2008 October | dream studies portal

Halloween Dreams and the Celtic Otherworld

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 31, 2008 | 3 Comments

Through Halloween, the castrated remnants of the Celtic influence on Western culture play out through communal rituals: of giving gifts to strangers, protecting the house with carved gourds that resemble spirits, and dressing in costumes to disguise ourselves after nightfall as a wandering ghost.
But we are also culturally predisposed to dream darkly, or at least [...]

Filed Under: Visitation Dreams

Hallucinogens in the Stone Age

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 27, 2008 | 4 Comments

I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to discuss the recent discovery of “prehistoric drug paraphernalia” found in a Caribbean island archaeological site dated to @ 400 BC. Bone tubes and ceramic bowls were found in a human occupation site, suggesting the use of a sniffed substance, most likely cohoba, a hallucinogen made from [...]

Filed Under: Consciousness & Health

Guide to Lucid Dreaming Supplements

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 23, 2008 | 19 Comments

I just uploaded my latest article that explores lucid dreaming supplements. Dream herbs and supplements are getting a lot of press these days, especially from the “life-hack” crowd.
My take is that a lucid dreaming pill is not going to be of much help for beginner lucid dreamers unless they are also engaging in mind-development [...]

Filed Under: Dream Herbs & Supplements

Dream Theater in Berkeley: Silk Passages

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 21, 2008 | No Comments

For those of you living in the San Francisco Bay Area, a dream theater performance is taking place in Berkeley on November 1st.
The event is part of the opening night festivities for the art show Balancing Perspectives: East Asian Influences in Contemporary Art.
Silk Passage is a dream theater performance exploring the kinetic union of body [...]

Filed Under: Dreams & Media

Dreaming in Black and White

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 20, 2008 | 24 Comments

Do we usually dream in black & white” Or is the color in our remembered dreams just hard to remember? This has been a perplexing question for dream scientists for half a century, with most studies not able to report a firm conclusion.

Filed Under: New Dream Studies

Children’s Snoring and Cognitive Deficiencies Linked

Posted by Ryan Hurd on October 16, 2008 | 1 Comment

Science Daily published this article last week about the new links between snoring and mental deficiences in children. The results are a little perplexing, especially where sleep apnea is concerned.
As expected, they found that children with snoring had lower regional cerebral oxygen concentration than healthy children. But, paradoxically, they found that children with sleep [...]

Filed Under: Sleep Research