One of the most interesting and completely unexplored areas of neurophysiology is the so-called “lucid dreaming” and the associated REM sleep phase. These things have been researched for centuries, but so far everyone has little special progress, and the progress that was – has long been lost.
Lucid dreaming is a very strange state of consciousness when a person is asleep and dreaming, but can control its plot at will. The term “lucid dreaming” was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederick van Eden.
REM-phase of sleep, or, as they often say – the phase of “rapid eye movement” (rapid eye movement = REM) – the very phase during which or at the border of which a lucid dream occurs. It is characterized by the incredible activity of the brain, which at this moment seems to be asleep and the rapid movements of the eyeballs – hence the name.
This is where the knowledge of the enlightened adepts is exhausted and further speculations go – that is, empty and unproven theories, so it is not at all surprising that many more theoreticians know about lucid dreams in practice.
The practice of lucid dreaming was started by people a very, very long time ago, and in India, for example, there is even a special direction of yoga, the adepts of which are engaged in the study of the world precisely in this state of consciousness – there, as they say, is the key to many very serious skills that people have for what for some reason disappeared.
For example, in Ancient Iran there were no mobile phones, but there were lucid dreaming cultists, one of whom stood out to accompany one or another commander – if the regiment, of course, was large enough. At a strictly agreed time, this adept fell asleep and, in a state of lucid sleep, received orders from the king, which were transmitted to him by another adept who was with the ruler. The Turkish sultans also had a similar system, but by that time the knowledge had been lost, the cultists had been translated and such telephones did not receive much use.
Another wave of interest in the topic arose in the 1930s of the last century – lucid dreams and other unusual states of consciousness were explored by everything, from the American military to the Nazis. Then, in the late 1950s, the topic died out and only Mr. Castaneda returned the public’s interest to it, who even proposed a method of entering a lucid dream. As don Juan Matus allegedly taught him, to get into a lucid dream from an ordinary dream, you had to find your hands in a dream, after which the lucid dream turned on.
The task seems to be very simple, but its execution turned out to be difficult. So, many adherents of Mr. Castaneda searched for their hands in a dream for years and decades, but they did not find anything. And now, as livescience.com writes on September 24, citing a recent scientific publication, some ladies and gentlemen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did not accept failures and figured out how to find their hands in a dream using modern technology.
The technology they have developed is called very seriously and loudly: targeted dream incubation (TDI), but its essence is very simple. A sensor is put on a person’s hand, which monitors his physiological indicators – when entering the REM phase of sleep, they change, which is currently well studied and everyone knows.
And as soon as a person is already there, the sleep tracker sends him hints via audio channels. For example – the command “find your hands” or something like that. As it was found as a result of experiments, the command is heard and performed by 67% of the subjects, which is 1,000 times more than potential naguals according to don Juan’s calculations.
The device turned out to be very simple and inexpensive, so most likely, if scientists do not put a spoke in their wheels, something like this will soon appear on the market and the Chinese will even organize the delivery of their fakes by mail. Probably, the world after that will be swept by a wave of awakenings of enlightened magicians.
