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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.

Therapeutic Eye Masks: Relax Your Eyes with Dream Essentials

Eye masks help soothe and relax tired eyes caused by computer use and eye strain. By relaxing your eyes in a quiet space, you'll also find it a good time to practice lucid dreaming techniques like WILD, meditation and visualization.
This eye mask review explores three therapeutic eye masks, using various combinations of cold, heat, aroma, light and pressure to create a sense of deep relaxation. They can also be used to relieve headaches, head colds, sunburn, sinus discomfort, stress and tension, and tired puffy eyes.

The Solace Gel Soothing Eye Mask is specifically designed to cool tired eyes. The gel filling makes the mask fluid and so it molds closely to your face. The eye holes prevent the cooling gel from being applied directly to your eyeballs, as it's in the surrounding muscle where tension builds up, not actually in your eyes.

When cooled, this eye mask is particularly good for soothing sinuses, head colds, sunburn, and tired or puffy eyes. However it can also be warmed, if you prefer that deep heat. Having this eye mask on hand will also encourage you to take five minutes to relax your eyes each day, which is good for preventing myopic deterioration caused by eye strain.

To Chill - Put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or in the fridge for 60 minutes. Make sure you never freeze the mask solid!
To Heat - Fill a sink or bowl with hot water (not boiling) and soak the mask for 5-10 minutes. Use the straps to remove it. Note: not suitable for the microwave.
Quick Tip - As before, don't apply the mask directly to your skin - I recommend buying a material cover with it to protect your face from direct exposure to the heat or cold.
> Buy this eye mask or read more reviews at Dream Essentials


The Silk Eye Pillow is filled with flax seed and scented with lavender to calm your mind. Scents can be very powerful and evocative; the universally relaxing aroma of lavender is ideal for calming a stressed-out mind.

The fabric is soft and cooling, while the shape of the pillow molds perfectly to your face, blocking out any light. It also creates a soothing pressure to acupressure points surrounding the eyes to relieve tension and calm active muscles.

To Chill - I like the eye pillow at room temperature, however you can place it in a plastic bag and leave it in the freezer overnight for cool relief.

Quick Tip - Don't heat your eye pillow as it's not designed for that. If you want a microwaveable eye pillow, see the Warm Whiskers
eye pillows at Dream Essentials.
> Buy this eye pillow or read more reviews at Dream Essentials



G0 to Sleep is both a sleep mask and a therapeutic eye mask that sends the most highly-strung brain into an easy sleep.

It's a revolutionary idea that combines an ancient technique with modern technology. Following the lights will soon clear your mind of busy thoughts and have you doze off.

How it works: Hold your Glo to Sleep up to a light bulb for 30 seconds. This activates the blue glow which lasts for hours (not that you'll care). While wearing the mask, gaze upwards at one of the soft blue points of light and breathe deeply.

This simple focusing act causes your thoughts to slow and your mind to become clear. Your eyelids will become heavy and you'll relax into a deep sleep state. This is such an easy solution for a problem that infuriates millions of people nightly.

> Buy this eye mask or read more reviews at Dream Essentials

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Self Hypnosis for Lucid Dreaming


Self hypnosis is another great tool for lucid dreaming.

Like meditation, it draws on the same relaxation response that helps calm your body, reduce stress hormones, and focus your mind on affirmative thoughts. You can use it to program your dreams and increase your self-awareness, teaching your subconscious to recognize when you are dreaming (and thereby trigger lucidity).

Hypnotizing yourself is different from meditation because it uses auto suggestion to plant certain thoughts and affirmations. So if you want to use self hypnosis for lucid dreaming, plant suggestions like: "I can remember my dreams" and "I can recognize when I'm dreaming" and "All my dreams are vivid".

For a professional hypnosis recording, check out my Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3 (which readers can get for free as part of The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track). It uses guided visualizations and auto suggestions to incubate a lucid dream every night you listen.

Hypnosis is the act of sending your brain into a trance, similar to sleep. It makes you more suggestible than normal. It is not unnatural, evil, or mind control!

Hypnosis gets a lot of dubious press - most people are familiar with stage hypnotists, who often make fun of people in a trance state. They convince their victims to perform embarrassing tricks such as flapping around like a chicken or humping a chair.

In the real world, hypnosis has much more productive uses in therapy and personal development. It gives you the ability to talk to your inner self and program your subconscious mind. So let's dispel a few myths about hypnosis:
You are self aware during hypnosis. The deeper you go, the more you will become immersed in an inner reality. But you are always aware of the hypnotist's voice and instructions and what you do. You have complete control over yourself during hypnosis. You may be more suggestible but you still decide what you say and do. You can't be convinced to do anything that breaks your moral code. You can't get stuck in a hypnotic trance. Even if the hypnotist were to keel over midway through a session, you would surface from the trance naturally, just as you wake up after a night's sleep. Everyone can be hypnotized to some degree. We all enter unconscious hypnotic trances every day, whether we are watching TV, going through our morning routine, or staring out the window. Some of us are just more willing to go under than others. It is simply a relaxed state in which we are open to ideas.
In self hypnosis, you become closer to your inner voice and more suggestible. You'll enter a deep, relaxing trance, causing the release of endorphins (the natural happy chemicals). You can then plant any number of powerful auto suggestions to improve your life - in this case, to encourage lucid dreaming.
While there are a lot of details to learn about hypnosis that will make your session much more effective, here is a quick run-down of the essentials.
Find a comfortable place to sit or lie. Don't cross your arms or legs - have an open posture that is easy to stay in for the next 20 minutes.
Allow your eyes to close naturally. Take three deep, slow breaths - releasing any tension and anxiety as you do. Observe the thoughts that enter your mind and gently release them without any interaction. Let yourself float.
Focus on releasing physical tension throughout your body. Starting from your toes, visualize each muscle relaxing and melting into the furniture. It brings a pleasant, warm feeling of relaxation. Systematically release each muscle group, heightening the sense of relaxation every time. Spend extra time on your shoulders and upper back, which tend to hold a lot of tension. Visualizing soothing water or a golden glow may help to free up the muscles.
Visualize yourself at the top of a staircase. This represents your consciousness. As you descend each stair one at a time, drift deeper and deeper into your soothing, relaxing trance state. Count the steps if you like, starting from 10. Try rolling your eyes gently back into your head and keep your body still.
Once you reach the bottom of the staircase, you are ready to begin your auto suggestion script. Softly repeat one or more of the following phrases in your mind (choose whichever feels right for you):
"I can remember my dreams""I can have lucid dreams""I can become conscious in my dreams""I can realize when I am dreaming""I can control my dreams"
Of course, you can introduce any type of auto suggestion. Just remember to make every phrase positive
and in the present tense:"I am calm and relaxed""I am strong and confident""I am in control of my destiny""I can have everything I want""I am healthy and energetic"
Repeat your chosen affirmation as many times as you want. Revel in the feeling of deep relaxation. Visualize yourself achieving your goal.

When you're ready, prepare to wake up from your trance. Tell yourself you will count to 10, and with each step you will slowly return to full awareness. Then count upwards as you climb the steps in your mind.

Take a deep breath when you reach the top, then open your eyes. Sit for a moment if you like - and remember to stand up slowly
.
Self hypnosis is a deeply relaxing state. I used self hypnosis in my early days of lucid dreaming and became very familiar with the voice on the tape. Even in the first few seconds of hearing the hypnotist's voice, my mind was triggered with a rush of thoughts and feelings about having more vivid dreams and becoming lucid.

So I think it's good to fall into a self hypnosis routine - perhaps by listening every night just before sleep. Your mind will quickly relate the sound of the hypnotist's voice with relaxation and dreaming. In NLP this is called anchoring
and it's a good way of quickly inducing a feeling or state of mind. There is no better time to do this than when you are in bed ready to dream.
For a deeply relaxing hypnosis recording, check out my very own Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3.

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The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming


The benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching. You can take on a new life in lucid dreams, free of all your fears and inhibitions, confident that you can do absolutely anything. This has a real positive impact on your waking life. But that's not all...

Conscious dreaming is a fascinating experience. The realism is shocking, yet you are in a completely safe and controllable environment. Alternate realities here we come! It's against this background that you can face your fears, enhance your creative problem solving skills, improve your confidence and practice new skills.
That's not to mention the enormous fun that comes from playing within your own virtual reality dream world and how it relates to your own subconscious mind. Soon you will see it is all interconnected - conscious and unconscious - enabling you to use this playground for profound personal growth and insights.
And then there is the obvious benefit: pure wish fulfillment. Act out your greatest fantasies in full color. You don't need inspiration for that, do you...?
Scientists understand the benefits of lucid dreaming; some have used it to enhance their problem solving skills in extraordinarily creative ways.
Take Friedrich Kekule's discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule; Otto Loewi's experiment on nerve impulses; and Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine. These dream-inspired inventions highlight the stunning power of the dreaming subconscious mind.
Once you learn the basics of lucid dreaming, you can solve problems on demand - and on a whole new level. That's because you are not limited by your logical conscious brain. Instead, you can solve problems creatively in a 3D environment, or by drawing deeper insights directly from your subconscious mind. Just ask any question to your lucid dream and wait for the answer...
Conscious dreaming is an exceptionally powerful way to improve your creativity. Painters like Salvador Dali, William Blake and Paul Klee created famous artwork inspired by dreams.
Even musical composers - like Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner - pointed to dreams as the source of their inspiration. In fact, some of the most beautiful music I ever heard took place in my lucid dreams. They reveal our most creative side because of the free-flow of ideas arising from the subconscious mind.
To improve your creativity in lucid dreams, you can follow two avenues. First, make an announcement in your dream: "show me something amazing!" Your subconscious will respond in unpredictable but often deeply inspiring ways.
Alternatively, set a lucid dream intention. If you are a painter, take a trip to your own lucid dreaming art gallery and see what you find. If you are a musician, play the piano with Chopin and create a complex new arrangement. By encouraging your conscious dream to show you these things, the response will come as if automatically, straight from the dreaming subconscious.
Remember I said the benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching? This one may push you to your logical limits.
Conscious dreaming allows you to face your fears in a controlled setting. If you are afraid of heights, why not jump out of an airplane?
In the alternate reality of lucid dreams, you can slow down time for a controlled fall, and float gently to the ground. Once you have done this at 10,000 feet you will be surprised how you feel about heights in the waking world.
How does it work? One explanation is that dealing with a worst case scenario in a positive way creates new neural patterns in your subconscious mind. Reinforcing that belief with more experiences that seem real can dissolve the fear altogether. From skydiving to snakes, you can face your fears and reprogram your subconscious reactions, knowing that absolutely no harm can come to you.
Alternatively, why not ask that spider what he represents? He may give you an astonishing response that finally allows you to rationalize your fear.
Do you lack confidence in the waking world? If so, you can use conscious dreaming to release your inhibitions and be totally free in a realistic dream world.
If you want to improve your public speaking abilities, you can rehearse the event in a lucid dream. Having practiced your speech in a realistic environment, you will find you have more confidence when it comes to making the speech in real life. Remember - practice makes perfect.
Lucid dreams are a playground for experimentation. You can try out any concept imaginable - from business, to sports, to relationships - anything you like. By rehearsing a situation or simply toying with different outcomes, you can improve your confidence in any number of waking scenarios.
By the same token, you can practice new skills in lucid dreams. In Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming by Dr Stephen LaBerge, there is a testimony from a surgeon. Before going to sleep, he would review his surgical cases for the next day. Then he would practice them in precise detail in lucid dreams. He has a solid reputation as a surgeon because of this, being able to refine and polish his techniques and perform procedures much faster than the average surgeon.
By now, you can see how the benefits of lucid dreaming are limitless. Take a look at this website for martial arts training in lucid dreams. It features images and descriptions of its virtual training rooms, so you can go there next time you are lucid. It also explains how the precision muscle movements you make during dream training is ingrained in your brain - just as if you had been training in the real world.
The lucid dream world is made up of many alternate realities. Every time you "wake up" in a new dream scene, you will find strange goings on and new landscapes to explore. They are all completely tangible and life-like.
Just like in science fiction, you can teleport to parallel worlds, explore different timelines, visit alien planets and travel to other dimensions. This is a thrilling proposition that enables you to explore the nature of the physical universe, as your vast subconscious mind sees it. You can even induce an out of body experience (OBE) in a lucid dream and explore the so-called astral realm.
As you can see, there are many great benefits of lucid dreaming. I'm most thankful for lucid dreaming because it showed me something very special about the nature of the human mind. I realized that we are fully capable of creating a vivid virtual reality, complete with all five senses, inside our heads. If you think lucid dreaming is anything like normal dreams, or daydreams, think again...
I love the sheer freedom created by lucidity; how it enables me to fly high like a bird without fear of falling - or run through solid objects. I can visit anyone and do anything I want. And beyond the novelty of wish fulfillment, it provides me with a direct channel to my subconscious mind, enabling me to heal past fears and anxieties and regard myself in a whole new light. It's mind-blowing stuff.
Like anything worth doing, learning to wake up in dreams is not necessarily easy. But with practice and patience, anyone can do it. In fact, just by discovering the concept you have already planted the seed to have lucid dreams tonight...

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Sleep Disorders: The Common Causes and Cures of Sleep Problems


Learning to lucid dream does not generally increase your risk of developing certain sleep disorders. There are some unusual phenomena you might encounter (such as false awakenings and sleep paralysis) but nothing to seriously worry about (such as insomnia, sleepwalking or night terrors).

This section is here to help you understand more about the sleeping brain. Often, it's only when mechanisms break down that we can start to understand more about the system. With that in mind, learning more about sleep disorders is a worthwhile pursuit for oneironauts as we strive to achieve more lucid dreams.

Here you will also learn more about the stages of sleep, the in-between states of consciousness and hypnagogia, and even how to stop nightmares.
See the physical effects of sleep deprivation, Guinness World Record attempts for staying awake, and the deadly sleep disorder, Fatal Familial Insomnia.
Escaping from nightmares with lucid dreaming - learn the meaning of nightmares, how to stop nightmares and face your fears with the power of lucid dreams.
What are lucid nightmares and what causes them? How are they different from lucid dreams or regular nightmares? Learn about this enlightening sleep state.
Explore the bizarre nature of false awakenings, or the dream-within-a-dream, and the close relationship they have with lucid dreams.
Sleep paralysis stopping you from getting a good night's sleep? Find out how to stop sleep paralysis here... or use it as a stepping stone to lucid dreams.
What is sleep paralysis? Guest author Ryan Hurd elucidates this sleep disorder shrouded in mystery - and poses it as a gateway to lucid dreams and OBEs.
Sleep Paralysis Kit by Ryan Hurd is a breakthrough guide to sleep paralysis nightmares, lucid dreams and out of body experiences.
Explore sleepwalking, sleep talking and other parasomnias. Is sleepwalking murder real? Read about the case of Kenneth Parks' automatism trial.
How to stop night terrors in children and adults. Learn about the causes of sleep terrors and how to cure this sleep disorder of intense fear at night.
Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI): The Family That Couldn't Sleep. Discover the tragic fatal insomnia sleep disorder caused by genetic prion disease.

About Fatal Familial Insomnia and other accounts of total insomnia including the stories of Michael Corke, John Alan Jordan and Ngoc Thai.
Learn how to sleep better with these top 10 tips for getting more shuteye. Knock sleep deprivation on the head and get better sleep every night.

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Tietoisuus ja Hypnagogia osa I

Consciousness and Hypnagogia Part ICopyright © Sirley Marques Bonham, PhDWhen I was around 25 years old I had this sudden dream imagery of a warm red sun low in the sky while falling asleep late one evening. It was so surprising! I had never had that before. This amazing and beautiful imagery awoke me, as I was just falling asleep. So, I tried to remember what I was thinking about right before falling asleep.The former afternoon and evening I had spent working at the 'Vale do Amanhecer' (Valley of Dawn), a spiritist community near Brasilia, Brazil, and as a result I was feeling light and at peace. So, before falling asleep, for no special reason, I began remembering the long bus drives I had to undergo between the satellite city where my parents lived in Brazil, called Taguatinga, and the university I attended at the main city of Brasilia, the Brazilian capital. Right before reaching Taguatinga from Brasilia, there was a long and somewhat steep hill the bus had to overcome. Usually it meant a slow and boring drive uphill. So, while the bus drove uphill, I used to entertain myself by staring at the sun blinking through the eucalyptus trees planted near the road. Somehow this blinking-sun view felt peaceful and relaxed me. That was the awake-imagery that I had been thinking about right before falling asleep, and unexpectedly my subconscious mind responded to this by producing the red-sun dream-image. It was quite different from the memory I had recalled, where the sun was bright, as in the dream the sun was as if filtered through a haze, making it look red. This experience left me puzzled for many years, as none of what I knew about the mind then would explain the phenomenon. It would take about twenty years more, and many more varied 'sun-type dreamlets' for me to understand it. The knowledge that I accumulated from my lifelong curiosity with the mind and spiritual phenomena, started first in my family's influences on this subject, mainly due to my father's affiliation with an eclectic Rosicrucian group. Later I also had influences from the cultural 'spiritistic' knowledge and practices ever present in Brazil. On the scientific side, I developed analytic and logical abilities from my scientific education as a physicist, and later as a neuroscientist.

This cultural and educational influence, plus my efforts toward the practice of a specific method to develop awareness in dreams (lucid-dreams) and to achieve out-of-body experiences, have resulted in my somewhat comprehensive understanding of the many facets of the human experience through the mind. The goal of this article is to review several phenomena that point to a form of communication between the two aspects of the human mind, the 'conscious' and the 'unconscious' parts. I demonstrate to the reader that, in fact, there are simple means of communication to and from the unconscious part of the mind. With the practice of certain methods and self-observation it is possible to build a relationship with our unconscious in both, the subconscious mind and the 'super-conscious' mind, or what I like to call the 'wise part' of the unconscious. But first let's review briefly a few important definitions and get acquainted with hypnagogia. Consciousness has been a term frequently used in present times. In short, consciousness is related to the functions of the mind. Mind, on the other hand, can be considered to be the result of the workings of the brain, and I believe the central nervous system (CNS), as well. The mind then, is composed of the systemic interconnections between the brain's neurons, as well as the various parts of the brain and nervous system, which results in our personality with all that entails in terms of behavior. In this context, the mind could be understood as a 'virtual human being.'

 The mind is usually divided into two parts: the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. Historically, the concept of the unconscious was put forth by Freud in the nineteenth century, and who is considered the father of psychiatry. The conscious mind is presently understood as that part of the mind that directs the human being's actions, the part that defines the 'I'. At the same time, the conscious mind is typically not aware of the workings of the unconscious mind. Therefore, the unconscious mind is that part of the mind that is frequently not freely accessible to the conscious mind.

We will see later that it is necessary to enter certain special states of attention to be aware of the unconscious mind's workings. Also, the unconscious is frequently divided into two main parts, the sub-conscious mind and the super-conscious mind, though this division is quite arbitrary.Hypnagogia is a generic label given to the sensorial perceptions that happens 'automatically' – meaning, without conscious control, while we are falling asleep, or while awakening from sleep. Hypnagogia may happen while a person is meditating, or anytime when conscious focused attention is relaxed. There are two types hypnagogia: Hypnagogic – (or hypnogogic) the reverie or dream imagery that happens while falling asleep, Hypnopompic – the reverie or dream imagery that happens while awakening from sleep. The term hypnagogia was first suggested by Andreas Mavromatis in his PhD thesis in Psychology at Brunel University (UK), later published in book form with the title: Hypnagogia: The unique state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, first published by Routledge in 1987. (It is now out of print since its last edition – 1991.) In a note at the front page of this book, the publisher remarks that '…

This is the only work in English dealing with hypnagogia, …' a statement that I believe remains true. It is worth repeating here the remainder of this statement: 'Dr. Mavromatis argues that this common, naturally occurring state may not only be distinct from wakefulness and sleep but [is] unique in its nature and function, possibly carrying important evolutionary implications. He analyses the relationship between hypnagogia and others states, processes and experiences – such as sleep-dreams, meditation, psi, schizophrenia, creativity, hypnosis, hallucinogenic drug-induced states, eidetic phenomenena and epileptic states – and shows that, functioning in hypnagogia, a person may gain knowledge of aspects of his or her mental nature which constitute fundamental underpinnings to all adult thought. In addition, functioning in hypnagogia is known to play a significant part in mental and physical health.'It is noteworthy that I only became aware of the subject is such a wide context by the late nineties, while Mavromatis had already surveyed and catalogued all the phenomena related to hypnagogia in the eighties. That's why I consider his work as fundamental and groundbreaking toward a unified understanding of the mind, even today.   The word reverie comes from the French word 'rever' (to dream), and here it refers to the set of perceptual imageries we become involved with in the process of dreaming, and of hypnagogia.

The perceptual imagery so formed tends to be ' automatic,' stemming from the unconscious processes of the mind. Sometimes reverie may also be applied to mean the fantasies or imaginations a person experiences while awake. Even though waking fantasies are not the same as reveries as just defined, they may attract or induce hypnagogia, as the experience I described in the introduction demonstrates. The importance of the role of imagination in visualization cannot be over emphasized. For example, in the healing therapies visualization takes an important role in both, the sick person and the healer. Patricia Norris, in her book with Garret Porter: Why me? – Harnessing the Healing Power of the Human Spirit, explains: Gradually, through a process of visualizations and imagery, a bridge is built between conscious and unconscious processes, which include cortical and subcortical processes, the conscious and “unconscious” portions of the brain. Evidence is mounting as to neurohumoral and biochemical mechanisms whereby this can take place. With relation to terminology, she explains that … no uniform terminology exists … to distinguish between visualization and imagery … Visualization is the consciously chosen, intentional instruction to the body. Imagery is the spontaneously occurring “answer,” qualifier and modifier from the unconscious. Thus, a two-way communication is set up by the interplay of visualization and imagery. …

The relationship between visualization and imagery can be thought of as a metaphor, as the relationship between a transmitter and a receiver. The visualization acts as a message to the unconscious, including the subcortical parts of the brain and particularly the limbic system, hypothalamus, and pituitary. The images are messages from the unconscious to consciousness, much as dreams are. Patricia Norris emphasizes the use of visualization and imagery in a person's own process of healing. However, a gifted healer also uses the same process of visualization and imagery to heal, as for example in the case of the Daskalus, a healer from Cyprus wonderfully described by Kyriacos Markides in his book – The Magus of Strovolos: The extraordinary world of a spiritual healer. Visualization was one of Daskalos' exceptional skills, one that he also emphasized in the training of his apprentices.

In his practice, visualization played a very important role in both, the diagnostics and the determination of the location of the disease, as well as in the healing process. In the literature the term hallucination is frequently linked to the visions seen by the mentally ill. It is also linked to the hypnagogia we perceive while falling asleep or while awakening, which is then called hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. However, I consider that the term hallucination is more aptly linked only to the (supposedly) pathological imagery a person may see – visions of non-existing events or persons. It is important to note that, in spite of present conventional wisdom, visions may be just a healthy phenomenon of perception, a form of communication from the unconscious, or possibly a real extra-sensorial-perception of an event happening beyond the physical world. However, many times if people who have visions visit a psychologist or psychiatrist, they may be diagnosed as mentally disturbed. This is an issue that needs to be seriously investigated starting with the visions mentally ill people tend to develop. An example of this type of investigation is Wilson Van Dusen's informal research with his mentally ill patients.

Van Dusen's research, together with his studies on Emmanuel Swedenborg's work, changed his understanding of the many forms of mental disease. While treating mentally ill patients who hallucinated, and with the collaboration of the patients, Van Dusen could talk with their hallucinated persons. He notes that the hallucinated person he communicated with through a patient usually had a completely different personality than the patient's. Also, he observed that these hallucinated persons had levels of psychological development that varied from the patient's. The more advanced hallucinated persons frequently showed wisdom, while the low level ones were frequently of an irrational type. See also the work by Adam Crabtree, Multiple Man: Explorations in possession and multiple personality, for a thorough review of the similarities and differences between possession and the psychological phenomenon of multiple personality. In Brazil the spiritist practitioners have unofficially treated many forms of mental disturbances on the premise that they occur due to the influence of discarnate beings. This is also known as possession. However, I also have personally known of at least one case where treatment through the spiritist methods did not work, while medical methods did. Therefore, this indicates that studies on the issue of mental problems should be addressed with both, scientific and spiritual methods.

The Yoga's methods of spiritual development where there is the opening of the 'third eye' – or the Ajna chackra – are also a worthy consideration on the subject of visions. In fact, the whole subject of Yoga that deals with chackras may relate to different supposedly aberrant perceptions. Having reviewed some relevant definition, what I intend to establish for the remainder for the paper is: 1. I suggest that hypnagogia is the shortest path for communication from our unconscious. 2. I will review the several facts and examples that show the way we receive messages from the unconscious. 3. I will then suggest possible two-way means of communication with the unconscious. Let's begin with a list of facts or situations that support these propositions: Meditation may bring up reveries or perceptions that appear naturally.
'Energetic' (Kundalini) phenomena are notorious in producing visions.
Remote-Viewing sessions may take us to hypnagogia.

Alpha-Theta training, from neurofeedback or biofeedback technologies, produce hypnagogia.
Hallucinogenic drugs, an ancient shamanic 'technology,' produce visions, or hypnagogia.
Hypnotic trances, through 'magnetic somnambulism', may cause hypnotic reveries or hallucinations.
Dreams are our natural way to have automatic imagery.
Hypnogogic and hypnopompic reveries, by themselves, while falling asleep and awakening, are used by lucid-dreamers and who practice out-of-body experiences. In the following I will review these situations, in short. I am leaving dreams and the two types of hypnagogia for the last, simply because they are the ones I have the most experience with, and because they are the most accessible means of obtaining messages from the unconscious.

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The NovaDreamer Lucid Dream Mask: A Review


NovaDreamer ReviewThe NovaDreamer is probably the most famous of all lucid dream machines, namely because it was created by Dr Stephen LaBerge and his team at The Lucidity Institute.


The original mask was discontinued in 2004, and is only available now second-hand (eg, eBay). The new model, The NovaDreamer II, is long overdue for release. (Update May 2012 from TLI: "After 5 years of testing, we are ready to release the NovaDreamer to the world. Stay tuned.")


The NovaDreamer lucid dream mask works by detecting Rapid Eye Movement (REM) while you are asleep and dreaming. The mask then flashes a series of lights through your closed eyelids; a stimulus which becomes incorporated into your dream.


You may see an ambulance appear with red flashing lights, or your whole dreamscape lights up inexplicably. One customer said: "I see a beautiful pattern of gold and yellow diamonds that fills my field of vision..." This is your cue to recognize that you are dreaming and become lucid.


This method works well when you are comfortable with reality checks, stimulating your conscious brain in the dream and giving you a clear signal that something is amiss. Therefore, lucid dream masks like the NovaDreamer offer an artificial lucidity trigger to increase your chance of having lucid dreams.

Having founded The Lucidity Institute, Dr Stephen LaBerge decided to create a machine that could induce lucid dreams on demand. First he launched the DreamLight and DreamLink. These were the first lucid dreaming masks on the market and sold for over US $1,000 because of their cutting-edge technology.

The machines were refined over the years and in 1993, LaBerge and his team released The NovaDreamer. The mask was eventually discontinued in 2004. However, you can still obtain a second-hand one at eBay for between US $300 and US $600, which is in line with the original retail price.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the next generation - The NovaDreamer II - for several years. It underwent beta testing in 2008 but there have been no further announcements since then. A number of competing masks have been released onto the market in recent years, such as The REM Dreamer, DreamMaker and Remee.


There are lots of gadgets that promise to induce altered states of consciousness, and not all have genuinely good success rates. Of all the lucid dream machines on the market, the NovaDreamer is probably the most reputable. Full marks there.


The instructions are easy to follow. You can set the brightness and duration of the flashing lights, as well as a time delay to give you a chance to get to sleep without being interrupted. The display also tells you how many light cues were given during the night - that is, how many chances you had to lucid dream.


The mask itself is reasonably comfortable once you adjust the straps to fit your head. The best position to lie is on your back, so the mask stays in place. You can lie on your side, although sometimes this moves the mask out of place and causes false positives. This is when the lights flash but you are not dreaming, which can waste battery power and even wake you up. I'm afraid that if you are a regular belly sleeper, you have little chance of success.


As with many lucid dream masks, some people report tearing it off in the middle of the night, just to sleep undisturbed by the weight of the mask. But usually the desire to have lucid dreams is enough motivation to stick with it - at least during lie-ins and afternoon cat naps (which are ideal times to lucid dream anyway).


The Lucidity Institute states clearly that the NovaDreamer does not guarantee lucid dreams - and you do need to pitch in your own effort relating to reality checks. This is what enables you to take action when you see the flashing lights in a dream. So I'd say the success rate of the NovaDreamer is dramatically increased if you follow the instructions on reality checking.


Occasionally, the flashing lights of the NovaDreamer can ruin a lucid dream in progress. Faced with the distraction of the bright lights invading your dreamscape, all you can do is sit and wait for it to end. However, at worst this is an annoying side-effect. At best, it can remind you to stay lucid and extend the lucid dream for much longer than normal. To correct this, the NovaDreamer II should feature a two-way feedback function - so you can tell your mask you are lucid by performing a series of pre-set eye movements.


Like any lucid dream mask, the NovaDreamer is very good for detecting false awakenings. When you wake up, take the mask off and press any button. If the mask is unresponsive then you are still dreaming! This is a neat reality check and can help induce one of the most vivid types of lucid dreams possible.


The original version of the NovaDreamer is sometimes available second-hand on eBay. Meanwhile, the new NovaDreamer II has been in testing for five years and has only so far been used for beta testing at The Lucidity Institute's Hawaii lucid dreaming workshops.


A January 2012 update from TLI said they hoped to release the NovaDreamer II as a consumer product soon, but first needed to have the investment and business structure in place to support such a venture, which has been tricky in these economic times. In May 2012, they said an announcement would be made in June.


One thing's for sure: NovaDreamer now has some real competition. Because TLI didn't (or couldn't) patent the original technology, the general concept of infra-red REM detection has now been replicated several times over, as seen with products like the REM Dreamer, DreamMaker and the latest release, Remee.


What's more, multiple lucid dreaming apps are emerging on smart phones which detect dream sleep (perhaps a little crudely) via mattress movement. This offers the major benefit of not needing to wear a circuit board-laden mask to sleep, while still receiving audio cues to help shape your dreams, as with Dream:ON.


However, if you want to hold out for the NovaDreamer II, it is said to have more interactive functions, including real-time response to eye movement signals, plus greater comfort, reliability and performance. Join The Lucidity Institute's mailing list to receive future updates on the NovaDreamer II.

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The Mirror Experiment



Mirrors present an interesting puzzle in lucid dreams because their main property in real life - reflection - is driven by the laws of physics. Yet these laws are entirely moot in dreams.


In fact, the only reason things do follow the laws of cause and effect in any dream is because we expect them to. Physical law drives our entire conscious experience and we carry it with us - both consciously and unconsciously - into the dream world.


What Happens When You Look in Dream Mirrors?Every "normal" construct in the dream world (cars, houses, human beings, bicycles, swimming pools, trees, dogs, clothing) has been drawn from your waking experience. If you were blue and lived on Titan, you would no doubt dream of blue aliens and green skies every night - and that would be your normality.


So your dreams are heavily based on your memories and expectations, and this creates an interesting conundrum which we can explore with dream mirrors.


Let's combine the ability of an inanimate object to function independently, with your subconscious expectations about what you look like in a dream. This experiment enables you to literally look your subconscious in the face.


The Mirror ExperimentThe mirror experiment is simple enough. The next time you become lucid, increase your level of awareness as much as you can then seek out a mirror and look into it.


What do you see? Do you relate to the person in the mirror? Do they move the same time that you move? Do you notice anything unusual about them?


The results, you'll find, can sometimes be scary and alarming. Here's a dream excerpt from the very first time I tried this experiment some years ago:


"I turn to face a mirror by the front door to see what I look like. It looks like me, but older, with messy hair and scary eyes. As if she reads my mind, the reflection starts to age rapidly and I get older and older. It's like the scene from the original Time Machine movie, a sort of stop-motion effect. My skin wrinkles and my hair goes gray and I am haggard. I am an old lady, with my mouth wide open. Then my teeth crumble and fall out and I become a corpse! I have just sped through my life. Man that was ugly!"


Another time, I was having a regular dream and I had something in my eye, so I went to the mirror to check it out:


"I look in the mirror and my left eye is massive and bulbous, at least 5 times bigger than it should be and popping out of my head. I am not that surprised though, and I poke at it to see if I can dislodge the thing that's causing all the scratchiness.


Then it suddenly hits me that my eye should not be this big! I become lucid and get out of there fast. I don't want to see the giant eye anymore."


Perhaps not surprisingly, people have reported similar effects when taking psychedelics. Looking in a mirror (in real life) while hallucinating can reveal strange facial distortions.


I have also had positive experiences with dream mirrors... But for some reason it's the really messed up ones that stick with me to this day :)


Interestingly, your conscious expectations have very little impact on what you'll actually see in the mirror. This is definitely a subconscious experiment in which you can examine your subconscious self-image as well as your personal insecurities and self-doubts, as well as positive beliefs, projected onto that mirror image version of you.


I asked Pete if he had ever looked in a dream mirror and he had:


"At one stage, I looked into a mirror and asked it to show me what I would look like in a different life. I looked at myself and to my surprise, I looked fairly similar to the way I look now, except I was a bit skinnier and my hair was longer. I tried again and I was kind of fat and my teeth were crooked. I tried a few more times and in one of them I was a bit bigger but not much bigger, and my hair was very short.


My conclusion was that I must have taken it to mean I had my current genetics but had made some different choices in life. Next time, I'll try the same thing but I'll also ask myself a few questions."


What if you see some really messed up imagery in your mirror dream?


It's a good idea to interpret the symbolism of your dream. This experiment isn't just to freak people out... I hope it can be a productive tool in your personal development.


For example, what if your teeth fall out when you look in the dream mirror? One theory is that your teeth reflect anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you. In particular, they may reflect your sense of sexual attractiveness, femininity (among women) and the consequences of getting old. Dream research found that women in menopause frequently report dreams about teeth falling out.


However, no dream analysis is ever definitive. Teeth dreams are also found to commonly symbolize power, self-confidence, diet, faith, lies and money. Different cultures find different dream meanings, and of course there is room for variation between individuals. So while you can use a dream dictionary as a starting point, you should fill in the context of your dream, your current mind set, and also note recurring dream themes and symbols to create your own personal dream dictionary.


Lastly, when you've finished examining your appearance in the dream mirror, you can try one more experiment: use the mirror as a portal to another dimension.


Sometimes, as in the dream I had below, the mirror leads exactly where you expect it - to the wall behind!


"I go to the changing room mirror and look at my face. Previously when I looked in a dream mirror, my face is distorted or old - rarely my own. But this time I look more or less normal.


So I decide to push my face through the mirror and it feels very strange. Behind the mirror, I get a strong sense of the chalky interior of the wall and the old copper water pipes, although I do not physically 'see' them.


Although my intention was to leave my body or pass through to another dimension, I sense that it hasn't worked so I continue to experiment with the mirror. I move my head back and forth through the solid mirror to see if anything else happens. It doesn't, but I am still delighted to be passing my head through physical objects as if they are water."


If you believe the mirror to be a gateway to another location - and truly expect that to happen, visualizing events on the other side - it can be a very fun way to teleport your awareness. Here's a more recent example of this from my dream journal:


"The door to my bedroom is closed so I tell myself there will be a field on the other side of it. But when I open the door... I just see the hallway, as I annoyingly suspected! I try again, closing the door and say 'there will be a sunny field on the other side THIS time', but it still doesn't work.


I leave the room, rubbing my hands together, checking they look normal (I keep seeing 5, then 6 fingers on my hands) and saying 10 + 10 = 20 to increase my lucidity. Then I see a mirror in the hallway and decide this is my chance to teleport. I feel more lucid now, and this time I approach it slowly, pushing my fingers through the surface of the mirror and it becomes liquidy.


I push further into the mirror and finally my eyes go through and I emerge into a big meadow with a train track running through the middle. It is WAY better than I imagined. The sky is romantic - purple, blue, pink and orange - and the fields are full of beautiful wild flowers. The hills are rolling which I had not expected and there are mountains in the far distance. I am overjoyed!"


Next time you're lucid dreaming, check out your reflection and remember as much detail as you can for dream analysis when you wake up.


And remember that mirrors, doors, wardrobes and windows can all make useful portals to your next dream location...


Enjoy the mirror experiment :)

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Why Can't I See Hypnogogic Imagery?

But as soon as I try to fall deeper into that state by counting in my head "1, the next scene will be a dream, 2 the next scene will be a dream" and so on, I never witness any hypnogogic imagery. I end up drifting into other thoughts that are more like daydreams than anything and then I have to focus on the counting again. Are there any tips or something I should do so that I can actually start to dream while I am conscious?

Rebecca says: Usually if I can't see any hypnogogic imagery, it's because my mind is too active. Counting or running any kind of internal monologue in your head can sometimes be counterproductive, especially if you have a "loud" inner voice. This may be what's preventing you from consciously entering the hypnogogic state. Its just too distracting mentally.

I find it best to focus on relaxing every muscle group and visualizing parts of my body dissolving, melting or becoming invisible. This helps induce the sleep paralysis which sends my body to sleep. This can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes (longer than that and I get bored and give up). Provided my mind is still holding onto a thread of consciousness, I will be mentally relaxed but still aware enough to start developing my own dream imagery. By this point the hypnogogic state has begun automatically; but it's not something you need to look out for. In fact, some WILDers recommend ignoring the hypnogogia altogether, and focusing on the mental space beyond your field of vision.

So, try to create a calmer, more quiesced inner state as you practice WILD. Like meditation, keep your mental activity to a minimum so it becomes very still like the surface of a pond, without any disruptions. The counting method can certainly come in useful for focusing your subconscious intention to lucid dream, but that is probably better for a MILD experience. With WILDs, you need to work at maintaining the meditative state in which your mind is clear, focused - and quiet.


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These are other creatures or your Subconsious?

Gone and lucid dreaming for many, many years, and there is very little of what is * really * going on. In recent times there have been several strange encounters with while you sleep.

In the past, I've so resolutely but the rates temporarily projected teaching dream and astral (astral projection ever completely left my body, but was able to turn around, sit out of my body, move my arms and legs out of my body, but never left my body.)

I have had several experiences of astral or un-a clear intentional (I can't tell which, because they happen unintentionally). I always start with a dream. "I wake up" in my bed, when I lie. Do not want to be a sleep paralysis, but I look around my room; It seems to be the same, except I see other people. I move my head and limbs on the outside of my body (I assume that this is what is happening, because it's like when I did so before the determination.)

Sometimes they affect me, sometimes they do. Twice they intentionally spoke to me (as soon as I came, or when I woke up they already in front of my face) sometimes stick them in my room or simply walk through is supposedly around it. Sometimes I'm caught up and attract attention. Sometimes we do not affect at all. Sometimes they looks very much like a real person, sometimes not.

This happened only when I moved to my new House, which I also find it odd. When they * do * interact with me and their energy seems to "touch" or towards me. I am overcome with a tingling sensation all over and cannot move at all. This feeling usually ends the encounter (or my awareness) and call me.

Now I understand the astral world, and lucid dreaming is just very simple. I'm not sure weather I deal with things themselves, perhaps the "Astral plane" or energies that only live in the House. Or yet I dream of, if a little more vividly in my room.

I don't really expect you to be able to offer in the affirmative or in the negative, but any info you have would be much appreciated. Has this happened to anyone before that you know of? Where can I find answers? I'm not sure the right questions right, I'm just trying to understand what is happening. Thank you very much.

Rebecca says: I have experience in a few what you are shooting. For example, I have woken up and unable to move, and to see the faces standing in the bedroom doorway. It stared at me very intensely, then (without really moving ...) zoomed in to rush me. Quickly went to could move again and I felt surprisingly calm, considering what happened. It's probably due to hallucinations.

For the second time, when I tried to get out, I felt like a lucid dream OBE teleporting roll-spinning even-on my body. I have a vision not at all at first, because my eyes were closed, but then I started to get the encrypted Video-maybe this was just my imagination? In the end, I heard a huge roaring noise (also known as the OBE vibration) and felt like I'd been so far spun out of control and missed out on the other side of the bed! When I opened my eyes, completely still in the same position I was lying, I started ...

For more information about the OBE occur and visitors who appear on the verge of sleep paralysis might want to check out Ryan Hurd sleep paralysis Kit. It tells you how to interact with your visitors, (which Ryan believes the share of the subconscious) and amazing in a lucid dream. You may want to include the following sources the OBE occur:


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Think creatively

Creative thinking is what separates humans from other animals. You might say that the zone, or thinking outside the box. It is a way of thinking that allows you to create and invent new concepts of art, technology, literature, music, experiments, philosophies. We are all creative; It is, how to change the world.

The primary creative outlet to write. As a teenager, I wrote short stories and poems. Later, as a journalist and wrote articles about financial investments. Today I have my channels on my sites. I have always felt the need to feel things and write them down, to make it clear in other parts of the world. It is my way to express myself.

Creativity does not have to be literary or art. For example, you may experience the most creative moments in the course of programming. Right brain or brain in the process, and it may appear in many forms, such as:

The invention, which is the first of the new process are adapted to betterA kindAn inventor or a way to make the various existing processes, somethingApplying situationFinding perspectivesIt somethingChanging a new way of perceiving other people does not matter, the primary outlet is-as you use it on a regular basis. Otherwise, does the very thing that makes a man.

Creative thinking is surprisingly often exceeded the need for automation of the judgment, or analytical thinking and allows the gut instinct of the lead. The best articles are the result of my computer, which is focused on and tap off and paying no attention to the outside world. Can sort of be sleepwalking. Do not stop to think, and think about every sentence, before I can write it-Type and it drains into the screen. To completely forget about my dogs, who are sniffing and wuffling and playing at my feet. If Pete bothers me always snap to him. I see that the same thing happens when she makes her digital music-he is totally zoned in on the computer.

Because the mind is exhausting, but also exhilarating. I believe that it is our life to experience the world and translate it into your own creations, which then go to the mould of others experiences and better their creations. So creative thinking is an essential part of living and help to fulfil the purpose of life.

Here are three reliable method is used to enter and maintain a State of creative thinking, when inspiration strikes:

Creative thinking Tip # 1-hit a nerve

Hitting a nerve you can take advantage of the thing that motivates you the most to develop the idea of the creation of or. Why is this? What is hired?

For example, I am motivated by the idea to spread new ideas and help to change people's perspectives on the better. Today I was inspired by the idea that we are all of the factors – and this is how the human race will evolve. It can happen slowly (accidentally) or quickly (intentionally). That encourages people to think creatively, to help humanity evolve a little bit faster. We all can be, when we share our creativity. As one of the stone-dropping into a pond, creating ripples of human consciousness.

Maybe you can create music that makes someone's heart sing? Or a photo that makes them want to become an artist? Or tell me a joke, which makes them laugh? Your creativity with natural allows you to make the world a better place; and it is pretty good motivation for most people.

Creative thinking Tip # 2-limit distractions

As mentioned above, the distractions are annoying and in General, the aim is to prevent the creative process. If I have to stop to answer the phone or to think about what I do for dinner-train of thought is lost. May be able to pick up again, but it's not quite the same thing. That particular stroke of inspiration may be lost. So when you are in the area, to avoid distractions-especially to talk to or relate to other things to think about.

The exception to the rule — but it is more of a timed distraction. It is a shift to the right and to the left of the brain in order to make different types of creativity. Sometimes, when I've had the computer literally runs out of steam, and my brain hours feel frazzled. Lose the ability to focus and take a break. But I do not want to leave the zone, so I'm doing something that left my brain for the rest of my right brain remains focused on the task at hand.

Usually I go in the shower, or clean up the kitchen or doing something mundane and automatic, which still allows me to think freely. Mindless task helps correct my brain kick in with a whole bunch of new angles that overbearing left my brain to suppress. In fact, I am the Best right hemisphere of my ideas:

I wake up, I am Mr Pöttering kitchenI morningI'm showerI'm walking the dogs

Anyway, I thought the idea of actively thinking and jumps-but without judging them or manages them, just because they might seem crazy. The silliest ideas to develop into something more realistic, if you give it a chance. So finding ways to shut up in your brain when you need creative inspiration strike.

Creative thinking Tip # 3-is intended to

We are creative creatures, and it is one of the great abilities. But in everyday life is not as favorable to creative thinking. We get swept away the boring jobs and conferences, on television and on some days seems a little need to think outside the box at all.

Fortunately, many people find creative thinking through their hobbies, if not through his career. It is the reason why people play musical instruments or puzzle-solving computer games and most of us believe we are novel in the us. Creativity is second nature to all of us, but this instinct requires some nurture-or it has overtaken the second instinct: laziness.

Tens of thousands of years, people used caves and jungles and allows the process of creativity by mistake. In the last century, to persevere in the pursuit of science and technology has forced many of the deliberate creative thinking-and look at the rate at which we are moving now. Are billions of people on our planet, inspired by others ' creations and developing his own invention to create a better world for ourselves and for future generations.

This pace of change is driven by the power of two: in our culture, which gives us the knowledge to the next generation, and the technology that allows us to build better ways to express our creativity management position. Take a look at how these ripples in the pond BLG: internet and social media. These are powerful tools to spread new ideas and inventions from around the world-in a matter of hours.

In fact, has never been a better time to develop creative thinking skills and help the world.

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The Hypnagogic State: Hypnagogia and Lucid Dreams

The hypnagogic state is a strange phenomena that occurs at the onset of sleep. Also known as hypnagogia, it induces visions, voices, insights and peculiar sensations as you sail through the borderland state.
You are probably used to seeing hypnagogic imagery as you fall asleep. You may see familiar faces, landscapes and geometric shapes take form.
Complex patterns flow across your field of vision, becoming almost hypnotic in nature, and with focus these can be manipulated at will. What many people don't realize is this imagery can be used to induce lucid dreams.

"Only when I am on the brink of sleep,
with the consciousness that I am so..."

Edgar Allan Poe
The term hypnagogic was created in the 19th century by a French psychologist. He derived it from two Greek words: hypnos (meaning sleep) and agogeus (meaning guide). Later, the term hypnopompic came to being, to describe the same phenomena which occurs between sleep and waking. Essentially these are the same hallucinatory states.
Scientists have linked the hypnagogic state with NREM sleep, pre-sleep alpha waves, REM sleep and relaxed wakefulness. There is also a theory that regular meditation can enable you to develop a skill to "freeze the hypnagogic process at later and later stages".

Some consider hypnagogia to be meaningless activity of the brain - a way of clearing out unwanted junk. Others believe it has more value; just like lucid dreams, hypnagogic imagery can be consciously guided and interpreted as it happens, forging a gateway to the unconscious mind.

Observing your own hypnagogic imagery as you drift to sleep is one way of entering lucid dreams on demand. The most popular technique is known as Wake Induced Lucid Dreams, also called the Hypnagogic Induction Technique.

I strongly recommend attempting the WILD / HIT method as it is an excellent way to explore the realm between consciousness and sleep. There you will find deep relaxation, sudden insights and a connection with the subconscious mind.

Some people may find it difficult to master at first. Usually the hardest part is making the transition from simply observing the complex hypnagogia to interacting with the dream. However, it is worth practicing because this also serves as a powerful form of meditation.

The hypnagogic state can also play a rather distressing role in sleep paralysis. While many WILD lucid dreams involve passing through sleep paralysis briefly and uneventfully, some people suffer from prolonged sleep paralysis against their will. In some cases, the fear of being unable to move, paired with complex hypnagogia (or hypnopompia), results in terrifying hallucinations.

The most common experience involves a foreign entity - a stranger, intruder, or even aliens - entering the room and putting pressure on the chest. All this happens while the sufferer is completely paralyzed (with the exception of the eyes, mouth and maybe fingertips). Frequent episodes are rare, but do happen, and are mostly associated with sufferers of narcolepsy or other sleep disorders, such as sleep terrors or even sleep apnea.
The purpose of hypnagogic imagery is to relax your mind and send you to sleep. So to take advantage of it for lucid dreaming, you need to maintain a certain level of conscious awareness while your body falls asleep.
One way to do this is practice meditation. Another is to relax while listening to isochronic tones. This guides your brain to the appropriate frequencies where you can consciously experience your own hypnagogia.

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The Lucidity Institute: Lucid Dreaming Workshops

Each year, the Institute runs a series of lucid dreaming workshops in Hawaii, aptly called Dreaming and Awakening. The next event will take place over 9 days from March 10-19, 2010, and will be hosted by Dr Stephen LaBerge himself.

Becoming adept at lucid dreaming requires focused attention and practice - something that is difficult to maintain during our busy lives. So The Lucidity Institute has created an ideal opportunity to cultivate your lucid dreaming skills and enhance your mindfulness in everyday life.

Using the most effective techniques and technology, derived from both Tibetan Dream Yoga and Western science, Stephen LaBerge and his team present methods to develop the mental skills that foster lucidity and direct your consciousness within both dreaming and waking states.

The workshops held by The Lucidity Institute are typically an international mix of 20-25 adults with a passion for inner world explorations and more mindful waking lives. Many who come to the program, either by themselves or with a partner, discover new friends who share what may seem an uncommon interest in the extraordinary possibilities of lucid dreaming.

During the lucid dreaming workshops, you will have the chance to use the much-anticipated NovaDreamer II and get involved in ongoing research on a natural substance that stimulates lucidity and mindfulness in dreams. Participants in previous workshops have enjoyed phenomenal success at lucid dreaming.

The lucid dreaming workshops in Hawaii are held by several lucidity experts. The best known is, of course, Dr Stephen LaBerge, a world renowned expert on lucid dreaming. His groundbreaking research at Stanford University demonstrated the validity of lucid dreaming to the scientific world, and his books Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming are best sellers.

Dr LaBerge is a dynamic speaker, known for his humor and ability to stimulate thought and to make scientific concepts relevant to the individual. Through the years his research team has developed highly effective techniques, including technological aids, for building lucid dreaming skills.

LaBerge also has extensive personal experience with lucid dreaming, having learned to have lucid dreams at will, and among his thousands of lucid dreams are many which have been delightful, inspiring, enlightening, and life changing. He is an unabashed advocate of lucid dreaming, believing that the world would be a better place if more people developed the art.

Moving on to other speakers, Patricia Keelin is a dedicated and accomplished oneironaut, and a long time associate of Stephen LaBerge and The Lucidity Institute. In recent years, she has shared her experience and endless enthusiasm for lucid dreaming by teaching workshops, facilitating at TLI's Dreaming and Awakening programs, and through numerous radio and television interviews. She has participated in research experiments as a lab subject and worked extensively with the NovaDreamer.

Meanwhile, Dominick Attisani, a seasoned lucid dreamer and avid meditator, has been exploring the inner worlds for more than thirty years. Familiar with yogic and shamanic approaches of inducing border states of consciousness, his special interest lies in transitional states of consciousness. These include hypnagogia, and Wake Induced Lucid Dreams often associated with out of body perceptions.

Through the sharing of personal experiences and practical guidance, Dominick provides motivation, direction, and individual support to workshop participants, along with data feedback using the Super NovaDreamer.

If you're interested in attending TLI's famed workshop in 2010, registration costs $2,200 which includes full board accommodation. This is the special discounted price which expires after October 31, 2009 - after that, places cost $2,450.

In exchange, you will get lucid dreaming tuition from the famous Dr Stephen LaBerge himself, along with fellow experts at The Lucidity Institute. It's said to be a great experience, meeting other lucid dreamers and picking up some terrific insights into your lucid dream induction skills. Visit The Lucidity Institute website for more details of the upcoming Dreaming and Awakening workshop.

If you're unable to attend the workshop, I encourage you to read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Dr Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, as it will provide a clear understanding of your dreaming mind and its amazing potential. It will also introduce specific and effective techniques for inducing lucid dreams at will.

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What Will Happen in 2012? A Look at The Mayan Prophecy

What will happen in 2012... will the world come to an end? Will December 21, 2012 mark doomsday for humans as a species, the whole planet, perhaps the whole universe? What's going to happen and should we prepare for it?

Let me spare you the wait. The real truth behind 2012 is that it's a hoax. Whether you are caught up in the Mayan prophecy, planetary alignment, super volcanoes, or polar shifts, all these theories emerged only after 2012 was targeted as yet another doomsday date.

You may recall a few other doomsday hoaxes in your lifetime: 1982 (planetary alignment, poisoning by the passing of Halley's Comet, and the rapture), 1988 (another rapture), 1997 (aliens in the wake of Hale-Bopp), 2000 (the Millennium Bug), 2003 (Planet X), 2011 (ooh another rapture).


Many people are wired to respond to doomsday propaganda, and it's only through critical thinking that you'll find the truth about December 2012.

I'm not going to tell you what to believe; only to think lucidly on the subject and make your own conclusions. To kick start this process, here are some fundamental truths about the claims behind the 2012 hoax.
The reason so many people are asking "what will happen in 2012?" goes back to 1976 when Zecharia Stichin published The 12th Planet. In this book, he said the Sumerians had identified a twelfth body called Nibiru with a 3600-year orbit.
This claim totally contradicts what real experts on the Sumerian civilization have found. The Sumerians, while a mighty race, knew very little of astronomy and most certainly didn't even know about the existence of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. So the idea of them discovering a twelfth body in the solar system is well off; this was just another wildly inaccurate claim spun by Stichin.

Nonetheless, this is all it took for the great hoax to begin. A self-declared psychic named Nancy Leider (who claims to speak with aliens) announced on her website that Nibiru, also known as Planet X, is on a collision course with Earth. The catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was pushed back to December 2012.

So what does NASA have to say about this erroneous planet?

In 1984, when news of a potential tenth planet hit the news headlines, the term Planet X became a popular way of describing the unidentified mass spotted via infrared survey. However, after closer inspection, the mystery object was identified as a distant galaxy.
Unfortunately this has not stopped doomsday fans from drawing lines between Stichin's ill-founded claims, the woman who believes she speaks to aliens, and NASA's misidentification of a galaxy far, far away.
With Planet X and 2012 in the public eye, it wasn't long before conspiracy theorists realized the year coincided with the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. Surely this was real proof that the world will end in 2012! Erm... no.

Calendars keep track of the passage of time; they don't predict the future.

Though the Mayans were very advanced and made solid astronomical observations, there was never any doomsday prophecy made. This has been confirmed by genuine Mayan scholars. The Mayan calendar (like all calendars) had to end somewhere. Not only does it end, but it begins again in a new cycle, just as your calendar ends on December 31 and begins again on January 1.
No matter what New Age loons doggedly spout about the Mayan prophecy, ask yourself: how do they know what will happen in 2012? Where did their information come from? It certainly wasn't the Mayans, who, as we have established, made no such claims about the end of the world.
The Mayan prophecy is just another hoax propagated by the internet, TV documentaries, and even blockbuster movies (see below). People love to jump on the bandwagon even when their knowledge is suspect.
For some reason, a lot of people think that all the planets will fall into perfect alignment on December 21, 2012. Could this spell the end for mankind?
According to NASA, there are no planetary alignments in the next few decades. Earth will certainly not cross the galactic plane in 2012 - and even when any alignments do occur, their effects on Earth would be negligible.
The truth is, every year in December, the Earth and the sun do align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that has never created any effects here on Earth before and neither will it in December 2012. Nuff said.
Planet Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field which undergoes a reversal (north switching magnetic poles with south) on average every 400,000 years. Judging by the current level of movement, we can predict the next reversal will be within the next 1,000-3,000 years. But definitely not within the timeframe of 2012.
Even if a reversal were to occur, it will likely not cause us harm. If polar shifts were deadly, it would show up in the fossil record as numerous mass extinctions since the beginning of life on Earth... which it hasn't.
Perhaps the most credible theory of all is solar storms. And yet it still doesn't spell the end of life as we know it.
The sun has regular peaks and troughs of activity, with peaks occurring about every 11 years. In the past, solar flares occurring during the peak period have caused some disruption of satellite communications, but these days engineers are building electronics that are protected from most solar storms.
There is no denying the next peak in solar activity will occur in 2012-2014, but it is expected to be an average cycle. In any case, we are well prepared for solar flares and these should be no different from any other period in history.

If all the 2012 doomsday theories can be so easily discredited, then why on Earth are we so whipped up into a frenzy over it?

This is down to human instinct; to be constantly on the lookout for threats to our survival, and to wonder about where our future is leading.

Some religious leaders exploit this trait to create fear and develop a devout following. People who are depressed and lost in the world are especially vulnerable to this kind of propaganda; they find comfort in the thought of the rapture ending their Earthly pain and taking them to "a better place".

Unfortunately, people become believers in 2012 for lack of critical thinking. They jump on the bandwagon and feel safer - special, even - to be one of the ones who saw it coming. Of course, their doomsday project will fall flat one day, but until then, believers will pour a whole lot of energy into this egregious hoax.
What if you're not religious but still feel an emotional tug every time someone mentions December 21, 2012? Then you are a victim of the sensationalist media.

For the same human instinct described above, you thrive on the idea of knowing your future - however apocalyptic it may be. If your life isn't quite happy enough in it's current form, you are excited by the idea of society's collapse and a fresh start for all those who survive. This kind of existence is glorified by post-apocalyptic movies like Waterworld, Resident Evil, Zombieland and others.

Meanwhile, Hollywood latches onto pseudo-science to create end-of-the-world scenarios in an attempt to create action-packed movie plots. Which of these Hollywood movies have contributed to your fear of 2012: Knowing, 2012, The Core, Armageddon, Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow? Are you willing or unwilling to separate fact from fiction?

The 2012 phenomenon is a hoax. Anyone who spreads fear about 2012 back their claims with drivel that makes no scientific sense. And, if you hadn't noticed, science is the best tool we have. It's how we created space rockets, computers and cars.

Some go as far as to suggest that ALL of the above theories will take place. In a single day, just before tea time, Earth will be bombarded by polar shifts, sun storms, planetary collision, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods and more. Right.

Take a few minutes to look at the scientific evidence behind the 2012 claims and you will find a complete lack of it. People love to make stuff up; to sound important, to feel in control, or just to make some money. You have probably propagated the hoax yourself, just by talking about it.

There will always be natural and man-made threats to your survival and you should be reasonably prepared for these. Fortunately, the fact that you are reading this article suggests you live in a relatively stable environment with food, clean water and a roof over your head. You are already thriving in a way that billions of people in the world don't.

So the next time someone asks what will happen in 2012 and makes that "ooo-eerrr" noise, stop them in their tracks - and encourage some critical thinking for a change...
See you in 2013 ;)

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Waking Sleep Paralysis: The Holy Grail of Lucid Dreaming

Copyright © Nick Newport of Lucidology.com (Part 1 of 5)

LucidologyIf you're new to lucid dreams and OBEs and you're wondering what to do first, well here it is. Here is the big secret that I wish I had known when I first got started with lucid dreams and OBEs. You're about to find out why waking sleep paralysis is the holy grail for new OBEers because it's how you can access your subconscious without having to practice using any visualizations at all.

If you've ever woken up in the morning and found that you couldn't move or make a sound for a few minutes, you've had sleep paralysis. This used to happen to me and I had no idea why or what it was. But as it turns out, this was the trick that opened the door to frequent OBEs for me after having insomnia for years.


Sleep Paralysis Protects You During Sleep

The question is "what is sleep paralysis and how can you use it?" Sleep paralysis is a protection mechanism your body uses when you fall asleep. If you were to dream you're doing something very active, such as running, and you weren't in sleep paralysis then you would move your limbs when you're asleep and you'd wake yourself up. To prevent that from happening, your body disconnects your voluntary muscle system from your mind so that you can dream all you like without waking yourself up.


Usually You Enter "Mind Asleep, Body Asleep"

Normally you're not aware that of this happening because by the time your body shuts itself down in sleep paralysis, your mind is already asleep and unaware of what's happening. In other words you enter a state of 'body awake/mind asleep' before entering 'body asleep, mind asleep'.


"Mind Awake, Body Asleep" is What We Want

The whole trick to lucid dreaming is to enter a subconscious focus without losing awareness. Here's how waking sleep paralysis does this for you.


Sleep Paralysis Puts You in a Subconscious Focus Automatically

When you're awake your brain is in what's called a 'beta' state. Beta means your dominant electrical brain waves are oscillating at around 14 to 30 cycles per second.

When you enter sleep paralysis, your brain automatically puts itself in "dream mode" which is called a 'theta' state. Theta is slower than beta and is around 4 to 7 cycles per second.

Knowing this secret allows you to avoid one of the major mistakes most people make when first starting out in OBEs.


Most Books Say to do OBEs in One Step... This is a Major Mistake!

Most books on OBEs say to simply induce an OBE in what is basically a one step process. Going directly from a waking state to an OBE is possible but it's difficult so this is not what I recommend you start out with.


The Trick is to use Two Transitions to Success, Not Just One!

Instead, you'll progress much faster by making it a two step process. You first use the sleep commands we'll cover later to trick your body into falling asleep and enter sleep paralysis.

You then use exit techniques we'll cover later to convert waking sleep paralysis into an OBE and separate from your physical body.


Most People Discover Sleep Paralysis by Waking Up in it!

Now, how do you do that? The way you'll usually become aware of sleep paralysis is that you wake up in it and find you can't move or make a sound.

Waking sleep paralysis often feels like there's a heavy lead blanket on you. It's not that there is really anything on you or that your muscles have become weaker. The feeling is because your brain has to send a stronger nerve signal than normal to get the same muscle movement. That makes it feel like you're having to overcome some kind of resistance when you try to move.

This feeling also usually makes it feel like it's harder to breathe but it's actually a natural sleep process. Sleep paralysis happens every single time you fall asleep.


Is Sleep Paralysis Dangerous?

You may be wondering if waking sleep paralysis is dangerous and if there's a way to break free. Sleep paralysis is not dangerous because it's something your body does every night. Plus, here is a secret "safety release" trick you can use to free yourself from paralysis so you always have a backup plan.


How to Break Sleep Paralysis 100% of The Time: Use Deep Breathing to Contrast Sleep Breathing

The only way your body knows for sure if your mind is awake is if you move. This is a problem when you're in 100% sleep paralysis which is preventing you from moving. Luckily waking paralysis is limited to your voluntary muscle system like your arms and legs. Your breathing is semi-involuntary so you still have control over it even in deep paralysis.

If you enter sleep paralysis and decide you want break free and wake up, simply change your breathing pattern to something other than the sleep breathing pattern your body is in. The most effective way I have found to do this is to begin breathing deeply and slowly.

After 10 or 15 seconds your body will notice the change and bring you out of paralysis. Not many things are 100% reliable in lucid dreaming but this has worked for me every single time.


How to Find Out if You Have Sleep Apnea

A very few people have reported that they woke up in sleep paralysis and noticed that they weren't breathing at all. The problem is not the paralysis itself, but that they had an existing health condition called 'sleep apnea'.

Sleep apnea basically means that you stop breathing when you're asleep. So this is one of the side benefits of using waking sleep paralysis to have OBEs: you'll find out whether or not you have sleep apnea.

Keep in mind there's a big difference between the normal "heavy lead blanket" feeling that comes with sleep paralysis versus not breathing at all. If you find you stop breathing entirely then you may have sleep apnea and should see a doctor about it. If you only feel the heaviness sensation then everything is normal.


"Accidental" Versus "Deliberate" Sleep Paralysis

So far we've talked about the case where you somehow manage to wake up in sleep paralysis. However that's basically an uncontrolled and accidental process. The question is what can you do to make it happen more consistently?


Toward Consistency: What if The Body Falls Asleep First?

The idea is to flip the sleep order around so that instead of entering "body awake, mind asleep", you enter "mind awake, body asleep".

When this happens you're actually aware of the process your body goes through when it falls asleep. This is our main secret trick for doing visualization-free lucid dreams and OBEs. This transition is the most important skill to learn in this part of the course.

Why? Because when you can put your body to sleep without losing consciousness at any point, you have 100% perfectly clear dream recall. This is called a Wake Induced Lucid Dream or WILD. It's as easy to remember what you did in a WILD as it is to remember the last 15 minutes or so of normal waking awareness. With this method, you don't have to think back through and hazy dream phase like you normally do with most dreams.


If You Actually Succeed... What Does it Feel Like?

So what does it feel like to actually watch your body falling asleep?

Instead of waking up in sleep paralysis and with the heavy lead blanket feeling, when you induce paralysis consciously you actually have the sensation of the heavy lead blanket being laid on your chest. It often feels like it begins at your feet, comes up over your chest and ends at your head. When that process is complete you're in sleep paralysis.

So how to get this process to happen consistently? Here is the key. And this one fact is so important and so critical that I'm giving it a big fancy name. It's called the "Fundamental Theorem of Sleep Paralysis".


The Fundamental Theorem Of Sleep Paralysis

The Fundamental Theorem of Sleep Paralysis is that if you wake up and fall asleep without moving at all, sleep paralysis becomes extremely likely.


Sleep Paralysis is Most Likely when The Body was Recently Asleep

And when I say, without moving I mean you wake up and don't move your eyes, don't open your eyes, don't scratch any itches, you don't move at all in any way. The idea is that your body doesn't really know for sure if your mind is actually awake or not. If you don't give it any signals otherwise, it will assume that the mind really is still asleep and re-paralyze itself.


The Next Step: The "Stop, Drop & Roll" Sleep Commands

The foundation skill you need to develop this knowledge into a full-blown induction is to fall asleep quickly. So in the next section I'll show you how you can make your body first ask for permission to asleep and then I'll show you how you can tell it "yes it's time to fall asleep". This trick is called the "stop drop and roll" sleep command and once you have it you'll never have a problem with insomnia again and you'll dramatically accelerate your OBE progress.

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Nick Newport is the author of Lucidology, a website dedicated to teaching people how to have lucid dreams and out of body experiences from a waking state. To learn more about Nick Newport's visualization and timer techniques, subscribe to his website for free at Lucidology.com.

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Sleepwalking and Sleep Talking: Causes and Cures for Parasomnias


Sleepwalking is a bizarre sleep disorder, where sufferers can find themselves performing daily routines in their sleep - like doing housework, raiding the fridge, making phone calls, and in extreme cases leaving the house altogether.


Sleepwalkers have no memory of their somnambulism so the condition can go unnoticed for some time. Common causes of sleepwalking include:

Sleep deprivationEmotional problemsIncreased stressFever or sickness

It's actually a myth that sufferers are acting out the movements of a dream. Most cases occur in NREM sleep - a deep sleep where dreams are fleeting and few. This is also why it's very unlikely that you could actually sleepwalk while lucid dreaming (and even if you did, you would probably realize and wake up very quickly).

"After spending some money in his sleep, Hermon the Miser who so infuriated that he hanged himself"

Gaius Lucilius

Some 18% of people (1 in 5) have recurring bouts of this automatism sleep disorder. Unlike other sleep disorders, men are more prone to sleepwalking than women. It's more common in children and young adults, who spend more time in Slow Wave Sleep (up to 80% of the night) when parasomnias occur. Sleepwalking begins when you move your legs in your sleep, in synchronization. This triggers coordinated movement. People have been reported to eat, bathe, urinate, dress, drive a car, whistle and even commit sleepwalking murder. Sleepwalkers have their eyes open so they can see what they're doing. But unlike the movies, they don't walk about with their arms outstretched...

Sleep talking is another parasomnia where people talk in their sleep. It happens during the transition of one NREM cycle to another, when you become partially awake. It can also happen during REM sleep, in which case you literally verbalize your dream speech!


Sleep talking is linked to several other sleep disorders:

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) - loud or emotional sleep talkingSleepwalking - performing waking movements during sleep Night Terrors - screaming or shouting during sleepSleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) - eating during sleep

Sleep talking is very common in young children, but the majority grow out of it. Only 5% of adults appear to sleep talk on a regular basis.


Dion McGregor became a celebrity in the 1960s when his roommate began recording his nightly sleep talking monologues. Apparently they were hilariously detailed and explained what was happening in his dreams - including a hot air balloon trip to the moon!


Sleepwalking can be quite disturbing if you don't know what you're dealing with. So here are a few tips to employ next time a loved one goes walkabout at night.


First, trying gently guiding the person back to bed.


They may want to complete their sleepwalking task first (eg, they may be dusting if they think the house is dirty). In this case, help them out, then guide them back to bed. Don't be embarrassed - they won't remember any of it!


If you're not sure what their goal is, you can just ask them. They may be slow to respond or may not respond at all - just keep your questions simple.


Don't be surprised if they do strange things, like urinating into a pot plant or eating invisible food. They are acting out automatic responses from waking life and are not fully aware of their surroundings nor what they are doing.


It's shocking - but it's true. Confirmed killers have walked free from court because they used the sleepwalking murder defense. About 68 sleepwalking murder cases have occurred to date, and have led to new laws and definitions of murder.


The courts now recognize that you can't be held responsible for acts which you can't willfully control. This includes acts of automatism - including spasms, reflex actions, convulsions, acts under concussion... and walking in your sleep.


Here are two of the most high profile sleepwalking murder cases.


The idea of sleepwalking murder is chilling for two reasons. In the first instance, we have the subconscious mind making decisions without rational waking logic. While the body acts with automated responses, the unconscious guides its overall behavior as if there is no consequence - as if in a dream world.


Secondly, what if sleepwalking is used as a murder defense by malicious killers and they get away with it? How can a jury truly understand what happened in a person's brain retrospectively - whether the crime was a true act of automatism?


Fortunately, sleepwalking murder is a rare occurrence. And the act of sleepwalking itself has absolutely nothing to do with lucid dreaming.


You can sleep soundly tonight :)

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