The Mystery

It was Aristotle who first argued that the whole is something greater than the sum of its parts. More recently, quantum physicists have argued for the existence of a unified field in which all particles and forces exist. This short but provocative talk explores whether new theories of social media, particle behavior and genetic mutation support an understanding of the universe as a complex adaptive system with emergent consciousness. Maybe there is a consciousness/self-awareness within our Universe. If so, are we all a part of that Universal consciousness/self-awareness? How do we quantify Universal consciousness or self-awareness? Entertaining the Idea of a Universal Consciousness involves the notion that everything (both seen and unseen) is connected to everything else. Everything is the sum of its parts. Everything relies on an exchange of information. There are two different philosophies about the way we relate to the world around us... 1 There is something greater that ourselves t

Lucid dreams are dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming. Researcher LaBerge discusses techniques for inducing lucid dreams as well as some practical applications. These include anxiety reduction, practicing various skills, creative problem solving and exploring decision scenarios. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., is a research associate at Stanford University's sleep and dream laboratory. He is founder of the Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California, and is author of Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreams. We all dream every night, for an average of 100 minutes, separated into chunks of increasing length throughout the night. But to catch a dream in progress - that's the tricky part. This is the challenge of the lucid dreamer. And being able to achieve this with an intelligence device means we can trigger lucidity with a much higher success rate. To induce lucidity, the Aurora first emits configurable dreams lights from the headband. As you can see from t

Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain: the title of this book provides a vivid image of the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, in which dreamers are consciously aware that they are dreaming while they seem to be soundly asleep. Lucid dreamers could be said to be awake to their inner worlds while they are asleep to the external world. Of the many questions that this singular phenomenon may raise, two are foremost: What is consciousness? And what is sleep? Although we cannot provide complete answers to either question here, we can at least explain the sense in which we are using the two terms. We say lucid dreamers are conscious because their subjective reports and behavior indicate that they are explicitly aware of the fact that they are asleep and dreaming; in other words, they are reflectively conscious of themselves. We say lucid dreamers are asleep primarily because they are not in sensory contact with the external world, and also because research shows physiological signs of what is convention

Can you manipulate your dreams? If so, you’re probably experiencing an interesting phenomenon called lucid dreaming! Lucid dreamers have the ability to become aware that they are dreaming, and sometimes even influence their dreams. For some people, this simply means recognizing that they are asleep, while for others, it could mean having a great deal of control over their unconscious actions. While the idea of lucid dreaming has been around for centuries, scientific advances within the last few decades have increased our understanding of what it means to have a lucid dream and what happens to us when experience them. Stephen LaBerge is the first scientist to empirically prove the existence of lucid dreaming. His work has developed this technique into a powerful tool for studying mind-body relationships in the dream state, and he has demonstrated the potential for lucid dreaming in the fields of psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. His books Lucid Dreaming, Exploring the World of L

The mysteries of sub-atomic physics offer us startling new perspectives on the human mind. Physicist Nick Herbert, Ph.D., author of Quantum Reality, points out that no matter how one interprets the equations of quantum physics the results lead to amazing and paradoxical concepts. Perhaps that time runs backwards as well as forward. Perhaps multiple independent universes are created each second. Quantum Reality is a 1985 popular science book by physicist Nick Herbert, a member the Fundamental Fysiks Group which was formed to explore the philosophical implications of quantum theory. The book attempts to address the ontology of quantum objects, their attributes, and their interactions, without reliance on advanced mathematical concepts. Herbert discusses the most common interpretations of quantum mechanics and their consequences in turn, highlighting the conceptual advantages and drawbacks of each. Consciousness creates reality. First proposed by John von Neumann, this interpretation gran