Hi guys and gals - I have a "new hobby" - rather I have rediscovered the ability to lucid dream.
I have no idea how many of you have heard the term before - a lucid dream is a dream, in which you become aware of the fact that you are dreaming at that very moment.
Once you are aware of that - you can manipulate your dream in complete freedom - like a movie director.
Fly, visit Jupiter, beat up your nasty boss, transform into an Arctic wolf - have sex with your favourite walk-on girl - you name it.
Aand - play and practise darts.
Many many darts-players play darts in their dreams anyway - there is this dartaholics anonymous thread where loads of people say so on here already.
Lucid dreaming is more and more prominent in science - esp. psychiatry and psychology.
It is definitively no bogus - a lucid dreamer can communicate to the scientist, that she is lucid by doing certain previously agreed on eye-signals - the only thing moving for real in a dream being the eyes.
At the same time - certain special brain-wave patterns can be observed - and most exciting maybe - certain brain areas light up on functional MRI.
For the sceptics - here the cutting edge of neuroscientific ongoings - I copied over lots of text, because it explains it quite nicely:
Lucid Dreamers Help Scientists Locate the Seat of Meta-Consciousness in the Brain
Quote:
July 27, 2012 — Studies of lucid dreamers show which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves in dreams.
Which areas of the brain help us to perceive our world in a self-reflective manner is difficult to measure.
During wakefulness, we are always conscious of ourselves. In sleep, however, we are not. But there are people, known as lucid dreamers, who can become aware of dreaming during sleep. Studies employing magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) have now been able to demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus is activated when this lucid consciousness is attained. All of these regions are associated with self-reflective functions. This research into lucid dreaming gives the authors of the latest study insight into the neural basis of human consciousness.
The human capacity of self-perception, self-reflection and consciousness development are among the unsolved mysteries of neuroscience. Despite modern imaging techniques, it is still impossible to fully visualize what goes on in the brain when people move to consciousness from an unconscious state. ...
Those so-called lucid dreamers have access to their memories during lucid dreaming, can perform actions and are aware of themselves – although remaining unmistakably in a dream state and not waking up.
As author Martin Dresler explains, “In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming. It’s only in a lucid dream that the dreamer gets a meta-insight into his or her state.”
By comparing the activity of the brain during one of these lucid periods with the activity measured immediately before in a normal dream, the scientists were able to identify the characteristic brain activities of lucid awareness.
“The general basic activity of the brain is similar in a normal dream and in a lucid dream,” says Michael Czisch, head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. “In a lucid state, however, the activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex increases markedly within seconds. The involved areas of the cerebral cortex are the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to which commonly the function of self-assessment is attributed, and the frontopolar regions, which are responsible for evaluating our own thoughts and feelings. The precuneus is also especially active, a part of the brain that has long been linked with self-perception.” The findings confirm earlier studies and have made the neural networks of a conscious mental state visible for the first time.
Okay - so - what has that got to do with darts?
A lot!
It is nothing new, that many athletes do visualization practices and use sports-psychology in many ways - but lucid dreaming (LD) has scientifically been proven to have a real impact - bigger than imagination and other methods.
And funnily - there are at least two studies, done on
people throwing things:
Lucid Dreaming - Neural Virtual Reality As A Mechanism For Performance Enhancement
The following is a quote from a sports-psychology blog - referring to the above paper:
Quote:
A 2010 study by Daniel Erlacher and Michael Schredl at the University of Heidelberg and the Central Institute of Mental Health looked at the results after practicing a simple task in a lucid dream state.
Forty participants were recruited and asked to throw a 10 cent coin into a cup 2 meters away. This included a control group which did not have any practice or any lucid dream induced state, a physical practice group, a no dream practice group and a lucid dream group. Participants were asked to practice the technique the night before and the night after to measure the success of performance.
The results of the experiment conclude that the lucid dream group showed a significant increase in performance by nearly 2 fold as opposed to the groups who did not. The physical practice group also showed an increase but was not significantly better than the lucid dream group. These results relate directly to already practiced and documented research of sport psychology techniques of mental skills training and imagery which have shown to be effective in performance enhancement.
A very small study - they need follow up and more participants - but it´s not the only one - there is a Mexican one with throwing coins as well - can´t get at the original now - anyway - the above should give everyone reading thus far pause!
Even if it sounds alien to you - it takes some patience and determination - but everybody who wants to can learn it!
As said - I rediscovered it - I had come across it, when I was much younger in these infamous Castaneda books - despite all the sorcery mumbo-jumbo - he gives quite a good method to reach a LD.
Loaded with superstitions, though - and me having an overwhelming success on the basis of such books - I turned away being mightily afraid - it is weird to stand somewhere with all your senses intact in another world - while knowing you lie asleep in your bed at the same time.
It is not dangerous of course - and shame that I gave up on it back then.
Many people project a hell of a silly esoteric world-view onto it and believe in stuff like shared dreaming - just ignore these.
Including only short lucid moments with waking up or "forgetting myself" and dreaming on normally - I count 13 episodes over the last ten weeks or so.
I wasn´t yet able to use it to practise darts - mainly because I only make my first lucid steps at the moment - but believe me - it is absolutely incredible and soo worth it - darts or no darts!!
Imagine you have your own completely perfect virtual reality in your head - it is something to learn and practise to really have 100 % control over everything - but I'm learning and progressing and have loads of fun!
It is all very overwhelming - flying, exploring, summoning things or people - interacting with dream-characters - letting it snow and build and animate a snowman - and many more things were what I did by now.
I take part in a forum with an "academy" - completely free - and there are certain tasks to accomplish and get a pair of wings on your avatar..:rolleyesodf:
Typical me - even dreaming competitively..:biggrinb::cheekyb:
Anyway - darts-practice is on the menu for sure and hopefully I´ll do so soon!
And if I really do - maybe I get even better in an observable way!
Will report.
Soo - maybe somebody does it already on here?
LDing alone - or maybe even lucid darting?
Here a bit more of the sports-stuff:
Application Of Lucid Dreaming In Sports
Lucid Dreaming and Athletics: The Dreamer's Advantage
LD is used by various sportsmen and women - there are examples from baseball over martial arts to skiing..
People report, they are able to experience their activities in slow motion - so they really become aware of every single component of their actions - they can optimize timing, rhythm - every component like it is never possible in real life.
Also - the brain being free like it is - supposedly tends towards optimizing the "gestalt" of an action.
Something very interesting too - you can watch yourself in an LD in the third person perspective - it takes some practice - but many people report, they are able to do it easily. What you also can do is simulate your favourite pro and have him or her teach you - nothing completely new - but if you saw them perform - you got an inner picture to use for this.
Oh yeah - and - very first step: Remember your dreams and write them down in a journal!
I hope somebody is interested and could go on and on and on about it!!
:smileodf:
