Have You Ever Tried Lucid Dreaming?
Tirrea Billings
Tirrea Billings
Aug 18, 2015
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As I was browsing on StumbleUpon.com in the café area of Barnes & Noble, I came across an infograph about lucid dreaming. More intrigued by this than the assigned homework I was supposed to be doing, I started reading all about the topic and how being able to control your dreams is supposedly easier than you may think. The average human spends about one-third of their life sleeping. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to spend that time experiencing the mysterious phenomenon of lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is the act of knowing you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming. This state of mental clarity is discovered when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality. The amount of lucidity varies from dreamer to dreamer, as some are able to become more aware that they are dreaming than others.
In order to better understand lucid dreaming, you need to understand the stages of the sleep cycle. When we sleep, we go in and out of different sleep stages that relate to the frequency of our brain waves. Stages range from stage 1, which is light sleep, all the way to REM (rapid eye movement) stage. About 90 minutes into falling asleep, you enter the REM sleep stage where your eyes move back and forth under your eyelid, which relate to where you’re looking in your dream. Lucid dreaming occurs in the REM sleep stages.
Ways to develop the skill of lucid dreaming includes being able to recall your dreams, reality testing, and recognizing dreamsigns. Dream recall is the most important part about lucid dreaming. Remembering your dreams allows you to become familiar with their features and patterns, which help you recognize them as dreams while they’re happening. Reality testing allows you to determine if you’re dreaming when you encounter a dreamsign, which is an element of a dream that signifies that you are dreaming.
Eager to test out my ability of lucid dreaming, I practiced these steps for an entire day and took some over-the-counter melatonin before going to bed. Melatonin boosts REM sleep and makes dreams more vivid. There are also many foods that contain high levels of melatonin, including white and black mustard, almonds, sunflower seeds, cherries, flaxseeds, oats, rice, tomatoes, and bananas. The more vivid your dreams are, the easier it will be to recall them and to become aware of the fact that you are dreaming.
I was ready to test out my abilities to fly and use telekinetic powers (the most common activities that happen while lucid dreaming) in my dreamland. However, I woke up in utter disappointment, for I dreamt without realizing that I was dreaming in the first place. This lucid dreaming thing is harder than I thought! Though I was able to recall my dream—which was about my family and me running away from this evil alien from another dimension, which probably stemmed from watching the new “Fantastic 4” movie that day (which was awful!)—I still lacked the ability to realize that I was dreaming.
Nonetheless, I’m going to keep trying! The idea of lucid dreaming fascinates me because once you capture that ability to know you are dreaming, you are limited only by your capability to imagine and conceive. The reality of laws and physics become irrelevant, and you are able to do anything and everything with no social or physical consequences for your actions. It’s the ultimate form of freedom. Being able to channel the power of lucid dreaming unlocks the doors to all the wild adventures and fantasy fulfillment you’ve ever imagined.
Pure Nootropics
Tirrea Billings
Tirrea Billings
Aug 18, 2015
At Western Michigan University
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Vegetables are great for all diets, but all veggies are not equal. Here are the best ones to eat. (Kale, yeah!)
mwoodruf99
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The best cancer-fighting veggies: Not all vegetables are created equal. Some veggies are much better than others at lowering your risk of diseases associated with aging; like cancer, according to a recent study in Food Chemistry.
Researchers say that antioxidant compounds in dark green vegetables like spinach, and “fragrant” vegetables like onions and garlic have been shown to inhibit the growth of tumor cells.
However, the bad news is that these vegetables aren’t exactly popular menu items, and make up only about 1% of fruit and vegetable consumption in the U.S.
So, what are people eating instead?
Unfortunately, veggies with almost no cancer-preventive power, like potatoes, make up 60% of the vegetables in people’s diets. Also, when potatoes are in “french fry” or “chip” form, (as they often are) they have even less, or no value.
While all vegetables can help you lose unwanted weight, look to choose veggies that also add the benefit of an anti-cancer punch.
Here’s what veggies to eat, and which ones to skip:
Eat More of These Veggies:
• Brussel sprouts
• Kale
• Cabbage
• Garlic (Fresh)
• Spinach
Eat Less of These Veggies:
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Cucumbers
All Veggies Are Good, but Some Are Great
Recently going low-carb or “keto” has been all the rage, but consider that vegetables are good carbs that you should never omit from any healthy and sustainable diet. Even the top commercial diets have realized this, and now programs like WW have made them the centerpiece of their menus.
Now, I’m not saying any vegetables are “bad,” but some will give you more bang for your buck. Try to include the ones listed above into your diet, and you’ll be eating healthy while fighting off cancer!
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To The Person Who Sweats Like A Pig, Don’t Worry, You’re Not Alone
It’s OK to sweat like a pig, but it’s not OK to feel bad about it
Nick Ahmed
Nick Ahmed
Aug 29, 2018
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We’ve all had those days when the sun is constantly beating down on us, as if someone pointed a laser ray of sunshine upon us while yelling, “BURN BABY BURN!” Those times when we had to walk from class to class in those insanely high temperatures where our only motivation was to get to the next building and be in the AC again. While all of us have had those times, there are others that sweat constantly, whether its a nice 75 degrees or its 112 degrees out there.
To those that fit in this category like me, I want to remind you that it’s OK to be sweaty. You may be a little self-conscious about that big sweat stain on your back after you take off your bag, or maybe those large pit stains, or whatever else it may be. You’re not alone.
During my first week here at Baylor, we’ve had some insanely hot days. Considering our campus is quite massive and each class is a good ten to fifteen-minute walk from each other, going from class to class left me basically drenched in sweat. I would have times where I walked into class, feeling like I just came out of a pool or something. Yet, everywhere I looked people were definitely not as sweaty as I was. As self-conscious as that made me, it also got me thinking about others I’ve seen that have a problem with sweating. Everyone’s body is different. After all, it’s just our body’s way of cooling down. There is nothing to be ashamed of, but I don’t expect me saying that to be so magical as for you to immediately go, “WOW. Really?” Although, I did think maybe giving some tips as to what you might want to try to help your predicament. These are things that helped me so I hope they work for you as well.
For one thing, we should start with the basics. ALWAYS wear deodorant and carry some with you at all times. I’ve found stick deodorants to be more effective than spray, but like I said everyone works differently. Besides the deodorant, if you have a favorite cologne/perfume you like to use, it doesn’t hurt to apply a little extra and keep some for later. The “later” I’m talking about is when you’re about to be in a more social situation. Whenever you just came in from outside, maybe you just got to class or work or maybe you have a meetup with some friends, try to go to the restroom really quick to freshen up. If you need, go to a stall and take your drenched shirt off and air it out just for a few minutes.
If you’re worried more about the smell, apply your cologne or perfume directly to where you are sweating the most. Also, if you are someone with clammy hands as well, doesn’t hurt to wash your hands WITH SOAP and dry them off. In my case at least that lessens the “clamminess” of my hands for a little while. At least long enough to shake hands with whoever you’re about to meet. My last tip would be to try to not think about it. Of course, that is hard considering you probably feel very uncomfortable and often hot; in the end, it’s just your body doing its thing.
For every heavy sweater out there, please don’t forget that you’re not alone. We all sweat, regardless of age, weight, height, whoever you might be. Everyone reacts differently and you kinda drew the short straw. It is not the end of the world, and there are steps you can take to manage it. If you’re not a heavy sweater, send this to the people in your life that are. Not to make fun of them, but to show them it’s OK to have to deal with what they go through. And hey, if all else fails, you could always tell people you just came back from a killer workout!
Nick Ahmed
Nick Ahmed
Aug 29, 2018
At Baylor University
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The Lucid Dream Site
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About The Narrator
A Complete, Free Program for Lucid Dream Induction
Let’s break this down into its basic components. Success at lucid dream induction requires:
Many of the activities and practices that support lucid dream induction affect both of these necessary criteria. What is reality? This is the big question. It is inseparable from “what is consciousness” because the only evidence that anything exists at all is because we can “experience” things. Apparently, there is a Universe we are embedded in, and there are “models” of this Universe which we construct – both consciously and unconsciously. These models, or interpretations, of what is going on help us to perceive our environment and to make judgments and decisions as how to act so that we may survive in our environment. The models – what we sense and experience – are not the actual world around us. If you think about what consciousness is, you can realize that it takes some time for sounds and light-waves and sensory impressions from the outside world to travel along your nervous system, get processed in your brain, and then become experienced as the corresponding sounds and visuals and feelings that we all know. If this lag between what is happening “out there” and what you experience and decide to do about it were too long, we would not last very long in a sometimes hostile Universe. Therefor, the mind – and consciousness – is predictive. You are not seeing what happened a moment ago, not exactly. The models we experience are predictions of what we expect to occur a moment or longer AFTER the actual event occurred in the “real” world. When the brain has to make a decision, it has to coordinate information it just received with an action it will command the muscles or glands to perform that will affect the environment some time after the initial event that triggered this whole cascade occurred. Sounds complicated, but even simple nervous systems – like those in slugs or flies and even in plants – can perform these processes amazingly well. What does this have to do with lucid dreaming you ask? Well, when we are dreaming we are still experiencing models, except the information forming the bulk of these models of reality is not being triggered by things occurring in the external environment (this is not always true, but we are speaking generally). Where and why do we experience these models? The answer for almost any biological event can be reduced to this answer: for survival! Dreaming was adapted for as a practice mechanism. Similar to how children play or pretend as a means to rehearse the activities which will be important during adulthood, dreaming is a virtual space for rehearsing certain survival actions. What is interesting about this is that the themes and events that all people dream about as children indicate that we are born with particular schemas that are not dependent on waking learning. Schemas are mental structures – thought windows which shape and frame how we see things. Schemas allow us to recognize things, informing how we will categorize an object or event, and underlie our expectations, stereotypes, and our very perceptions. All children dream of being chased and of falling. Likewise, as adults, stress triggers a relatively limited number of dream themes, and although some “day residue” does comprise the makeup of our dreams, there are schematic structures to dreaming which exist within our dream-generation-system independent of our life experiences. |
Scientific Dream-Article Reviews | Threat-Simulation Theory of Dreaming | Is it Actually Possible to do Anything in Dreams? |
Dreaming evolved as a sort of virtual reality simulator in which you could practice dealing with predicaments that, if occurring while awake, would threaten your life or your resources (or even threaten the people in your life whom you rely on for important things). Just like waking consciousness is a survival tool for complex nervous systems and yet is capable of just enjoying a sunset, dreaming does not have to always be experienced as a rehearsal of threatening situations. But it is very useful to have the basic understanding of what dreaming evolved for. When we understand that dreaming evolved primarily as a threat-simulation system, these following points become better understood:
|
Activate Dense REM
Lucidimine is the most advanced lucid dreaming supplement available and a powerful tool to add to your induction program. | Recognize Your Dreams
Lucid Dream Homework – The Dream Journal
Lucid Living – Beyond Night Dreams Certain meditation practices can be helpful for strengthening the mind and getting it fit for lucid dreaming. | Know What to do Once Lucid
Flying – A favorite activity for lucid dreamers, and an activity which has no exact parallel in the waking world. |
Now That You’re Lucid, What Should you Do?
What are Out-Of-Body-Experiences, Really?
Awaken
Lucidity Achieved
The LD FAQ
Luciminal
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About The Narrator
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