Aware - The Mortal Mist NewsletterMay 28, 2009
From The EditorGreetings, fellow dreamers!
As usual, things continue creeping forward here in The Mist without a lot of drama or demand for attention. It has been about three weeks since the last newsletter, and we again have a very full docket of items worthy of note. So, without further ado. . .
Today's issue includes:
- How Do They Do It? Featuring DrTechnical
- Dream Recall Workshop Begins June 1
- The First DreamSketcher Contest progress
- DreamKoan.com - a great lucid dreaming blog by our own johnb
- Beta release of The Comprehensive Mortal Mist Manual
- Search Engine Fun
- One Year Ago In The Mist
- System and Community Notes
How Do They Do It?DrTechnical is a prolific lucid dreamer who has put a great deal of thought and effort into being able to achieve his incredibly reliable results. His journal,
DrTech's Technical Ecstasy, is a consistently great read, both for his wonderfully written dreams and for discussion about the various methods he employs. He is also active in Deep Dreaming, currently running a fascinating
Dream Psi Experiment. One of Dr. T's lucid dreams is our current Featured Lucid Dream, and is the first that includes artwork created in our DreamSketcher.
We recently asked him how he does it:
"I read the last two "How Do They Do It" pieces with great interest. I agree with everything stated in both of those write ups. And yet, both sets of techniques differ greatly from what I have found to work for me. But that in and of itself says a lot about leveraging your own personal skills in optimizing your lucid dreaming methods and success. Let me briefly summarize my past approaches and historical success, then get to the good part ... of how I can get lucid pretty much at will.
"Like most, I started with
EWOLD. Interestingly, most of the techniques there were not helpful. I gave each one a very fair shot (daytime reality checks, dream signs etc ...) with little success. My only long term take away from that book is the value of wake back to bed (
WBTB) which I use till today.
"My first major breakthrough was via the Dream Maker and later the
REM Dreamer masks. These things have their own challenges, but they did get me lucid pretty frequently and more important, helped me to recognize and negotiate false awakenings. I probably was hitting a 30-40% success rate with these tools.
"After this, I deviated from technology and focused on some of the more "organic" approaches. Even today, I think Rinpoche's book on Sleep and Dream Yoga is the most insightful book on the subject and possible uses of lucid dreaming. I also got very into meditation, especially using binaural beats to influence brainstate during these meditations (OK, I fibbed about moving away from technology, I didn't mean completely). With my improved focus and mental discipline, I probably got up to a 40-50% success rate using a combination of
WBTB, meditation, dream yoga and the occasional dream mask use. As many can appreciate though, meditation and dream yoga are big commitments time wise, and rather hard to maintain in a frantic schedule.
"My big break through was when I discovered galantamine (
G). Now bear in mind, I had a lot of experience already when I started using this supp. This whole issue of quickly jumping froom one method to the next without suitably assessing its value, or jumping head long into powerful supps without a foundation - is exactly what seems to make lucidity so challenging for many people. When I got into supps, I was ready for that next step.
"In short,
G helped me to successfully
WILD, and got my success rate up to around 90%. But
G is not without it's own issues (insomnia, poor recuperative sleep, etc ...).
"As many of you know, for the last few years I have had a personal research project going on to investigate the usage of cranial electro stimulation (
CES) for inducing lucid dreams. With this technique, I am also at a 90%+ success rate. I interleave this technique with AcH boosting supps so as to not let my brain build a signficant tolerance to either (though the
CES approach seems to have a low propensity toward tolerance anyway). Research is ongoing and the how/when this will all come to fruition potentially as a commercial product is a work in progress."
(Join the discussion about Dr. T's CES studies and innovations here -pj)
"In summary, I can't stress enough that lucid dream enthusiasts need to give an honest and thorough attempt at any method, figure out what works for them, and not jump into things which they are not ready for. Building a foundation is key to leveraging the more advanced techniques. But most important, take your time in fine tuning any particular method relative to your own attributes. We're all a little different. Just because I can lay out a
G use/dose schedule, does not mean that it's optimal for you. Recognize the subtle postives and negatives which come from different trials and hone in on what works for you."
Thank you,
DrTechnical.
Dream Recall Workshop Begins June 1Preparations have been completed for the
Dream Recall Workshop, which will begin on June 1 and run for three weeks. The workshop presents a hands-on approach to improving dream recall.
The workshop is presented by
Luminous, who remains our most prolific lucid dreamer by a respectable margin. She has spent many years improving and perfecting the methods used in achieving her amazing level of recall. Over the course of the workshop, she will be sharing her discoveries and techniques.
Watch for the new forum in Seekers Corner, where the Dream Recall Workshop will be conducted beginning next Monday.
DreamSketcher Contest - With GlitchesThe first DreamSketcher contest is still in progress. We're working through all the logistics of running this kind of contest, and some snags have been encountered - mostly due to the inattention of yours truly. We had a great response, with fifteen entries. The three nominations for final voting included two entries by Pancaka - which was a violation of the rules, and brought to our attention by the artist after the final voting had begun.
There was a three-way tie for fourth, so an intermediate run-off is happening right now to determine which will move forward into the finals. Please vote
here, and watch
The Wall forum for the final run-off next week.
All three finalists will be our "featured dream" for June/July. Because the interest and response to this contest has been so good, we will be doing this again, possibly on a regular basis.
Dream KoanDreamKoan.com is the Lucid Dreaming related blog of new member
johnb. The blog is a well written and edited collection of John's observations and experiences, art links, "homework assignments" to improve lucid experiences, dream-related gadget reviews, projects and news items.
http://dreamkoan.com, in John's words, is "dedicated to helping you improve your lucid dreaming skills. Simple techniques allow you to increase the quantity and quality of your lucid dreams: self hypnosis, meditation, reality testing, use of induction devices, and many more. Check back regularly for new content."
The Comprehensive Mortal Mist ManualIn response to the ever-increasing sophistication and complexity of the Mortal Mist infrastructure,
wolvendeer has invested a tremendous amount of time in compiling a comprehensive manual covering just about everything imaginable about using our systems and being a part of the Mortal Mist community.
The manual is out in 'beta' right now. It is posted
here, in Town Hall. Please review and comment - checking particularly for any aspects of our systems that are confusing or mysterious for you.
(If you don't have access to Town Hall yet, you will as soon as you have ten on-topic posts.)
Search Engine FunWhile it has never been our goal to rival the "big guns" among the Lucid Dreaming forums out there, bringing in new people is essential to the survival of any online community. We've been growing slowly and comfortably, and need to continue this trend to insure our long-term survival.
Getting noticed on the search engines can be very challenging, especially when dealing with a subject as well covered as Lucid Dreaming. In spite of the challenges, we have made incredible progress in our rankings. While we remain between 40 and 60 deep on Google returns for "Lucid Dreaming" and Lucid Dream", we are right up there on page one on both Google and Yahoo with "Lucid Dreaming Acronyms," "Lucid Dreaming Forum," "Lucid Dreaming Community" and "Lucid Dreaming Tutorials". (Even being 40 to 60 deep is really quite respectable, considering we were somewhere around 500 deep for "Lucid Dreaming" not too long ago.)
I've also initiated a very modest Google AdWords campaign, just as an experiment. So far this has netted us just eleven clicks - but five of those eleven have become members! This incredible success ratio confirms the quality of our "front page" content and our stated goals for the Mortal Mist Community. When people interested in lucid dreaming find us, more often than not they choose to be part of what we are doing.
One Year Ago In The Mist- We had just moved to the new server, and all was running smoothly
- The Chat Notifier, which lets us know who is logged into the Chat Node from inside the forums, had just been implemented by Raklet
- Japanese and Hebrew front page descriptions had been added
System and Community Notes- Dodobird and Raklet continue working on the DreamSketcher package to improve image searchibility and classification
- Promising discussions regarding some innovative new challenges are going on in the New Challenges thread in the Lucid Challenges forum. New ideas include Lucid Getaways and a Never Ending Story for dreamers.
- We will be looking for assistance in "hard coding" the Comprehensive Mortal Mist manual into XHTML once the final form is settled. Discussion is ongoing regarding the most effective ways to present the information.
- Please remember that heavy weather season is starting up again in the Great Lakes region. High winds and lightning can result in communications and power outages occasionally lasting days. While these interruptions are not common, please be aware of the possibility. As always, we maintain duplicate database backups in many different locations and are well prepared for any sorts of difficulties. In the event of interrupted service, we will do all possible to get back up and running as quickly as possible, and will send out an announcement if the outage has been for any appreciable period of time.
The mission of Mortal Mist is to explore and promote the art and discipline of Lucid Dreaming. All members are welcome to invite others to join us. We are not a secret society! It is important to clearly convey what we are about, of course, so we don't end up with people coming in expecting something other than what we offer. With that one caveat, please invite your friends!
The Mortal Mist community started with a dream, was resurrected by a dream and is sustained by the dreams of all of us - by YOUR dreams.
Dream on, my friends.
pj. . .
