A Brief Introduction
Published by Damian under introduction, Lucidity on Saturday, November 01, 2008
Welcome everyone! This blog exists as a way to share my independant studies on lucid dreaming with the world. I'm not an expert in the field so please forgive or correct any scientific errors. I do have a little bit of background in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and a firm grasp on Linguistics and Computer Science. Unrelated to these fields, I also know a small amount of Japanese with my ongoing life goal to one day become fluent.
Now that that basic info has been said, I may as well discuss my motives for my blog and concurrent study. First of all, we've all had at least one dream at some point in our life, be it a happy event that you are saddened by your awakening or a terrifying event that couldn't end soon enough. The experience of a dream is that unlike any other, the realistic nature is enough to convince yourself that what is happening is real, despite you running from a giant monster with massive wings. It is the way that the mind perceives these dreams that allows something like that to be passed off as completely acceptable. Additionally, that cliff that the monster chases you to and jump off, just to fly away yourself, also seems fine. In fact, the dream may shift to exclude the monster entirely and shift right into flying merrily in the skies above. Surely those who have had a flying dream know the excitement and thrill that they are actually flying. Or at least, they believe they are.
Yet... isn't that what ultimately matters? To have a dream that is enjoyable is something literally out of this world. Let me start by saying that for whatever reason, I remember anywhere from 1 to 3 dreams a night, sometimes remembering only key occurrences, sometimes remembering dreams multiple minutes in length. I would consider myself lucky in this respect as a lot of adults reportedly lose the ability to remember their dreams. While I do not consider myself immature, I will openly admit that I grasp my "inner child" rather tightly, and maybe because of this my mind can think more like that of a child's.
Continuing on with that idea, what if it were possible to have a strong influence on what happens in your dream? What if you could make a particular dream into that flying dream? What if. One of the main goals of this project is to hopefully achieve something along this line, not persay the flying dream, but the ability to recognize a dream and consequently change the outcome.
It's completely reasonable that you as the reader may instantly pass this idea off as a falsity, something that could never happen. However, unfortunately for your arguing case, there has been scientific research done, extensive at that, that very much does exactly as outlined above. This sort of reassurance along with my already above average rate of dream remembrance has sparked a rather large interest in partaking in some studies of my own. Obviously, this isn't a one day thing, and I may never obtain the results I desire. The risk however, is worth devoting time to do at the least minor preparations and procedures in optimistic hope.
A good resource on lucid dreaming is a site known as Lucidity. I cannot vouch for their accuracy as I'm not experienced enough with the field, but I can vouch that the information on this site is consistent with information elsewhere. I can also say that their FAQs section happens to be very informative and very encouraging. From a quick explanation to how lucid dreaming works to some benefits and methods of obtaining lucidity, this site alone could be motivation enough for some people to find the sheer fascination of the subject.
I hope you follow along with my experiences, feel free to subscribe to my blog or email me at damian.larue@rochester.edu to strike up a conversation about anything, dream related or not. Expect updates daily to a few times a week, potentially longer during busy times or other real life issues. I am a college student after all. Hopefully this project will end in a success that I can take with me for the rest of my life, but if not, it will undoubtedly be a most enlightening experience.
~ Damian ~
Now that that basic info has been said, I may as well discuss my motives for my blog and concurrent study. First of all, we've all had at least one dream at some point in our life, be it a happy event that you are saddened by your awakening or a terrifying event that couldn't end soon enough. The experience of a dream is that unlike any other, the realistic nature is enough to convince yourself that what is happening is real, despite you running from a giant monster with massive wings. It is the way that the mind perceives these dreams that allows something like that to be passed off as completely acceptable. Additionally, that cliff that the monster chases you to and jump off, just to fly away yourself, also seems fine. In fact, the dream may shift to exclude the monster entirely and shift right into flying merrily in the skies above. Surely those who have had a flying dream know the excitement and thrill that they are actually flying. Or at least, they believe they are.
Yet... isn't that what ultimately matters? To have a dream that is enjoyable is something literally out of this world. Let me start by saying that for whatever reason, I remember anywhere from 1 to 3 dreams a night, sometimes remembering only key occurrences, sometimes remembering dreams multiple minutes in length. I would consider myself lucky in this respect as a lot of adults reportedly lose the ability to remember their dreams. While I do not consider myself immature, I will openly admit that I grasp my "inner child" rather tightly, and maybe because of this my mind can think more like that of a child's.
Continuing on with that idea, what if it were possible to have a strong influence on what happens in your dream? What if you could make a particular dream into that flying dream? What if. One of the main goals of this project is to hopefully achieve something along this line, not persay the flying dream, but the ability to recognize a dream and consequently change the outcome.
It's completely reasonable that you as the reader may instantly pass this idea off as a falsity, something that could never happen. However, unfortunately for your arguing case, there has been scientific research done, extensive at that, that very much does exactly as outlined above. This sort of reassurance along with my already above average rate of dream remembrance has sparked a rather large interest in partaking in some studies of my own. Obviously, this isn't a one day thing, and I may never obtain the results I desire. The risk however, is worth devoting time to do at the least minor preparations and procedures in optimistic hope.
A good resource on lucid dreaming is a site known as Lucidity. I cannot vouch for their accuracy as I'm not experienced enough with the field, but I can vouch that the information on this site is consistent with information elsewhere. I can also say that their FAQs section happens to be very informative and very encouraging. From a quick explanation to how lucid dreaming works to some benefits and methods of obtaining lucidity, this site alone could be motivation enough for some people to find the sheer fascination of the subject.
I hope you follow along with my experiences, feel free to subscribe to my blog or email me at damian.larue@rochester.edu to strike up a conversation about anything, dream related or not. Expect updates daily to a few times a week, potentially longer during busy times or other real life issues. I am a college student after all. Hopefully this project will end in a success that I can take with me for the rest of my life, but if not, it will undoubtedly be a most enlightening experience.
~ Damian ~
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