The Next Oneironauticum is Friday, November 3rd
On the night of November 3, people around the world will join together to form a community of intentional dreamers. Using the same oneirogen-any sound, substance, or scent that promotes vivid dreaming-this community has been meeting in dream worlds since January, 2008. For this Oneironauticum dream sharing event, we’ll be working with lucid dreaming, either using Galantamine or the MILD Technique. Click here to learn more about the Oneironauticum.
Dream Reports – Although we usually encourage remote participants to Skype in for dream sharing, because this is a birthday event, there will be no skype content. However, as always, remote participants are welcome! If you participate, send us a dream and we’ll post it in Dream Reports.
Galantamine, or in its organic form, red spider lily, is used to treat Alzheimer’s and other memory impairments. An alkaloid, Galantamine is believed to increase the concentration of acetylcholine—a neurotransmitter that plays a very active role in dreaming—in the brain. Galantamine is also used to promote lucid or vivid dreaming.
Galantamine is short acting. To use it to work with REM dreams, plan to take your Galantamine five hours after you go to sleep, when the longer periods of REM sleep begin. Set an alarm just before you go to bed, and leave the capsules by your bed. Try 4 – 8 mg, unless you’ve used it before and know your dosage is different. Galantamine can be purchased at some supplement stores, or online.
As an alternative to Galantamine, try the MILD (Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dream) technique developed by Stephen LaBerge.
How to practice MILD
1. Work on your dream recall. For the next few days, linger in bed in the morning to better remember dreams. If you have to wake to an alarm clock, try setting the alarm for half an hour earlier than you really need to rise and keep hitting snooze. Sometimes that brings on good dreams. If none of that works, try an afternoon or easy nap and use liminal dream practices. If you have the time to write down dreams, or record them on your phone, that’s even better.
2. Perform Reality Checks all day. The idea is to repeatedly do something that becomes habitual enough that you’ll do it in a dream, accompanied by the question “am I dreaming?”. Connect the habit with the question. Once you perform the habit in the dream, the question will arise and you’ll realize the answer is “yes” and will become lucid. For example, develop the habit of looking frequently at your hands while checking whether you’re dreaming. Another good one is to look at something, look away, look back, look away, and look back again. In my experience, the third time you look at a thing in a dream, it often morphs into something else and tips you off to the fact that you’re dreaming.
3. Repeat lucid affirmations. Although it sounds simple, this really does work! As often as you can, repeat to yourself—or even better say out loud—something that indicates that you will have a lucid dream. “I will have a lucid dream when I sleep.” “I will realize I am sleeping and will become lucid.”
4. Visualize a lucid dream. If you have a recent dream recorded or written down, listen to it or read it before you go to bed. Once you’re in bed, relaxed and falling asleep, remember a recent dream with as much clarity as you can. Now imagine yourself back in that dream and look for a dream signal. Use your reality check: look at your hands or look at something three times, whatever you chose. Visualize what might happen in the dream once you see the dream signal and become lucid. Ideally you’ll fall asleep while practicing this technique.
After you’ve been asleep for about 5 hours, you start to spend a lot more time in REM, the phase of sleep in which lucid dreams occur. On the night of the Oneironauticum, try setting your alarm for 5 hours after you go to bed. Wake up just long enough to have a drink of water, and maybe to repeat your visualization. This improves your chances of lucid dreaming.