You Are Dreaming

Have you ever had a dream and one day later it comes true? Like Déjà Vu[1][w], but you remember having dreamed it? If so, then this book is for you.

Copyright © 2010 by Ian Wilson –

FINAL ROUGH DRAFT ONLY – PENDING EDITING AND SOURCES -

This book is printed in electronic format, no paper products have been used in the publishing of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise for the purpose of personal gain through profiting, re-selling, or any means by which money is exchanged for the use or ownership of this book. The author holds all monetary rights to this book should he choose to produce it for profit by any means. As for reproduction and distribution, this book is a public on-line resource that can be reproduced with no need for written permission as long as the book is not altered, changed, modified in any way. You are free to distribute in any form, as many copies of this book as you would like as long as no money is charged or gained from doing so. Title: You Are Dreaming Page Count: 109 Version: 1.2 Last Revised: 2013-04-30 Publisher: Ian Wilson Editor: Dr. Art Funkhouser Graphics: Ian Wilson Artwork: Printing History: None. Author: Ian Wilson Mail: ianwilson27@hotmail. com Website: http://www. youaredreaming. org “Thus then it is quite conceivable that some dreams may be tokens and causes [of future events]." Aristotle 350 B.C.E. On Prophesying by Dreams[2][L]. “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." - Joel 2:28 NIV The Holy Bible[L] “A good dream that comes true is from Allah” - Hadith -Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 87, Number 115: Narrated Abu Qatada[L]

Table of Contents Copyright © 2010 by Ian Wilson................................................................................................2 Preface ........................................................................................................................................4 Chapter 1: To Dream or Not to Dream?......................................................................................6 Chapter 2: Enter the Dream.......................................................................................................11 Chapter 3: Dream Mechanics 101.............................................................................................18 Chapter 4: Dream Mechanics 102.............................................................................................34 Chapter 5: Dreaming 101..........................................................................................................46 Chapter 6: Dreams in Religion..................................................................................................67 Chapter 7: Cognitive Reality.....................................................................................................75 Chapter 8: You Are Reality.......................................................................................................88 Chapter 9: Precognitive Dreaming 101.....................................................................................91 Chapter 10: Mutual and Shared Dreaming.............................................................................107

Preface Have you ever had “déjà vu”[W]? Déjà vu is French for “Already Seen”. The chances are, you have. The bigger question is, have you ever had “Déjà rêvé”? “Déjà rêvé” is French for “Already Dreamed”. “Déjà rêvé” is like déjà vu except at the time you are having déjà vu, you can link the familiarity to something you remember dreaming. The dream could have happened days, weeks, months even years ago. In examining your own experiences with déjà vu, how much of your déjà is actually “Déjà rêvé”? If you haven't had this type of experience, this book still covers dreams and consciousness with techniques and insights into dreams and neurology that will benefit nearly anyone with a desire to become a more literate dreamer in todays day and age. We will examine the possible reasons for precognitive dreams and look at the skeptical arguments and the theories which could explain it. Our journey into dreams will also include our current scientific understanding of how the brain works. New theories will emerge to tackle the “Hard Problems of Consciousness”[w] and “Perception”[w]. Reality will be discussed and explored from both materialistic[w] and idealistic[w] view points showing how both of these concepts are correct, and how it is a matter of understanding the relationships between the objective world and the observer that produces the confusion between what is real, and what is not. In the “Ultimate Question” that asks if there is a relationship between dreams and waking reality; this book sets out to not only answer the question but provide the toolkit and direction needed to prove it to yourself. Ian Wilson started with Lucid Dream[w] exploration in 1987. He is one of the first dream researchers to report that while in a lucid state a person can affect a precognitive dream and change it. He reports that the changes do come true when the dream actualizes days, weeks, months later. Think about all of your dreams that have come true. Imagine if you could have changed them prior to the waking event. Would those changes ultimately come true? This book challenges you to learn the techniques to achieve this state known as “Active Lucid Precognitive Dreaming”.

Chapter 1: To Dream or Not to Dream? There is no arguing the fact that when you sleep; you dream. The real question is, do you remember dreaming? In 1952, Prof. Nathaniel Kleitman[w] and his associates at the University of Chicago Sleep Laboratory discovered while studying infants that when sleeping, their eyes kept moving under their lids after all other body movements had stopped. This lead to what is commonly known as REM or rapid-eye movement and is a telltale sign that a person is actively dreaming. Through this research and others like it, sleep laboratories have been able to determine that not only do we dream every night, but we have several dreams per night. Dreaming is not exclusive to Human's only. If you are a pet owner, you might have seen your dog twitching and pawing in it's sleep [V]. Your dog is having a dream. We know that animals also dream. How this phenomena of dreaming descends into the plant, animals and insects kingdom is not conclusive; however it seems that dreaming is an important part sleep for many of Earths bio-diverse species. Why do we dream? There are many theories regarding the role and function of dreaming as it relates to human cognition. Sigmund Freud[w] was one of the first modern fathers of Psychology who examined the link between the dream and his patience. Carl Jung[w] also ventured into the concept of what dreaming was. The disagreements between Jung and Freud regarding dreams ultimately ended their relationship. In 1977, Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley presented a neurophysilogical model of dreaming, the Activation-Synthesis hypothesis[w]. They hypothesized that dreaming resulted from the interpretation by the cortex of information concerning eye movements and activated brain stem motor pattern generators. This finding created a very fallacious argument that all dreams consisted of; are random electrical signals firing from the brain stem. In many ways, this has created the stigma that dreams are meaningless and without purpose. Such a fallacious argument starts to crumble when you start to examine dreams from their content and discover that dreams have a ridged rule-set, deep plots and very articulate details that give rise to a type of natural occurring virtual reality system that our brains have naturally developed. The Unconscious Non-Verbal Thought Process Hypotheses The Unconscious Non-Verbal Thought Process looks at how dreams form a NonVerbal inner language that facilitates non-verbal communication from our compartmentalized unconsciousness. Dreams are a form of non-verbal linguistics that involve a thought process that utilizes highly advanced organized thought forms which describe every detail of the dream reality. Dreams are far more organized and detailed then what random brain-stem firing could allow for. The UNVTP hypotheses takes us past the idea of random electrical brainstem discharges and addresses dreaming at the more direct role of a highly evolved type of sensory linguistics that facilitate communication in the form of dreams and dream symbolism. We will cover this in greater detail further in the book.

What is a dream [L]? According to the dictionary, a dream is: 1. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. [L] In Oneirology [L] dreams are described as activity in the brain that occurs during REM sleep and is defined as a form of thinking that occurs under minimal brain direction. External stimuli are blocked, and the part of the brain that recognizes self shuts down. Oneirology supports the UNVTP hypothesis that dreams are a type of thought process. It is clear that for most people, we dream in an unconscious state and that most of our dreams flow from unconscious thoughts. It is only when we strive to maintain waking consciousness during sleep that we find we can change and control the content of our dreams. This is known as “Lucid Dreaming” and has been popularized by the movie, “Inception”. To understand the UNVTP hypothesis, we need to understand the mechanics of dreaming from the perspective of information processing and thought. It is important to examine how the brain produces a dream in the first place. What are the mechanics involved that allow for such vivid experiences? The first area we need at is the human brain. The human brain provides the hardware and processing power needed to render highly organized Non-Verbal thought forms into a dream experience. The Human Brain as a Super Computer. In 2006, Professor Randall O'Reilly of the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that certain regions of the brain functioned much like a computer. O'Reilly's research determined that the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia operate much like a digital computer system. "The neurons in the prefrontal cortex are binary -- they have two states, either active or inactive -- and the basal ganglia is essentially a big switch that allows you to dynamically turn on and off different parts of the prefrontal cortex," O'Reilly said. This research supports cellular automata which shows how simple on/off states in cellular latices forms a basis for information processing. The human brain has effectively evolved information processing at the cellular level and even more stunning is how the brain has evolved information processing at the quantum level. Other bio-physicists have furthered research into brain neurology showing that the brain not only functions digitally at the neuron level, but also scaled down into the microtubules into the alpha/beta tubulin where even more binary processes are observed. Stuart Hammeroff and Sir Roger Penrose proposed the “Orch Or” model of consciousness which with the support of other researchers have proposed a model of information processing where the microtubule lattice forms a computational matrix where the alpha/beta tubulin act as binary “bits” as one expects from computation and cellular automata. What makes Hammeroff's research interesting is how his research shows the use of ions and photons by the microtubules suggesting that the brain functions on the properties of quantum mechanics and is itself natures Quantum Super Computer. It is important to note how the digital processing of the brain scales up from the carbon-atom pairs of alpha/beta tubulin lattice to a the larger cellular scale found in O'Rieley's work on the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia. The brain and nature has effectively used scaled up systems to create a very complex neurocomputer to process information. Consciousness itself theoretically should also scale up from the tiniest “bit” to the larger “byte” of brain neurology. Proposing a hypotheses that Consciousness is scalar and potentially fractal due to naturally occurring computation within the brain is not an unreasonable angle by which to start to explore the Hard Problem of Consciousness.

It is self-evident that the brain renders information into a model that we experience. Simply closing your eyes proves that the brain renders visual information from the eyes into an observer model within the brain. All the vivid colors, details and objects you see are actually a mind-rendered output from a series of powerful neurological processes that act like natures “Rendering Farm”. A rendering farm is a series of computers networked together to process a single or set of images for a 3D movie. Movies like Disney/Pixar's “Toy Story” and “Cars” all needed massive computational power to process trillions of vectors and triangles to form meshes that contained detailed bitmaps and lighting to create the illusion of 3D space. Back in the days, a single frame of a popular 3D movie took a full day to render. It took months for the 3D modellers to push vectors and edges to create a complex triangular mesh to describe the 3D objects in the world. It took weeks for people to rig the mesh so it could behave as an animatable character. Several artists would spend weeks designing the UVM bitmaps to color the 3D mesh objects so when the rendering farm finally put everything together, the final product would be a vivid 3D image. The human brain naturally renders the equivalent of a ultra-high resolution 3D movie nearly instantly and effortlessly. It does not spend months on the wire mesh to describe the objects it sees, it takes even less for it to render and color the objects according to spacial calculations, lighting and contrast. Each neuron involved in the rendering process effectively creates a neural network rendering farm to achieve in near run-time and instantly what takes entire teams of software engineers, modellers, artists and computers to achieve in months. We will introduce another hypotheses in this book that explains how the brain uses a natural form of “neural geometry” linked to hypnogogia which acts as natures version of 3D rendering meshes to describe the spacial lattice by which to render visual data from sensory data on to our perceived experience of “Reality”. The processing power of the Human Brain rivals any computer we have ever invented. Nature has already invented the perfect rendering farm. The computational power of quantum computing scaled up into cellular automata and neural transmitters has exceeded everything that IBM and AMD have strive to produce in their processors. The facts don't lie: the human brain is natures super computer. For fun, we will break the brain down and match some brain areas to what we find in todays modern computer. The emphasis on computing for this book is important to help us understand how the brain renders out an experience of reality for both our waking senses and our dreams when we sleep. The mechanics for both are very similar when dealing with our neurology. The Computer Brain Analogy The human brain can be broken down into sections that relate to a computer. For example, a computer has a graphics card to process images and our brain has the occipital lobes which render images the data our eyes see. I will attempt to break down the human brain to it's computer counterpart. • • • • •

CPU Graphics Card RAM Hard-drive Input Devices

- Prefrontal Cortex and Basal Ganglia - Occipital lobes - The Pre-Frontal Lobes (short-term memory) – The Hippocampus (long-term memory) - Our Five Senses.

The Software Today we have operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux to name a few. The operating system is fundamental software that manages computer hardware, memory, applications and devices attached to it like keyboard and mouse. The OS often runs behind the scenes managing systems while the user engages the desired video game, movie or software application. If nature has evolved a sophisticated quantum supercomputer then what type of operating system did it evolve to support the hardware? We know that the brain naturally maintains heart rate, temperature and breathing. Much of this behaviour is what an operating system would maintain. All the regulatory processes such as motor control, equilibrium etc. would require an operating system to keep all the systems in check. All of these automated functions run in the background much like we would expect from any operating system. This allows us to engage a more active application such as being awake and conscious. With all the recent discoveries of how the brain utilizes natural binary “bits” and digital processes, there must be some psychologists and/or neurologists that can start to dissect and interpret nature's operating system. In my musings, I imaging that our neurological OS is a highly evolved monolithic kernel that has hardwired modules to regulate certain automatic function stored in relative areas of the brain. All software requires a programming language by which reduces down to machine language and binary code. If the brain is using a type of cellular automata and binary “bit” then it is possible that a natural form of digital processing has evolved within nature to produce the ability to render out a “Perception of Reality”. It's clear that our sensory perception of reality is a mind-generated rendering. The mechanics of how our mind renders out a model of perceived reality is still being uncovered. If information processing in the brain uses quantum computing and “bits” then we really are dealing with a natural “3D modelling and rendering application” by which the brain digitally draws and renders out our sensory perception. Consciousness and unconscious brain function all play a role at the theoretical neurological software level and the more we understand how the brain processes information and generates consciousness, the more we can understand how the brain also processes and creates dreams both consciously and unconsciously. The Monitor Computers render output onto a computer monitor. This allows us to interface with the application through the keyboard, mouse or other input devices. The computer screen is an external device that uses pixels that light up and create the rendered images. Where the brain differs from how it outputs our “Perception of Reality” is that it doesn't have a physical screen to render the data. There is no actual screen that forms a set of pixels that describes an image in our brain. If we use the open and close your eyes method of seeing the screen in action, it seems like the screen sits at the very front of our forehead in alignment with our eyes. What is the screen that our brain uses to render all this vivid sensory data? Since the time of Plato, philosophers referred to this as the Cartesian theater where sat a “homunculus” or a small person in this tiny theater watching all the senses projecting on a screen as it watched. Descartes described it as the seat of the soul within the pineal gland. Modern day psychology and philosophy steer away from this concept of dualism

between the material world, and the illusionary world of the mind. If we look at how perception is rendered by the mind, we need to see that it creates an artificial virtual screen by which the sensory information projects outward in a nearly holographic way to represent material objects and forms. Research into visual perception has shown that our eyes are actually poor in terms of how they perceive light and images. One of the early modern researchers into visual perception Hermann von Helmholtz discovered how poor the eye actually was. In his opinion this made vision impossible. He therefore concluded that vision could only be the result of some form of unconscious inferences: a matter of making assumptions and conclusions from incomplete data, based on previous experiences. Optical illusions show flaws in our perception demonstrating that our brain tends to fill in the blanks and fills in the blanks with guess work to get the imaging correct. Colorblindness will cause one person to have a different rendered “Perception of Reality” then another person. A cat will render their visual perception different from a dog. Each creature in existence must render a “Model of Reality” based on perception in order to survive and exist in the objective world. How this model of perceived reality scales up from single-celled organisms to plant, animal and humans will vary greatly based on collective sensory organs. We will cover this in greater detail in this book when we address this model of sensory reality as “Cognitive Reality”. For now, the topic is the screen by which the brain renders a “model of reality” based on perception. This is important to dreaming as dreams also share the same virtual screen to render out the dream experience. The same rendering and information processing that renders our model of reality also applies to how a dream renders on this cognitive canvas of the mind. British author Anthony Peake who refers to this cognitive canvas as the Bohmien Imax, or BIMAX for short. In his hypothesis we relive our life experience on this BIMAX at the point of death. He builds on the Cartesien Theater in his ITLAD Hypotheses which is covered in two books, “The Daemon” and “Is There Life After Death”. Both books highly recommended. Science is slowly uncovering the mechanics of how the brain creates this rendered output. If we look closely at the mechanics of how the brain renders our experience of perceived reality, it starts to appear much like what one would expect from a Holodeck popularized by the TV series “Star Trek, The Next Generation”. Unlike a Holodeck, our “Cognitive Canvas of the Mind” has no spacial dimensions and is likely located across various neurons within the brain. How does perception work that it allows us to see light and color? How is it that the mind generates taste, touch, smell and thought? All of these wonderful experiences are mind-generated phenomena known as Qualia[w]. Qualia is a debated idea that in itself is hard to describe the full meaning. In essence “Qualia” is the subjective quality of experience when the mind interprets sensory data. How the color looks to one person could vary for another person based on interference from different qualities of perception and neurology. As long as the color is known as red and both people recognize and see red as they know it, there is no other means by which one can confirm what is known as red between these two people is identically percieved as the same identical color of red. The gradients, the subtle differences and the quality of red could vary and not ever be known. Qualia introduces a sensible acknowledgement of subjective perception and how such perceptions could in fact vary from individual to individual based on how the mind renders out the sensory experiences. We will examine how dreams and our perception of reality explained as organized thought-forms that take on the appearance of light, color, sound, taste, smell, and touch.

That thought is used as part of the rendering toolkit of perception for both dreams and waking reality. What thought produces is a rendered “final product” from information processing as to produce our “Experience of Reality” and a “Dream Experience”. Chapter 2: Enter the Dream. What is a dream? We know dreams are phantasms of the mind that occur when the body is asleep. We know that we seem to forget them when we wake up. We can wake up terrified if the dream invoked a nightmare, or filled with joy if the dream was euphoric and wonderful. There is no question that we all have them. Even dogs, cats and other animals have dreams. Why is dreaming so important to the mind that we must sleep and become engaged in this unconscious hallucination? People report very strange things through dreaming. Some people have reported dreaming the future, while others have reported sharing the same dream with their friends of family. Others report being fully awake and conscious during a dream. Some say they have dreams that have lasted an entire lifetime in a single night sleep. Christopher Nolan's movie “Inception” incorporates a large portion of studied dream literature into the movie. Would you be surprised to find out that some of the movie concepts in “Inception” is actually something we can achieve through dreaming? Lucid dreaming has been established as scientific fact since the 1970's with sleep laboratories recording controlled eye-movements and EEG scans of people when they were asleep. Stephen LaBerge and his team have been able to verify that people can be awake and lucid during the time when their body is asleep. What a great adventure that must be? To be awake in a vivid world that you can command and control. My life was completely transformed by and article written by Stephen LaBerge's for “Omni Magazine” back in 1985. When I first read about lucid dreaming thanks to Stephen's article, I had to know first-hand if this was real or not. To my surprise and wonder, I was able to achieve this amazing state of wakefulness during sleep that is commonly known as “Lucid Dreaming”. What followed were adventures so grand that entire novels could be written around a single night of sleep. What is observed through lucid dreaming rivals even the most special effect packed Hollywood movie. Some of the experiences are so amazing that even telling them would make the claim it was dreamed at all sound totally preposterous. For the most part of this book the focus will be on practical ordinary dreaming, however for those of you who can venture forward this book will examine the extraordinary reality of dreams. There is a great mystery about the dreamworld, so lets dive feet first into what it feels like to dream. Physical Reality as a Dream Training Simulator. When people have raised the question, “ What is it like to have a lucid dream?" The answer that I put forth is, “It's exactly like what we experience right now when we are awake, except the location is in a dream state." The reason for this is linked to the relationship between the minds ability to “render” a perception of reality within the holodeck of the mind. The same mechanics of perception and information processing applies to the lucid dream experience, as dreams too share the same mind-generated holodeck. If you don't dream anymore, rather don't remember your dreams. Try to rekindle

what it feels like to dream by using real world experiences as they render before you within your own virtual holodeck. Lucid dreams appear in context as vivid and real as this text from this book appears right now. The similarity again linked by the fact what is rendering from your perceptions is the same “screen” that your dreams will render on. Lucid dreaming is about being awake and consciously aware while the body is asleep and you are engaged in a content rich dream. How vivid and real the dream appears will also coincide with how awake and conscious you are within the lucid dream. If you can achieve a full waking state of consciousness during sleep, your memory, awareness and perception increases to allow you to preform complex logical and analytical skills such as how you reading this text. In a fully realized lucid dream; you can think, question and act upon your own intent. Most importantly, you can be fully awake and self-aware that you exist and are in fact, dreaming. Everything you are experiencing right now transfers over into lucid dreaming allowing logical left-brain function to integrate with the right-brain's symbolic language. Feel what it is like to be awake and conscious then imagine that this is a dream right now. Role-play that you are dreaming and create a mental snapshot of how this feels to be awake. This is how being conscious in a dream will feel. It may feel even more exhilarating or even more real. What makes “waking reality” different from a dream is the obvious material physics and how those physics define a rigid rule-set such as gravity and the laws of thermal dynamics. In a dream, you control the rule-set and physics engine. You want to fly, you simply will it and you fly. You want to create mountains, think mountains and they will spring up beautifully and magically in the holodeck of the mind. Thoughts create dreams, this is why we can project amazing ideas and concepts into a highly organized thought which describes the dream reality. If you are ever in a dream, and realize you are dreaming. Always remember rule #1. Dreams are Thoughts. Take Some Time to Review Your Dreams. With our waking world as a lucid dream example, we now know we can use our waking reality to help invoke a feeling of what a lucid dream can feel like. Waking reality is the best candidate for the sense of lucidity that most people are not fully aware of when dreaming. At this point in the book, it is also a good time to simply review any dream you can remember and see how real and detailed it was. Also, how it was similar to waking reality, and how it was different. Think of childhood dreams, teenage dreams, and dreams from various stages of your life. All of the context found in your dreaming contributes to a larger overview of experience that you have as this “sentient life form”. Each dream, like each waking day simply contributes to your overall pool of personal experiences. Like your waking reality, dreams are also a part of you, and an experience that you have. Common Dream Archetypes Carl Jung noticed that his patients shared similar types of dreams and dream symbology. There seems to be themes in our dreams that many of us share. I will touch base on a few common ones that have come up in conversations with friends, see if you have had these dreams. If you have, please e-mail me with the subject: “[YAD] Common Dreams” at my public hotmail account: ianwilson27@hotmail. com as I am very interested in what is similar in dreaming between each individual.

Teeth Falling Out. Simply a dream where your teeth all fall out. Pulling Hair/String/Gum from Mouth. A dream where you are pulling something stringy from your mouth, it can feel like you are pulling and pulling yet the hair won't come out. Moving very slow when running. A slow motion dream where you can't move fast despite your best efforts to do so. Falling and jolting awake. A dream where you feel like you fall and jolt in your bed waking up. Waking up multiple times until you actually wake up. This is a dream where you wake up, go about your daily routine. Then wake up again in another dream. This can recursively happen several times before you actually wake up. If you have watched the movie, “Groundhog Day”, this dream is similar in repeat expereinces. In a fight but have no punching power. In the dream, you are punching someone or something but no matter how hard you try, your punches are weak and ineffective. There are likely a lot more examples, consider this a short list of archtypes. Reoccurring Dreams Another common area of dreaming stems from a same or similar dream that a person can have that repeats over and over again. In some cases, people have reported having a second life with a type of continuity between their dream life and their waking life. The second-life dream consists of reoccurring dream that flows in a similar chronological order to how we experience our waking life. Reoccurring dreams are so common that it is very likely that you have had your personal experience with this type of dream. The context of a reoccurring dream may vary from person to person but the fact remains that a similar dream is repeating for some unknown reason. When you progress as a lucid dreamer, you may find that reoccurring dreams start to resolve themselves and newer and more vivid dream experiences start to emerge. In many ways, a reoccurring dream suggests some underlying subconscious issue that is symbolically presenting itself to you with a desire for you to put the issue to rest. Now that we have touched base with just a few common dreams and dream archetypes, we can safely move on to how dreams render out in a similar process using the same mechanics of information processing that our waking perception of reality. Information Processing and Sensory Data We have touched on the fact that the human brain uses it's own natural computation system which is very similar to today’s computers and 3D rendering software to create the perception of reality on the virtual holodeck of the mind. We have discussed how both dreams and waking reality render on this holodeck to create an experience of which you the observer participates in. If we can address the objective physical world as raw information and data that our

physical senses must perceive; the spectrum of frequencies, energies, radiations, chemicals and matter effectively comes at us in a seemingly “Incoherent Wave of Data”. Without having specialized senses by which to interpret this data, we would have no way to filter out the immense and astronomical amount of information present at any given moment. It is the act of filtering this data with our physical senses, and processing the data through a very complex neurocomputer that our mind then renders a coherent model of perceived reality. It is this mind-generated rendering that we then interact with and experience. The physical world when broken down is effectively information streaming to the senses. Keeping in line with computer metaphors the objective world is effectively a “datastream”.

The Datastream Right now, your physical senses are downloading information from the “Objective Reality” datastream. This data is then converted into electrical signals and sent through the nervous system to the brain. The brain converts these signals into tiny “bits” of data as coherent photons (Hammeroff/Penrose Orch Or) which in turn stimulates the tublin switching digitally upwards to the neuron and larger groups like the occipital lobe and through information processing, the incoherent data from the physical datastream is rendered into a coherent rendering of perception. When we fall asleep and start to dream, our brain takes over and produces a new datastream which represents the dream. You will notice that in a dream you have hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell. Depending on how developed you are as a dreamer, the range of senses available to perceive the dream can vary. What is important to note is that we are still emulating perception and the brain is still rendering an experience based on sensory interpretation much like we do when awake. If a dream is just thought, why does the brain go through all this extra work to generate a “virtual reality” that you must then see, touch and feel as if it was a physical world? Clearly it's not physical, it's just ideas and thought forms. Yet the brain treats the “Datastream of the Dream” similarly to how it treats our “Waking Datastream” and mimics sensory perception to create the same “Quality of Reality” within the virtual holodeck of the mind. The Powerful Illusion of Dream Reality. When we are in this virtual reality of a dream, we most likely will not know that it is a dream until we wake up. While in a dream, we most often assume it is “Reality”. If you practice lucid dreaming, you will probable notice times when questioning if you were actually dreaming or not was challenged by the overwhelming “Sense of Reality” that the dream conveys. Dreams effectively put us in a trance like state to complete an “Illusion of Reality” that we assume is real at that moment of realization in the dream. In Lucid Dreaming there is something called a “Reality Check”. The reality check is a logical assertion that you are in fact dreaming. The reason why lucid dreamers assert this reality check is because when we are awake in a dream world, the “Sense of Reality” is overwhelmingly convincing. The reality check helps us logically break free of this trance like grip and free ourselves from the powerful illusion of dream reality. The movie, “The Matrix” offers up a similar argument when Neo has to take the red or blue pill. This movie metaphor is similar to a lucid dream reality check. That pivotal moment when one must go through the hard problem of resolving if what one is actually experiencing is a dream, or reality. Dreams are “Virtual Reality Simulations” rendered on our cognitive holodeck. Understanding these mechanics becomes quite critical in breaking through the illusionary reality of dreaming. This is why the “reality check” is so important in getting us into the required lucid awareness to allow our waking self to change and control the dream. Staying true to a virtual metaphor to describe the process of dreaming, we will now look at the rendered output of the dreamworld.

The Rendered Output of a Vivid Dreamworld There is a lot to be said about waking up in a dreamworld so real that you think it is the real world. When we preform our reality check and we assert our will, we free ourselves of the trance like state induced by the dream. When awake and self-aware we can then explore this rendered output of the dreamworld. What is very interesting in observing this rendering is that again and again the fabric of this world is composed of organized sensory thought-forms. This brings us to the first rule of dreaming. Rule #1: Dreams are Thoughts. What happens if we extend our physical sciences and apply them to dreaming? How would particle physics describe the “Reality of a Dreamworld”? Is this dreamworld a digital rendering composed of information processing and organized thought? Quantum Mechanics quantizes everything down to the tiniest quanta. Are there small quantized “bits” in a dreamworld? If we look at dreams from a mechanical stand point and break down the mechanics of dreaming into these quantized bits, what is the dream equivalent of a hypothetical Boson Higgs scalar elementary particle [L]. Is there a Plank Constant [L] of a dream to measure the building block of dream matter. What would the God particle like the hypothetical Boson Higgs particle of a dream be? The Dream Particle That particle would have to be "thought". Dreams are organized thoughts. Why are dreams thoughts? This self-evident thought experiment simply takes the use of your imagination. Thoughts are more then just our own inner monologue of our sub-vocalized voice [L] when we think. Thoughts form ideas and images which become faintly apparent in our mind. For example, think of an apple. Close your eyes and imagine this bright red apple floating in your mind. Rotate the apple, make it bob up and down. This process of thinking in a visual way is exemplified in dreaming. Dreams take this non-verbal thought process[L] and expands thought-forms which become a virtual version of our physical senses. Thoughts take on the form of light, color, taste, touch, smell and sound when we are in a state known as dreaming. Dreams are highly organized thought forms which convey a virtual reality in a full sensory array of experiences; much like a 3D video game but evolved far beyond the limits of a computer screen and in the realm of a Star Trek holodeck [L] of the mind. If we get down to basics, “Dreams are Thoughts”. Most importantly, dreams are your thoughts. Once we understand this very self-evident [L] fact that dreams are a form of thinking; we need to then look at who is thinking this way and why. For that, we need to look at the dreamer, and that dreamer is “you”.

Who and What is the Dreamer? A dreamer is one who dreams dreams. There is not one dream in existence that does not posses a dreamer, and yet when we dream we often forget who and what that dreamer is who creates the dream experience. Do you even consider yourself to be a dreamer? What exactly does it mean to be one who dreams? Where did this skill and ability come from? The dreamer is like a God. It possesses the power and skill to conjure up amazing dream virtual realities. Yet, quite often the dreamer is lost within the dream, unaware that he/she is dreaming it. What a complex entanglement between the dreamer and the dreamworld. Where Did you Learn this Amazing Skill? You have dreamed since you were born, your entire life has known vivid and amazing dreams. Yet, you probably never practised, studied or learned the art of dreaming other then the very natural way it just occurs. Dreaming is an experience where one just “knows” how to dream. Dreaming comes effortlessly and naturally. You don't require a degree in dreaming to be the dreamer. Like breathing, you simply dream when you sleep at night [L]. The scale, imagery and intensity of these dreams are merely effortless expressions of your thoughts. We will cover in greater detail the role of thought and how it forms a dream experience. If you study any art-form or science, it takes years to master sculpting, music or a deep understanding of physical sciences. Dreaming simply comes pre-learned and is effortless; as if you have been dreaming for trillions of years. The real skill in dreaming is not in dreaming itself, it is in the participation of your dreams consciously and awake; with the ability to remember the dreams when you wake up. That becomes the apparent skill; not having to dream in the first place. The next chapter will examine what we know about dreaming; and what mechanics are taking place within our neurology and sleeping stages.

“Married or unmarried, young or old, poet or worker, you are still a dreamer, and will one time know, and feel, that your life is but a dream.“ - Donald G. Mitchell

Chapter 3: Dream Mechanics 101. In this chapter, we will look at the mechanics behind dreaming. This will not yet answer why some dreams come true; but it will help us understand what processes are involved with dreaming. Sigmund Freud [L] and Carl Jung [L] progressed forward with dream theories; where they differed in opinion was the nature of the unconscious. Sigmund Freud looked at dreaming from a purely subjective and personal perspective; and acknowledged this unconscious state by which dreams flowed. Carl Jung argued that there was more to this than the individual consciousness; that there was a collective unconsciousness where we at some spiritual level connected during dreams. Although these theories allowed for concepts regarding dream types; they seemed to lack basic mechanics regarding how dreams are constructed through acts of cognition both consciously and unconscious. Setting aside the desire to interpret or add all sorts of analogies as to the content of dreaming; we need to start at the fundamental basics of dreaming. For the sake of critical thinking and keeping close to what we know about dreaming, I will break down what is known, theories and ideas as to prevent a bias view as to what is actually going on. Let's start with what we do know about dreams from a neurological stand-point. In 1953 by University of Chicago researchers Eugene Aserinsky [L], a graduate student in physiology, and Nathaniel Kleitman, Ph. D. ,[L] chair of physiology discovered Rapid eye movement (REM)[L]. In classical psychology, REM has been cited as the only time we become aware of a dream. However, even though we know scientifically that this is the prime condition for dreaming within measured brainwave activity; that still does not guarantee the person dreaming will remember the dream upon waking. To understand the potential for dreaming; we need to understand that there is also non-REM dreams (NREM)[L] and these takes place in other stages of sleep. Sleep researchers have concluded that there are 5 stages of sleep; one is REM and 4 are NREM. More recent research has shown that dreams can occur during any of the sleep stages. Tore A. Nielsen, Ph. D. [L], of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory in Montreal, refers to this as "covert REM sleep" making an appearance during NREM sleep. [L]

The Five Stages of Sleep We know that when you start to fall asleep, brainwave frequencies begin to change. The brain wave frequency is measured in cycles per seconds hertz (Hz) and covers four categories [L]: Beta: (13- 40 cycles per second) and we are considered awake during this cycle. Alpha: (8-13 cycles per second) The first pattern discovered in 1908 by an Austrian Psychiatrist named Hans Berger [L]. Alpha pattern appears when in wakefulness where there is a relaxed and effortless alertness. Theta: (4-7 cycles per second) Associated with sleeping and dreaming. Delta: (1/2 - 4 cycles per second) Delta is associated with deep sleep. Dreaming occurs during all these cycles however the potential to remember them is greatly reduced. Day dreaming occurs during alpha when you are awake and deep in thought; imagining some far off place or a new house or career as a movie star. The five stages of sleep allows us to pass through all four brainwave frequency stages when we include the act of falling asleep. If dreaming is occurring during all of these cycles then dreams exist as potential for remembering but do not guarantee the dreamer waking conscious memory of the dream. If we look at these stages and frequencies we have a clear chart of potential dreaming that spans our waking and sleeping hours. Of that, we are lucky to remember a fraction of this over all dreaming potential. Stage awake pre-sleep 1 NREM 2 NREM 3 NREM waves 4 NREM waves 5 REM

Frequency (Hz) 15-50 8-12 4-8 4-15 2-4

Amplitude (micro Volts)