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Sweet Dreams Are Made By This
schnoz writes "From Takara, the folks who brought you Bow-Lingual the dog translator, comes the Dream Workshop. Before going to sleep, all you have to do is stare at a photograph of what you want to dream of (Natalie Portman maybe) and record the dream plot. When you fall asleep, this gadget waits for REM and then uses your voice recording, lights, music and aroma to help direct your dream."
I love it when Psychologists tout products / services with testimonials. As someone aspiring to be a real-life research psychologist some day, it seems particularly ironic that none of these guys have ever heard of the Availability Heuristic.(that, or they have, and they're just trying to exploit it, but it doesn't really look good to anyone who's taken Psych 101.)
Example: The Wigetmobile is the best selling car in america because it's super-cheap and super-reliable, according to statistics. Your uncle says he drove his into a tree and it nearly killed him, so you don't buy it, because his vivid description of his near-death incident (probably on account of his own stupidity) "outweighs" statistical evidence that the product is good. This is the same thing, only in *reverse* of the product advertising.
Alex Chiu is a big fan of this kind of marketing exploitation. He's also a complete idiot.
You know, I don't know why lucid dreaming isn't a bigger thing. Given all the effort people put into altered conciousness, that is. No hardware required.
I've never been a big one for altered conciousness, but I did do some lucid dreaming for a while. Basically you just get good at recognizing when you're dreaming, and then you can start controlling what happens. Yes, Natalie Portman is an option.
It does take some dedication, though. Keeping a dream journal is essential. There's some basic info out there that will help get you started.
The only downside I found is I sometimes felt I wasn't sleeping as deeply. But it is a great way to explore altered conciousness without worrying about killing brain cells or geting addicted to anything.
Cheers.