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Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

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Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#81

Post by AgentME »

monktastic1 wrote: post #68
madeuptempacct wrote: post #3

Tangentially related, but if anything "magical" exists, lucid dreaming is the way to it. Egyptians were supposedly obsessed with being lucid during dreams so they don't "lose" themselves in the afterlife. Seems quite logical, since you essentially lose track of yourself during a dream.

Indeed. The Tibetans claim that this is all a dream, and that the only way to confirm this for yourself is to wake up. Until then, because all of the internal dynamics follow rather precise and well-defined laws (i.e., correlations), it is easy to be fooled into thinking that it is real and external. In actuality, it is all made of "your" mind, in the same way that a dream environment is made of "your" mind. "Your" i…

Just some random brainstorming inspired by this post: If you imagined a layer above reality in the chain of dream->reality->x, what qualities would describe it? People often differentiate dreams and reality by the fact that reality follows rigid rules instead of having subjectively-bent rules. Would the rules of x be even rigid-er? Maybe you follow the pattern by subtracting the rest of the subjectiveness left in reality. Reality still has subjective qualities: we're all bound to an arbitrary viewpoint, and things like the Anthropic Principle affect the circumstances that we experience. I guess that basically means some "objective" total view of reality would be the higher layer, but that doesn't really leave any room for actions or cognition as we know it, so it's just a fun thought.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#82

Post by Jarwain »

Eliezer wrote: post #74
monktastic1 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The Tibetans claim that this is all a dream, and that the only way to confirm this for yourself is to wake up. Until then, because all of the internal dynamics follow rather precise and well-defined laws (i.e., correlations), it is easy to be fooled into thinking that it is real and external. In actuality, it is all made of "your" mind, in the same way that a dream environment is made of "your" mind. "Your" i…

Who did the people who wrote that up think they were talking to?

Others in the dream? Something about reality being a shared dream. Which sounds a lot like a simulation to me.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#83

Post by monktastic1 »

Eliezer wrote: post #74
monktastic1 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The Tibetans claim that this is all a dream, and that the only way to confirm this for yourself is to wake up. Until then, because all of the internal dynamics follow rather precise and well-defined laws (i.e., correlations), it is easy to be fooled into thinking that it is real and external. In actuality, it is all made of "your" mind, in the same way that a dream environment is made of "your" mind. "Your" i…

Who did the people who wrote that up think they were talking to?

I wish I could do this justice in one post.

The whole thing is like a snake swallowing its own tail. If what "they" are saying is correct, then this is "my" dream. The Buddha is a character I dreamed up to remind me how to wake up.

Why isn't this solipsism? First, because it's not my personal dream (the person being a character himself). Second, for a similar reason as MWI is not solipsism. This branch really is my own branch (in a particular sense). What I experience as other people are really "my versions" of them, but this does not mean there aren't other perspectives analogous to mine.

This idealist perspective can be made internally consistent. At that point, deciding between it and materialism may seem like a matter of preference. The difference is that the idealist perspective can be confirmed, in the same way that a nighttime dream can be: you discover, very precisely, how you constructed the whole thing, including all the tricks you used to blind yourself to the ruse.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#84

Post by deskamess »

bloomthrowaway wrote: post #23

Just throwing this out there. I've had hundreds of lucid dreams and it's the most amazing experiences I've have in my life. It takes practice to 1) figure out you're dreaming with some level of reliability 2) learn to take control 3) train yourself not to get too excited so you don't wake yourself almost immediately. I believe the first step is to train yourself to recognize a dream. It becomes easier once you've don…

More of a pre-lucid dream question... can you dictate the content/topic of your dreams? That would be some powerful stuff - virtual reality of another kind.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#85

Post by tunap »

function_seven wrote: post #66
criddell wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever do one of the tests to see if you are in a dream and find out that you are awake? I've always been a little scared that I would be awake, think I'm in a dream, and then do something stupid, like try to fly.

When I've flown in my dreams, it always begins by zooming up from solid ground, not by leaping off a roof or out a window. So, no harm in accidentally trying to fly in reality. Except looking weird.

My parents took me to a dream/meditation therapist when I was 8 or so for nightmares. He taught me to lucid dream and it has been a benefit ever since. Except, I just haven't been able to fly like I used to in my teens & twenties. In my forties now, I am lucky if I can get some gliding lift from running on a slope anymore.I used to rise from earth all the way past LEO. Sigh.

What has helped me stimulate higher consciousness is drinking a half cup of coffee right as I go to bed. Caffeine does not amp me out like most, but it does make the dreams more vivid & memorable.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#86

Post by Sharlin »

TuringNYC wrote: post #75
modzu wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in one of my first lucid dreams i started reading a book and then thought to myself, "hang on, no way this is a dream if i can read a book!", and then fell back into regular dream state haha

Could you explain further? Are there phases of dream where one can or cannot read? I heard an old tale (pre-internet days) where dreaming happens in a different part of the brain than reading, so supposedly it isnt possible to read in a dream and thus being able to read is a litmus test of whether you're dreaming or not....but i often read during dreams so I couldnt figure it out. Searching the internet (present day)…

IME, often the text is gibberish, or at least nonsense semantically, and/or changes as you move your eyes, especially if you look away for a moment. The same applies to eg. clocks. Details never seem to be very stable in the dream world.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#88

Post by aaroninsf »

For those interested, galantamine is a prescription medication "indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type." Nice long list of reported side effects:

https://www.rxlist.com/consumer_galantamine_razadyne/drugs-c...

However...

https://www.amazon.com/Galantamine-Dreaming-Nootropic-Supple...

Hmmm.....

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#89

Post by newman8r »

modzu wrote: post #79
TuringNYC wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain further? Are there phases of dream where one can or cannot read? I heard an old tale (pre-internet days) where dreaming happens in a different part of the brain than reading, so supposedly it isnt possible to read in a dream and thus being able to read is a litmus test of whether you're dreaming or not....but i often read during dreams so I couldnt figure it out. Searching the internet (present day)…

i'll also add that just "attempting" a litmus test can be a sufficient trigger for a lucid state. i'd heard about "flipping the light switch" from the film waking life. i tried it in a dream and the switch worked fine, but it was the fact that i was questioning whether i was in a dream in the first place that lead me to realize i was dreaming nevertheless (i think thats what the top comment is getting at -- strengthe…

I usually realize I'm dreaming when I can 'breathe underwater'

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#90

Post by clankfan »

bloomthrowaway wrote: post #37
JimboOmega wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even pain Lucid or not, I realized a while ago that I don't experience physical pain in my dreams. I have started to wonder if this was a general experience. Experiences I'd expect to be painful (like getting shot or carried away by a wall of fire) simply startle me awake. It's interesting to hear you do feel that. I've experienced all kinds of things emotionally - embarrassment, fear, anxiety. But never physical p…

It's not pleasant. Sometimes intense enough that I'm in a state of shock through much of the next day. Most of the pain I remember has been in the form of lucid nightmares. Usually snake bites, gun shots, knives, etc. Almost never from environmental realities like hot surfaces, crashes, or falls. Self-aware nightmares are way more terrifying than the regular variety, a lucid dream where I sometimes can't take control…

I can't agree with you enough in everything you've said. I taught myself how to lucid dream in 2011. I used a technique where I made a habit of checking reality through the day every day. Eventually the habit became ingrained enough that I started remembering to check even during dreams, triggering a realization that I was actually dreaming and initiating a lucid dream.

It is exactly as you described. Nobody can ever understand it until they experience it. Comparing it to the matrix might do it a little justice. But there are limitations -- waking up, falling back into non-lucidity, false awakenings and so on.

The first lucid dream I had was glorious. I was dreaming about being on a very tall grey building with overcast skies, on a wooden deck protruding from the side of the building. I became lucid and commanded the sky to crack with lightning and it did. I flew upward and created a swirl of clouds and was generally having an amazing time. This all was as if it were completely real. Then, too excited, I woke up. But it was a terrifying false awakening where a black figure sprinted toward me and attacked me. Then I woke up for real, absolutely terrified. It was so scary that I decided not to lucid dream anymore. But with recounting all of this, and thinking about it for the first time again, I think I might start doing it again.

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