Posted: Nov 27, 2015 7:25 am
Macdoc wrote:You say "practitioner", as if he could willing control when he had lucid dreams.
You can and I have held myself in that state for extended periods
http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2 ... -dreaming/
http://www.imagiscape.ca/blog/arts/imag ... sciousness
You certainly can train yourself and also create the conditions for the experience.
There is nothing woo about it - it's just part of the spectrum of states between sleeping, awake and dreaming - you just learn to navigate and induce or draw back into.
I got into to it when I was a kid and had nightmares that were claustrophic based...I learned to gradually induce the dream/fear then as the fear built move the dream to pushing the walls back - sometimes it failed and I'd end up in a nightmare but pretty soon I could control the desent in fear and then reverse.
Never been claustrophobic since even in some conditions very favourable to it.
More important I learned I could have influence on dreamstates and even my rest states by controlled drifting into sleep with visualizations of what I wanted to acheive in energy levels for when I woke.....'I have specific visuals for peaceful, calm rested, mellow and others when I want to wake with a lot of energy and purpose.
No real difference when athletes or performers visualize.
It's not a dial you can control everytime and lack of distractions is critical ....I wear earplugs often to get into a controlled sleep environment ( I wear them riding mcycle anyway )
Visualizing winning, moves, even considering your actions ahead of time in a stressful situation are all part of the same mental self conditioning.
You learn what visuals work for moods etc by playing with the phenomena. There are lot of guides on line...lots of woo but good science as well.
Inducing a repeated dream is not difficult but it will tend to drift elsewhere - holding yourself in the narrow band between wakeand sleep is tricky but can be learned and I really enjoy it when I can "pull back" a fading dream I was waking from and settle right back into it,,,,,,,very satisfying.
It has a long history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
I'm sure you can understand there is a strong affinity with arousal states-
Nonono...
I wasn't talking about keeping yourself in that lucid state or going back to it. That I can and did do. It was like respawning in a video-game, for me. Whenever one dream ended, I started back in my room. When I felt myself stirring awake and I could actually hear the outside noises of traffic...etc. I could sometimes will myself to stay in the dream. Other times, it just vanished and I was in my bed, under the cover, for real and awake.
But, I'm highly skeptical that a person can have a controlled dream ALL night. And I heard claims about that, as well.