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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE taking the herb gotu kola and vitamin B6 for several nights makes dreams more vivid and surrealistic. The brain chemical acetyl- choline is also connected with REM sleep and, to a lesser degree, norepinephrine and serotonin. The latter occurs mainly in bananas. These are not recommendations. it's adream.” Or pick some reference point on the dream-body, like your hand, to return to for consolidation when your con- centration is slipping. Another giveaway to dreaming is that familiar objects will often appear visually distorted, or indistinct. to sleep, anticipating that you will have a lucid dream. You can even repeat ‘Tam dreaming" as you go. 2) Keep a diary of your dreams to stimu- late dream awareness. Do all your remem- bering the instant you wake up, and write it all down afterward. 3) During the day repeat the phrase: "Next time I am dreaming, I will realise that I am dreaming." Eventually, you will find yourself repeating this in your sleeping dream and recognise your transcendent identity. 4) Periodically during the day, question (yourself) whether you are dreaming. How can you tell? Being awake might be anoth- er dream, an analogy not lost on mystics. Practise any orientation technique you might use in a dream, such as those sug- gested in the next section. Usually, the first experience of lucidity comes from realising you are doing something grossly out of character, impossible or 'bizarre'— for instance, if you were reading NEXUS magazine, and it suddenly turned into Reader's Digest. 5) You can have fleeting lucid dreams after sex in the moming, since the astral body is already slightly interested. Sleeping in pyramids or other ‘charged’ places also helps, as does wearing a hood. Aside from magic potions, researchers find HIGH-WIRE ACT RAZOR'S EDGE The above practices can be augmented How does one recognise a dream? We by some new gadgets on the market, sold always think we're awake, and thereby by lucid dreamers. Foremost seems to’ be make anything ‘real’ by inference. So you The Lucidity Institute. You can find out can't really count on the unconventionality more, buy books or become a member by of the surroundings. However, even when writing to 2555 Park Boulevard #2, Palo lucid, most people still have the faint Alto, CA 94306, USA. Their Nova awareness of another body ‘back there’ in - Dreamer, priced at about US$275, is a hot the bed. This is a good indicator. Some product. You put on a mask with rapid eye call this the ‘silver cord’. Normally, unless movement (REM) sensors to tell it when we're having a bad trip, we avoid focussing you are actively dreaming. Light-emitting on this or it's meat in the sheets again. diodes (LEDs) then come on, momentarily Instead, tread lightly upon the dream- infusing the dreamscape with a soft red scape, dividing your attention simultane- glow—your cue that you're tumed on and ously between your 'knowingness' of its in dreamland. This state of induced lucidi- illusory state, and impartial observation. ty can last from a few seconds up to an This is the occultist's ‘narrow way’, 'path- hour, after which most people wake up less path’, ‘being in the world but not of it’, immediately with a very righteous ‘high’, etc. When looking around, keep shifting and no hangover. your gaze. If you fixate, you're lost. You Well, it's not always that perfect. will then feel your power of attention or Initially, the cueing light just wakes many vitality slipping away. Any manipulation people straight up, like a nuclear fire- of the dreamscape exacts the same price. storm. But if you stick with both the exer- Sometimes it helps to repeat: "It'sa dream, cises and the machine, you too will experi- ence the ultimate reality of ransmigrational POWGRNERET consciousness, the relativistic nature of SWITCH phenomena, and a certainty of life after AK CELLS X 4 “TS ev sleep. With this in mind, let's wave around + our soldering irons, and offer up the sub- 220u a . : . $ lime incense of smouldering resin. RAZOR'S EDGE 6Vv BV SELECT 1M- 20M 500K POT FOR 137ms ~ SET TIME ‘AT 10Hr 10MIN - 10 HR ev ia 10K TRIM FOR 10 MIN LOW END 4 8 2k2 7 LM 3} 555 1K5 2 == 390N o POLYESTER 100N t vd v POWER/RESET SWITCH 220u *aascELLsxa —& ev + Ts cD 4013 1/2 3 LEDS 6v 6v 6Vv 1s ls Tels 10 5 10 3 13 10K cD cD cD 4020 4020 4013, 12 14 aD " ? ev v 10 Circuit Diagram of "The Dream-Buster" 6v | tu TANT 1M ev yy? v 4 y; 10R 100R BRIGHTNESS BC 337 consciousness, the relativistic nature of phenomena, and a certainty of life after sleep. With this in mind, let's wave around our soldering irons, and offer up the sub- lime incense of smouldering resin. : "THE DREAM-BUSTER" This abbreviated dream machine does not have REM-sensing capability. Instead, you set the timer—any where from about 10 minutes to ten hours—to tum the LEDs on. It's similar to the Lucidity Institute's earlier DreamLink, which sold for about US$195. You can make ours for about $30. The idea is to anticipate the time when you will most probably be dreaming. This might take a few tries. For most people, the first dream occurs between one and two hours after nodding off to sleep. Dreams then increase in frequency, with the most activi- ty in the early hours of the morning. Sew up a form-fitting sleep-mask with elastic headband to hold the LEDs in place over your eyes. Recess them into holes in some thin high-density foam. Do the wiring on the side away from your face, before sewing on a cover that will still let 54¢NEXUS "THE DREAM-BUSTER" Circuit Diagram of "The Dream-Buster" AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1994