Planting "seeds" in the subconscious

[InsaneInThBrain]

First off, I want to say that it was very hard to think of a logical title for this, but I was throwing a few ideas around that I got from the book and was interested in hearing what other thoughts anyone had on this. I recently read a series by Robert Sawyer called "WWW" (world wide web). In the book, the main character Caitlin, gets an implant in her eye to cure her blindness, and one of the side effects is being able to see the structure of the World Wide Web, through her eye. She discovers an emergent consciousness that has risen from the content of the web and she finds a way to educate this consciousness,, eventually far beyond any human intelligence. The "being" called itself "Webmind" and it had access to everything on the internet. One day it thought it could increase efficiency by multitasking, consciously trying to concentrate on many things at once to learn at a higher exponential rate. Webmind pretty much crashes himself because consciousness can never truly multitask, it can only switch rapidly back and forth between tasks. He soon understands that he can train his subconscious to learn, download files and understand many different subjects at once, while his conscious mind tends to other matters. It struck me that this may be possible for the human mind to do this almost as efficiently. I then began applying this thought to lucid dreams. Forgive me if this is hard to follow, but I'm trying to explain this the best that I can. Imagine if you created these different areas of thought, or these different "dreamworlds" for each task you would like to work on. Whether it's learning an instrument, or any sort of skill you would like to learn, solving problems, practicing social situations etc. Anything you would like to work on to better your mind. Now imagine you visited each of these places consciously, in a lucid state, each designated for it's own task, and then set the intention for your subconscious to keep working on these tasks while you move onto the next task consciously. You would eventually (theoretically) be able to have multiple areas of your mind, subconsciously working on different tasks while your conscious mind would be able to tend to other matters. I wonder if it would be possible for these subconscious areas of thought to continue through waking life, only for you to return to them consciously in your next lucid dream. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this, and maybe we can get some experiments going. I am not able to lucid dream very often as I haven't been really trying to lately, but I would love to see if someone that is very experienced to give it a shot. Let me know what you think guys!

[Matte87]

Hmm, it's an interesting idea but I think you need to be actively thinking about something, dreaming about doing something or doing something in real life to improve a skill. I'm not sure the brain has the power to improve a skill subconsciously just by willpower. Might work for something you really need to survive... I don't know really but my money is on that it's not possible.

[InsaneInThBrain]

Well, theres only one way to find out.. Also, like learning any new skill, you get better with practice. So you might be able to say "the brain doesnt have that power, yet" *Posts merged

[InsaneInThBrain]

Aw I was hoping people would at least take an interest in the thought of it.. the past few days I have been thinking about this and I thought of a bubble in my mind, and in the bubble I was basically doing basketball handling drills repetitively and then sort of imagined the bubble go towards the side of my mind and set the intention that it would keep going while I was thinking of other things. I also did this for a few guitar scales I have been working on. Today I played basketball and my handling was improved pretty noticably, and I even got a few comments from people saying that it has improved. This could of course be some sort of placebo effect, but I am not going to throw it aside just yet... It could be even more powerful in a dream, if I could just have a lucid already! Its been months!

[Nerq]

The idea sounds good. I am a bit skeptical, but I do think you could be onto something. Maybe something on a different level of what you were considering. Say you left your subconscious a message to carry on in the spot you were just in. And in the dream you even get a confirmation. Your subconscious is like Okay got it. So you go on to the next scene. I agree with what Matt said I think. About your consciousness needing to be focused on something to develop data correctly. But, what I do think would happen. I do think maybe pieces of your mind would active that have to do with that last place you tried to leave your subconscious working. I'd doubt it would help you learn anything, but it might be a useful stimulous. Maybe to learn to leave checkpoints or anchors in other dream scenes, who knows. If you get to experement in a dream with it please share. I'll give it a try myself as soon as I can.

[dreamenaider]

i think you may be on to something. i think any thing is possible if you know the right way to go about it. im interested on what exparments you had in mind.

[Finnegan]

I think the dream worlds would have to be rather specific, for example when I'm lucid day-dreaming, my mind takes in a great deal of ambient information, and uses that to create a sort of puzzle that I (or my subconscious) solve by looking for the right combination of pieces and then making a working model of what to try irl. So I think it is definitely possible, but you might have to make some effort to gather the relevant data (even subconsciously) before "planting the seed". In fact when I have something I'm really obsessed about I often wake up with a feeling that my mind has been dreaming about what to do with it next, so yeah, I know if you put the right efforts in it will quite a useful skill to have.

[InsaneInThBrain]

Nerq - could you elaborate a bit more? Dreamenaider - I hope I am as well. As far as experiments, I want a lot of input from everyone to really hone down what we are talking about here before we can really test a hypothesis. I would say trying the "bubble" idea I was talking about in waking life for some skill you would like to improve. However, like Finnegan said, you would have to gather enough relevant data for your subconscious to know what to do and how to do it etc. So learning an entirely new skill without any prior knowledge, probably not going to happen. But improving a skill you already have been practicing irl, maybe... Finnegan - I agree with you, the right thoughts are needed for the idea to grow and learn, much like a seed needs an ideal environment with enough water, rich soil, and sunlight to grow. Simply throwing a seed onto the ground is not enough. We need to understand what is the idea soil/water/sunlight conditions for our ideas to be able to grow..

[Nerq]

Oh, I would have replied sooner but I hadn't noticed a few of you asked me about what 'experement' I was talking about. I hadn't fully came out with a plan at the moment I wrote that but, a few minutes later I did. It makes sense in my head but it might be hard to explain. Bare with me. The simplest kind of experements that I could come up with off hand, would be one that would require your control to change your scenery on demand. Along with a few individual touches from yourself. Because goal in the dream after establishing control would be, to "magically" or "telekynetically'... or just with reason and focus convince yourself that you're planting part of yourself in this scene. Part of your consciousness. That's where your own creativity is needed most. Plant a part of you in a place, or item. Then walk into a different scene, and try to remain cognitive on some form or level in that last place while holding conscious in the present one. If you could acomplish this, you could even take it further. See how many times you can walk back and forth from one place to another, connecting your consciousness to as many places as your mind would permit. If you can't keep any sense of consciousness to remain in the items you plant them in, still focus on remembering what you felt about that place you left. What does that place seem like? Can you get back to it? Question things like that and write them down. I think it may be possible. Like have you guys ever had dreams that you remember where it pretty much seemed like you were in two places at one time?

[OneirosOnkelos]

It seems like dream incubation to me, just in a cluster form.

[Finnegan]

It seems like dream incubation to me, just in a cluster form. yes, since we have so many dreams a night that we often aren't aware of, making it a goal to fill them with productive learning is quite plausible, especially if the mind is trained for virtual thinking. Also getting the subconscious to work on multiple levels at once is not unheard of, although it is usually accompanied by a practiced trance. Perhaps some research into self hypnotism is called for in this endeavor.

[InsaneInThBrain]

YES ! You guys get it. I was perhaps a bit unclear in the first post. Nerq - That is basically what will have to be done to get this idea going, a small cue to keep the subconscious starting to think about a different area in dreamspace and in the mind. Eventually we can get that idea to grow and learn on its own, but like learning any new thing, we have to start small. Finnegan - I think self hypnotism would be very helpful since we would need to set intentions for our unconscious minds, I will do some research to see what some good techniques would be for such a task..