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MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

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Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#41

Post by ksk »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #29
ve55 wrote: post #7

This title seems quite misleading, dream control has been practiced by individuals for thousands of years and is easy to learn if you just do some reading and dedicate yourself to it ('lucid dreaming' and everything related to it). It doesn't require any devices or technology, although some techniques can involve using technology to make various things easier or more reliable. If you learn it well you should be able…

Not being snarky but...It's not mentioned because it would belittled the "accomplishment." Publishing "We've Done What's Already Been Done" isn't a milestone for the CV. It's not news if it's old is it? The press isn't going to investigate. Instant buzz...over (next to) nothing. Welcome to the modern world.

That is one explanation. The alternative explanation is that someone found something cool and decided to write a blog post. How many front-page posts have there been on some algorithm or bloom filters or seemingly "advanced cool stuff" that people have already figured out decades ago?

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#42

Post by ksk »

bdamm wrote: post #35
emiliobumachar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's still value in making it substantially easier and more practical.

What is the value? I've never been able to do it, nor have I tried much, as I don't see the difference in my life between controlling my dreams or simply allowing them to happen. My dreams are, to me, a vacation from the chore of trying to control the awake state. Why should I learn to bring that stress into my sleep state? Is there any evidence that lucid dreaming makes being awake any easier or more satisfying?

> I've never been able to do it, nor have I tried much, as I don't see the difference in my life between controlling my dreams or simply allowing them to happen.

Talk to the grand parent. They seem to think its this easy thing that people have been doing for thousands of years. I'd love to know the easy way too..

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#43

Post by ende »

veli_joza wrote: post #2

I was introduced to this phenomenon through Kurzweil's book "How to create a mind". He claims that the brain is massively parallelized pattern recognition machine, with consciousness being a censor that filters results. While in hypnagogia, this censoring function is suppressed and you are able to make "unthinkable" connections between ideas you normally think are unrelated. Of course, you should just take notes of t…

If you’re interested in additional reading along these lines, Robert Anton Wilson (of Illuminatus Trilogy fame) has a lot of interesting material.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#44

Post by epberry »

freneticfox wrote: post #33
veli_joza wrote: post #2

I was introduced to this phenomenon through Kurzweil's book "How to create a mind". He claims that the brain is massively parallelized pattern recognition machine, with consciousness being a censor that filters results. While in hypnagogia, this censoring function is suppressed and you are able to make "unthinkable" connections between ideas you normally think are unrelated. Of course, you should just take notes of t…

For a long time now, I've been kinda self-experimenting on inducing these kinds of states in myself, without resorting to hardware or hard/scary drugs. It all started with my realization that sleep brought me answers in general; i.e. a realization that my general pattern was to work on hard problems all day until I hit various brick walls, then step away and do Real Life and then later at night I'd Sleep, and then of…

I’ve experienced some of these same things. But more than that, I applaud you for experimenting!!

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#45

Post by chiefalchemist »

ksk wrote: post #41
chiefalchemist wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being snarky but...It's not mentioned because it would belittled the "accomplishment." Publishing "We've Done What's Already Been Done" isn't a milestone for the CV. It's not news if it's old is it? The press isn't going to investigate. Instant buzz...over (next to) nothing. Welcome to the modern world.

That is one explanation. The alternative explanation is that someone found something cool and decided to write a blog post. How many front-page posts have there been on some algorithm or bloom filters or seemingly "advanced cool stuff" that people have already figured out decades ago?

Yes. But I think the point the comment (that I was commenting on) was getting at was that there are in fact refernece points that should have been mentioned for completeness.

That void is either intentional. Not good. Or due to a lack of awareness (or the obvious). Again, not good.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#46

Post by beobab »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #20

Sleep As Android can do this same thing. It uses your microphone/accelerometer to sense motion and estimate when you're entering REM sleep. It's not as advanced as the more complicated set up here, but anecdotally I can say it works fairly well. You can set it to play a trigger phrase when you enter REM sleep to help train lucid dreaming. I've never done it though because they default trigger phrase included is downr…

I, too, was expecting instructions on how to control dreams. It's something I can do with varying success when I become aware that I'm dreaming, and I was hoping that this might help me improve the chances of becoming aware that I was dreaming.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#47

Post by goodroot »

Fascinating. I have a keen interest in Shamanism and more patience for "woo-woo" here than most. Navigating your dream state is a mighty Shamanic concept. It is one of two Shamanic practices that people here will entertain. The other is the idea of the memory castle.

New technological approaches like this will help us peel back the veil of the tangible, 'ordinary' realities of which we are comfortable. The world will be a much more funky and weird place once we realize there are non-ordinaries realities that we can explore, too.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#48

Post by testplzignore »

veli_joza wrote: post #2

I was introduced to this phenomenon through Kurzweil's book "How to create a mind". He claims that the brain is massively parallelized pattern recognition machine, with consciousness being a censor that filters results. While in hypnagogia, this censoring function is suppressed and you are able to make "unthinkable" connections between ideas you normally think are unrelated. Of course, you should just take notes of t…

Until now I never knew that there was a name for "hypnagogia". For most of my life, I was never able to remember this period of sleep, but over the last few years that has changed (not intentionally, so I don't know what changed in my body to cause the difference). I've developed some level of awareness during it and can wake myself up from it, then remember at least some of it. If you've never experienced it, it's like every part of your brain is talking to every other part of your brain, and you have many bizarre connections of thoughts happening in parallel. It's different than a normal dream, where it seems there is only one "thread" running at a time.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#49

Post by logfromblammo »

OnMyPhone wrote: post #12
dosycorp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's interesting. Tech to create a feedback loop to keep you in a particular state. When I was a kid I really had this thing for switching a light switch between off and on. Know what I mean? There's a spot you can hold it between off and on where the light flickers, and buzzes, at low power, sort of randomly. I guess this is like that for wake-sleep. Cool state to be in and to get there without drugs, concen…

I'm not who you're replaying to, but... When I was learning how to lucid dream, one of the triggers that I used to tell I was in a dream was flipping a light switch on and off. When I saw nothing happened, I knew it was a dream. Another big one I use is looking at any words, numbers or clocks to see if they were legit, or random characters / garbage. I started to "feel" what a lucid dream was because I would get some…

Poke one finger of one hand into the palm of the other. If you are dreaming, the flesh will yield like putty, and your finger will go through. This also works most of the time with windows, and sometimes with walls.

Pinch your nose, close your mouth, and try to breathe. If you are dreaming, you will be able to inhale and exhale without any conceivable path for the air to flow. Also works if you are underwater.

Light switches always do something in my dreams. It might not be turning the lights on and off, but a thing happens when I flip the switch. (One time, it made some rabbits explode. That was fascinating, and I blew them all up one by one, and then felt guilty about it after I woke up.) Although most of the time, my dreams don't even have light switches, and I don't notice when they are absent from places where they should be, according to building codes.

I almost always have hands and a face, and the ability to move, so the two tricks above usually work.

Re: MIT Researchers Have Developed a ‘System for Dream Control’

#50

Post by mjburgess »

goodroot wrote: post #47

Fascinating. I have a keen interest in Shamanism and more patience for "woo-woo" here than most. Navigating your dream state is a mighty Shamanic concept. It is one of two Shamanic practices that people here will entertain. The other is the idea of the memory castle. New technological approaches like this will help us peel back the veil of the tangible, 'ordinary' realities of which we are comfortable. The world will…

I think the converse is true, no?

That the shamanic practices will be pealed back, to reveal the familiar reality of scientific investigation.

I've had many lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, etc. "Navigating your dream state" seems really just like a lucid dream.

You're pretty much able to create a life-like world at whim in a lucid dream. The ability of the mind to hallucinate sensation in great depth is tremendous, and im sure, tied deeply to dreaming.

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