How to Have More Lucid Dreams: Through Lucid Living
August 31, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Lucid Dreaming
Movies like Inception and Avatar have made lucid dreaming a household word. The buzz around the idea that we can wake up in our dreams ripples outwards, rocking our collective boat as more us realize that the world as we know it is malleable and magical.
But lucid dreaming can be difficult to learn. Some people are more inclined to lucid dream than others. For everyone, though, it can be frustrating to try to have more lucid dreams, especially if you’ve spent money on products like herbal supplements or technological assists and are not seeing improvements.
Inception: A Lucid Dreamer’s Review
July 19, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dreamy Movies
Inception came out over the weekend and I was not disappointed. The movie felt like a dizzy sci-fi lucid dream and I stumbled out of the theater afterward like I has just crawled out of a hall of mirrors. Don’t worry, there’s no big spoilers in this review.
I have already covered the actual possibilities of mutual lucid dreaming as well as the clever use of real dream researchers to create the impression of government dream research in the film’s viral marketing campaign. In this article, I am focusing on how the film portrayed dreaming well, and where it fell flat.
DreamStudies is 3 Years Old
I realized yesterday that DreamStudies is now 3 years old! This blog has stayed with me as I’ve moved all over the U.S.: from California, to Florida, back to California and now onwards to Pennsylvania later this summer. Also, in that time, I finished my thesis on lucid dreaming, got married, became a freelance writer and Internet consultant, and ate a vast amount of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Three years is middle-aged for the blogosphere, but still a toddler in terms of covering the worlds of consciousness and dream studies.
Just now, I did a little google-mancy, and typed “three year old toddler” into the box, and up came this quote from Disney’s WonderTime:
Inception and Mutual Lucid Dreaming
June 10, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dreamy Movies
I’m usually not so wrapped up in the release of summer blockbuster movies, but I have to admit I’m enthused for Inception, Chris Nolan’s latest film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. And I want to share my joy for being interviewed by Empire Magazine on the topic of how endangered we really are by dream-hacking super spies.
I can’t reprint the interview without breaking copyright laws, but I can tell you what I think about the dream philosophy stuff that Inception explores.
Inception: Dream Researchers Expose Project Somnacin
May 17, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dreamy Movies
I’ve been following the movie Inception, due out in theaters this summer. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, involves a pseudo-government dream research team who can access people’s dreams, and perhaps construct their reality too a la the Matrix. About two weeks ago, a video showed up on youtube, showing a rough 6 minute cut of three interviews of dream researchers by the director Chris Nolan. The unfinished video looks like raw footage of interview material for a DVD bonus, but it’s actually a very clever viral marketing video, because the third dream researcher doesn’t really exist.
Who are the Dream Researchers Interviewed by Chris Nolan?
Exploring the Void in Lucid Dreaming
May 13, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Lucid Dreaming
Cosmic Snow, Ryan Hurd 2004
Since I was a child, I have had conscious dream experiences that take place in immense, spacious realms devoid of light or objects. Sometimes these spaces are truly voids and my own dream body does not exist. Other times, these spaces become filled up with abstract geometric patterns, or multi-colored buzzing particles that resembles the “snow” from a television set. I call this the “cosmic snow” because it is literally the stuff dreams are made of.
How to Prevent False Awakenings
May 4, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Nightmares & Dream Terrors
False awakenings are dreams that seem like waking life… until you get out of bed and fall down a bottomless chasm. True story. False awakenings can be frustrating, terrifying, and may even begin to impact your daily life, especially when they occur 5 or more times in a row.
What are the Effects of 5-HTP on Dreams?
April 19, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dream Herbs & Supplements
5-HTP has increasingly gained notoriety as a dream supplement in the last few years. Its primary use is as an appetite suppressant and for “natural” depression treatment. I haven’t personally tried this amino acid—even though it’s readily available as a dietary supplement pretty much in any suburban drug store—but I dug up the latest research on the effects of 5-HTP for dreams because it may have more ill effects than expected.
5 Traits of Natural Lucid Dreamers
March 9, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Lucid Dreaming
With lucid dreaming you can explore the crack between worlds, but first you have to break on through. Image by ATV Nut.
Avatar: A Dreamer’s Review
February 4, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dreamy Movies
Avatar is the movie James Cameron has been dreaming about for over 20 years. It took that long for the technology to catch up with his vision. Worth it? Yeah, worth it. I usually only see movies in the theater if something is guaranteed to blow up. Avatar met this requirement, and if you wear the 3D glasses, exceeded it. Beyond the explosions and mind-numbing CG goodness, Avatar is a film I recommend for dreamers everywhere.
As lucid dream writer Rebecca Turner suggested, the movie actually feels like a lucid dream. Let’s see: a man goes to sleep, wakes up in a new body, and cavorts around in a magical world full of waterfalls and long-legged sexy smurfs. Except for that last detail, this is the proto-typical lucid dream.
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