Well, I’ve been idling in progress for both lucid dreaming and out of body experiences for a while now. I haven’t done anything new with lucid dreaming, I still get about one lucid dream a month, but that’s not nearly enough for me. In the realm of OBE’s I’ve actually had a little bit of a backslide.

Realizations I’ve had:

In order to succeed at lucid dreaming, there are some skills you really must have. Among these are good recall, concentration, and persistence.

You need recall just to remember normal dreams. Remembering normal dreams helps you differentiate the dream world from waking life. Even though you may confuse the two, you gain some understanding about what your dream worlds are like, what their tendencies are, and other dream signs like that. I believe that just remembering dreams and keeping a dream journal raise your chances for a spontaneous lucid dream.

Concentration is important for techniques like MILD and WILD. You have to be able to keep a sliver of your consciousness still with you as you drift to sleep in WILD, which requires you to not get lost in random thoughts. MILD also requires you to keep a single thought continuously going through your head until you fall asleep. This is quite difficult, as the mind tends to wander when it’s tired, especially when you’re falling asleep.

And to keep up with all of the odd exercises lucid dreaming demands of you, you need persistence. The will required to keep up with a daily dream journal isn’t anything to sneeze at, and doing reality checks constantly requires some strength of mind as well. Getting up in the middle of the night for wake back to bed’s definitely requires some self mastery too.

Even with my small amount of experience in OBEs, I’ve still come to realize one big thing:

The state of mind brought about by deep meditation is paramount to leaving your body. The ability to remain passive to outside sensations and to remain devoid of thought is a key skill for OBEs. In all of the times I’ve almost left my body, or in the one time I made it halfway out, I was always stopped by the same brick wall: Losing my focus and succumbing to fear. Meditation teaches you how to focus within, and keep your mind calm. The better you get at mediation, the better you get at ignoring outside interference.

These are just a few things I’ve come to realize. They ring true for me. Do you agree/disagree with these realizations and have you had any of your own? Leave a comment and let me know.

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I saw this video over at Martial Development, a Martial Arts Blog. It is a very interesting documentary about “Dynamo Jack” a healer who uses “chi” to heal his patients. People feel this as electric shocks. This video even shows him stopping a bullet with his hand. He also lights a LED with his hand. There’s no way to prove this of course, but it is very interesting. What do you think? Years of Meditation is the typical excuse for powers like this, but many false psychics use it as well. Is this reality or a hoax? Leave a comment.

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I just posted a short page called the A-Z of lucid dreaming. This page is a list of all the tools I think are helpful to the typical dreamer. My goal is to fill out the list with many tools, but right now it’s a rather short page. To remedy this, I’ll not only keep adding pages that I come across, but I’d like you to tell me about any pages you find that you think are useful tools. I’ll look over what you send me, and add it to the list if I agree that it’s useful. Of course, I will give due credit to whomever discovers something that goes on the list. I hope that in a little while from now, it will be larger and more useful. Make it happen by contacting me with pages you think are good!

-Hatter

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I ran across this site, which is a good source for many sources of information on lucid dreaming. (Don’t write it off just because it’s on geocities.) It also has some more…sketchy information, like the I Ching. (the I Ching is a Chinese fortune telling mechanism, at it’s simplest) Some of this information is a little odd in topic, and I’m not vouching for all of it, but the dreaming sections are good information.

Another interesting technique is Sammaspati, a meditation technique where you recall your entire day in reverse.

I am still out of town, so the posts might be a little irregular until later this week.

I’ll try and get some more information heavy posts when I get back.

-Hatter

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The lucid mask is really one of the most simple yet complicated lucid dreaming aids that I have ever seen. It should be simple, just put it on and fall asleep. It manages to give me trouble, however. Falling asleep fast enough and then waking up at the right time, then falling asleep with it on and having it flash in the REM cycle is a very difficult way to use it. If I can’t get a night where I at least complete that list of steps soon, then I will just focus on Boxed Nirvana.

I must also say that Discreet Reminder going off late at night when you aren’t expecting it is quite startling.

I’ll keep plugging away at the mask, but it’s getting rather discouraging result-wise.

-Hatter

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Unfortunately, I haven’t had any great success stories lately, so I don’t really have any great recommendations for tools or techniques. I do however, have news about an upcoming Dreaming to Infinity exclusive tool! The Deluge team is working on a browser based calculator for when you should go to bed to wake up in a specific REM cycle. Sounds simple doesn’t it? It will also take more advanced factors into account such as how long it takes you to fall asleep and where in the REM cycle is acceptable to wake up in. This is assuming all goes well. There may be other factors to add in later. Can you think of anything that it should figure in to the calculations? Post a comment and let me know.

-Hatter

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I ran back into a very good and in-depth tutorial on how to perform a WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) on Dream Views by Seeker. It covers everything you could want to know about WILD. It isn’t an easy technique to perform, so expect some nights without much to show for your work before you get a lucid dream.

Here is the tutorial in a variety of formats:
HTML format
Rich Text format
Microsoft Word format
Plain Text

Not much else to say there, except thanks to Seeker for writing that lengthy article.

-Hatter

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This is just a simple graph of the typical sleep cycle.I know this data is readily available, but it’s really nice to have it in a large, clean, graph format. Having this information really helps you know specifically when you should wake up, based on how long it takes to fall asleep. It should be noted however, that this chart is based on subjects that were not under the effects of any sleep altering substances, like alcohol.

(Click to see the full version)

The Stages of the sleep cycle

Waking
This is a relaxed state of consciousness. You are still awake, and are simply lying down and relaxing.

Stage 1
This is described as drowsiness and decreased brain activity. People aroused from this state feel as if they haven’t slept at all.

Stage 2
This is described as “light sleep.” During this period individuals typically experience muscle spasms and twitching. The heart slows down and the brain activity is less than stage 1.

Stages 3/4
This is the deep sleep period. The brain experiences “slow” brainwaves, otherwise known as delta waves. This is when the body is in the deepest form of relaxation, mentally and physically.

REM Sleep
This is a period of intense brain activity and muscle twitches. This state is very near to stage one sleep and awake consciousness, and as such, is shown on the graph as a tall bar. During REM the body is also mostly paralyzed by the brain.

Why is this important and how can I use this?

REM sleep has been shown by studies to be a major component, if not the main reason, for sleep. Getting REM sleep is directly related to how rested you feel. When you wake up in the sleep cycle is also related to how alert you are.

During the sleep cycle, you switch between deep sleep (NREM), and false sleep, or REM. REM is when dreaming occurs and when the eyes typically move rapidly, giving the period its name: Rapid Eye Movement. REM has also been shown to effect learning. From the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not.

So REM is fairly important. When you wake up also effects how “awake” you feel. The ideal time is right at the end of a REM cycle, when you are still in a close to waking state but have finished REM. Studies have shown that people awoken at this period in sleep tend to feel more awake and rested then those woken at other points in the sleep cycle, especially those who were woken up during slow wave sleep. Slow wave sleep occurs between REM periods when the body is in a deep, restful state. This is shown on the graph as stages three and four.

In short, when you set your alarm, try to aim to wake up towards the end of your REM. If you take a while to fall asleep or can’t be sure of when you will fall asleep, shoot for the middle. As you can see from the graph, REM increases with sleep, so getting 4 hours of sleep instead of 8 is not like getting “half” of your sleep. You miss out on your longest REM periods if you don’t get a long period of sleep. In my experience, aiming for the end of the 5 hour period or the middle of the 6 hour period is usually the most fitting for how much time I have to sleep.

-Hatter

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Since Bwgen has been a topic in the comments for the past few days, I thought I’d post about one of the more famous Bwgen pre-sets. Boxed Nirvana has been heralded as many things, and that’s not without reason. It is a very powerful and versatile pre-set. Note that when I say pre-set, I mean pre-defined program. It does not come with Bwgen.

Boxed Nirvana has many different frequencies going from the beginning, with a new frequency every eight minutes or so. These are mostly the “special” and “extra powerful” frequencies that have been written about in other places, like the frequency of the earth (Schumann Resonance) that’s 7.83 hz. These frequencies combined have quite the effect, and can be used for many things. It is great for WILDs, and I’ve had some rather interesting experiences with it thus far. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely strange. This pre-set is also used in out of body experiences, specifically in training for leaving the body. I have included an mp3 version that you can simply use here. I also have the Brain Wave Generator file here. Note that you can only import Bwgen files if you have the full version of Bwgen.

While we’re on the topic of my favorite mp3’s, I’d like to mention a favorite back from my PsiPog days. The spiral sweep is a very good way of feeling your own energies, as well as improving their flow. It’s easy to follow along with, and is very effective. It is simply a visualization for about thirty minutes, which guides you in controlling your energies. You can download it here.

I am still trying to get out of body with the help of Boxed Nirvana, and so far I am impressed with what I’ve been able to do with it. I think that with more practice, I could easily get out of body with it. However, I’ve started to run into a wall with this. I’ve gotten to the vibrations a few times now, and I have trouble keeping my mind silent. Looks like I’ll have to do some more meditation.

I hope you find these mp3s useful.

In case you missed them earlier:
DOWNLOADS:
Boxed Nirvana MP3
Boxed Nirvana Bwgen Preset
Spiral Sweep Meditation

-Hatter

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Well I’ve been working with the mask some more. I’ve found a good way around the comfortability problem too. I turn the mask on when I go to sleep, and then wake up 4 hours later. I then put the mask on, and go back to sleep. I’ve done this twice now and I’ve gotten results both times. The first night I posted about here. Last night I tried it again. I woke up at the right time, put the mask on and went back to sleep. I became lucid in a dream later that night, but oddly enough, it wasn’t due to anything I can attribute to the mask. It was a simple dream sign that made me lucid. Unfortunately, I lost lucidity soon after. Because of my poor recall lately, I can now also tell you what it’s like to forget a lucid dream. This was a fairly high level lucid too.

What forgetting a lucid dream feels like: Just like a normal dream with a foggy recall. The only difference is that there is a brief instant of when I became lucid. Another oddity is that I only had that memory when I woke up, nothing else of the dreams from last night.

Admittedly, I haven’t had time to write down my dreams in the morning for a while, so I’ve lost recall accordingly. I’m going to try and do some Bwgen sessions to fix this, and I will continue testing the mask. I think these results are promising.

-Hatter

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