"Stravagating" (from a book) / possibly a concept from LDing?

There's this book, called City of Masks (By Mary Hoffman) that talks about this young boy that "stravagates" to Venice, Italy in the 1500's from his life (around 2000, England, I recall). Whenever he slept with this certain notebook (which turned out to be a talisman in the book), he would literally "teleport" to 1500's Venice, Italy when he fell asleep.

Maybe this was taken from lucid dreaming?

Interesting to think about :P

Heh, sounds kinda like the movie "Butterfly Effect."

Excerpt from Nikola Teslas autobiography where he talks about how he managed to get rid of his nightmares.. and this lead for him to develop a technique to create his inventions thats very much like lucid dreaming.

He also stargated to some cities.. sounds like advanced lucid dreaming to me :D check it out

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikola Tesla

... I tried to concentrate my mind on something else I had seen, and in this way I
would often obtain temporary relief; but in order to get it I had to conjure
continuously new images. It was not long before I found that I had exhausted all of
those at my command; my ‘reel’ had run out as it were, because I had seen little of
the world — only objects in my home and the immediate surroundings. As I
performed these mental operations for the second or third time, in order to chase the
appearances from my vision, the remedy gradually lost all its force. Then I
instinctively commenced to make excursions beyond the limits of the small world
of which I had knowledge, and I saw new scenes. These were at first very blurred
and indistinct, and would flit away when I tried to concentrate my attention upon
them. They gained in strengthand distinctness and finally assumed the concreteness of real things. I soon
discovered that my best comfort was attained if I simply went on in my vision
further and further, getting new impressions all the time, and so I began to travel; of
course, in my mind. Every night, (and sometimes during the day), when alone, I
would start on my journeys — see new places, cities and countries; live there, meet
people and make friendships and acquaintances and, however unbelievable, it is a
fact that they were just as dear to me as those in actual life, and not a bit less intense
in their manifestations.

This I did constantly until I was about seventeen, when my thoughts turned
seriously to invention. Then I observed to my delight that i could visualise with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materialising inventive concepts and ideas, which is radially opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient. The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality.

My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be examined beforehand, from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practice of a crude idea as is being generally done, is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money, and time.

Nikola tesla in a few words

Quote:

Nikola Tesla is the true unsung
prophet of the electric age!;
without whom our radio, auto ignition,
telephone, alternating current power
generation and transmission, radio and
television would all have been impossible.
Yet his life and times have vanished largely
from public access.

OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

did you read the prequel?

Thanks for the passage, ChaybaChayba. I had heard about Tesla being into active dreaming, but its cool to read it first hand. I've been meaning to read his autobiography. I'm assuming you would recommend it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by quattykitty

OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

did you read the prequel?

No I haven't :s
I would consider this book an advanced form of lucid dreaming, because, afterall, he could only teleport to Venice in his sleep.
Interesting article ChaybaChayba, thx

yes very interesting article!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Thanks for the passage, ChaybaChayba. I had heard about Tesla being into active dreaming, but its cool to read it first hand. I've been meaning to read his autobiography. I'm assuming you would recommend it?

Yeah for sure, the interesting information in the autobiography, about lucid dreaming, is in the first 10 pages, so you don't need to read to whole thing :p