America

Kia Motors America is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea. KMA offers a complete line of vehicles through more than 765 dealers throughout the United States and serves as the "Official Automotive Partner" of the NBA and LPGA. In 2012, KMA recorded its best-ever annual sales total and gained U.S. market share for the 18th consecutive year. Kia is poised to continue its momentum and will continue to build the brand through design innovation, quality, value, advanced safety features and new technologies.

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