If you can get past the "new age" stigma of TMI, they seem to be surprisingly scientific in their endeavors. They have audio series for LD and other consciousness exercises. The idea is that binaural beats can be used to alter your brainwave frequency and help you enter altered states of consciousness (hack your brain).
The first objective is "mind awake, body asleep", which is exactly what it sounds like. It involves relaxation techniques, "resonant tuning" (which is basically chanting like a monk), an affirmation of your goal (to expand your consciousness etc...) and then deeper relaxation.
I have achieved this state a few times, but never had the discipline to keep up with the exercises. The few times it happened, the initial feeling was that my body parts had all melded together and I couldn't feel where one part stopped and the other started. Then, I felt a peculiar detachment and a very intense feeling of "energizing" which I can only describe as something similar to holding a 9volt to your tongue, but all over your body. At that point I would always become too excited and "wake up".
The main reason I didn't persist with the exercises is because chanting and wearing headphones when you go to bed isn't very pleasant for the person laying next to you. The other roadblock is discipline. If you want to have LDs on purpose, you really do have to stick with the dream journal and make a conscious effort to make it happen and keep up with it.
My LDs were natural and not the result of practice, but were definitely very cool. I know what it's like to fly like Superman. :)
I second recommending the Monroe Institute audio guides. I nabbed them off BitTorrent years ago, and I play a few of them on an iPod shuffle while falling asleep. It's worth seeing past the New Age (rhymes with "sewage") stigma--the point isn't some non-sense about metaphysical "energy", rather the point is to get you used to putting your body into a quasi-hypnotic suggestive state where visualization can be much more active in your perception.
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I've had many lucid dreams, though I've never been able to hang on for very long. I'll try the spinning technique next time for sure.
If this interests you, you might also be interested in "binaural beats".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats
The most famous use of "bb" is probably the audio series produced by The Monroe Institute.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monroe_Institute
If you can get past the "new age" stigma of TMI, they seem to be surprisingly scientific in their endeavors. They have audio series for LD and other consciousness exercises. The idea is that binaural beats can be used to alter your brainwave frequency and help you enter altered states of consciousness (hack your brain).
The first objective is "mind awake, body asleep", which is exactly what it sounds like. It involves relaxation techniques, "resonant tuning" (which is basically chanting like a monk), an affirmation of your goal (to expand your consciousness etc...) and then deeper relaxation.
I have achieved this state a few times, but never had the discipline to keep up with the exercises. The few times it happened, the initial feeling was that my body parts had all melded together and I couldn't feel where one part stopped and the other started. Then, I felt a peculiar detachment and a very intense feeling of "energizing" which I can only describe as something similar to holding a 9volt to your tongue, but all over your body. At that point I would always become too excited and "wake up".
The main reason I didn't persist with the exercises is because chanting and wearing headphones when you go to bed isn't very pleasant for the person laying next to you. The other roadblock is discipline. If you want to have LDs on purpose, you really do have to stick with the dream journal and make a conscious effort to make it happen and keep up with it.
My LDs were natural and not the result of practice, but were definitely very cool. I know what it's like to fly like Superman. :)
I second recommending the Monroe Institute audio guides. I nabbed them off BitTorrent years ago, and I play a few of them on an iPod shuffle while falling asleep. It's worth seeing past the New Age (rhymes with "sewage") stigma--the point isn't some non-sense about metaphysical "energy", rather the point is to get you used to putting your body into a quasi-hypnotic suggestive state where visualization can be much more active in your perception.