10 Things You Didn't Know About Lucid Dreaming

1. The first lucid dreams were recorded by Ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptians were an advanced civilization which coalesced around 3150 BC - more than 5,000 years ago. According to Jeremy Naydler, author of Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred, they believed in three bodies: Shat (the corpse body), Ka (the living physical body) and Ba (the soul).
Ba was often represented in hieroglyphics as a human-headed bird floating above the sleeping body or corpse. Naydler notes that "...the Ba is the person but in another form. The Ba could be defined as an individual in an out-of-body state." Was the Ba actually the lucid dreaming consciousness?
Robert Waggoner, editor of The Lucid Dream Exchange, believes so: "...I was struck by the concept of the Ba being the part of one that flies during sleep, trance and after-death states... Many of us have had that experience, whether we call it an OOBE or a lucid dream, of flying around our sleeping body.
"For lucid dreamers, trance journeyers and OOBE-ers, the Ba may represent in a historic sense, the first depiction of a 'mobile awareness' separated from the physical host. Interestingly, this mobile awareness, this Ba, seems naturally connected to flying - a common and seemingly universal part of lucid dreaming. Though thousands of years separate us from the Ancient Egyptians, perhaps some of their ancient knowledge remains in our collective unconscious..."

2. One in five people lucid dream every month or more.

In 1988, Snyder & Gackenback conducted a scientific survey which found that 20% of people claimed to lucid dream frequently (every month) while 50% of people had done it at least once in their lives. So lucidity is not so rare, even if most people don't know the technical name or induce such dreams deliberately. It actually seems quite normal to have spontaneous dream control - especially as children.

One possible reason for this is that children are more prone to nightmares which can be highly vivid and emotionally intense. This awakens the part of the brain responsible for self-awareness, and gives the young dreamer a moment of clarity to realize "hey - I must be dreaming!" Some children use this knowledge to wake themselves up, while others transform the nightmare into a pleasant guided dream.

When I first discovered lucid dreaming in my teens, I was excited to tell my best friend Michelle about it. "Oh I've been doing that for years," she told me. For as long as she could remember, she would use her imagination as she went to sleep and visualize whatever dreamscape she wanted. Then she would just pop into it and experience dream control perfectly naturally.
It may be surprising how many people you know are already lucid dreamers - you just never happened to ask them about it. Since I launched this website a lot of friends have told me they have the occasional guided dream. Pete has controlled his dreams since he was a child too - another natural lucid dreamer.
At the other end of the spectrum, a handful of people have written to me saying they always lucid dream every single night since childhood, and they sleep very poorly as a result, feeling like their brain never properly shuts down. I really can't relate to this; for me, lucid dreaming is always a conscious choice or a welcome accident, but never a burden. But when any behavior starts to disrupt your everyday life, then it is a problem that needs addressing - and I urge anyone in this position to seek specialist advice from a doctor who can help.

3. When you close your eyes in a lucid dream, you can wake up.

When I was younger I used close my eyes to escape from nightmares. When I was frozen with terror it occurred to me that none of it was real, and I had a moment to squeeze my eyes shut tightly and shout "WAKE UP!"
Now I never end a lucid dream prematurely if I can help it. But that doesn't stop me from accidentally closing my eyes in the dream (out of force of habit, not because they're dry or I need to blink...) This almost always causes me to return to my physical body. Apparently, this is not true for everyone, but it sure is for some.
Luckily, if you do wake up by accident, there is a way to resume the dream from where you left off. As long as you keep your body still (so as not to disturb the sleep paralysis mechanism) and close your eyes immediately, you should find yourself back in the dream and fully lucid. It's like changing channels on the TV. For a few seconds, both realities exist and you are free to flick between them.

4. Lucid dreamers can "talk" to the outside world.

In 1975, the British psychologist Keith Hearne achieved a world first: he recorded the eye movements of Alan Worsley as he slept and engaged in a lucid dream in the lab. Crucially, the two men had agreed upon a pattern set of eye movement signals beforehand. By moving his eyes inside the lucid dream, Worsley was able to communicate with Hearne in the outside world, while he was dreaming.
This remarkable experiment proved, for the first time ever, that consciousness in dreams was indeed real. Later, EEG readings were able to record a high frequency GAMMA brainwave state in lucid dreamers, which provided further evidence of this unique state of conscious awareness. However, it was Hearne's experiment, later replicated by Dr Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University, that showed us it really is possible for a dreamer to "talk" with a waking person in the outside world.
But what about the other way around? Can we send messages to a dreamer while they sleep? Could a two-way conversation be achieved?
Actually, yes - to a degree. When we sleep, our brains are largely ignorant to most of what's happening in the outside world. However, for survival reasons, we do have the ability to retain some awareness and be responsive so some types of external stimulus. So, if someone gently prods you in the rib while you sleep, you will often feel the prod in the dream, albeit under a different interpretation (perhaps something as strange as a rat biting you in the side).
Perhaps not surprisingly, this effect seems to be more prominent during lucid dreams and false awakenings, when your self-awareness is much more intense. For instance, when it's raining noisily in the real world, I experience heavy rain in my lucid dreams, too. It's easy to verify this by looking for the stimulus when you wake up.

5. Lucidity arises from a special part of the brain.

The neuroscientist, J Allan Hobson, has theorized about what happens in the brain when a dreamer becomes lucid. First, we recognize that we're dreaming, and this stimulates the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain which is responsible for self-awareness and working memory. This area is usually deactivated during REM sleep - which explains why it is not typical to realize that we're dreaming or remember all of the detail without serious effort.
Once lucidity is triggered, the dreamer treads a fine line between staying asleep, yet remaining conscious enough to remember they're dreaming...
Interestingly, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is uniquely associated with the subjective experience of deciding when and how to act. In Susan Blackmore's wonderful pocketbook, Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, she explains how this region is directly connected to free will - and how this may be an illusion created by our own complex brain processes. She also discusses self awareness and the contentious problem we have when we try to pinpoint the location of our conscious inner self.

6. Lucid dreaming can be mapped as a state of consciousness.

Susan Blackmore's work highlights another important feature of lucidity: that it may be a special state of consciousness distinct from any other. Can these individual states be mapped? Some scientists believe so.
Here is a diagram Pete whipped up based on Blackmore's conclusions and the existing theories of human consciousness. Although it is extremely difficult to know the relevant dimensions, it is possible to visualize how these conscious states might be mapped in a vast multidimensional space. Note how some states are easy to reach (being wide awake, false awakenings and dreaming) while others are far away (deep sleep, sleep paralysis and mystical experiences).

Image copyright Pete Casale of Cre8ve Media Web Design

7. Certain vitamins will increase your dream intensity.

Vitamin B6 (also known as Pyridoxine) plays a key role in brain and nerve function. Healthy adults need just 1.3 mg of Vitamin B6 each day and this can be acquired through foods like bananas, carrots, oranges, spinach, fish, chicken, liver, beans, eggs and nuts. However, to achieve the dose necessary for greater dream intensity, take a 100 mg supplement such as Nature Made Vitamin B6.
So, what happens in your body when you take this supplement? Vitamin B6 converts Tryptophan into Serotonin, which produces much more vivid dreams. You may wonder why you can't just take a Serotonin supplement, as there are plenty available. Unfortunately, the blood brain barrier wont let it in directly; the conversion has to take place in the body.
To boost your chances further, eat foods containing Tryptophan around the same time you take your B6 pill, a few hours before bed. Tryptophan-rich foods include cheddar cheese, chicken, salmon, lamb, eggs, white rice, flour and milk. So, there really is something to be said about cheese dreams.

8. Lucid dream orgasms can be real.

Scientists have found that lucid orgasms can sometimes be accompanied by a real physical response, including increased heart rate, changes in vascular tissue and other muscular reactions. Sometimes, however, it's purely in the mind - although this doesn't make it any less real to the dreamer in their super-sensory dream environment. There is also heaps of anecdotal evidence to show that men who experience a lucid dream orgasm also ejaculate in real life.

The problem many people find is that it's difficult to hold onto conscious lucidity until the critical moment. Lucid dream sex is highly arousing and beginner oneironauts will most likely wake up before the experience has even got going. In this way, sexual lucid dreams aren't ideal for beginners, yet they're usually the ones most motivated to seek them out for the novelty value.

9. Meditation is profoundly linked with self-awareness in dreams.

There is a proven scientific link between meditation and lucid dreams. I find that the more frequently I meditate, the more I recognize when I'm dreaming. For all it's simplicity (switching off conscious thought) meditation helps me to reach blissful places of relaxation and insight. It also helps to me enter altered states of consciousness at will (great for Wake Induced Lucid Dreams) as well as increase my physical self-awareness and visualization skills (for Dream Induced Lucid Dreams.)

There is one thing I frequently rave about on this site and that is brainwave entrainment. This was the key in my learning how to meditate. First in the form of binaural beats, and now in the much more powerful form of isochronic tones, brainwave entrainment is a scientifically proven way of molding your brainwave frequencies, to produce altered states of consciousness on demand.

The most notorious application for audio entrainment is meditation - and this delivers us very close to the lucid dreaming state. I highly recommend beginners invest in a good entrainment MP3 or CD to kick start their internal voyages in meditation. My favorite is the Lucid Dreaming MP3 with Isochronic Tones by Meditation Power.

10. Tibetan Buddhist Monks practice lucid dreaming on their path to enlightenment.

Tibetan Dream Yoga is the original form of lucid dreaming. It is a philosophical practice created in Tibetan Buddhism at least 1,000 years ago.

Just like lucid dreams, the aim of Dream Yoga is to awaken the conscious self from within the dream state, which they call "apprehending the dream".

However, Buddhist monks have more esoteric goals in mind. Their aim is to harness the power of the conscious dream state and then complete a number of set tasks to take them to the next level, including:

• Practice sadhana (a spiritual discipline)
• Receive initiations, empowerments and transmissions
• Visit different places, planes and lokas (worlds)
• Communicate with yidam (an enlightened being)
• Meet with other sentient beings
• Fly and shape shift into other creatures

The ultimate goal in Tibetan dream yoga is to apprehend the dream, then dissolve it completely. Deprived of physical stimulus via the sleeping body, and conceptual stimulus via the dreaming mind, they can observe the purest form of conscious awareness through profound meditation in a lucid dream.
For step-by-step tutorials in lucidity, check out The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track, my digital course that shows beginners the fastest way to lucid dreams.

She’s Cheating—6 Suspicious Clues to Spot

Researchers at Indiana University conducted a study last June on cheating couples. The results were surprising: 19 percent of woman cheat compared with 23 percent of men—a staggering difference of only 4 percent!
The researchers discovered women tend to cheat more out of emotional reasons, while men are more inclined to cheat for the physical act itself. (Remember the old standby excuse, “It didn’t mean anything!”?)
Below are six clues female cheaters revealed from their affairs. Don’t be caught unaware, men. If your gal starts acting strange, search for these tell-tale signs. Oh, and if she has to take her phone out of the room to make secret calls? Duh, we won’t even justify that one with a response.
1. She’s Not in the Mood for Sex
Okay guys, don’t have a heart attack every time your girl isn’t in the mood to get it on. She really just may be tired, distracted, feeling bad, etc. If she’s still showing other signs of intimacy (kissing, hugging, snuggling) you’re fine. If she ducks you every time she comes out of the shower or gets into bed, look out! This may be a long-term problem set become short-term—fast.
2. She Needs “Space”
If she offers a reason why she’s suddenly stonewalling you (stress at work, a parent’s health crisis) it could be a legitimate excuse. But, if she’s ignoring your texts, emails, phone calls and you see constant updates on her Facebook feed excitedly revealing the details of her “new life,” you need get a clue—this girl is so over you and shamelessly avoiding a breakup scene.
3. She Cancels Plans Last Minute
You two have plans to catch a game, dinner and a movie, or meet up at a concert. But, at the last minute she’s a no show (again), bowing out with flimsy excuses, like she needs to wake up early to wash her dog. Instead, she’s probably meeting up with her lover who had a last minute cancellation for her. Affairs thrive on spontaneity, so if your girlfriend can’t stick to a plan, she could be waiting on another.
4. She Starts Taking Her Appearance More Seriously
Suddenly, she’s religiously going to the gym every day, putting on more makeup, trying out new hairstyles, and shopping for different clothes. When women have no one to impress, they generally don’t take hours getting ready before leaving the house. If she strays from her routine for no apparent reason, and brushes off your compliments like they don’t matter to her, they probably don’t!
5. She Accuses You of Cheating
This is a common behavior of projecting guilt off herself and on to you. If she starts to act paranoid and questioning your behavior, there’s something off about hers. She could also be pushing you to cheat to justify her own betrayal. Don’t let her suck you into a back and forth blame game. Look for another signs above to confirm her change in personality.
6. She Has a New BFF
Suddenly, all you’re hearing about is “Sarah,” your wife’s new single gal pal from the office. Sarah is so funny, talented, stylish, and she answers to no one. First off, your wife probably hasn’t gone to hit for the other team. It’s more likely she’s jealous of Sarah’s single life and misses her own (maybe a little too much). Watch this situation closely. If your wife is unhappy at home and your connection with her has weakened, “Sarah” could lead her right into the arms of someone else.

Mutual fund products will be labeled from 1stJuly

According to a SEBI circular issued SEBI yesterday, mutual fund houses are required to label products from 1^st July. The regulator feels that it would provide investors an easy understanding of the kind of product/scheme they are investing in and its suitability to them.  SEBI has taken this move to curb mis-selling.

The regulator had set up a committee to examine the system of product labeling. The committee has recommended that all the mutual funds shall ‘label’ their schemes according to various parameters.

The AMCs are supposed to mention the level of risk, depicted by colour code boxes mentioned below.  The colour codes shall also be described in text beside the colour code box.

• Blue – principal at low risk.

• Yellow – principal at medium risk.

• Brown – principal at high risk.

The fund houses are also supposed to mention the nature of scheme, such as short/medium/long term and a singled sentenced brief on the kind of product – equity/debt.

According to the circular, the labeling is supposed to be printed on the front page of initial offering application forms, KIM, SID and in common application form along with the information about the scheme.  In the scheme advertisements, the labeling is to be placed in a manner so that it is prominently visible to investors. The fund house should also print a disclaimer to the effect that investors should consult their financial advisers if they are not clear about the suitability of the product

“I don’t feel it will make much difference to investors. High or low risk doesn’t make much difference to investors as they are unaware about the complete details of the product.  I feel investors need to understand their goals before investing,” says Lovaii Navlakhi, IFA from Bangalore.

All you want to know about risk adjusted return

Determining risk adjusted return is an important part of selecting the right fund for your clients. Some of the most popular ways to measure risk adjusted returns are Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio and alpha. Your clients might be tempted to invest in funds which yield higher returns. However, this might not be the foolproof way of shortlisting schemes. The higher returns provided by one fund in comparison to its peers could be the result of excess risk taken by the fund manager. Higher risk may result in higher return but it could also mean sacrificing the quality of a fund’s portfolio. In this context, finding out risk adjusted return of a fund becomes important.  A fund manager, who has taken higher risk, ought to earn a better return to justify the risk taken. A fund manager who has generated a lower return may be able to justify it through the lower risk. Here are a few ways to evaluate risk adjusted returns. Treynor Ratio Treynor Ratio is one of the methods to establish the relation between risk free return and expected return from the fund. Also known as reward-to-volatility ratio, Treynor ratio is the excess return generated by a fund over and above the risk free return (government bond yield) .It is similar to Sharpe ratio though one difference is that it uses beta as a measure of a measure of volatility.  The performance of fund is termed as good only if Treynor ratio is higher. Alpha It is a measure of performance on the basis of risk adjusted return. It is the difference between scheme’sexpected return and its actual return. If value of alpha is positive then fund has outperformed the benchmark and vice versa. It shows how much value the fund manager has added to the portfolio beyond the returns generated by a fund’s benchmark. Alpha indicates the performance of a fund manager. Since the concept of Beta is more relevant for diversified equity schemes, Alpha should ideally be evaluated only for such schemes. Sharpe Ratio Mathematically, the measurement of Sharpe Ratio is based on standard deviation, risk free returns and expected return earned by the performance of fund. It is also one of the important indicators of fund’s performance vis-à-vis the risk taken by a fund manager. Higher the value of Sharpe ratio, better the scheme. Sharpe ratio can be easily calculated in excel sheet. Click here for more information on Sharpe ratio.

Mistake in your Medical report while taking Term Plan

What happens when your hospital goofs up and your term plan premium goes up because of that mistake? When you take a term plan, the insurance company either asks you to take up medical test in some hospital or a doctor comes to your home and does the checkup. Things mostly go well and at times some kind of health issue comes up, and you say

“Ahh … you say, I didn’t know there was this issue, Thank God! a medical test was done.”

Then the insurance company increases the premium because there was some issue in yourmedical report. You pay the increased premium, feeling secure now that things are black and white. But, what if the medical report was wrong because of some mistake the hospital made? What if there was a TYPING Error? Yes! It happens and we have a real life experience today.

Nitin shared his experience on our Question and Answer forum while buying his term plan from HDFC and Aviva. Below are his experiences

Experience while buying HDFC Click2Protect

After some analysis I found below 2 plans suitable for my term insurance needs:

• HDFC Click2Protect
• AVIVA i-Life

After considering some factors, I had chosen HDFC Click2Protect and applied for it. My medical test has been performed in 4-5 days. Few days later I got notification from HDFC that my proposal is postponed because of ‘elevated level in my blood sugar’. It was a shocking news for me because I am a healthy person and never had any problem (touch wood). I called hospital people (where my medical check-up was conducted) and after request they informed me that my sugar level count is 173 (normally it should be between 70-100). I still not believed that and went for medical check-up again by myself and found sugar level count is 72(which is normal).

Then I decided to go for AVIVA i-life plan and applied for the policy. Fortunately/Unfortunately, my medical examination was scheduled at same hospital, where it was conducted before for HDFC. This time I carried my medical report (which I had done by myself) and asked hospital about the reason for differences in both reports. According to their report my count was 173 & according to my report count was 75. They checked again and found that it was a TYPING MISTAKE, actual count was 73 but they wrote it 173 by mistake.

Now, because of this mistake HDFC postponed my application & also my insurance records gets affected. Hospital GM apologies for the mistake and sent clarification note to HDFC about the mistake. Currently, my AVIVA application is under processing.

Lesson Learnt & Message DON’t trust on any medical report if it looks surprised for you. Please double check it with multiple doctors or Hospital if you think it is not correct and challenge it.

After this incident, he went for Aviva Term plan and the same kind of issue happened this time also. Below is the experience.

Experience while buying Aviva Term Plan

My medical examination for AVIVA ilife plan happened in same hospital (where I had for HDFC C2P plan). After few days, I got information from AVIVA that they have raised my premium by 50% because of ‘Increased liver enzymes’ in my body and waiting for the balance payment to issue a policy. It’s again a shocking news for me, since I didn’t expect it this time. But the good thing is that AVIVA has shared my medical report with me. I checked with 2-3 doctors about my report and according to them this increase in liver enzymes is possible for those people who drink alcohol or having fever in last 1 months.

But for my case, I don’t take alcohol nor having any fever in last months, so doctor suspect that this time also report may be not correct. So again, I went for a medical test (only for Liver part this time) by myself and found that my liver report is NORMAL (as expected). I informed AVIVA about the same and also shared my Normal medical report. After 2-3 days, finally got mail today that they have issued my policy without any extra premium. Hmmmmm……buying aonline term insurance looks like winning a war for me.

Important Points Regarding Medical Tests

• Make sure you do minimum 12 hours of Fast before the medical tests
• After doing the medical tests, check if you can get the medical test copies or at least the results
• For any point you are concerned about, better take a second opinion from another clinic
• If possible, go for medical tests once again at your own cost to double check if you suspect anything

Do not close your Loans – If you want to improve your credit score!

Do you have a loan and want to close it as soon as possible? I know the answer is YES! . Everybody wants to get rid of debt and want to enjoy a debt free life. But, what if I give you a good enough reason to not close your loan and keep paying your EMI on time? And if I suggest you do that even if you have a lot of spare cash which you can use for paying of the loan. Lets see …

There are many people who are paying their previous loans, but when they apply for some new loan, its getting rejected because they have some bad credit record in past either due to settlement of some debt or because they have a bad payment record. This creates a very frustrating atmosphere, where you want to do something which you instantly make you a “good” customer. A big myth people have is that just because they have a loan going on, they are having a bad credit score, and because of this myth, they want to close off their existing loan.

However this is not true! Let’s see an incident which happened with Nagarajan

I was holding two home loans since 2000. I am a well paid professional drawing good salary, however due to frequent transfers my Post dated cheques were not replenished resulting in non-payment for over 6 months, Also due to some signature error a few times, cheque bounces happened, but they were repaid and corrected .

I dont posses any credit card. only debit cards were used regularly for any financial transactions. 6 months back a personal loan enquiry got rejected due to very bad credit score ( 450 only). so immediately I wound up all the loans ( 4 months ago). now I am loan free and no credit card holder. how long will it take to recover my credit scores ?

You would see how Nagarajan closed his loan thinking that his loan eligibility would increase because his credit score will improve. However what he did was totally wrong and the right thing was to just continue paying his existing loan. Lets see why.

Paying EMI regularly is a Opportunity to show your repayment capability

If you look a little deeper, you’d realize that your existing EMI payment is one of the only ways you can showcase your repayment capability. When you make EMI payment on time, this information is updated to credit bureau (CIBIL etc) by your existing lender and if done on a regular basis, it affects your credit score in positive way and also improves your credit report . Your Days Past Due (DPD) section in CIBIL report also gets positive because your recent information for last 36 months is there in the credit report.

So now I hope you are clear about the importance of paying your EMI on time on regular basis. Its one of the only ways you can build your repayment record and improve your credit score. Do you have a credit card or some kind of loan? If yes, then it might make sense to keep paying their dues on time just for making sure that you build your repayment history!

LIC fined Rs1 lakh for denying claim arbitrarily

The New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum observed that LIC had “misdirected itself” by not showing any evidence that the deceased was suffering from asthma prior to availing the policy and had not “applied its mind” while denying his claim

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has been directed by a Delhi based consumer forum to pay Rs1 lakh to the husband of a policyholder for ‘arbitrarily’ rejecting his claim for the assured amount on his wife’s death.

The New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum observed that LIC had “misdirected itself” by not showing any evidence that the deceased was suffering from asthma prior to availing the policy and had not “applied its mind” while denying his claim. LIC had denied the claim saying the woman was an asthma patient and had not disclosed her illness while taking the policy.

It had relied on a discharge summary of 2004 to reject the claim.

“We have considered the material on record and submission made. It is patent that the opposite party (LIC) has misdirected itself. It has not brought any evidence of deceased suffering from asthma before taking of policy in 2003 or any record of taking treatment.

“The discharge summary of 2004 is of no use. It shows trouble for 4-5 days in 2004 and not before taking policy in 2003. Opposite party has not applied its mind. We hold it guilty of deficiency in service by arbitrarily repudiating the claim,” a bench presided by CK Chaturvedi said.

It directed LIC to pay the sum insured of Rs50,000 along with “punitive damages” of Rs50,000 to Delhi resident Dev Raj whose wife had died in December 2005. The forum also directed LIC to obtain half of the damages from salary of the officer concerned “who gave no attention to the appeal and agreed for repudiating the claim”.

Raj, in his complaint, had said that his wife had obtained the policy for Rs50,000 from LIC in 2003 and under it she was covered till 2005, but the insurance firm had rejected his claim on the ground that she was an asthma patient.