Thread: Information, material and sources accumulation (research dept.)

Source list

http://www.dreamviews.com/
Introductory website.

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...splay.php?f=25
Tutorials on specific techniques.
DV also has some good non-official tutorials made by members.

http://www.mortalmist.com/
Contains some good technique tutorials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
Vast wikipedia article, contains many sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep
Wikipedia article on sleep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream
Wikipedia article on dreams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Yoga
Wikipedia article about Dream Yoga.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming
Lucid dreaming wikibook, incredibly good source.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/230676/Exp...Lucid-Dreaming
Exploring the world of lucid dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge (attribution+noncommercial license).
Support the author by buying the book!

http://www.ld4all.com/guide.html
Beginner-friendly guide to lucid dreaming at LD4all.

http://ld4all.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=30
LD4all knowledge base.

http://lucidcrossroads.co.uk/
Introductory website.

http://dreampush.com/
A few spare articles about lucid dreaming.

http://luciddreams.ws/
Short website.

http://www.lucidipedia.com/
Introduction and wiki.

http://www.youtube.com/user/lucidipedia
Lucidipedia channel on youtube.

http://www.lucidity.com/
The lucidity institute website. Spare articles.

http://www.dreaminglucid.com/
E-zine on lucid dreaming. Curious articles.

The New Science of Dreaming
Recent scientific publication on dreams.

http://www.asdreams.org/index.htm
The International Association for Study of Dreams website.

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxeduq_and_a.htm
Short FAQ about dreams.

http://www.headtrip.ca/
Website of the book The Head Trip.

http://zzzone.net/zzzone/dreams.pdf
Scientific publication on the Physiology and Psychology of Dreams.

http://www.lucidipedia.com/misc/index.php

A site for dreamers, journalling, techniques, etd. kind of like DV(but not as good)

currently reading:

Man and His Symbols - Carl G. Jung; (C) 1964

discussion of symbolism in the consciousness of man, great elaboration on dreams. though dreams are not it's focus. Carl Jung probably has a specific book on dreaming but this one is certainly accessible to the average reader and covers alot of Jung's theories.
still reading this one.

Originally Posted by Banana

http://www.lucidipedia.com/misc/index.php

A site for dreamers, journalling, techniques, etd. kind of like DV(but not as good)

Not trying to start a flame war here, but I think the 'good' aspect of a site is subjective to the user. I like Lucidipedia better.

And now, for once, let's not get into the discussion of which is better >.>

http://www.dreaminglucid.com/
E-zine on lucid dreaming. Contains lots of information.

Clicky
I'm planning on buying this soon.

The International Association for the Study of Dreams
http://www.asdreams.org/index.htm

Tons of great information from researchers, including a giant list of nearly every book on dreaming out there.

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxedubookbib.htm

They have some nice FAQs with answers based on current knowledge and science:

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxeduq_and_a.htm

I've updated the list. I'd be glad if we could find more beginner-friendly sources on dream physiology.

http://www.youtube.com/user/lucidipedia?blend=2&ob=1
^I forgot. Check out the advanced series.

kromoh, it would be great if you could organize the source list into what chapter it is relevant to, and also links to posts here on the forums from the researchers.

edit: you were going to do that anyway - i'll just go ahead and start the filter thread

Sure, adrift, thanks for having the initiative.

I don't know how off limits it would be for us to summarize the information for writers. I'm trying to think of a how-to.

Also, I insist that the LD wikibook be visited by the writers - it's probably the best source around.

Great work Kromoh =) A directory definitely needed to be done. However, - adrift's is a bit more specific (regarding what chapter(s) the information being posted is relevant to), so we'll use his as the organized directory and this one in conjunction with it. Also, you are still free to use the research department for collecting information and/or talking amongst yourselves.

Like adrift, I've got a copy of Man and His Symbols.

I've also got a book by author Jeff Warren called "The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness"
There's information on the hypnagogic state, REM dreams, lucid dreams, the hypnopompic state and even day dreams.

The book also has a website:
http://www.headtrip.ca/

My mother also has an old psychology textbook (not sure how useful it will be due to age) and like most, it's got a chapter on dreaming/sleep.

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Like adrift, I've got a copy of Man and His Symbols.

I've also got a book by author Jeff Warren called "The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness"
There's information on the hypnagogic state, REM dreams, lucid dreams, the hypnopompic state and even day dreams.

The book also has a website:
http://www.headtrip.ca/

Ah the head trip book sounds like a good read. Perhaps you could post some snippets of information from it here (or in Kromoh's directory) as it relates to relevant chapter's we'll be working on?

You guys forgot http://www.saltcube.com/ !

Marcc, is saltcube reliable? No time to go through it now, I'll do it after sleep.

Originally Posted by Kromoh

Marcc, is saltcube reliable? No time to go through it now, I'll do it after sleep.

Well, there are some people who swear by their DVD (another resource? I don't know...), saying that it gave them their first OBE or LD after watching it once.
They also have testimonials, but I tend to be weary of testimonials...

Not sure if you both think this is relevant or not but Albert Taylor endorsed the DVD.

It's hard to simply dismiss an aeronautical engineer who spent two decades with the NASA space program when he writes of his extensive paranormal experiences.

- Snippett taken from Amazon.com about Albert Taylor

LUL Jeff

Well even if it is filled with bad content, there might be something worthy here and there. My problem is with the whole payment thing - that is off the limits of my skeptical mind.

just a qoute i liked:

"in his diary entry for September 23rd, he seemed to be reflecting on personal love as the essence of life, and went on to write, "...all wisdom and greatness of the soul can only be reached by a deeper understanding of our own essence, the so-called unconscious."

source: http://www.spiritwatch.ca/LL%209(2)%...ee%20paper.htm

(about freud and van eeden)

Excerpts from Frederick van Eeden's A Study of Dreams (Published 1913)
available at the Lucidity Institute's website.
http://www.lucidity.com/vanEeden.html

"I have been able to distinguish nine different kinds of dreams, each of which presents a well-defined type... "

Van Eeden list of dream categories (each are described independently in the article) : Initial, Pathological, Ordinary, Vivid, Symbolic, Sensation, Lucid, Demon, Wrong-Waking Up.

"The seventh type of dreams, which I call lucid dreams, seems to me the most interesting and worthy of the most careful observation and study. Of this type I experienced and wrote down 352 cases in the period between January 20, 1898, and December 26, 1912.

In these lucid dreams the reintegration of the psychic functions is so complete that the sleeper remembers day-life and his own condition, reaches a state of perfect awareness, and is able to direct his attention, and to attempt different acts of free volition. Yet the sleep, as I am able confidently to state, is undisturbed, deep and refreshing. I obtained my first glimpse of this lucidity during sleep in June, 1897, in the following way. I dreamt that I was floating through a landscape with bare trees, knowing that it was April, and I remarked that the perpective of the branches and twigs changed quite naturally...

...Many years later, in 1907, I found a passage in a work by Prof. Ernst Mach in which the same observation is made with a little difference. Like me, Mach came to the conclusion that he was dreaming ... Professor Mach has not pursued his observations in this direction, probably because he did not believe in their importance. I made up my mind to look out carefully for another opportunity. I prepared myself for careful observation, hoping to prolong and to intensify the lucidity. "

Van Eeden goes on to describe several, somewhat conventional by today's standard, lucid dream accounts.

"...This observation of a double memory I have had many times since. It is so indubitable that it leads almost unavoidably to the conception of a dream-body...

In a lucid dream the sensation of having a body--having eyes, hands, a mouth that speaks, and so on--is perfectly distinct; yet I know at the same time that the physical body is sleeping and has quite a different position. In waking up the two sensations blend together, so to speak, and I remember as clearly the action of the dream-body as the restfulness of the physical body.

...

This gave me a very curious impression of being in a fake-world, cleverly imitated, but with small failures. I took the broken glass and threw it out of the window, in order to observe whether I could hear the tinkling. I heard the noise all right and I even saw two dogs run away from it quite naturally... Then I saw a decanter with claret and tasted it, and noted with perfect clearness of mind

...Then I saw my brother sitting--the same who died in 1906--and I went up to him saying: "Now we are dreaming, both of us." He answered: "No, I am not!" And then I remembered that he was dead. We had a long conversation about the conditions of existence after death, and I inquired especially after the awareness, the clear, bright insight. But that he could not answer; he seemed to lack it. "

I didn't know there was an edit time limit, so whoever has the power can delete my last post.

I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked. We've had some incidents with our new dog that required my immediate attention. I've been on and off the computer too frequently to get any real work done. I apologize for how long this took!

The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness by Jeff Warren

Note: This book is written from the author’s perspective.

Chapter I
The Hypnagogic

● Under the lids of our skulls, neurons build up and then release little electrical charges. Many of these charges fire in unison; their collective rhythm, when measured on an electroencephalograph (EEG), is known colloguially as "brain waves".

● I squinted at the display, trying to make out the exact point at which I passed from wakefulness into sleep. A long scribble of alpha waves dominated the screen, which meant that the majority of surface neurons were firing at the same steady pattern of eight to twelve beats per second.

● Now the lines on the screen looked more and more attenuated, as if the whole brain were slowing down as sleep approached. Alpha was on the way out. And then, rather suddenly, some of the lines flattened to a shallow wave, only to shoot back up to alpha a few moments later. "That's it," said Phil. "That first flatline is where we mark the line. Now you're on the other side."

(Philippe Stenstrom is a graduate student in psychology at the University of Montreal who works for a pioneering sleep researcher named Tore Nielsen. Nielsen runs the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Montreal's Sacré-Coeur Hospital).

● Japanese researcher Tadao Hori charted a finely tuned progression of sleep-onset "events" in the 1990s. Where researchers had once crammed sleep onset into a single coarse grouping -- "Stage 1" -- Hori took a more nuanced view. He proposed nine new sub-levels of sleep onset, each one corresponding to a fleeting but distinct pattern of EEG activity.

(When I've got the time, I'll go and scan the diagram he has of all of the different brain waves occurring during sleep onset).

● After the flattening came a long set of theta waves -- four to eight crests per second, considered by researchers to be the dominant waveform of sleep onset.

● Phil pointed out a new bit of EEG drama: the appearance of "sleep spindles" and, a little later, "K complexes". The former are short, furious brain-wave bursts that appear as dense scribbling against the background of theta waves. The latter are single high-amplitude standing waves that tower above the rest of the EEG. Sleep spindles are generated by the thalamus, the brain's sensory gateway, which directs incoming sensory input through the cortex. The appearance of these spindles means sensory input is no longer getting through. They're like tremors caused by the grinding of big internal gears: the gate to the external world is slowly rolling shut and the mind is reorienting itself toward internal stimuli. This stage marks the end of Hori's sleep-onset progression and the beginning of official Stage 2 sleep.

● Sleep researchers debate whether the transition to sleep is gradual or more immediate. Recently a key component of the wake-sleep transition has been identified which supports the view that moving between states me be more abrupt and switch-like. Electrical engineers have specially designed circuits they call "flip-flop switches" -- when one side is active, the other is inhibited, and vice versa. There seems to be a similar sort of device in the brain involving a group of specialized neurons in the brain stem. When on group is active we're awake; when these neurons flag, the others suddenly kick in and we're asleep.

● Hypnagogic experiences are hallucinatory and quasi-hallucinatory events that take place in the gray area between waking and sleeping.

● As we drift off to sleep, most of us enter a mildly hallucinogenic state, one we don't often realize is there. All kinds of weird things happen, in pretty much every sensory modality: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, kinaesthetic, thermal. These range from simple thoughts and images to physical sensations and full-blown dreams. Hypnagogic experiences are a bit of a mystery in the sense that scientists don't know exactly how to classify them -- are they dreams, or thoughts, or something else entirely?

More coming soon...

I don't want to make one huge novel-post. Take what you want for now from this.

Great Moosey . What book is this from though? Be sure to list sources in future posts love.

OH YEAH! Sorry!

All the information I'll be posting is from The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. I edited the title into my post. n_n

It'll be a while until I post from any other books. This one has so much info and the chapters are really long.

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

OH YEAH! Sorry!

All the information I'll be posting is from The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness.

It'll be a while until I post from any other books. This one has so much info and the chapters are really long. xD

Awesome.

Here is the brain wave diagram for sleep onset. I decided to take a picture because I know I'll never have the time to go get it scanned. xD

Spoiler for Brain Waves of Sleep Onset:

Chapter 1
The Hypnagogic
CONTINUED

● REM sleep was discovered back in 1952 in a now famous series of findings by the "father" of sleep research, University of Chicago physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, and his young graduate student Eugene Aserinsky.

● [...] there were other REM signatures, including total muscle paralysis and brain activity that looked almost identical in every way to waking activity, hence REM sleep's other name, "paradoxical sleep."

● The hypnagogic has a reputation for being a permeable transition state, where dreaming can reach across into waking and stir it up. Some artists claim it is a peerless state for creativity, that under the right circumstances brilliant ideas cascade down from remote hemispheric corners onto inspired canvases and manuscripts. Other claim it as a uniquely suggestive state for learning. They stock up on subliminal audiocassettes and Russian "hypnopedia" tutorials. The Internet is filled with sketchy-sounding techniques that promise to prolong and cultivate the hypnagogic state: "binaural beat" machines, trance-induction software, biofeedback "theta-training."

● Interest in the hypnagogic state goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who liked to "surprise the images which present[ed] themselves to him in sleep."

● In the seventeenth century Thomas Hobbes spoke of visions at sleep onset, a mysterious "kind of fancy." A century later, the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg recorded his hypnagogic explorations in a dream journal. He used the state as a departure point for intergalactic travel, his dream body zipping through the celestial spheres like a perfumed and bewigged prototype of the Silver Surfer.

● Serious scientific research on the hypnagogic began with nineteenth-century French psychologist Alfred Maury, who first coined the term. Throughout the twentieth century small groups of researchers continued to conduct studies, even during the deep chill of behaviorism, which put about as much faith in the subjective anecdote as your average parole officer.

● By far the most exhaustive account of hypnagogic research was published in 1987 in a book called [i]Hypnagogia[i], written by psychologist Andreas Mavromatis. The book is a frothy combination of rigorous scientific research, trippy illustrations, and high-end speculation.

● Mavromatis breaks it down into four distinct stages. The hypnagogic experiences in this progression are like first-person versions of the physiological changes that Tadao Hori and Tore Nielsen chart so scrupulously on the EEG.

Spoiler for Mavromatis's Four Stages of Hynagogia:

● I eventually figured out that the tricks to scrutinizing hypnagogia are to do it alone and to be hyper-mindful. San Francisco-based dream researcher and artist Fariba Bogzaran told me that people who meditate have an easier time of it because they have practices being both subject and observer at once. She says the important thing is not crashing: instead, go to sleep consciously, and really try to notice the process of falling asleep. The result: a poor man's psychedelic trip.

● Leaving Mavromatis's four well-delinated stages for a moment, there's another sensation that can happen at the edge of sleep. It has terrorized sleepers for centures, and, as luck would have it (that is, luck combined with the heightened self-consciousness that comes with sleeping under video surveillance), a version of the phenomenon happened to me on the second night of my stay in the sleep lab. At about six in the morning, I woke from a dramatic dream. Thought not prompted, I decided to tell Phil about it [...] But when I tried to move my lips no sound came out. I was frozen. At that moment I became aware of a presence directly behind my head. [...] And then a voice, very clearly, whispered in my ear: "Harry versus Mad Potter." [...] I had just experienced a textbook case of "sleep paralysis."

Stopping there for today.
Gotta get ready for a BIRTHDAY PARTY soon.