Great instructions, Paul. I'll definitely try them out when the conditions are right. I actually had an OBE from a DILD once. When I realized I was dreaming, I had a false awakening in my bed, then did the "floating out of it" thing and wound up on the dream floor for a few minutes until I lost the visuals (I'm still a beginner, so it's hard to maintain the lucidity for very long). Then I went back into the dream body and experienced the feeling of the consciousness being not in the head, just vaguely about the paralyzed body of some "other" (me).
-Avi
Hi Paul,
Thank you for taking the time to so clearly describe your experiences with Wake Initiated Lucid Dreams. Fascinating! Truly, you are one WILD dreamer.
Looking forward to sharing more dreamtime with you in Hawaii! And, in case you missed my request (a PS to an earlier Forum post), please do send a note to keelin@lucidity.com. My emails to you keep bouncing back, so apparently, we've got an incorrect address for you. Or... maybe it's time for a reality check...... :?
Warm Aloha, Keelin
Dear All,
I want to update you on my progress with analyzing and modifying the NovaDreamer and my own LDIS design effort.
Enhancing the NovaDreamer...
A fellow oneironaut loaned me their ND to retrofit it with different colored LEDs. Their concern was that they had become acclimated to the color of the light and could no longer recognize cues. In fact all the ND does for them now is wake them up. Becoming acclimated to the red light cues seems to be a widely held concern and several postings have discussed using different colored lights. The good news is that I have successfully added sockets for the LEDs making it possible to install any colored LED you like into your ND. For the past week I've been using the ND with violet LEDs. I've also tried various colored LEDs to make sure the ND could turn them on. Since the turn-on voltage requirement for LEDs varies and depends on the color, some LEDs that needed higher voltages may not have worked. The good news again is that all the LEDs I've tried have worked, including white, blue and violet. It was very easy to add these sockets and I'm considering doing it for any interested NovaDreamer owners for a modest fee. If you are seriously interested in making your ND more versitile please send me a private email at sstride@interstellar-probes.org.
Seeing Violet...
The violet LEDs I'm using are fairly bright and the violet color has no problem penetrating my closed eyelid to produce the violet color in my brain. I typically use the ND intensity setting of 3 or 4 when using violet. I've been theorizing that if the true color does enter your eye you should be able to train yourself to recognize that color while dreaming. Violet is the color I would expect to see in my dreams. However, the 3 times I have seen the cue it was not violet, but a silver-gray artificial-looking light flashing in my face. The color seems consistent but not what I expected. The answer may lie in the duration of the pulse which the ND delivers. I'm using the 1 pulse per second setting and think that the pulse duration may need to be longer for the brain to process the true color. I've only tried one color and need to use others like blue, green and yellow to see if this pattern holds. If it does then I'll have to use my LDIS to experiment with extended LED pulse widths. The LDIS can easily produce pulse widths of several seconds. I'll keep you posted.
NovaDreamer Vibratos...
Another effort is to add a vibration cuing capability to the ND. After looking at the 1/8" audio jack output signals with an oscilloscope, it is possible to use those signals, which coincide with the initial LED cue, to trigger a circuit that can operate a small vibrator. There are several models of finger and hand mounted massage vibrators on the market that could be used for this purpose. The one I'm going to work with first is a hand massager unit that has 5 small vibrators in the finger tips. It is being provided by yet another fellow oneironaut. My effort will involve making an interface circuit that connects between the ND and the vibration unit. Within the next month or so I'll be working to make this cue a reality. I'll keep you updated on my progress and test results.
LDIS Continued...
Lastly, my own LDIS design effort is ongoing. I'm building a 3rd mask. I've decided it will have 4 LEDs, red, yellow, green and blue. It was suggested that I try adding a cue capability that gradually increases the brightness of one of the colors in keeps it on for a long time before gradually reducing it's brightness to zero. The belief is that the color could integrate itself into the dream and behave like a color filter. In other words the dream scene would take on the color of the light illuminating the eyes. The dreamer would need to train themselves to perform a reality test when they noticed the dream scene take on a distinct color like blue. This will require more experimenting.
Regards,
Scot Stride
Dear All,
I have completed a fully working prototype circuit that operates a vibrating glove from the NovaDreamer. It uses the 2 pulses from the ND audio port, that occur at the start of a cue, to activate the vibration circuitry. The duty cycle of the pulses activating the glove is variable (settable with a pot) and a BCD switch is used to set the glove to vibrate from 1 to 10 times and then stop. It then waits for another cue from the ND and then starts up again. Images of the prototype can be found at URL: http://www.interstellar-probes.org/ND_Photos.htm The next step is to shrink everything down and put the electronics in a small plastic box and start testing it on a willing oneironaut (aka myself). After that the vibration interface gets delivered to my ND donor so they can test it on themselves. I will keep you posted on how well this device works at delivering cues and helping with lucidity.
BTW, the circuit also has the capability of driving a tiny stand-alone vibrator like the one sold by Omron (http://www.omron.com/ecb/tec/h/h_4.html). It can also be used to activate a vibrating watch (e.g., VibraLite3), play and pause a CD player or a digital recorder so the oneironaut can play message cues to themselves. This feature doesn't matter much to me because my LDIS mask already does that by playing digitized messages as cues. However, I will test out that feature as well just so I know it works.
Regards,
Scot Stride
Scot, Hoorah! On the trail of the failsafe LDID!
Paul
That sounds very cool. I'm particularly interested in it being able to activate the CD player. How much work would it be to set that up? Also, how hard would it be to get it to activate an electrical outlet? I'd like to have it turn on an oil infuser.
Dear Gordon,
I have already designed the circuit to play/pause a CD player. But I'm at a loss for how long to play the CD. Right now I can trigger it to play anywhere from 3 to 60 seconds. But I don't know what an optimal play time is. The time depends on the length of the message cue. One problem is the CD message needs to be in sync with the interface circuit. The circuit doesn't know what's on the CD. All it does is play and pause the CD at some interval. If the interval and CD get out of sync the played messages could become confusing. Some fade-in and fade-out delay is needed on the recordings to make the timing a little easier to synchronize. Can anyone come up with a practical message cue length?
As for the AC outlet, that's not a problem. With a slight modification, the circuit I have could be used to latch a power relay and activate many different electric appliances including your oil infuser. As it stands now I use opto-isolators on the input and output circuits so the ND will not be affected by what it's activating. And there is no reason the ND could not be used to activate a wireless transmitter or x10 device (http://www.x10.com/automation/index.html#automation_switches) to remotely turn on and off just about anything in your house''Oh look honey, Mr. Johnson's porch light is going on and off again, he must be dreaming.' With modern day electronics and software we can do just about anything. That's why the next generation of LDIDs have the potential to be so powerful and user friendly.
Regards,
Scot Stride
Dear All,
This morning I'm testing the vibration cueing interface using the ND. I'm setting up the apparatus to pulse one of my fingers 5 times with about 250 mS bursts. I'm setting the ND to deliver a null cue to my eyes so all I'll get for a cue is vibrations. I've done no self-conditioning to do a reality test when I feel a vibration so I can't predict what will happen if I notice the cue. At a minimum I'd like to recall the cue in my dream and I'll report how it was incorporated. I have the VibraLite3 watch and my cell phone that I can use to periodically vibrate and condition myself to do reality tests when I feel a vibrations. I'll start that soon. Pictures of the setup will be coming.
Regards,
Scot Stride
Scot,
Thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to the picutes. I'm thinking that even if you turn the vibrator on yourself and do the reality tests immediately afterward, the association should be strong enough to trigger the reality check in your dream. It may be worth it to do that several times during the day and do reality checks. I suggest taking it off before answering the door, however. A bit hard to explain, I think.
Dear Gordon,
Well everything was set up for the first trial but it didn't work. Mode 8, Type 0 on the ND delivers "No Cues", not a null cue as I thought. I don't know how this mode is of any value since the ND technically does nothing but draw power. How is this functionally any different than turning it off? I would expect the No Cue mode to at least monitor eye movements and count the number of times REM was detected and report that. It seems the least noticable cue is a single short beep from the buzzer. And to make it even less noticable I can add a little tape over the speaker hole. I'll do that the next time I try the test. BTW, the vibrator cable is about 6' long so it can be placed just about anywhere on the body. LaBerge reported they tried an experiemnt with a vibrator connected to the ankle but it was too slow and too strong so they put it under the bed. After trying the finger I can move it to other parts of the body, like behind the knee. Also since I have three finger vibrators I can place two more on the body and pulse them all at once. To sequence the vibrators will require a more sophisticated computer interface. Do you have any suggestions?
Regards,
Scot Stride
Scot, one can still use the dream alarm function in No Cue mode, and I think that's the difference from its being turned off. This allows for isolated training in dream recall.
If I were testing the system I would try vibrating as many fingers as possible at once on one hand. Ideally one would wear the original glove and pulse the whole hand. I'm certain that drawing attention to the dream hands is going to prove to be a great dreamsign, at least it has been for me lately, don't ask me why. Maybe Castaneda was really on to something there. Whenever I find my hands in my dreams I become lucid. Weird!
Paul
Dear All,
This is an update on testing with the vibration interface unit. I've used the setup for 4 days now connected to my left index finger and have experienced numerous problems preventing me from seeing the cues. The vibration interface unit and ND both work fine. The main obstacle has been getting the ND cue sensitivity correct and my sleep pattern using the combined ND mask and finger vibrator. Humans are not generally accustomed to wearing devices on their bodies and getting a normal and natural nights sleep. At some level we are consciously aware of the devices, especially if the devices restrict our movement. In my case I know the setup is fragile and I don't want to break it. After I get up at 3 am and put on the devices it takes quite a while to get comfortable and fall back to sleep. It will take time to get acclimated to wearing a mask and vibration device to the point where I can regularly sense the cues. The one time I did notice a cue I was dreaming I was in a room of a house with two people. I noticed the wall in front of me was shaking or vibrating. I asked them what that was and they said a small earthquake which I naturally accepted without question because earthquakes are common in Southern California. Lucid dreaming requires we do our own reality tests because dream characters tend to lie when asked about something unusual'they tell us things that make us accept the dream as real.
I have posted images at the following webpage of the ND vibration interface connected to a finger and ankle.
http://www.interstellar-probes.org/LDIS/ND_Finger_Vibe_Photos.htm
Regards,
Scot Stride
Dear All,
Here's another ND modification. This one makes it possible to use an external computer, via the ND audio port, to operate the ND LEDs. You will find at URL:
http://www.interstellar-probes.org/LDIS/ND_Computer_Control_Mod_LEDs.jpg
a simulated "to scale" image showing two Solid-State Relay (SSR) chips attached to the ND circuit board. The relays are normally-open so when the audio port is not used the ND functions normally. This mod requires three traces be cut (shown in red) on the ND in order to insert the relays. One between the audio port and pin 9 on the MCU (U1-9), one between pin 1 on the MCU (U1-1) and LED1 (- side), and one between pin 8 on the MCU (U1-8) and LED2 (- side). The SSRs are epoxied on the ND board where shown and tiny "haywires" (shown in green) are soldered to the appropriate spots.
What the SSRs do is allow both the ND LEDs to be remotely operated. "Who cares?', you ask. Well, external control of the LEDs makes it possible to add enhanced functionality of the flashes and the brightness of the LEDs once REM is detected. Instead of using the existing ND brightness control, which is basically leaving the LEDs on longer, the intensity can be controlled with what is called pulse-width modulation (PWM). The flash rate and pulse width of the LEDs can also be extended. They can be used to gradually flood the eyes with light and leave it there for several seconds if desired before gradually dimming the light to zero. The effect in the dream world might be a gradual change in color of the dream scene.
My theory is that it takes time for the sleeping brain to become aware of color information coming from the eyes. Longer pulses of light or the gradual illumination of the eye with a specific color should allow the true color of the light to enter the dream. Seeing true colors, as opposed to the brain synthesizing its own, means the dreamer can better recognize the cue for what it is because it contains more specific information, color!
FYI, this mod is untested so don't try it until you've heard that it actually works. And making the mod is the easy part. The tricky part is getting the control software to play correctly.
Regards,
Scot Stride
Scot..Thats what I thought about the [leds]..Can nova dreamer give constant [non blinking] five second cues? The longer the color cue..The more time the brain has to process it..At least it sounds posable..You were right in a recent post about wearing [ND] to bed..Even though It feels comfortable at some level your always aware that Its on you..And for some people that awarness is enough to keep them semi awake all night..I toyed with the Idea of putting [ND] circut board in a special pocket in a cap or head band.. to wear to bed and an extention on at least one [led] and the [IR] sensor situated in front of one eye on a flexable soft suport.. .This would at least for me take away that mask over your eyes feeling and promote better sleep..But how well the [led] would stay alighned in front of an eye depends on sleeping habits and the structure of the new suport system..Also have you seen the posts about the dream herb [calea zacatechichi] It sounds like a fairly safe and leagle dream inhansment agent. Its been used for many years by the south american indians as a dream aid.. Let us know how an [extended color cue] would work during dreams.. cool dreams..Tom
Dear All,
Just a quick note to show the modified ND that will allow remote control of cueing through the audio port. See the following images...
http://www.interstellar-probes.org/LDIS/ND_Control1.JPG http://www.interstellar-probes.org/LDIS/ND_Control2.JPG http://www.interstellar-probes.org/LDIS/ND_Control3.JPG
I plan on testing it possibly tonight to see how it works. If all goes well, the mod will allow a remote computer to detect REM cues from one ND and deliver cues in sync with another ND. As you recall, this is part of a shared lucid dream experiment hopefully to be carried out sometime in the near future.
Regards,
Scot Stride