The Dome's topics - tribe.net

WACK Radio Needs Your Help!

2008-03-17T22:21:47Z

We are three tickets short of being able to bring our special brand of ass shakingly good times to Transformus 2008.

As tickets become available please keep us in mind..........we will play your favorite song for you & owe you a favor!

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abundance

2008-03-11T06:36:43Z

hmmmmmmm, two domes? Maybe one can be the mommy dome, and the other the Daddy dome?
Or maybe sub-dome and Dom dome???

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DREAM

2005-08-10T05:00:25Z

Dreaming Tips?

posted in The Dome - 9 replies

Pineal Gland

2005-06-02T22:55:29Z

pineal gland

Dictionary
pineal gland
n.
A small, cone-shaped organ in the brain of most vertebrates that secretes the
hormone melatonin. Also called epiphysis, pineal body; Also called pineal organ.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton
Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Encyclopediapineal gland (pĭn'eəl) , small organ (about the size of a pea)
situated in the brain. Long considered vestigial in humans, the structure, which
is also called the pineal body or the epiphysis, is present in most vertebrates.
It is sensitive to different levels of light and is essential to the functioning
of an animal's biological clock. In many animals, including humans, the pineal
gland synthesizes a hormone called melatonin in periods of darkness. Melatonin
synthesis is halted when light hits the retina of the eye, sending impulses to
the gland via the optic nerve. Besides influencing daily, or circadian, rhythms
such those of as sleep and temperature, the pineal gland and melatonin appear to
direct annual rhythms and seasonal changes in animals. The pineal gland and
melatonin are now being studied for their roles in sleep, reproduction, aging,
and seasonal affective disorder. In humans the pineal gland begins to produce
melatonin at age 3 months; production falls steadily from puberty on.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003,
Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All
rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

Medicalpineal body
n.
A small, unpaired, flattened glandular structure lying in the depression between
the two superior colliculi of the brain and secreting the hormone melatonin.
Also called conarium, epiphysis, pineal gland.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002,
2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

WordNetNote: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related
words.
The noun pineal body has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a small endocrine gland in the brain; situated beneath the back part
of the corpus callosum; secretes melatonin
Synonyms: pineal gland, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis

Wikipediapineal gland
The pineal gland (pronunciation: 'pI-nE-&l, pI-'), or epiphysis, is a small
endocrine gland located near the middle of the brain. It is also referred to as
the pineal body.
Location
The pineal gland is a small (8 mm) reddish-gray body located above the superior
colliculus and behind and beneath the stria medullaris, between the laterally
positioned thalamic bodies. It is part of the epithalamus.
The pineal gland is a midline structure and is often seen in plain skull X-rays
as it is often calcified.
Structure and composition
The pineal gland consists mainly of pinealocytes, but four other cell types have
been identified: interstitial cells, perivascular phagocyte, pineal neurons and
peptidergic neuron-like cells.
The pineal body does not have nervous tissue, and consists of follicles lined by
epithelium and enveloped by connective tissue. These follicles contain a
variable quantity of gritty material, composed of phosphate and carbonate of
calcium, phosphate of magnesium and ammonia, and a little animal matter.
It is responsible for the production of melatonin, which has a role in
regulating the circadian rhythm. Melatonin is a derivative of the amino acid
tryptophan. The production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by
darkness and inhibited by light. Light can be detected by the suprachiasmatic
nucleus (SCN) which has direct connections to the retina. Fibers extend from the
SCN to the spinal cord into superior cervical ganglia and from there into the
pineal gland.
In fact ancient amphibians such as Ichthyostega, which existed in the Late
Devonian Period, had an orifice on the top of the skull through which the pineal
gland was exposed and received light input. Over the course of time and for
unknown reasons, the pineal gland migrated into the skull of later tetrapods and
the skull orifice sealed. Modern birds and reptiles have been found to express
the phototranducing pigment melanopsin in the pineal gland.
Function
It contains a substance which if injected intravenously causes fall of
blood-pressure. It seems probable that the gland furnishes an internal secretion
in children that inhibits the development of the reproductive glands since the
invasion of the gland in children, by pathological growths which practically
destroy the glandular tissue, results in accelerated development of the sexual
organs, increased growth of the skeleton and precocious mentality.
Additionally, it has been found that the pineal gland manufactures trace amounts
of the psychedelic chemical dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. This endogeous chemical
in the human brain is believed to play a role in dreaming and possibly
near-death experiences and other mystical states. It has been suggested by the
researcher Jace Callaway that DMT is connected with visual dreaming.
Mythology
Rene Descartes called the pineal gland the "seat of the soul", believing it was
unique in the anatomy of the human brain in being a structure not duplicated on
the right and left sides.
The pineal gland is occasionally referred to as the "third eye" in occult
religions, and is believed by some to be a dormant organ that can be awakened to
enable telepathic communication.
"Consult your pineal gland" is a common saying in Discordianism, a religion
which emphasizes chaos. Some Discordians seem to regard the pineal gland as the
source of answers to life's most difficult questions.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses
material from the Wikipedia article "Pineal gland".

posted in The Dome - 2 replies

Dreams Made From Fantastic Fantasy. (Fictional Dreaming?)

2005-05-30T07:22:20Z

Fictional Dreaming?
Fiction related to dreaming and/or works of Dream related fiction that are unique expressions of that which lurks at the meta-molecular mecurial line between "sleeping" and "awake".

posted in The Dome - 1 reply

Jacob's Dream Thread

2005-05-15T10:20:56Z

This is Jacob's Dream Thread.

"The oldest teachings , teach nothing of Dream. "Dream" being the "space' that dreams occur in, the landscape upon which the mind is at play. This landscape may well be the mind itself. It also refers to the landscape that we all share our dreams upon. It is the seamless Dream which stretches forward and back in time. "
From a dream. NA

posted in The Dome - 3 replies

Ph?

2005-05-13T01:20:54Z

pH
Measure of alkalinity or acidity in water and water-containing fluids. pH can be used to determine the corrosion-inhibiting characteristic in water-based fluids.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH

pH
(potential of hydrogen) is a measure of the activity of hydrogen ions (H+) in a solution and, therefore, its acidity or alkalinity. The
concept was introduced by S.P.L. Sørensen in 1909. The p stands for the German potenz, meaning power or concentration, and the H for the hydrogen ion (H+). Sometimes it is referred as Latin pondus hydrogenii. The "pH" value is an approximate number usually between 0 and 14 that indicates whether a solution is acidic (pH < 7), neutral (pH = 7), or basic/alkaline (pH > 7).

eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Libra...lossary.php3

pH A symbol for the degree of acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Expressed as a negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration in a solution, pH = -log10[H+]. If the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution increases, the pH will decrease, and vice versa. The value for pure distilled water is regarded as neutral, pH values from 0 to 7 indicate acidity, and from 7 to 14 indicate alkalinity.

posted in The Dome - 0 replies

Scientific Evidence of Psychedelic Body Fluids

2005-05-10T23:24:24Z

Scientific Evidence of Psychedelic Body Fluids

Scientific Evidence of Psychedelic Body Fluids
Collected abstracts from Psychedelic Abstracts Online
Abstracts of scientific research papers investigating the absence or presence of psychedelic tryptamines in psychiatrically labelled and psychiatrically unlabelled populations, including speculations on the significance of findings, emphasizing the usual pathological paradigm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A test of the transmethylation hypothesis in acute schizophrenic patients
A longitudinal study of urinary excretion of N,N-dimethyltryptamine in psychotic patients
Hallucinogenic N-methylated indolealkylamines in the cerebrospinal fluid of psychiatric and control populations
The presence of N-methylated and N-acetylated indole amines in the urine of schizophrenics and controls
N,N-dimethyltryptamine like substance in rat brain
Urinary dimethyltryptamine and psychiatric symptomatology and classification
Observations on the metabolism of the psychotomimetic indolealkylamines: implications for future clinical studies
Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric isotope dilution determination of N,N- dimethyltryptamine concentrations in normals and psychiatric patients
The dimethyltryptamine-forming enzyme in blood platelets: A study in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia
A dimethyltryptamine-forming enzyme in human blood

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CARPENTER, WILLIAM T; FINK, EDWARD B; NARASIMHACHARI, NEDATHUR; HIMWICH, HAROLD
A test of the transmethylation hypothesis in acute schizophrenic patients.
American Journal of Psychiatry; 1975 Oct Vol 132(10) 1067-1071
An investigation of 3 aspects of the transmethylation hypothesis found that 26 acutely schizophrenic patients were no more likely to have bufotenine or N,N-dimethyltryptamine present in urine or elevated serum indolethylamine N-methyltransferase activity than 10 normal controls. It is concluded that these are naturally occurring substances.
CHECKLEY, STUART A; ET AL
A longitudinal study of urinary excretion of N,N- dimethyltryptamine in psychotic patients.
British Journal of Psychiatry; 1980 Sep Vol 137 236-239
Ss were 9 patients who had schizophrenic and manic-depressive illnesses. The excretion of N,N,-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) was frequently raised in the Ss when they were psychotic but was usually normal when they had recovered. Rapid changes in the severity of illness or sudden switches from one mood state to another were not accompanied by changes in excretion of DMT. Findings contrast with the immediate hallucinogenic effects of an injection of DMT and suggest that the extracerebral production of DMT (as measured by its urinary excretion) does not provoke the experience of hallucinations in psychotic patients.

CORBETT, L; ET AL
Hallucinogenic N-methylated indolealkylamines in the cerebrospinal fluid of psychiatric and control populations.
British Journal of Psychiatry; 1978 Feb Vol 132 139-144
Studied the incidence and quantities of dimethyltryptamine and O-methyl-bufotenine in the cerebrospinal fluid of 50 patients with acute schizophrenic illnesses and in 34 surgical and 16 neurological controls. Results show that some schizophrenics had higher levels of both amines than did controls, although the differences in distribution did not reach statistical significance.

FAURBYE, ARILD; PIND, K
The presence of N-methylated and N-acetylated indole amines in the urine of schizophrenics and controls.
Foreign Psychiatry; 1973 Sum Vol. 2(2) 3-10
Used gas and thin-layer chromatography to test for the presence of 3 toxic amines in the urine of 4 female schizophrenics and 3 female nurses. The amines found in the urine of both groups were dimethyltryptamine, (DMT), bufotenine, and 5-methoxy-N,N- dimethyltryptamine (5-MODMT). These amines may, therefore, be regarded as normal metabolic products. It is noted that DMT can produce schizophreniform symptoms in humans. Data is presented suggesting that the effects of 5-MODMT are similar to those of DMT and that 5-MODMT may be a more potent drug. Difficulties in determining the specific amine content in urine are noted.

HELLER B; FISCHER E; SPATZ H
N,N-dimethyltryptamine like substance in rat brain.
Life Sciences; 1973 Aug Vol. 13(4) 313-316
Used bidimensional thin layer and gas chromatography with 10 male Wistar rats to demonstrate that rat brain contains 8 mg/g of a tertiary amine, very probably N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Pretreatment with nialamide did not modify the concentration of this substance in the brain.

RODNIGHT, R; ET AL
Urinary dimethyltryptamine and psychiatric symptomatology and classification.
Psychological Medicine; 1976 Nov Vol 6(4) 649-657
Studied the excretion of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in 122 recently admitted psychiatric patients and 20 normal Ss. DMT was detected in the urine of 47% of those diagnosed by their psychiatrists as schizophrenic, 38% of those with other nonaffective psychoses, 13% of those with affective psychoses, 19% of those with neurotic and personality disorders, and 5% of the normal Ss. 99 of the patients were interviewed in a semistandardized fashion, and also categorized according to a variety of operational definitions of the psychoses. The operational definitions failed to reveal any group significantly more correlated with urinary DMT than did the hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia, but a discriminant function analysis of symptomatology could be used to define a group of 21 patients of whom 15 (71%) excreted detectable DMT. There was a general relationship between psychotic symptoms and urinary DMT, but specifically schizophrenic symptoms did not appear to be major determinants of DMT excretion.

SITARAM BR; MCLEOD WR
Observations on the metabolism of the psychotomimetic indolealkylamines: implications for future clinical studies.
Biol Psychiatry. 1990 Nov 15; 28(10): 841-8
Although the psychotomimetic indolealkylamines N,N-dimethyltryptamine, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, and 5-hydroxy-N,N- dimethyltryptamine have been unequivocally identified in human body fluids, evidence relating their concentration to the presence of psychotic illness in humans remains controversial. A series of studies on the metabolism of the compounds in the rat have highlighted the rapidity and with which these are metabolized and renally excreted. The implications of our observation for the interpretation of past clinical studies and the design of future ones is discussed.

WYATT, R J,; ET AL
Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric isotope dilution determination of N,N-dimethyltryptamine concentrations in normals and psychiatric patients.
Psychopharmacologia; 1973 Vol. 31(3) 265-270
Conducted a g as chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination of the plasma N,N-dimethyltryptamine concentration from 8 male and 3 female normals and 19 male and 10 female psychiatric patients (psychotically depressed, chronic and acute schizophrenics). Results show that within the limit of sensitivity of assay (.5-1.8 ng/ml of plasma), there was no difference among the Ss.

WYATT, RICHARD J,; ET AL
The dimethyltryptamine-forming enzyme in blood platelets: A study in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia.
American Journal of Psychiatry; 1973 Dec Vol. 130(12) 1359-1361
Assayed samples of the nondialyzed platelets of 14 pairs of monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia for their ability to form enzymatically the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine. The schizophrenic twins had higher mean levels of enzyme activity than their nonschizophrenic cotwins, whose mean level of enzyme activity was equal to that of 22 normal nontwin control Ss. This finding suggests that the higher levels of enzyme activity found in schizophrenics is produced by their environment and is not genetically determined.

WYATT, RICHARD J; SAAVEDRA, JUAN M; AXELROD, JULIUS
A dimethyltryptamine-forming enzyme in human blood.
American Journal of Psychiatry; 1973 Jul Vol. 130(7) 754-760
Conducted a test with 112 Ss, distributed among normal adults, alcoholic patients, psychotic depressives, and acute and chronic schizophrenics. An enzyme capable of forming the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine was found in Ss' red blood cells, plasma, and platelets. Enzyme activity in red blood cells and plasma was not significantly different in psychiatric Ss from that in normals. Enzyme activity in platelets was higher in psychotic Ss than in nonpsychotics and was apparently related to the presence of a dialyzable inhibitor in the normal Ss.

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Lucid Dream?

2005-05-09T01:25:51Z

Lucid dream

Richard D. James said the following about lucid dreaming:
To have lucid dreams is to be conscious of being in a dream state, even to be capable of directing the action while still in a dream. I've been able to do it since I was little. I taught myself how to do it and it's my most precious thing. Through the years, I've done everything that you can do, including talking and shagging with anyone you feel that takes your fancy. The only thing I haven't done is tried to kill myself. That's a bit shady. You probably wouldn't wake up, and you wouldn't know if it had worked, anyway. Or maybe you would.

I often throw myself off skyscrapers or cliffs and zoom off right at the last minute. That's quite good fun. It's well realistic. Eating food is quite smart. Like tasting food. Smells as well. I make foods up and sometimes they don't taste of anything -- like they taste of some weird mish-mash of other things.

Lucid Dreaming is a reference to the practice of being self-aware while dreaming. To get an idea of how it feels like, imagine yourself right as you are now, but suddenly realizing that you're dreaming, without this doing anything to your consciousness. Neat stuff. Some people are naturally lucid, but they're pretty rare. Almost everyone else can achieve dream lucidity by doing a few exercises, which I've listed further below.
While at lucid state, you normally have some degree of control over your dreams. The more you take an active part in the experience, the greater degree of control you have over it. I'm talking dream control here -- you can conjure up pretty much anything or anyone you want, that boy/girl nextdoor you really wished you could boink, a situation you're afraid of and always wanted the opportunity to confront from the comfort of your blanket's underside or something really really fun that you couldn't do in real life. Like flying. Flying really takes the cake.

So anyway, some real effective exercises for becoming lucid; It took me about two weeks till I had my first lucid dream and then had one every three days on the average:

Reality Checks: Allot of stuff happens differently in dream state, almost invariably. Willing to fly would get you off your feet and in the air when you're dreaming. Reading something and then re-reading it again normally results in a different text each time in a dream. Also, when you look at your hands while dreaming, they tend to melt. I'm not trying to scare you or anything, it just works that way. I don't know why. If you try these things several times a day, eventually you'd start doing them in your dreams as well, in which case they're almost sure to trigger lucidity.

Dream Journaling: Also for reasons unbeknownst to me, keeping logs of your dreams that you remember helps immensely towards becoming lucid. Keep a notepad and pen beside your bed. If you wake up remembering a dream, as many people often do, take the time to scribble to paper everything that you remember. Don't bother trying to make it look consistent, just log all the bits that you do remember.

Explicit Wishing: Also a good thing to do several times a day along with your reality checks is to explicitly wish to become lucid. Speak it out loud, or, if you're afraid to incur doubts of nearby witnesses with your sanity, just think it out loud.

Use your imagination: Imagine that you're dreaming, and that everything that happens to you at the moment is in fact a dream. Imagine yourself doing stuff you could only do in a dream: Fly, slither up walls, fight big bad dragons... think of yourself doing those things being fully aware that you're dreaming. Don't just think about those things, imagine yourself doing them!

Consider becoming lucid when you go to sleep. I remember once, having fallen asleep to thoughts of becoming lucid (I don't really remember falling asleep, just the bits afterward), I started dreaming about being in school again, I was sitting among my friends in the meeting hall, trying, very badly to become lucid. Sometimes you miss your mark, it was a step in the right direction though.

Take naps: This is not really necessary, but lucid dreamers find that they're much more strongly lucid, much more often, when they take naps. For instance, if you wake up in the morning and have some time to kill, get up, hang about for a while, then go back to bed with the intention of becoming lucid. Take such naps in the middle of the day.

These should be more than enough to get you to become lucid. Standard disclaimer applies. Also, very shortly after I stopped doing any exercises I stopped being lucid as well, I wonder how quickly I'll regain lucidity once I start doing them again.

A lucid dream can be more. Not just a change of reality in a dream. It can be a window into your brain. You can figure out what your fears, hopes, dreams are. You can find out the meaning of life. You can contact spirits. You can use it as a springboard onto astral projections. You can have the ability to control anything and everything in the dream ( if you work at it). Lucid dreams aren't as rare as you might think. It's true that lucid dreams comes naturally to some few lucky people. But you can attempt to induce them yourself. There are many techniques that you can use.

The Dream journal- Write down your dreams in a notebook. Re-read it everyday and note strange things that have happened in your dreams. Categorize the strange things into groups. Then focus on why its strange and why it wouldn't happen in the real world.
Look at your hands every hour. In dreams, if you look at your hands, for some reason, the dream world will distort and you have a good chance of knowing that you are dreaming.
Whenever you get the chance, think about why you are currently not in a dream and what you would do if this were a dream and you could do anything you wanted.
Type out on a computer many times that you are going to have a lucid dream
Go consult a hypnotist and see if he can hypnotize you.
While falling asleep, tell yourself that you will wake up once you have a dream. When you do wake up, tell yourself, it was a dream and i can awaken in it.
Eat strange or spicy foods that will cause you to have very weird dreams or nightmares. It is more likely that you will know it is a dream
Take naps. Some people experience more lucid dreams if they are napping.
Sleep more hours per day. Dreams are more clear if you have lots of sleep
Try reading something twice in a dream. Or for that matter, try reading anything! Most people cannot read in dreams.
Stare at a painting by Rene Magritte. He will blow your mind so that you have a lucid dream.
Read a Carlos Castaneda dream. He will blow your mind as well, and you will have a lucid dream.
In case you think this is a very occult or odd phenomenon, there is a scientist named Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University who is conducting scientific research on lucid dreams. He has several great books, both of the techniques and science behind lucid dreams.

On a more personal note, a lucid dream I once had: I was in my living room playing baseball when I looked at my hands. My vision got blurry and I felt tipsy and realized it was a dream. I ran out the door and jumped up and flew. I flew around and look at the ground which was filled with bright orange leaves of unimaginable beauty. I flew and flew until I woke up. That is an example of what lucid dreams can be.

This is the realm of adventure...when you can wrestle control from your sub-concious, this is the ultimate form of role playing. If you have ever wanted to discuss foriegn affairs with your Great Aunt, in the middle of a WW2 battle field, this is the way to fulfill that twisted desire.

The trick to having a lucid dream is 3 fold.

1.) You must be willing to question reality, that is, you have to ask yourself, "what really is the difference between the waking world, and the dreaming one?" Once you find the answer, you can test the waking world constantly to find those clues that tell you you're really awake.

Look at a piece of writing, then look away, and back again. If the writing changes, you're dreaming.

Try and float off the ground. Don't just pay it lip service, actually see yourself floating off the ground into the air.

Review the events of your day, as often as you can. Usually this will become habit, and once in a dream the glaring inconsistancies in the dream will elucidate your conciousness.

2.) Work with your sub-concious, in as many ways possible.

You need to, on a very regular basis, allow your sub-concious to play, and/or communicate with you. This can be as simple as alotting some day dreaming time (your favorite method will usually suffice).

It can also mean that your sub-concious will forceably take back control of your dream, insisting on it's will being done (don't worry, this means that there's a message it really wants to share, and believe me, if it wants to share it, you have no choice).

3.) Paying attention to what your dreams are telling you.

A dream diary is good for this, as your dreams will follow a pattern which may not be obvious in any single episode. If you work enough with your dreams, your sub-concious will stop having to frantically fill every sleeping minute with urgent messages.

This also will help you have more fun with your dreams (have you ever had a nightmare? ever wish you could change the ending? never have the dream again?).

Or, if you lean toward an esoteric vein, lucid dreaming is the gateway to Astral projection, or out of body experiences. In fact, some sources suggest that a flying dream is really a unconcious OBE, and taking control would initiate full blown projection (some say it's the other way around, that lucid dreaming is just a watered down OBE).

One thing is for sure though, you will never think of sleeping as wasted time again.

One of the lesser-known features of lucid dreams is the fact that they seem to be contagious to a greater or lesser degree depending on the mentality (neural software) of the person. It has been noted in the literature on lucid dreaming that you are more likely to have a lucid dream after reading about them, or hearing someone talk about them.

I have personal experience of this: when I was 19 I read a book on dreams, the title of which I forget now, and I was particularly interested in the chapter on lucid dreaming. I proceeded to become lucid (conscious that I was dreaming) in at least one dream every night for the next week or so, which was remarkable considering that I only remembered one other lucid dream in my whole life. I emailed a friend to tell her about this, and she emailed me back the next day to tell me that she had dreamed lucidly that night.

I have no suggestions as to the mechanism that might make this contagion possible, except to say that it can't possibly be a biological agent of any kind (my friend was living in a different country at the time).

It's funny - most people report flying or changing things in their environment when they talk about lucid dreams that they have had. Every single time it's happened to me, I've wandered around the dreamscape telling everyone I meet that they don't have to worry, the things that are happening are not serious and terrible, because it's just a dream. Strangely, I have mostly been met with hostility. I say this is strange, because conventional wisdom tells us that the characters in our dreams are figments and facets of ourselves, but in my experience the people I meet in dreams have far more autonomy of expression than I would have expected...maybe this is a lesson to learn about the nature of 'self'.

When I have lucid dreams, my favorite thing to do is levitate. Like, you know, jump 30 feet into the air. Flying is also a lot of fun. I remember my first lucid dream; it was some years ago, probably when I was in middle school. I remember riding a bike down a street close to my house. It was very realistic; the details were all correct. Oddly, that's what set it off: I got the sensation that the details were correct, but that my mind was "drawing" them only in the direction where I was looking - kind of like the flashlight effect, where the only thing that appears to exist is what you are looking at. (Kind of like Schrödinger's Cat.)
That is the moment where I realized that I was dreaming, and I knew exactly what to do. I remembered a scene from E.T. in which E.T. levitates everyone's bike so as to precipitate his safe return to the big Christmas-ornament-like UFO. I remember willing myself and the bike to lift off the ground, and it worked. I rose above the city and looked around. My mind, faced with rendering a much larger area, started dropping details, kind of like when you zoom out on a map at Mapquest or one of those sites. After doing this for some time, I woke up.

That brings forth an interesting question: Since people usually only remember dreams if they are interrupted in the middle of them, who knows how many lucid dreams we have that we don't know about?

One of the interesting side-effects of lucid dreaming is that if you levitate in the dream, it makes it easier to envision levitating yourself, someone else, or an object during meditation. (At least, that's what I've found.)

I also entered an alternate reality in a lucid dream once. That was pretty cool, especially since it was quite unexpected. This unexpectedness can be surprising at first. Dreamvirus mentions encountering hostility from characters in dreams. The human mind has the capability to simulate other people's personalities - witness the actor as s/he/it "gets into character" and becomes their role for a short duration. Witness adults who act exactly like their parents in certain circumstances, often using the exact same phrases that their parents used. The mind has no trouble simulating multiple personalities across different "players" in dreams. After all, it simulates the way other people look and move and sound, and a personality is just another piece of data for it to process. This ability to partition resources is the same thing that makes it possible to jump up and down on one foot while rubbing your stomach and patting your head, or hold a completely lucid telephone conversation while playing a wicked game of Unreal Tournament at the exact same time.

At one time, there was on the market a device which was intended to induce lucid dreaming. Worn on the arm, when it detected changes in breathing indicating the R.E.M. state in the dreamer it would administer a tiny electric shock to the wrist - enough stimulus to wake up the dreamer 'inside the dream', but not to trigger complete waking from sleep.
It was invented by Keith Hearne, a psychologist at the University of Hull, who was the first researcher to have a lucidly dreaming subject signal their state at the time of dreaming, via controlled movements of their body.

In sleep, we generally do not have control over our muscles - they are 'paralyzed' - but during the dreaming state, the eyes may move rapidly: REM (Rapid Eye Movements) are another way of detecting the presence of dreaming.

Hearne's subject, Alan Worsely, was able, during REM, to successively move his eyes eight times right and left, which was monitored and observed by Hearne. This experiment effectively put an end to more than 50 years of skeptical theorizing by psychologists about lucid dreaming, since the term was coined by Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in 1913, that 'consciousness' during sleep was simply impossible, and lucid dreams purely an invention or illusion.

A lucid dream, therefore, is not just one in which the fact that you are dreaming is part of the scenario of the dream. The important thing about the lucidity is to do with control, but is not simply control.

What (to me) indicates the presence of lucid dreaming is that your thoughts, memories, knowledge and intentions are closely connected with the ones in your everyday waking consciousness. That is to say that in a lucid dream, you won't be fooled by the sort of dream logic that serves as a rationale and explanation for events in ordinary dreams - you are, in effect, the same person that you are when you are awake. This (I believe) is not a strict either/or dichotomy, but a matter of degree.

Myself, I've had a couple of lucid dreaming episodes.

In one, I 'came to' inside the dream in a large underground shopping mall (I remember lots of escalators) which was populated largely by troglodytes (think Aldous Huxley's 'Epsilons' from Brave New World.) The process of waking was a bit like it is when waking normally - characterized by some confusion and a bit of 'mugginess'. As I went through this, culminating in the realisation that I was dreaming, I was ascending the escalators (the people around became less trogg-ish) eventually 'surfacing' through a manhole in the Crescents, a housing estate in which I had lived previously.

As I'd been interested in lucid dreams for some years (starting with my reading the works of Carlos Castaneda) I was excited and exhilerated by the knowledge that I was actually having one, and decided that I'd test my ability to fly. My first attempts failed - embarrassingly (there were a couple of 'people' present) I hopped off the ground only to fall back down in the normal way! I dodged round a corner, out of sight of my 'observers', and tried again. This time I was able to stay aloft.

I found that I could direct my movements by fixing my gaze in the direction I intended to move, and had a bit of fun swooping around the Crescents, arms by my sides in Superman fashion. If I attempted to go straight up, the featureless sky was impossible to concentrate on, and I lost my sense of direction. So I was only able to 'fly' in directions produced by focusing on spots where ground features, or the horizon, were within my field of vision.

Coming to rest, like Spiderman, sticking to the wall of one of the Crescents, I observed my hands (as Carlos is instructed to do in the Castaneda books.) This was more for the fact of doing it than for the purpose of making my dream lucid, since it had been an ambition for several years, and I already knew I was having a lucid dream.

I 'woke up' (normally) shortly afterwards.

What follows is my own Guide to Lucid Dreaming, see that node for another pretty good description. I know a good deal of the information in this writeup is already covered by the other writeups in this node, but I set out to make a complete guide, even at the expense of a little redundancy. Here we go:

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Section 1: General Information
This section is designed to provide an understanding of the basic concepts of lucid dreaming, so you can determine whether it is for you. Everything mentioned here will be explored in greater detail in the other three sections.

Definition of the term "lucid dream"
A lucid dream is a dream wherein you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. A dream of this type may happen once or twice in an average person's lifetime, but there are techniques to vastly increase the vividity and frequency of lucid dreams.

"Why would anyone want to have lucid dreams?"
Well, being in a dream, you can create your perceptions and do whatever you want, unhindered by reality or the laws of physics. You can make passionate love to anyone you want, kill your boss, anything - just by will. If you become lucid within a nightmare, you lose all rational need to be afraid: you now know that the monster attacking you is not real, for example. If you practice enough, you can even do things that are physically impossible, like flying, passing through solid walls, creating objects out of thin air, and so on.

Lucid dreaming is also pretty neat because it helps as a way of speaking to your subconscious - for example, analyzing dream symbolism becomes rather easy, as you can just ask the characters in your dream what they represent and they may tell you (honestly or not is your decision).

It's also good for creativity, since the parts of your mind responsible for creativity are in a state of intense activity while in a dream (after all, it has to create all the imagery you see around you), so you can instantly get inspiration for art or music with almost no effort at all, and then put it to canvas or tape when you wake up.

Many eastern religions, and philosophy in general, tends to emphasize that what we see as the world is just a construct of our minds, and that we have no way of knowing what is the "real" world. Lucid dreams allow an empirical understanding of this fact, by being in a situation that ordinarily seems completely real at the time (a dream) and being aware that it isn't real. The "history" section later in this guide covers some ways which lucid dreams have been used for spirituality throughout history. Many people have considered a lucid dream the most important experience of their lives, having caused some great spiritual awakening. The majority of people will just seek the recreational angle, though.

You can also confront your anxieties in a lucid dream. For example, you can speak in public in a lucid dream without any risk of messing up and embarrassing yourself.

In summary, the benefits fall under the use of it as an unrivaled method of custom virtual reality, and the more introspective aspect of being able to interact with the internals of your mind directly.

"Is this difficult? How much of my time will it take?"
As far as I know, there is no one who both dreams and who is totally incapable of having a lucid dream. While it comes easier for some than others, everyone who tries eventually succeeds in having some kind of lucid dream, even if only a brief one in which they're only lucid for a few seconds before slipping back into a normal dream or waking up. Most people are very likely to attain some degree of success within a month or two. It varies pretty dramatically from person to person, though. I, for example, had my first lucid dream 3 days after I first heard about the idea from the movie Waking Life. Depending on what techniques you're using, you need to invest about 10 or 20 minutes a day, total. It's time well-spent, too, since it helps you not to waste the 8 or so hours you spend sleeping.

It's a cumulative thing. Over time and with experience, you get better at doing it until eventually you're having one or two a week.

"Is it safe?"
Perfectly. There are some sensations and imagery and things like that you may experience while attempting to have a lucid dream that can be scary if you don't know that you're safe (I'll talk about those later), but none of them are actually harmful. Nothing that much exceeds the vagaries of regular dreaming, which obviously are very mild. It's a less restful state than normal dreaming, so if you have 3 or 4 lucid dreams a night (an extraordinary rare number that requires tons of talent and practice to attain), you may wake up a little tired in the morning.

For reasons which I mentioned earlier and which I will go into greater detail about later on, followers of Buddhism and such may actually find lucid dreaming very helpful for their beliefs.

"This is another crazy New Age thing."
Like a lot of stuff (meditation, hypnosis, herbal medicine, etc.) it's possible to create a "spiritual" practice of it, but that shouldn't discredit the idea itself. Lucid dreaming is especially prone to this treatment, because after all if you decide to explore your past lives , you'll be able to: dreams follow your expectations. As to whether it's just your mind playing along, or you can really use dreams as a window into other realms or the like - I definitely vote for the former. Carlos Casteneda (a major New Age leader from the 60's) was a big advocate of lucid dreaming - and I, being of the skeptic camp, of course consider him to be a fraud, but I won't get into that ;)

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Section 2: Techniques
This section describes how to attain a lucid dream, and to increase duration and vividity of your lucid dreams.

Techniques to induce a lucid dream

Intention
The very easiest technique is to simply think or say yourself "I will have a lucid dream tonight" before you sleep. That way, the memory of that thought may occur within your dreams, and you'll become lucid. It seems obvious, but a lot of people don't realize how important this is. If you slept without even thinking about the goal on a given day, then your chances are reduced substantially. Asserting it with as much focus as possible to yourself when you go to bed helps.

Napping
Lucid dreams occur much more frequently when you take afternoon naps. So sleep an hour or so less than the amount you're comfortable with, and take an hour long afternoon nap.

Wake-back-to-bed
This is could be considered a sub-technique of napping. Set your alarm to go off during the night, get up for 10-30 minutes (the longer the better), then fall back asleep. 5-6 hours into your sleep is considered the best window, since it's around where the longest REM periods set in. One hour is also good. It makes your subsequent dreams more vivid and coherent, since whatever brain chemistry is involved from having recently been awake apparently lingers. This has been shown to increase your chances of having a lucid dream by a factor of as much as 30. Napping probably has similar or better statistics, but I don't know if there have been no studies on it.

Dream recall
Most people have about 10 dreams a night but remember only two or three a week, and only vaguely at that. Improving the amount of dreams you remember and the vividity of them increases the amount of memories of previous dreams available to you, so the thought might occur to you when you're in a dream that the feeling is similar to when you've been dreaming before. It's relatively simple to remember your dreams, just have the clear intention to remember your dreams and write down any fragmented memories you have as soon as you wake up each morning, as soon as possible. Dream memories tend to fade quickly, and then throughout the day, so best to get them on paper as soon as possible. Some people find it best to remember all they can when they wake up, before they even move. Dream recall has its own benefits, too, since if you take an interest in your dreams it's good not to forget every one you've ever had.

Mnemonic lucid dream induction
Repeat to yourself (mentally of course) "this is a dream" or another mnemonic as you fall asleep, so when you start to dream that thought is still in your head. This works especially well when you're falling back asleep using the wake-back-to-bed technique mentioned earlier, or taking a nap. The goal is to have those words still in your mind as you start dreaming, and at the time when you go to bed at first it will usually be some time before your first dreams start, so this is less useful when you're first going to bed.

Reality checks
In a dream, details aren't as exact. Clocks generally don't behave appropriately since your precise vision and your sense of time are off, and fine print tends to shift around a little bit. It's useful to test to see whether you're in real life or in a dream. The simplest way is to look at the nearest clock three or four times, and if time is progressing normally, then you're not in a dream. Do this often in your waking day (let's say every 20 minutes) and eventually you'll do a reality check out of habit while in a dream, and become lucid.

A few of the more common reality checks:

Lightswitches. Because the part of your brain responsible for vision seems not to be fully active in most dreams, dramatic changes in light levels usually can't occur, so flipping a lightswitch won't cause anything to happen.
Observing your hands. If you really look hard at your hands in a dream, you'll notice the details of your fingers being subtly off - a little swimmy, perhaps. This applies to any finely detailed object, but your hands are familiar to you, and they'll certainly be available to look at no matter what the setting.
Jumping. In a dream, you tend not to fall too hard, you sort of float to the ground. So jump in the air every so often, and see if you fall normally. This technique is generally only advisable when not in the company of others, unless you're comfortable with the funny looks you'll get when you jump at regular intervals.
Breathing. Can you hold your nose and still breathe? I've never tried this one, but it's pretty common.
Memory. Do you remember how you got here? How you woke up today? If you're engaging in a swordfight on a sinking Victorian gunship, think, what did I eat for breakfast today? Was I here an hour ago?
And above all, reading. Text is usually very unstable in dreams (I'm not sure how well understood this is). If you look at some text, look away, and look back and see if it's changed. This tends to apply to digital clocks too.
Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming
This technique is a rather different way of getting into a lucid dream, because the goal is to stay conscious continuously from when you're awake, all the way into the dream, rather than merely increasing the chances of becoming aware of the fact that you're dreaming from within the dream. For many people, it works better than any of the other techniques. It's also handy if you want instant gratification - if this technique succeeds, you're immediately in a lucid dream. Here's how to do it:

Use the wake-back-to-bed technique (or a nap), but instead of doing a mnemonic or no technique at all as you fall back asleep, instead focus on your breath or put some music on and focus on that. As much as possible, don't let your mind wander as it ordinarily does as you fall asleep. What you're doing is staying focused as you fall asleep, so that you stay relatively clear even as you fall straight into a dream. This is pretty similar to for example some kinds of meditation, but differs in that you're supposed to fall asleep in the process, and the results are very different indeed.

Usually your mind starts filling with idle thoughts so that you don't notice the transition into sleep, and eventually those thoughts coalesce into a dream. When you attempt a wake-induced lucid dream, however, you interrupt that process by not letting yourself drift off in the conventional way so that you're aware of the process of falling asleep.

You're usually not aware of it, but your body goes almost completely numb and paralyzed as you fall asleep, so that stimuli from your real body doesn't effect your dreams very much and so that you can't move around as you dream - sleepwalking is this natural paralysis somehow failing.

When trying this you might be suddenly aware as your body goes numb and you are unable to move. This can be a little scary, but it's harmless. If you ever want to wake up, all you have to do is try to move, and that'll wake you up eventually (at worst you'll end up sleeping).

Many people will just instantly be in a dream, or be in a dream with no memory of the transition. However, here's some general tips for those who have some transitional effects, and the effects you feel depend on your degree of awareness of it.

Most will eventually notice some other strange things as they focus. For one, you likely will no longer feel tired at some point. People tend to feel wide awake, and that's usually a sign that you're beginning to enter the dream (you don't feel tired in dreams, do you?) Other effects you may experience include hearing rushing or roaring noises, seeing blobs of color (like when you press on your eyes), and a sense of your whole body vibrating, like painless electricity running through your body. These are also natural side-effects of being aware of the vagaries of process of falling asleep. Almost everyone experiences the vibration/electricity sensation. Once you do get to it, wait for it to end. Stay calm, any strong emotion may wake you up. Once the electricity/vibrations are over, you're either fully asleep or you've woken back up again. A dream may begin to form before your eyes. If it does, clearly you're asleep. Otherwise, open your eyes. If you're not still where you fell asleep, obviously you're in a dream already. If you're still where you fell asleep then you should do a reality check anyway - you may be dreaming about your room. If the vibration/electricity phase seems to be going on for a long time (more than 3 or 4 minutes, say) try rolling over (not off the bed, if possible!) or sitting up, that usually will force you into a dream (or awake, if you're unlucky). Be persistent, you'll succeed eventually.

A particular variant of the wake-back-to-bed technique tends to be very effective for those who find it difficult to fall asleep while focusing. Stay perfectly still when you wake up (any significant movement will wake you fully up) and then immediately fall back asleep. This is an alternative to the method of staying up for 10 or 20 minutes, so it obviously can be more convenient, and some even find it better. However, it does require an alarm that goes off on its own so you don't have to move to turn it off, if you're using an alarm.

The trick in choosing how long to stay awake is to find the right balance between waking up in full (so you don't drift off and lose focus) and not being able to fall back asleep again while doing this.

A final note on this topic: when doing WILD (as it's called), the best way is technically to wake up naturally (no alarm clock) when you've had enough sleep, but go back to sleep unnecessarily. That tends to result in the most intense lucidity, but it also means investing more time than your standard hours of sleep (something few people can afford, let alone bother), so it's rarely worth it.

Techniques to stay in and enhance a lucid dream

Verbal confirmation
At the very beginning of a lucid dream, it may be difficult to not slip back into a dream. It helps to repeat "This is a dream, this is a dream," so you don't forget. If your dream seems vague or your thoughts muddled, you can try shouting "More detail!" or such to help keep yourself attentive.

Focus on details
If your dream's detail level seems low, focus on the details. This will usually help. Dreams are rendered as needed, so if you're not looking for a detail in particular, it often won't be there.

That's why some people think they dream in black and white. It's not that it actually was in black and white, but because colors weren't included. People say, "the lady was wearing a hat... but... what color was it?" and assume that it must have all been black and white, since one normally would remember color as one of the main things - but it's really that it had no color, your mind just didn't think to make that part up. It's hard to imagine seeing something without any color, not even grayscale, but that's really what happens. But I digress.

Relax
Often details in a lucid dream will begin to fade, or the dream may dim, because you're waking up. This can from all the excitement you experience when you become lucid. The first thing you do in this case is to relax so you don't wake up.

Spin
When you start to wake up, spin around like a little kid trying to get dizzy. This blurs your vision so your brain has time to redisplay your surroundings, but you don't have close your eyes, which can result in a loss of lucidity. It also utilizes the part of your brain responsible for motor skills to help you to stablize the dream, which is good, since the motor functions of the brain are some of the last parts to go when you are waking up from a dream (of course: the last thing that happens is you regain control of your real body). When you stop spinning, you may find yourself in a separate scene entirely, or one with significantly changed details.

Rub your hands
...Like you're trying to get warm. Again, this a simple, repetitive motor action to center your mind. This has a somewhat lower success rate than spinning, but it's easier.

Do math
If your thoughts seem muddled or confused, do some simple math, such as counting up by 7s, to help wake up parts of your brain responsible for logical thought.

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Section 3: A brief history of lucid dreaming
The first documentation of a lucid dream is from over a thousand years ago, in the form of a letter penned by St. Augustine in 415 A.D., sent to a doctor in Carthage regarding the former's lucid dreams. Perhaps the best-known historical record of lucid dreaming in most circles is the Tibetan Buddhist Book of the Dead in the eighth century. To this day, certain sects of Tibetan Buddhism practice a form of yoga revolving around the idea of a lucid dream: to maintain full waking consciousness while in a dream state.

A twelfth-century Spanish Sufi, Ibn El-Arabi, instructed his students to control their mental activity during dreams.

In 1867, a scientist named Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys published a book entitled Dreams and How to Guide Them, in which he proved that with relatively little discipline, an average person can grow conscious in their dreams, and able to control them. Saint-Denys documented more than twenty years of his own research, detailing how he first increased his dream recall and then becoming aware that he was dreaming.

Another major figure in the history of lucid dreaming is Frederick Van Eeden, a psychiatrist and dream researcher from the Netherlands. His first work was a thinly veiled fiction entitled The Bride of Dreams, which he wrote as a novel so he could freely present his ideas without being outright rejected by the psychological establishment. In 1913, he presented a paper on lucid dreaming, A Study of Dreams, to the Society for Psychical Research, which described 352 of his lucid dreams collected between 1898 and 1912.

At least passing references to the possibility of lucid dreams have been made by many philosophers: Aristotle, Plato, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Rene Descartes. Friedrich Nietsche wrote that he had "... sometimes called out cheeringly and not without success amid the dangers and terrors of dream life: 'It is a dream! I will dream on!'"

In the second edition of The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud wrote, "... there are people who are quite clearly aware during the night that they are asleep and dreaming and who thus seem to possess the faculty of consciously directing their dreams." Later, Freud was so disturbed with the sexual content of a dream (naturally) that he had, that he was shocked into lucidity, concluding in the dream "I won't go on with this dream any further and exhaust myself with an emission." Freud was well aware of Saint-Denys' work: "It seems as though in this [the lucid dreamer's] case the wish to sleep has given way to another [...] wish, namely to observe his dreams and enjoy them."

Finally, I must mention Stephen LaBerge, by far the central figure in the modern-day lucid dreaming culture. In late 1977, LaBerge applied to to study lucid dreaming as part of a Ph.D. program in psychophysiology at Stanford University. He was approved, and began his work on lucid dreams, with access to the Stanford sleep lab. Eventually, he came up with the first scientific proof of the existence of lucid dreaming, with himself as guinea pig. He did so by having his research partner record signals he made with his eyes while in lucid dreams.

He now heads the Lucidity Instute, an organization devoted to researching lucid dreams and evangelizing the benefits of them. The Institute maintains an FAQ and also sells the NovaDreamer, a lucid dream aid device (more on that later).

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Section 4: Miscellaneous
"Lucid Living"
Lucid Living is term coined by LaBerge. It essentially means integrating the practice of lucid dreams into your real life, so that outlook on the world is somewhat changed, and your very mindset is to doubt the reality of things - a positive doubt, since this constant analysis of details will eventually give rise to a hightened state of awareness and attention when you're awake. Once you have a lifestyle like this, reality checks become less important. This is basically just "the examined life," the common advice that one should try to notice and appreciate as much as possible of your experience, as applied to lucid dreams.

About out-of-body experiences
An out-of-body experience (or OBE, or more New Agily "Astral Projection") is just that, an experience where you have a sense of being outside of your physical body. The definition of an OBE is highly flexible: the case can be made that even standard dreams are out of body experiences, in the sense that the body you experience in a dream isn't your physical body. Whether it is possible to literally leave your body is debatable (no, in my opinion). Many people consider lucid dreaming a "gateway" to out of body experiences, or even that they are the same thing, and many lucid dreams (especially those induced with the wake-induced technique) do sometimes manifest themselves as dreaming of being out of your physical body, but in my opinion it's still just a dream. In fact, the wake-induced lucid dreaming technique is similar to that which the Monroe Institute teaches for inducing OBEs, but with less high-minded goals. Researchers at this point think most OBEs (disregarding special cases like the near death or trauma-induced kind) are considered hypnagogic (half-asleep) hallucinations.

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