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What a blind man sees in his dreams

@seeingwithsound asked me if my lucid dreams are visual, and if so, how vivid or realistic are the experiences. The answer is somewhat interesting, so I went ahead and made an episode out of it.

Here’s a link to the website of the vOICe—a sensory substitution device.

The vOICe

Here’s episode 19, that demonstrates the vOICe.

Can you hear what I see?

Here’s a link to an article about which parts of the visual system of the brain are active and inactive during sleep and dreaming.

Inside The Brain Of The REM Sleeper

And just for fun, here’s a link to an article about blindsight.

Mystery of “Blindsight” Lets Some Blind People “See,”

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Wake induced lucid dreams

This is the last episode on lucid dreaming and out of body experiences. Today we talk about wake induced lucid dreams, abbreviated “WILD.” The goal is to move directly from a waking state, into a lucid dream—a dream during which you realize that you are dreaming. I’m not as familiar with this mental state as I am with others. I’ve done it, but I’ve never made a special study of it. So, I’m including some links to some videos on the topic.

Here’s a video tutorial that doesn’t seem to be overly filled with nonsense.

Wake Induced Lucid Dream (WILD) Tutorial

Here’s a video on inducing sleep paralysis.

How to Induce Sleep Paralysis

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The Zen trick

When I was still a child, I stumbled on a method for inducing an out of body experience that I later started calling “the Zen trick.” It has been the most consistently successful method I’ve used. Today, I tell the story of how I came across it, and explain how it works.

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Embracing the fear

There are several competing theories on how and why sleep paralysis occurs. One of them is that while most of your brain is still electrically and chemically asleep, the circuits involved in hyper arousal—active during states of excitement, anger or fear—switch on. That brings you more or less fully awake, but without the electrical and chemical changes needed to allow you to perform voluntary motions. One day I decided to test that notion, and I deliberately let myself become afraid while half awake and half asleep. I became afraid, reached the state of sleep paralysis, and had an out of body experience. If you have the courage, you can embrace and use your fear.

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One of my methods

After some time working with the rope technique, I got sick of it, and came up with a method of my own. There is no such thing as a perfect method that works every time you use it, but I had much better luck getting out of body with the method I came up with, and describe in today’s episode.

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The rope technique

Today, we finally start to explain some induction techniques—things you can do with your mind, in order to cause your mind to seemingly step out of your body. We’ll start with a method called the rope technique. You use an imaginary pair of hands, to climb an imaginary rope.

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A spirit-based model

Lucid dreams and out of body experiences are a realm in which what you think and expect greatly influence what you experience. I don’t buy it, but as this model was what was in my mind when I had my early deliberate successes, I’ll share it with you.

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Using sleep paralysis

Sometimes, if you are falling asleep, or waking up, you find that you are awake, but you cannot move your body. Though it can be frightening, especially if you’re not expecting it, this state, called “sleep paralysis,” is the state from which you can have an out of body experience.

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Exploring the borderlands

There is a strange state of consciousness that you pass through whenever you fall asleep. It can also happen while you wake up, so long as you wake naturally, and not because of something like an alarm. In this state, strange images and sensations take place. You’ve probably noticed them before. Even if you haven’t, exploring this mental state is simple. You need only pay attention as you drift off into slumber.

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Scientific bias, and dream states

The mainstream scientific community has their own biases and preconceptions. Several misguided ideas have cropped up in the research into dreams and dream states, that later turned out to be false. Today we look at a few of those ideas and the way science has bent over backwards, to hold onto certain ideas, and avoid others.