repost from May 2014:
Scientists find switch for people to control their dreams
Have you ever had a dream where you realized you were dreaming? The
technical term is a lucid dream. And people who are lucky enough to have
them can often control the dreams, as well. This week, researchers showed
for the first time that they could use electrical stimulation to switch
lucid dreaming on.
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/11/5707204/scientists-switch-on-lucid-dreaming
The implications are intriguing. The study suggests that someday ordinary
people might be able to produce lucid dreams using an electrical device.
It provides a new way to study consciousness. And it also indicates
possible therapies for mental health problems, including the recurring
nightmares common in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"This is a major contribution to consciousness research," Thomas
Metzinger, a philosopher based at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz,
Germany, told me over the phone. He has dealt extensively with aspects of
consciousness and self-awareness from a philosophical perspective.
He also noted that the change from non-lucid to lucid dreaming is similar
to snapping back to attention after daydreaming. So the study might be
able to help our understanding of waking life, as well.
For decades, people have been manipulating the brain using chemical means
— drugs. But in recent years, researchers have begun to use electricity,
as well. For example, there's FDA-approved electrical brain implant that
treats tremors associated with Parkinson's disease.
The new dream study, which was published May 11 in Nature Neuroscience,
used a far less invasive method: electrodes temporarily placed at
strategic locations on the scalp. The research involved 24 volunteers with
no history of lucid dreaming. The subjects went to sleep and eventually
dreamed. Then, researchers turned on a 30-second-long electrical signal
and then woke them up and asked them about their experiences. It turned
out that a 40 Hz stimulation induced lucid dreams 77 percent of the time.
You can't objectively measure a dream, though. So how did researchers know
that the subjects weren't just making it up? For one, the electrical
stimulation was gentle enough that people couldn't feel it, and some
people were in a control group that had electrodes that never got turned
on. Also, the study was double-blind: neither the volunteers nor the
people who interviewed them were told who had what kind of stimulation. So
it does seem that the effects were real.
In addition, there was an objective measurement of the subjects' own brain
activity. Researchers purposefully were stimulating subjects' brains at
around 40 Hz because this frequency had already been associated with
higher-order brain functions such as self-awareness. The subjects' own
brains then resonated with this frequency, producing it themselves. And
the signal was stronger during lucid dreams than non-lucid dreams.
Although lead researcher Ursula Voss, of Goethe-University Frankfurt,
Germany, told me that they haven't seen any side effects from the
stimulation, there isn't enough data to completely know for sure. So
absolutely do not try this at home. The potential risks of messing with
the brain's electrical activity could include seizures, memory problems,
and who knows what else.
### - bit of an update/background info on the original post, as matey was
probably trying in some 'wet-wire' way to internalise this 40hz
stimulation based on articles such as the above from 2014 (2 years before
publishing the WILDway when dild-doing was all they had) instead of having
to be wired-up with dozens of external electrodes before laying down,
which indeed would be a bit of a palaver to have to go through every night
right? not to mention likely being fairly uncomfortable too (there's since
been dozens of these stupid external dream machines costing 100's, none of
which ever worked, all complete ripoffs...)
the whole thing (then and now) clearly 'reeking' of the growing
frustration most people quite naturally experience via exclusively
learning to dild... there being no-such-possible-thing as an on/off switch
for dilds thus people's futile attempts to find/create one!?
clearly the 'mistake' they're making is by involving science in
dream-inducement when science itself has yet to even explain ordinary
dreams & dreaming??
perhaps LaBerge is also somewhat responsible too: by going all-in on dilds
and then inventing those useless flashing facemasks and steering everyone
towards them, like 'that' was the practical/right thing to do?
one end result of all that nonsense being 2023-shit like this now poor
deluded, but obviously well-meaning twit, actually drilling a hole in his
head ffs and poking summat in there?? LOL ! :)))
not recommended heh, or even required now we gots WILDs to play with ;)