The Mystery

To date, the scientific approach to researching the origin and evolution of the universe has been to focus exclusively on the physical state. This approach has provided a deep understanding of molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, bosons, fields, quantum fluctuations, etc., at the micro level, and planetary systems, galaxies, galaxy groups, and galaxy clusters at the macro level. However, scientists estimate that this knowledge only describes 5 % of the whole, with the other 95% being made up of dark matter (approx. 27%) and dark energy (approx. 68%). If experiments at the upgraded LHC at CERN fail to provide new discoveries that will explain the natures of dark matter and dark energy – and there is a very real possibility that this will be the case – then it will be back to the drawing board for the scientific community and their ‘completely physical’ approach. The most complex phenomenon known to humanity at the present time is life, and in particular, human life. Therefore, if scie...

There are two different types of lucid dreams: dream-initiated lucid dreams (DILDs) and wake-initiated lucid dreams (WILDs). DILDs, involve lucidity that you acquire once you fall asleep, and therefore, lose consciousness. In WILDs, lucidity is achieved when your mind is kept active as you fall asleep – that is, you fall asleep without losing consciousness. There are a number of ways you can induce WILDs. This can be many things including hypnagogic imagery and focusing on your breath, your heartbeat, or yourself. The most popular way to do this is through hypnagogic imagery. To experience hypnagogia is to experience the transitional state between being awake and falling asleep. Hypnagogic imagery is what you see in your mind’s eye during this transition. What do these images look like? These images are typically light flashes, which eventually turn into shapes and faces, and then finally, work to form the images of your dream. While experiencing hypnagogic imagery, your brain stays ac...

Have you ever wondered, 'Is this a dream?' as you move throughout your day? Even if this isn’t something you do regularly, to get proficient at lucid dreaming, this is a skill that can help you out. Start habitually asking yourself whether or not you’re in a dream as you move through your waking day. Just like you’re perceptions, the habits you form during your waking hours are the same as those that affect you in your dream worlds. According to research, asking yourself, "Am I dreaming?" at least five to ten times during the day helps you to develop a critical-reflective attitude, which conditions you to start being able to lucid dream. Once you start asking yourself this enough, it will work its way into your dreams as well, encouraging you to ask the same question – “Am I dreaming?” – while you’re actually dreaming. But what happens if a dream seems too real? What if, when you ask whether you’re dreaming, the people in your dream argue with you and push back agains...

In order to start lucid dreaming, it’s important to remember your dreams. Keeping a dream journal is the best way to start remembering your dreams and figuring out what they mean. Keep your journal by your bed, so that as soon as you wake up in the morning, you can write down the dreams you remember. If you wait until you’re more awake to write your dreams down, you might forget some details, or that you dreamt at all. So, while you’re still in bed, try to remember the ideas and general ideas of your dreams. If you’re having trouble remembering, examine your general feeling in the moment and where your thoughts are going. This might be able to trigger the memory of your dream. Once you have all the details of your dream written down, go back through what you’ve written down and identify your dream signs. Dream signs are the details in your dream that signal that you’re actually dreaming. For instance, did you realize you were dreaming when you saw flying elephants? Or, maybe it was whe...

Do you dream? Often, it’s difficult to remember our dreams. The vivid worlds we come up with in our subconscious most often disappears as soon as we wake up. Yet, with some practice, dreaming can be a true adventure, and these adventures can have positive effects on your overall well-being. Lucid dreaming is when you 'wake up' while you’re dreaming and are conscious and aware of what is happening in this dream world. In this book summary, you’ll learn how to lucid dream, and how life in this dream state can enrich your life while you’re awake. In this summary of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, you’ll also learn;     - how practicing a skill like jump shots in your dreams will actually improve your game; and     - why you should be asking your waking self 'Am I dreaming?'.     - how to stay asleep by being active in a dream; We all dream. However, very few people can actually 'wake up' within a dream. Lucid drea...

The most rigorous scientific study of dream psi ever took place at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Over the course of several years, Psychologists Montague Ullman and Stanley Krippner ran hundreds of in-house and at-home dream sessions with thousands of volunteers. Experiments usually involved trying to predict random images chosen by computer and displayed overnight in a locked room at the dream lab. Each day volunteers attempted to dream of tomorrow’s picture then recorded their impressions for Ullman and Krippner to cross-check. In 2003 when British psychologists Simon Sherwood and Chris Roe performed a meta-analysis of all the Maimonides dream psi results they found that the overall hit rate was associated with odds against chance of 22 billion to 1. “In his work at the Dream laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center, Montague Ullman, along with psychologist Stanley Krippner and researcher Charles Honorton, produced compelling evidence that accurate precognitive ...

Receiving direct knowledge or perception of the future, Precognition, is another common psi ability with a long-standing history. Precognition is usually achieved through prophetic dreams, during deep meditation, or spontaneously received as images in the mind’s eye. The existence of this paranormal ability, however, once again goes against the Newtonian grain and strikes close to the heart of people’s conceptions of time and free will. Because if precognition is real, then the future must in some sense be pre-written and determined. “Time is not at all what it seems. It does not flow in only one direction, and the future exists simultaneously with the past. The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” - Albert Einstein “Both in common experience and in physics, time has generally been considered to be a primary, independent and universally applicable order, perhaps the most fundamental one known to us. Now, we have been led to propose th...