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Why does spinning help to maintain lucidity? I know it works, as I've had much success from its use, and innumerous others have too. It seems to be a cardinal technique; however, I can find no evidence for why this actually works.
I do not believe it to be a placebo effect, for if it were then I would have equal success with random other techniques that I may generate, but I don't.
So what is hypothesised to actually occur in the brain when one engages in such a task?
Spinning helps to maintain lucidity because it brings more attention to your dream body rather than your real body that is lying in bed. Your brain has to focus on giving your dream body the sensation of spinning. Since your brain is focusing more on your dream body and not your physical body, you are prolonging the dream and your lucidity. This is also why rubbing your hands together works too. Your brain has to focus on giving your dream body the sensation of heat and friction in your dream hands. I think the strangest technique is pressing or rubbing your tongue on the roof of your mouth. I've only tried it once, but it worked like a dream. :lol:
Does that answer your question?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dark_grimmjow
hmmm... as far as I've understood, in terms of brain circuits, when you imagine something or when you actually sense something there is no difference inside the brain. Perhaps same applies to dreams - the same circuits are fired when you sense your real body or when you dream of your body. In which case your explanation would run into difficulty...
Maybe i should have worded it a little bit differently. Doing the spinning, hand rubbing or tongue to roof of mouth techniques changes the minds focus. By focus, i should have said internal or external. In a dream, your mind is creating sensory input. Sensory input in a dream is internal. If you are awake, you are getting sensory input from the external. So the feeling of your bed and the sound of the tv is external sensory input. So the idea is to use the different dream prolonging techniques to help focus and bring more attention to the internal world of the dream world, where the sensory input is internal.
Does that make more sense?