How To: Your Own Dreamwalker [Project Pandora] {Updated!}

[OfPandora]

Before I introduce the core of my project, I feel a little Bio is necessary:

Hey guys. My name is Justin, I'm 18 years old. Ever since I was young I've been into anime and, because of this exposure, developed a very enlarged imagination. I always thought how awesome it would be to be involved in the insane fight sequences and in-depth plots and just be immersed in such a wild fantasy. But, as I matured, I realized none of this stuff occurred in reality. No such fantasies were present; it was something I could never experience. I thought to myself, "Reality has to be some kind of trap...that stuff needs to exist somewhere." As I entered High-School, my search for this "fantasy" was nullified and forgotten, broken into pieces by the boring, rhythmic, daily routine of the average high-schooler. I closed myself off to the joy of Japanese Animation under the reasoning that no such stuff was real and that it would be meaningless to fill an empty imagination (those shows are good at getting you "attached" to what you see). "Despair" is the first word that comes to mind when I think of how I felt.

It wasn't until College that I had a re-awakening. I was taking a psych class and one of the chapters dealt with the stuff of dreams. This got me thinking: "If there is a way to control your dreams, then technically you could play God." I poked around here and there but never really looked into it. And then I saw Avatar. This sparked an interest deep enough in the subject I thought it was necessary to look further into controlling dreams. I did, and thus started Project Pandora.  

Project Pandora:

1) Learn the ability to control dreams. [Lucidity]
2) Learn as much as possible about Pandora. [I chose Pandora as a base-model because I love Avatar so much]
3) Meld steps 1 and 2 together to start developing a "dream-memory" where the nightly re-occurrence of people/places is possible.
4) Travel to Pandora at will.

The steps above should be taken as a shell-model of the project. From my studies, training yourself to become lucid when dreaming posed enough challenges on its own. And of course, learning the geography of Pandora and the ways of its inhabitants was (and still is) hard as well. Despite these difficulties, the bottom line is, using this project, I have discovered a way to experience a fantasy world, create it, interact with it, and simply be "apart" of it. I basically have an Avatar of my own.

Right now, I'm about two-weeks into the experiment. I'm able to induce one lucid dream per night. I haven't crafted Pandora yet; I'm still mastering achieving and keeping lucidity. I'm close tho, I can feel it. It won't be long until I'll be interacting with Netiri [albeit in English probably (my Na'vi is still rusty  )] or flying through the legendary floating mountains. Here's the process I've followed this far:

A: Information on Dreaming

Study up on it! Learn what lucid dreaming is. Learn what you can do with lucid dreaming!
Link: http://www.dreamviews.com/whatislucid.php

B: Induction Techniques

This is probably the toughest part because it's the longest. Read up on the guides I post. This is not an overnight thing. Like I mentioned, it has taken me two weeks to induce my first lucid dream. Some people are faster than others, however. Ask yourself if this is something you want to commit to. I can't express how awesome it is to control your own world. You have an Avatar waiting for you.
Links: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming
                 http://www.ld4all.com/guide.html

C: Setting Up Your Method

Are you going to try a WBTB+MILD or maybe a WILD? After you can remember a dream or two a night, your ready to start trying to induce a lucid one. Map out what you want to try, and document which methods work best for you. Set up a schedule for how long you want to try each technique and when you will switch to a different one. Which method is best for you? This one is on you, there are no links.

D: Dreaming of Pandora

I'm not here yet, but eventually once you are able to induce lucid dreams, you can start trying to shape your world. It doesn't HAVE to be Pandora, it can be anything. You can basically play God if you can get away with not waking up as of getting overwhelmed in the dream.


Again, this is not an over-night thing. It takes work and some studying. But I can't even speak of how awesome the little instances of lucidity I have had are. Do you know what it's like to levitate? I do. I've done it before. People speak of walking through walls and mirrors, creating objects out of thin air; you can be apart of any scenario you want. You can live on Pandora. Be apart of your fantasy!  

I will warn you tho, I'm starting to get a bit of a "Jake Sully Effect". Suddenly reality becomes dull; you feel trapped in it...you only look forward to sleeping...it's the difference between leading 15 clans into battle and then being bound by a wheelchair. The choice is yours. Pilot your avatar or don't. Either way, I've created my own. Call me crazy, but lucid dreaming has been scientifically proven to be achievable. It is very real, and very possible.

One-Month Self Progress:        

I've been "training" myself to lucidly dream for about a month. As of now, I have 3-4 high-quality, long, and vivid dreams per night (especially when I do WBTB's). I've also been toying around with Isochronic Tones to help induce a meditative-like state before sleep. Using these tones I had a rather scary (but totally awesome) W.I.L.D. experience (see link below if you want to try this out). Despite this, I've only gone lucid a total of 6 times (most of which came from WBTB+MILD). My problem lies in that figure: missing lucidity. I was hoping by now it would be a nightly thing but I'm not there yet. I always seem to never get lucid. Because of this, I'm trying two things:

1) I've scheduled "reality check reminders" on my phone once ever few hours to, well, remind me to do a RC. I'm hoping this will carry over into my dreams eventually and thus grant me lucidity.

2) I'm changing how I approach my MILD's and furthering my level of concentration while performing the mnemonic induction. The key to these is telling your mind you will go lucid right before going to sleep which is a mark I seem to miss.

I'm hoping these changes will help. All in all, however, good progress has been made. My dreams are so long now that if I were to document the details in my dream journal, it would take hours. Just last night, actually, I had a dream that lasted two full days. I can only think of Jake Sully in his video log saying "...and the days are starting to blur together."

Useful Links:

Find a compilation of free online books and useful software at: http://www.consciousdreaming.com/lucid-dreaming/lucid-dream-out-of-body-experiences-resources.htm
A list of recommended books on the topic: http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/lucid-dreaming-books.html
"A Course on Consciousness" - a book that details WILD's at: http://webspace.webring.com/people/al/lucidmetro/coursepart1.htm#ABOUT%20THIS%20COURSE
Free Isochronic Tones at: http://iso-tones.com/tones.html [scroll down to the "Lucid Dreaming" tones -- this is recommended with headphones so you can concentrate on the tone]

Enjoy!

PS: The more you know about the place you want to dream of, the easier and more realistic the place will feel. For this reason I recommend the Avatar Activist Survival Guide, as it has information all about the planet, animals, fauna, people, etc, etc. Embed this information into your mind before you sleep. Can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Avatar-Confidential-Biological-History-Camerons/dp/0061896756

[Hawnuyu atìtse'a]

In the words of Aerosmith:

"Dream on, dream on, dream on,..."(in a good way )

I actually played with this idea myself, but I don't get enough sleep to fulfill lucidity's requirements.
Good idea though.

[Thorinbur]

I was trying it once (once doesn't mean one night) and end up in some really twisted dream, where i had no control at all, even when i thought i had i was dreaming that i have control over my dream and had 3 false awakings one after another. But in fact i had none control ever it. It was just ilusion. Lastly i find my dreams strange i can dream like 10hours of story in 6 hours of sleep, after watching avatar i was dreaming same story 5 times, but in one night without waking up every time changing one small detail. I was trying OOBE and LD. Nothing really worked for me. Only thing that scares crap out of me is that i learnt my friend about OOBE (Out Of Body Experiences) and after few days, he said he had one, and he was in his girlfriend room, but all the furnitures where different he phoned her and she said that day before she moved them. He didn't know that before his dream. That is scary, still he can lie. All i want to say, that dreams and other related things are streange and really worth studying. Thanx for posting this. Maybe we will have more dream explorers thanks to it. I will try again this time with lucid dreaming, OOBE is too hard for me cos i am too sceptical. But lucid dreaming is ok with me.

Other interesting dream related thing:
When you drink coke before falling asleep (you need to fall asleep befor cofeine will star working) You will and up with very active brain, and after waking up you will fell strange, but great, you will also dream like creazy:P.

[Ayfa'liyä omumyu]

An excellent post about in intriguing and worthwhile topic. I am a lucid dreamer, though I usually make no preparations for this aside from choosing a setting for the dream, which is generally as simple as asking the question "Where do I want to go tonight?" I am fortunate in this regard, and while I've not made any concerted effort to dreamwalk (as it where) through Pandora, I've not surprisingly ended up there a few times recently. In fact, my first viewing of Avatar was a late-night show and the dreams I had that morning were extremely intense visually and viscerally - POV flight from an Ikran's back. Nice!

Now of course, one could always go a bit overboard with this I suppose, as happens in another of my favorite films, Altered States. But that's ok too...

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

It's called spirit traveling [ST], btw.
It's an old form of travel, and present in the religion of mentalism.

Traveling to another plane of existence has existed forever.  I'd be happy to assist anyone who needs help with this topic.  The more people interested, the better, in my eyes.

Feel free to message or email me.  I have a lot of experience in these matters.

[OfPandora]

I'm thrilled to hear such positive feedback!  I figured more people would be like "dude your out of your mind now go take your meds."

And yes, this experience has been around for thousands of years. Apparently, Tibetan monks used to use forms of meditation to induce LD's via the WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dream), a type of technique where you fall asleep consciously. 

Should anyone attempt this, I'll be more than happy to extend the knowledge I've gained about the subject. I see Unil Txep has extended his aid as well.

[Tslerolam'awpo]

Awsome info dude, Irayo~!

[Hawnuyu atìtse'a]

@OfPandora

Pandora at night is intoxicating enough. Which is why this thread is good. A dreamtrip to a night on Pandora? Hells yes.

[Nume fpi sänume]

I'm thrilled to hear such positive feedback!  I figured more people would be like "dude your out of your mind now go take your meds."

And yes, this experience has been around for thousands of years. Apparently, Tibetan monks used to use forms of meditation to induce LD's via the WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dream), a type of technique where you fall asleep consciously. 

Should anyone attempt this, I'll be more than happy to extend the knowledge I've gained about the subject. I see Unil Txep has extended his aid as well.

I too am glad there is such a positive feedback for this, and I'm interested if anyone is going to attempt it to know the results. Also, you wont see much negative feedback, since the one* thing I personally wont tolerate is flaming another member on the threads i mod Your free to speak your mind here, as long as its on topic

*Disclaimer - Also, the normal forum rules, gotta adhere to those too.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

I acually can do this.



I never thought of trying this before. Ho-ly-cr-ap. Can't wait to give it a try tonight.

[kxanì tsamsiyu]

When i have dreams they are quite extreme and crazy the last one i had was when i was Neo and i was fighting the the machines and all hell was breaking loose. A very good dream i must add. 
But i do not dream that often so when i do dream i think my mind just lets go and goes insane.

so i will read a bit more into this and give this a try. Hopefully this will work and i can go into Pandora.

[Tengfya swizaw]

Sounds interesting. At first I was skeptical, but seeing as we know so little about the human brain and there's no real mysticism involved, It sounds far-fetched, but makes sense, in a way. I'm willing to give it a try. After I get a better grip on Na'vi, of course; that's my priority as of now.

[Tìreyway Atantau]

That's so awesome! I'm going to try to teach myself how to do this. I'm getting into the habit of checking clocks and touching walls. lol. People are going to think I'm crazy, but it's worth it. Off and away to Pandora, Hogwarts, and New York City! lolz

[neosis666]

Actually i Have been doing lucid dreaming for many years, my level of controll varies, I don't dream often but when I do normally I will have the same dream / continuation of a dream several nights in a row. As each night continues I often get more controll / awareness within the dream.


My last aware dream was several weeks ago in which I was on a starship,


Night one, I was a participant in the dream going to the bridge, as the doors opened, I was aware it was a dream, at which point I woke.
Night 2, nothing
Night 3, The dream happens again, but this time I am fully aware it is a dream, I have somewhat limited controll, I can look around, and greet other "crew" in passing, but my major actions like walking are not fully mine. Once I get to the bridge it is empty, I walk upto a console and push a button, the bridge suddenly because active with many other crew members, a voice over the comm system tells us to meet up with some other members in engineering. Here I woke up.

Night 4, same as the previous night, however rather than going to the bidge I controll myself and go to engineering right away, this time I see the other crew speaking over the comm system and asking people on the bridge to meet them in engineering.  At this point, again I wake up.

Since then the dream hasn't continued

[Tsyeymzi]

Well, I had my "first try" last night; and whilst I realise this isn't an overnight process, I swear to god SOMETHING happened. But I'll get to that...

There are only two dreams I've had in my life that I can vividly recall to their full extent. I'm not going to here, but one of which was I was at my grandparents house (although the inside of it was my house) and in the middle of the night, a Volcano erupted and we did the whole "escape before the Lava gets you" thing. The other one was me at school, talking to my friends outside and a Boeing 727, American Airlines comes in really low over our heads and crashes into the paddock below the school... Anyone make anything out of them?

Anyway, about last night...

I was lying there having a shot at the MILD method (WILD sounds scary)... But I decided to visualise the scene where Jake and Neytiri are flying in the Hallelujah Mountains (first flight). I was trying to "vividly" visualise it and as Jake's Ikran banked around, I swear to god everything just "clicked into go" for half a second, for a split second I could "see" the Ikran, all it's beautiful colours, not for long enough though because then I must have done something and I opened my eyes and pfft, gone.

Other than that, that's all I managed to catch, I'm trying to do a Dream Journal but every time I try to wake myself up, I still don't remember having a dream.

I'm someone of little belief in many "impossible" things, god, magic, what-not. But I have the utmost belief that our brains can do ANYTHING. It's just a matter of working out how. Who's to say once you get really good at Lucid Dreaming, you can "Lucid Live" and have control of the world around you.

[kxanì tsamsiyu]

But I have the utmost belief that our brains can do ANYTHING. It's just a matter of working out how.

Well we do only use about 5% - 10% of our brain so my question is what was the other 90% of the brain used for before we lost the ability to use it. 

[Tsyeymzi]

But I have the utmost belief that our brains can do ANYTHING. It's just a matter of working out how.

Well we do only use about 5% - 10% of our brain so my question is what was the other 90% of the brain used for before we lost the ability to use it. 

I know right? And even that is beyond the scope of what we can think of... I mean, something like levitation and flying is probably only like 20%. Materializing objects is maybe 30%... So what the hell would it be at 90% or 100%?!

[kxanì tsamsiyu]

But I have the utmost belief that our brains can do ANYTHING. It's just a matter of working out how.

Well we do only use about 5% - 10% of our brain so my question is what was the other 90% of the brain used for before we lost the ability to use it. 

I know right? And even that is beyond the scope of what we can think of... I mean, something like levitation and flying is probably only like 20%. Materializing objects is maybe 30%... So what the hell would it be at 90% or 100%?!

Even Einstein only used 10% - 15% and he was one of the smartest, if not the smartest man ever. so maybe even teleportation would be possible. Say you close your eyes and think of a place and open them again and your there. But it is impossible to know and our minds wouldn't even be able to comprehend that.

[Tsyeymzi]

To bring up a point in my earlier post...

I'm trying to start the dream journal thing and it just seems I can't do anything. With the exception of that 1 second I had, no matter when I wake up, alarm or normally, I don't remember anything... And I'm still having trouble distinguishing whether my "visualization" was actually going into a dream temporarily, or the visualization just kicking it up a notch.

[Kxanì Kato]

I've found it. The way to Pandora. The answer is not by space shuttle, but by the power of your own mind. More specifically, your dreams.

It's called a "Lucid Dream." Some of you might have heard of it. It's defined as a dream in which the dreamer can carry out conscious thought. In other words, you are dreaming but it feels as if you are in reality. The reason being you are completely conscious, yet still asleep. As you get better and better at controlling your thoughts in the dreamworld, the more you can manipulate. That's right, you can actively manipulate everything about the dream. I've been practicing Lucid Dreaming for a few months now. When Avatar came out, I had a smirk on my face as soon as I left the theater. I believe I've come as close to Pandora as I can get. I can go there almost voluntarily whenever I go to sleep. I know it seems too good to be true, but the best part is... it's not  . Now comes the big question: Induction. How does one induce a Lucid Dream? It takes some practice. It took around a week before my first successful Lucid Dream. However it might take longer for some, depending on how your mind functions as its dreaming.

I'm no teacher. That's better left to the all powerful Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

There's extensive instructions on many different methods of induction. I learned straight from this page. Try it out for yourself, and whatever you do DON'T GIVE UP!!! keep trying and Pandora will be within your grasp as well.

I've been to Pandora and back folks. Seen some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. One dream in particular, I was flying. Through the Hallelujah Mountains on an ikran. It was so vivid and beautiful that when i woke up, i started to sob with joy. I'd never thought anything like Lucid Dreams possible until I witnessed them myself. It's helped alot with my case of the Pandora Effect. A fair word of warning, sometimes, as Jake said, "Everything is backwards, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream."

Well, hopefully with a bit of luck, i'll see some of you in the Hallelujah Mountains. We can race ikran


inb4 "Sooner or later, we all have to wake up." lol