Dream and sleep stuff on psychweb

[Sunshine]

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[Vex]

No. I had other issues that I was tired of trying to slowly and patiently deal with. I also didn't want to be loaded up with meds so decided to give hypnotism a try to see if it'd work. I think it somewhat did work in other areas. But for dreaming it didn't help so much.

[johnb]

I asked my hypnotist to plant the suggestion that I'll lucid dream more easily and often. I don't think it worked. I noticed no big improvement. Maybe he wasn't competent. After the sessions I had the feeling I'd been ripped off.

Yes. I wonder how to be sure a particular hypnotist is competent. Because hypnotism doesn't work well for everyone, so it could be you're one of the people it doesn't work for. Or maybe it doesn't work well for affecting dreams.

Here's an idea: Maybe you could have the hypnotist plant the suggestion to remember to ask yourself if you're dreaming under a wide variety of situations. Then you might start doing that during dreams.

[Sunshine]

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[johnb]

That might work.

Seems like it might. But don't really know. Might be better to learn self-hypnosis.

Maybe hypnotists are licensed or something, I don't know.

http://www.hypnotherapistsunion.org/statelaws

Some states require licensing. Still might not prove they were any good at it, though.

[Snaggle]

I was looking around yesterday for animal training stuff, and found a place called psychweb.  There are some interesting pages about sleeping and dreaming.  It may be stuff people know already.  It says that the difference between REM dreams and non-REM dreams is that the former is the crazy-dream stuff, and the latter is like thought-dreams.  I had figured that out, but I didn't know that it was already known.

It also says that there is a difference between people who recall dreams and those who don't, something about big changes in electrical activity from sleeping to waking.  It says the brain states of sleeping and waking are as different as night and day.  That's definitely me, unfortunately.
 

http://www.intropsych.com/ch03_states/dreaming_does_not_equal_rem_sleep.html

  It's truer to say that NREM dreams are like TV or PC games, not quite as real seeming as REM dreams. In normal sleep both the body and brain progressively slow until the brain is in a delta wave state (almost off) in which there's no acting out of dreams as there are no dreams. NREM dreams can still have active movements even violent ones. REM muscle atonia starts as the brain speeds up from delta and REM dreams are essentially the brain turning itself on again as prep for being awake again. HI and NREM sleep are likely necessary too. I can tell whether I was in: HI; NREM; delta and REM sleep when I wake up in them. The ability to enter Delta waves while awake can be used to escape torture - I hope that all of those Buddhist monks who have burnt themselves to death in war protests had the ability to enter delta and escape the pain.

[Sunshine]

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[johnb]

  It's truer to say that NREM dreams are like TV or PC games, not quite as real seeming as REM dreams. In normal sleep both the body and brain progressively slow until the brain is in a delta wave state (almost off) in which there's no acting out of dreams as there are no dreams. NREM dreams can still have active movements even violent ones. REM muscle atonia starts as the brain speeds up from delta and REM dreams are essentially the brain turning itself on again as prep for being awake again. HI and NREM sleep are likely necessary too. I can tell whether I was in: HI; NREM; delta and REM sleep when I wake up in them. The ability to enter Delta waves while awake can be used to escape torture - I hope that all of those Buddhist monks who have burnt themselves to death in war protests had the ability to enter delta and escape the pain.

Hard to believe one could have that much mental control while being burned alive. But maybe with sufficient skill and practice.

[Snaggle]

  John if one's in a delta wave state one has shut down thought and emotion-someone could shut down their reaction to pain and experience of it too. It's a standard technique when resisting torture to pull yourself out of the experience, not to react to it and only experience the moment. Buddhists monks are just better able to do that because they usually have the ability to enter delta wave states. Breaking under torture is really a combination of thought about it and reaction to the pain, both of which can be controlled, but some people are immune from breaking under torture because they so freak out that they're no longer capable of coherent thought. Historically the idea that no one can resist torture is non-sense, though still the rule of thumb.

[johnb]

I'll definitely try meditating during torture, if it ever happens to me. I sometimes do that at the dentist, if getting a filling or something. It does help. Still, I think I'd break almost immediately under torture.

[bluebird]

Whilst we're on the subject of meditation, check out this video where Tibetan monks are able to withstand extremely low temperatures and heat up their bodies to handle it. I would be pretty sure that if one was good enough at meditating they probably could switch off to the pain involved in setting yourself on fire or being tortured. I'd rather not take the risk though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-wuOYlxMSY

[johnb]

Whilst we're on the subject of meditation, check out this video where Tibetan monks are able to withstand extremely low temperatures and heat up their bodies to handle it. I would be pretty sure that if one was good enough at meditating they probably could switch off to the pain involved in setting yourself on fire or being tortured. I'd rather not take the risk though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-wuOYlxMSY

Interesting video. Wonder if they can also make themselves cool in hot weather without air conditioning. Probably.

[Snaggle]

Whilst we're on the subject of meditation, check out this video where Tibetan monks are able to withstand extremely low temperatures and heat up their bodies to handle it. I would be pretty sure that if one was good enough at meditating they probably could switch off to the pain involved in setting yourself on fire or being tortured. I'd rather not take the risk though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-wuOYlxMSY

Interesting video. Wonder if they can also make themselves cool in hot weather without air conditioning. Probably.

  Yes, they can use Tummo to cool themselves too. Tummo can also be used for supernormal strength and speed. It's the Tantric Buddhist version of kundalini and has even bigger claimed powers than the Chinese claim for ch'i.