Building up to uberman
le...@gol.com
-- I'm planning to start uberman in 5-6 weeks.
-- I'd like to get wakeup calls then
Long version:
I'm planning to start uberman in 5-6 weeks. Here's why.
First, why start at all? I've been feeling hypocritical recently
about offering up so much advice here, because my only polyphasic
experience has been a few months of Everyman a couple years ago, and
an abortive attempt to start again early last year, just before travel
transpacific travel.
Two events jolted me to a realization that I should try again, first
with Everyman (which I know works for me, even being a big-time Owl),
then transitioning to Everyman. The first event is one I remarked on
a little while ago -- feeling like I was naturally on the verge of
Everyman again. The other was seeing my Google Groups star-ranking
suddenly go up. I don't think the latter was earned by votes from any
other group I to which I contribute. Hey, I must be a good Preacher
here -- so all the more reason to become a Practicer. I really like
this group. I think I could contribute even more positively if I
really knew what I was talking about. It's time to walk the walk --
even stumbling the walk would make me more useful here.
I've also resumed serious effort on a software project and have
realized that my current livelihood,
even with all its schedule slack, is getting in the way of hacking
harder. Having four more hours a day to work on it would be great. I
might get something out in a year, rather than two.
Another reason I want to try uberman is that I've realized that there
are some uberman experiments that I'll never talk anybody into trying
for me. I'd like to try using uberman as a framework for lucid
dreaming practice, and in particular for attempting dream
interpretation within lucid dreams. IF I can do uberman, and IF I can
get more frequent lucid dreams that way, and IF this Gendlin dream
interpretation technique can work within lucid dreams, and IF that's
better somehow -- well, it helps make the case for lucid dreaming
*and* for uberman.
Why 5-6 weeks? Why not start right in tomorrow, gung-ho?
Much of the answer is embarrassing: I have some major life cleanups/
upgrades I need to do first, and they can't be done all at once. Some
are polyphasic-specific (besides being a good idea anyway): quitting
caffeine, quitting smoking, eating better, meditation, regular
moderate exercise, practicing napping and setting things up so I can
do it uninterrupted. I was able to do Everyman without changing
hardly of my bad habits (though I exercised some discipline, like
drinking coffee only at the beginning of a wake period, not smoking
for an hour before a nap, etc.) Other things I want to nail before
starting uberman, like keeping a dream journal, redeveloping my lucid
dreaming skills, practicing dream interpretation Gendlin-style, are
geared to the more specific goals above. This is all going to take
some time. Five weeks might even be pushing it. Caffeine withdrawal
can go to two weeks (probably more, in my case). It takes three weeks
for the nicotine hunger-pangs to go away completely after I've quit,
and I'm not even going to try quitting smoking until I'm eating
better, exercising more, and have gotten all the way through caffeine
withdrawal. Regular exercise? We all know how hard establishing that
habit can be.
Someone once said "habits worn long enough become chains." I'm 51,
these bad habits are about five years old, and have turned into a
gross clinking weight I can't afford. I've got some chains to lose,
even if I don't have a world to win. I'll probably thank myself daily
for years afterward, whether I succeed with uberman or not.
Another reason for taking my time: I've been a strong proponent of
what I've called Uberman Without Blears. I'd like to experiment with
gradualist approaches, like Everyman-to-Uberman.
http://transcendentalbloviation.blogspot.com/2005/06/uberman-sleep-without-blears.html
Finally, why am I telling you all this? Why don't I just go off and
try it?
Because I think I'll need help. In particular, I've found that
nothing wakes me up better than having to pick up the phone and talk
for a minute or two. I'd like to recruit people willing to give me
calls on my uberman wakeup schedule. I live in Tokyo, so even if
you're on Everyman or still monophasic, if you're in a US/Europe time
zone, calling me during the day or evening can reach me even in the
dead of night. I'll probably need to be reached on my mobile in the
late night hours, and from my experience, VoIP calls to my mobile here
in Japan aren't very intelligible. But they do work, and if they get
me up and at my computer where VoIP works fine, that would be enough.
I will, of course, offer compensation if you don't want to do it on a
purely volunteer basis. In the long run, however, if call-ups work
well, they might form the basis of a barter system: "You do call
wakeups for me to get me on uberman, and I'll pay you back by doing
call wakeups for you."
Well, that's it. Uberman On-Ramp, Day One, for me. A long slow
climb, and (I cross my fingers) no roll-over accidents at high speeds.
-michael turner
le...@gol.com
I've noticed that a couple list members are also studying Japanese.
Since I help run a ryokan in Tokyo, if anyone on uberman wants a steep
discount (or free, to the right applicant) on a place to stay in Tokyo
for a couple weeks sometime in May, in exchange for helping with my
uberman transition, just write me. It could be the best thing you've
ever done for your Japanese skills.
Tokyo is one of those cities that never sleeps, and I'm just starting
to learn about the logistics of napping here. It might be a place
where you sightsee for a couple weeks without ever booking a hotel
room if you're on uberman. A friend of mine has been crashing at an
internet lounge near our place -- after hours, it's 1500 yen (about
$12) for a place with a shower, a comfy reclining chair, showers,
vending machines, and of course internet access. There are whole
chains of these operations, many with facilities in areas where there
are places open all night. Daytime is harder -- public libraries are
sparse on the ground and getting a comfortable feet-up chair might
hard at certain times of day. Depending on the season, park lawns and
benches are iffy -- you might be bathed either in rain or your own
sweat in the summertime. The trains don't run much after midnight,
and start up again a little after 4am (later on weekends), so you
might be locked into some locations for a whole uberman nap cycle each
night. On the other hand, the trains are fast, frequent and punctual,
so getting from one nap-point to another is pretty easy.
-michael turner
Kirk
at uberman, I decided to go raw about 3 weeks before the transition largely
because I thought it would help with the transition. About a week into
uberman, I started getting massively painful headaches and nausea, and it
was just too painful. I was forced to quit not because I couldn't stay
awake (I was actually having a very strangely easy time of it) but because
of the detox symptoms I experienced from going raw, which were unbearable.
I didn't realize it would be so intense.
I later did some research and discovered that it was not uncommon to
experience a wave of detox symptoms one month after going raw. Thankfully
they only lasted about 3 days, but by then I was sleeping A LOT. I felt
fully integrated in the raw diet about 2 months after I started.
When did you move to Japan???
~Kirk
Michael Turner
On 4/6/2007, "Kirk" <ki...@kirkkahn.com> wrote:
>I agree that 5 weeks is the minimum for such changes. For my second attempt
>at uberman, I decided to go raw about 3 weeks before the transition largely
>because I thought it would help with the transition. About a week into
>uberman, I started getting massively painful headaches and nausea, and it
>was just too painful. I was forced to quit not because I couldn't stay
>awake (I was actually having a very strangely easy time of it) but because
>of the detox symptoms I experienced from going raw, which were unbearable.
>I didn't realize it would be so intense.
Sounds a lot like how some people react to fasting. Maybe going on a raw
foods diet is very similar to fasting. Until your GI tract regears its
bacterial processes to digesting more raw food, it's probably like
hardly eating at all in terms of total nutrient intake.
I've considered doing a fast before going on Uberman, just to get
thoroughly cleaned out. It might help. Combining a radical dietary
change with Uberman adjustment sounds like a recipe for disaster though.
Not that I don't admire you for trying.
>When did you move to Japan???
I've been living here for over a decade. When you met me in Seattle, I
was just kinda taking a break from it. We gaijin agree: sometimes you
just have to get away. Japan is possibly the world's weirdest modern
industrial society, and it probably always will be, unless space
colonization starts (and maybe not even then.)
Speaking of weird, in the long run, I'd like to make the ryokan
a kind of polyphasic-friendly travel waystation (while still catering to,
um, *normal* people ;-). Polyphasers seem so thin on the ground at
present that they might more likely meet each other through travel than
in their home towns. But only IF they knew of some travel destination
where such contact had been *made* more likely.
-michael
http://www.transcendentalbloviation.blogspot.com
Daniel Yokomizo
>
> P.S. to that:
>
> I've noticed that a couple list members are also studying Japanese.
> Since I help run a ryokan in Tokyo, if anyone on uberman wants a steep
> discount (or free, to the right applicant) on a place to stay in Tokyo
> for a couple weeks sometime in May, in exchange for helping with my
> uberman transition, just write me. It could be the best thing you've
> ever done for your Japanese skills.
That's evil, you know it? I just (ok not just but less than a couple
of months) came back from my vacation and now I have no possibility of
leaving work to stay in a beautiful ryokan. Evil, totally evil man. I
hope you polyphasic attempt fails and you decide to do it again in,
let's say december (*hint*, *hint*), requesting help from a fellow
polyphasic sleeper from a warm and friendly country (brazilian
perhaps) ;)
So freaking evil, it isn't even fun.
> Tokyo is one of those cities that never sleeps, and I'm just starting
> to learn about the logistics of napping here. It might be a place
> where you sightsee for a couple weeks without ever booking a hotel
> room if you're on uberman. A friend of mine has been crashing at an
> internet lounge near our place -- after hours, it's 1500 yen (about
> $12) for a place with a shower, a comfy reclining chair, showers,
> vending machines, and of course internet access. There are whole
> chains of these operations, many with facilities in areas where there
> are places open all night. Daytime is harder -- public libraries are
> sparse on the ground and getting a comfortable feet-up chair might
> hard at certain times of day. Depending on the season, park lawns and
> benches are iffy -- you might be bathed either in rain or your own
> sweat in the summertime. The trains don't run much after midnight,
> and start up again a little after 4am (later on weekends), so you
> might be locked into some locations for a whole uberman nap cycle each
> night. On the other hand, the trains are fast, frequent and punctual,
> so getting from one nap-point to another is pretty easy.
>
> -michael turner
Daniel Yokomizo.
le...@gol.com
-michael
On Apr 8, 9:56 pm, "Daniel Yokomizo" <daniel.yokom...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Daniel Yokomizo.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Greg
There's no way I could possibly up and leave for Tokyo :(
How I'd love to though
Greg
`Don't make me come down there` - God