Recently, we obtained a DVD of a new project called 'Wake up! Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming' (WEPLD) that deals with raising public awareness about the potential of lucid dreaming. The DVD sells for 20 dollars and is produced by Lucitopia and A Little Spork Productions. Lucitopia is the website of Chris Olsen, a doctoral student at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. He is in the process of completing a dissertation on the history of lucid dreaming.
A few weeks ago, we contacted Chris to ask whether we could do a review of the DVD to promote the project at Lucidipedia and let you lucid dreamers all know if it is worth the purchase.
Well, first off, this is the most professional DVD we have come across on the topic. It highly contrasts the "cheesy" Explorers of the Lucid Dream World DVD (ELDW) in many ways (obviously, since WEPLD is produced by a professional film production company and not as a mere school project) and addresses the potential of applying lucid dreaming to enrich everyday life experiences. Though we specifically loved Alan Wallace's talk on the ELDW DVD in terms of his extensive view on Dream Yoga, which would be worth the purchase alone, we felt that Robert Wagonner's talk on WEPLD sells this particular DVD (Robert, nice job!). We will deal with this in more detail shortly.
The DVD starts with a brief story, in which a lady experiences a nightmare, wakes up, re-enters the dream, but this time turns lucid and faces the mysterious man that had chased her before. The man transforms into a child who presents the lady a flower. We felt entertained from the very beginning. Nice soundtrack, good acting.
Then, the interviews start. Many researchers, authors and writers are introduced who start to tell about their lucid dreams: Scott Sparrow, Fariba Bogzaran, Clare Johnson, Robert Waggoner, Kelley Bullkeley, Jayne Gackenbach, etc (no Laberge, though!). This is an elegant way to both get to know all the interviewees while getting to know lucid dreaming through learning about the kind of lucid dreams they have had. We loved to see Jayne and Scott, who we have heard from by reading articles on lucid dreaming but have never seen before. Also, to hear from the people who have worked with LaBerge, like Beverly (Kedzierski Heart) D'Urso. Each interviewee talks about his or her personal experiences of lucid dreaming with much enthusiasm and so doing explains bits and pieces of the potential of lucid dreaming.
Although these personal stories are interesting to listen to (given you as a viewer have an adequate understanding of what lucid dreaming means), the DVD lacks a thorough conceptual introduction to the concept of lucidity. Like, a very basic (and to us rather obvious) one: how lucid dreaming 'fits' into sleep and dreaming? After having seen the documentary, it is even questionable if lucid dreaming is promoted to be related to sleeping and dreaming, or rather to personal spiritual and religious experiences one could gain during the night. Thus, though many researchers are interviewed in the documentary, the information provided is not that grounded and most of the time solely justified upon the personal experiences of the interviewees. In this respect, EWLD does lucid dreaming more justice.
The documentary seems to promote lucid dreaming as spiritual experiences. Please do not misunderstand us, we share the stance on spirituality in that it is very much related to lucidity, but not as much as it is related to "the lucid dream" (if there is such a thing) than it is to the "lucid dreamER". While watching the documentary, we felt that someone who did not have much prior knowledge on the subject, would come to perceive lucidity as a property of the dream rather than of the dreamer. As if there was such a thing as a 'lucid dream' and an 'ordinary dream'. Some interviewees talk about things like "ask the lucid dream to..." or "the lucid dream will show you...". Though subtle, this kind of reasoning plays directly into the hands of many skeptical dream researchers who claim that lucid dreaming cannot serve as a platform to systematically investigate the dream state through lucidity because lucid dreams are simply different kind of dreams than the ordinary dreams we all have every night. A barrier that the Lucidity Institute has much trouble to overcome, and prevents valuable (continuing) research on lucid dreaming to take place.
In this respect, Robert Waggoner's interview stands out, who adequately tries to (re-)define this implicit recurrent theme by saying: "... in other respects in the lucid dream, you are going to meet your own issues, your own beliefs, your expectations, and your own sense of limition." He seems to define spirituality to be found in the lucid dreamer's quest to master lucid dreaming. Where others talk about spiritual experiences, Robert talks about using lucid dreaming to experiment. It's also fun to hear him talk about some of his perspectives on dream control, like the "sailor's analogy" that he talks about in his book.
A particular interesting part of the DVD, are the extra's (as is the case with ELDW). Jayne talks about the influence of playing virtual computer games to induce lucid dreams, Clare talks about her studies on the influence that the 'dream gaze' has on dream content (interesting!), Scott talks about the relationship of dream control (as a yoga) on living everyday life, and Beverly talks about her research with Stephen LaBerge in investigating sexual activity in lucid dreaming. Though these extras are not extensive in-depth talks, it is very interesting (to us even more interesting that the main movie). We want more!
In summary, every production has its good and bad parts. Especially in the world of lucid dreaming, we must feel blessed with every DVD that is produced. WEPLD is certainly the most professional looking production on lucid dreaming. The documentary is different in ELDW, in that it specifically focusses on the potential of lucid dreaming. Maybe it is this reason why not much time (if any) is spend on providing the viewer a thorough conceptual ground upon which lucid dreaming is described. It has a spiritual and almost mystical view to how it promotes lucid dreaming. EDLW on the other hand, approaches lucid dreaming more technically, in that it provides a more grounded explanation of what lucid dreaming is and deals with things like Reality Checks, and the NovaDreamer. But, cheesy and much shorter in the information provided. The main movie of WEPLD is about 30 minutes, while ELDW is about 10 minutes. WEPLD sells for 20 dollars, while ELDW sells for 10.
All in all, we enjoyed watching WEPLD, especially the extras, and think is it a nice supplement to the lucid dream material out there. If it is really worth the 20 dollars, depends on whether you are an experienced lucid dreamer. This DVD is more interesting for beginners who are curious in exploring the potential that lucid dreaming has to gain valuable experiences. Though strongly emphasizing spirituality, we enjoyed seeing the second DVD on lucid dreaming in the world!
Dear Dreamers,
This past week, I attended a fantastic conference in Chicago, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). For 25 years, IASD has held annual conferences featuring many prominent authors on dreaming and lucid dreaming, as well as new scientific research, experiential discoveries and workshops.
It is a wonderful opportunity to meet lucid dreamers of all stripes – in fact, the new lucid dreaming documentary “Wake Up: Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming” was filmed at the IASD Conference in Sonoma, CA two years ago, and shows many of the lucid dreaming authors and researchers who present at IASD conferences. Check out the documentary’s trailer at Lucitopia.
In that brief trailer, you meet Beverly D’Urso who participated in many early lucid dreaming scientific experiments, professor Scott Sparrow who authored Lucid Dreaming: Dawning of the Clear Light, professor and researcher Jayne Gackenbach who authored Control Your Dreams and was editor of the Lucidity Letter, professor and artist Fariba Bogzaran, novelist Clare Johnson, dream scholar and author Kelly Bulkeley and myself. And that is just some of the talented lucid dreamers who attend the IASD conference.
You can read about next year’s conference at www.asdreams.org/2010/ Since I am the newly elected president of IASD, I hope to see you there – and if not 2010, then perhaps 2011, when IASD ‘hopes’ to host a conference in Amsterdam.
At this year’s conference, I met a talented lucid dreamer from the former Soviet Union. From our conversations, I learned that lucid dreaming has been heavily influenced by the works of Carlos Castaneda. Since I taught myself how to lucid dream after reading Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan (this was before lucid dreaming had been proven, no less!), I had followed Castaneda’s writings, particularly as they pertained to lucid dreaming. Lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union appeared to be focusing strongly on these ideas of Castaneda’s and taking them even deeper.
As I mention in my book, don Juan told Carlos that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity” (Castaneda italicized dreaming to mean lucid or conscious dreaming). Some lucid dreamers will interpret that to meanyou can do anything within your infinite imagination, while others will suggest lucid dreaming leads to innumerable other dimensions. A’la Castaneda, some lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are focusing on the multi-dimensional view of lucid dreaming.
In my book, I mention that a lucid dreamer can radically shift one’s focus by announcing to the awareness behind the dream, “Take me to the next level!” or “Show me the next form!” Instantly, you will find yourself lucidly aware in an entirely new lucid dream. In my experience, you may find yourself in your current home, for example, completely lucid in a changed environment. Now imagine what lucid dreamers from the former Soviet Union are doing: they lucidly go to the next level, then lucidly go from there to another level and then another and another! They use lucid dreaming to explore multi-dimensional depth. Experientially, they appear to have discovered that each successive level leads to greater lucid dream stability.
In lucid dreaming, one can focus on the seen or the unseen, the known or the unknown, the actual or the potential – if one learns to use focus. Generally speaking, we focus within the framework of our conceptual base, because we feel comfortable there. However, lucid dreaming also allows us to focus beyond our conceptual knowing. It’s then that we get a sense of don Juan’s proclamation that “Dreaming is the gateway to infinity.”
Extracted from their site: "Since it began seven years ago, IASD’s PsiberDreaming Online Conference has become one of the finest conferences available anywhere on the Internet: Reasonably priced and lots of fun. Join from Sunday, September 21 through Sunday, October 5 for two weeks of nonstop interaction and inspiration."
The conference is featuring several lucid dreaming presentations from experts in the field, including Robert Waggoner and Ed Kellogg (of the Lucid Dream Exchange), Beverly D'Urso (one of Stephen LaBerge's first lab subjects) and Robert Moss (author of Conscious Dreaming).
As announced some days ago, I spent two nights at a sleep laboratory last week end!
Unfortunately I am not allowed to tell you details about what we did and how it all worked out, but I can tell you about what it is like to sleep in a sleep lab! If the study gets published, I will let you know.
Also I want to repeat: If you are a lucid dreamer and are interested in spending a night at the sleep lab (in Frankfurt/ Main, Germany), contact Dr. U. Voss at u.voss@uni-bonn.de! Travel expenses are paid and you get 50 EUR/night.
So, what is it like then? I can tell you: exhausting But also very exciting!!!
The sleep lab is part of a hospital and I was the only person in a room with two beds and a bathroom next to it.
For the first night we started to put on the electrodes at about 23:30. It took quite a time, about 1,5 hours. First of all my head was measured and marked so that they knew where to place the electrodes. I got 18 on my head (I mean, where hair is) for the EEG as well as several in the face: two on my chin to measure tonicity, I think some on my forehead as reference electrodes and, of course, some under and next to my eyes for EOG (electroocculogram; eye movement registration, important for REM). The electrodes in the face were fixed with tape, the ones on the head with some kind of glue which gets really hard.
Well, finally I was ready to go to bed. When I had laid down, we did some tests to see if the electrodes worked alright and communicated via microphone and speakers which were in my room. I was asked to grind my teeth to check the chin electrodes and to make several eye movements to check the EOG. Also we agreed on a certain eye signal which I was to give if I should become lucid.
Finally, at about 1:30 I was ready to sleep, but although I had not slept much the night before I could not fall asleep until some time between 4 and 5 am for several reasons: Excitement and "pressure" (of course I wanted to have lucid dreams, but that did not make falling asleeo easier...). Then, of course, I was not used to sleep with so many cables (all the cables from the electrodes were taped together to one string, before they lead into a box which stood next to my bed and where each electrode had it's own plug) and I could feel the cables when turning around in bed. But I did not really feel the electrodes on my skin, which was good. Another reason which made sleeping harder was that I felt watched. Well, I was being watched. First, the researchers could see my EEG data in the sleep lab in a separate room across the floor and second a camera on the ceiling recorded my sleep and the people in the sleep lab could see me. This - at least for me - feels strange. Also I kinda watched myself by falling asleep and any time I was close to sleep I thought: "I am falling asleep now!" and was wide awake again.
But finally I did fall asleep and woke up from time to time remembering some bits of confusing and chaotic dreams. I also seemed to have had some lucid moments, but nothing more.
Finally I got up at 10:30 and someone removed the electrodes from my head. I then had to spend ages under the shower washing that sticky glue out of my hair, but it actually came off quite well.
During the day I did some work and also wandered around Frankfurt, which was nice. I did as many Reality Checks as I could like the weeks before.
The second night was better than the first one. This time I had a mask on with light bulbs in it. If the person in the lab saw that I was in a stable REM-state, she would activate those flashing lights to signal me that I am in REM-state (I think you have heard of those machines. There are also some which recognize your eyemovements and work without external help, but this one was diffferent) . I wish I could tell you more there (my experiences with it and how it all worked out), because this, of course, is the most exciting part, but I must not, sorry, please understand.
This time it "only" took me about an hour to fall asleep and I slept much better than the night before with less stress and waking up and better dream recall in waking periods. Can not tell you about the lucidity experiences of that night. I got up at 10:15.
Well, I hope, at least now you know what it is like to be in a sleep laboratory. I do not know when I will blog again and what about. Thanx for reading!
But also very exciting!!! 
