Lucidity via Computer Games

[Phantasos]

I would like to present a new method for getting lucid in dreams which (according to preliminary tests) appears to be quite powerful and (which is one of its strongest points) fun.

Short history

One guy (lets call him Albert) who works at some Russian univercity had a coversation with a student who was worried that his dreams becamevery strange lately: very vivid and in half of cases he knew he was dreaming. Apparently, the student was unaware about phenomenon of Lucid Dreaming but Albert did. He investigated this issue, and it was found that the student is hardcore gamer, and his strange dreams started after a day when he was trying to complete hard level of Doom 3 with Russian sounds. At some point woman's voice was saying: "Life is just a dream". As the level was hard he had to listen to it multiple times. Combining with intense gameplay, it seems that this suggestions struck his subconscious mind.

So Albert and other fellow dreamers made some research, did some experiments, shaped the method, and now you can also try it.

The method

You will need next things:

• Mp3 player with voice recorder
• Headphones
• Some 3D-game.  Personally I used Painkiller.
  

When you have aforementioned things, you need to record several sentences which would indicate that you are dreaming. You should talk confident and maybe little aggressive. Here is a list of some sentences you can use:

• I AM SURE IT IS A DREAM
• I KNOW IT IS A DREAM
• COULD IT BE REAL? IT IS A DREAM!
• MY WILL HERE IS THE LAW
• i CAN DO HERE WHATEVER I WISH
• LOOK, EVERYTHING AROUND IS A DREAM!

It may be worth to separate sentences with 5 or so seconds of silence.

As soon as you have recorded it, you are ready to start the training itself, which is actually consist of playing chosen game and hearing to recorded suggestions at the same time.

After some time you may found that you are perceiving the game as a dream (hard to explain). This feeling is what we need. In this moments if game allows (no scary monsters around) you should try to enjoy the game as it was a dream: for example, just look and walk around, enjoy sights and buildings.

How it works

First, 3D computer game is very close to a dream. We have here "unreal" environment, the plot which is similar to dream plot and within which gamer/dreamers acts. So the idea is that if we implant the suggestion that this is a dream, and suggestions about what do we need to do in a dream, there is a big chance it will work for actual dreams as well.

Second, the intense gameplay when you, say, killing hundreds of monsters at fast rate, provide trance-like state when all this suggestions easily slip to subconsciousness.

Schedule

Recommended schedule is a weel of "training" (from hour to three, maybe even more - depends on how much time is your disposal), a week of rest.

Conclusion

Hopefully, it will be usefull for someone. If you try this method, please write hear your experience: how you dreams and recall are changing, if you were able to get lucid and so forth.

P.S. I've had successfully tried this tech for a week (currently doing second one) but I would like not to spoil and form expections for now.

[pj]

Pretty involved, but it does bring up some interesting concepts.  I would like to know more about your successes - perhaps you could put them in a spoiler?

Immersion. . . getting in "the zone". . .

You get there with 3d video games, and then use suggestion.  Perhaps other ways of getting "in the zone" would open that opportunity for the recorded suggestions to set in?  I play music and draw to get into that wonderful, timeless trance-like state.

I'm wondering now if maybe listening to recorded suggestions while I play or draw might be effective?

[Zhon]

Oh, man, I have to try this.  I'm a major video game person, and several of my dreams have been very game-esque.

[Phantasos]

Pretty involved, but it does bring up some interesting concepts.  I would like to know more about your successes - perhaps you could put them in a spoiler?

I've tried this method for 10 days as a part of LD training and got something like 6 DILDs, though I should add I was trying to master DEILDs which could raised chances for success.

The most dramatic effect was improved recall (I even remember some dreams from first half of the night) and dreams becoming much more longer and complex in plot.

I'm wondering now if maybe listening to recorded suggestions while I play or draw might be effective?

It is worth to try it (though you will need to change suggestions a little) but in the case of this method the crucial point is that you are building a link between a game and dreams using their similarities.

[Budster]

I think I'll use a slightly less involved version of this. I play a lot of Tetris, and can edit some audio files in a version called Texmaster (which is an emulator of the TGM series if you happen to know what that is).

I'll probably make one of the phrases replace the Game Over sound. Some of the modes are very difficult, so I'll hear it quite often when playing those.

[pj]

Joshbotch posted a link to a wonderful radio program on the science of dreaming.  One of the things it talked about was the incredibly high percentage of people who played the game Tetris ending up dreaming about Tetris that night.

Here is a link to a free classic Tetris game for Windoze:
http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/Tetris/4-6736-1.html

The idea is to play this before going to sleep while doing many RCs.  If the statistics hold up, there is a 60% or better chance you will end up dreaming about Tetris - and then maybe you'll associate it with an RC!

Call this one TetILD.

[Budster]

Here is a link to a free classic Tetris game for Windoze:
(link)

Erm. Being as obsessed as I am with the game, I feel it's necessary for me to offer some better versions of Tetris:


Texmaster - As previously stated, this is based of the TGM series, so it's quite difficult. There are some cool background packs and music packs available.

Blockbox at Gamepoint - has several modes, including multiplayer. (in-browser)

Tetris Friends - I'm not a big fan of this (a lot of advertisements) but is is an official Tetris site. (in-browser)

PM me if you have any questions about any of these games.

[Sunshine]

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