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a good look on the interesting details that life reveals
Finally we have arrived to dreams which are more on the lighter side – Lucid Dreams. What is a Lucid Dream? A Lucid Dream is having a dream where the dreamer is totally conscious of what is going on. Basically this means being awake while you are dreaming. In these types of dreams, anything is possible and unlike the previous types of dreams, lucid dreams do not fall in so much to tragic experiences because the dreamer can create their own dreams just from imagining their ideal scene.
Lucid dreams come in three forms:
A dream-initiated lucid dream happens during the state when the dreamer is having a dream and then realizes that they are dreaming. It is kind of like dreaming and then waking up but you’re still in a dream, not having “really” woken up yet.
A wake-initiated lucid dream is when one goes from being awake to falling asleep, but when they fall asleep, they are still awake, and the dream begins as they are awake. So it is basically a transition between being conscious while being awake and then being conscious while dreaming.
A mnemonic-initiated lucid dream is one is confident that they will have a lucid dream in the upcoming dream. This could mean that they fall asleep and know they somewhere in the dream, they will come back alive conscious again. It is not randomly processed, but is done through repetition, someone like when a hypnotist can tell the mind when something is going to happen.
Below are some dreams of people who describe their lucid dreams. These lucid dreams are from a book called Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. & Howard Rheingold.
Case Examples of Lucid Dreams
1. I realized I was dreaming. I raised my arms and began to rise (actually I was being lifted). I rose through the black sky that blended into indigo, to deep purple, to lavender, to white, then to very bright light. All the time I was lifted there was the most beautiful music I have ever heard. It seemed like voices rather than instruments. There are no words to describe the joyI felt. I was very gently lowered back to earth. I had the feeling that I had come to a turning point in my life and I had chosen the right path. The dream, the joy I experienced, was kind of a reward, or so I felt. It was a long, slow slide back to wakefulness with music echoing in my ears. The euphoria lasted several days; the memory forever. (A.F., Bay City, Michigan).
2. I was standing in a field in an open area when my wife pointed in the direction of the sunset. I looked at it and thought, “How odd; I’ve never seen colors like that before.” Then it dawned on me: “I must be dreaming!” Never had I experienced such clarity and perception – the colors were so beautiful and the sense of freedom so exhilarating that I started racing through this beautiful golden wheat field waving my hands in the air and yelling at the top of my voice, “I’m dreaming! I’m dreaming!” Suddenly, I started to lose the dream; it must have been the excitement. I instantly woke up. As it dawned on me what had just happened, I woke up my wife and said, “I did it! I did it!” I was conscious within the dream state and I’ll never be the same. Funny, isn’t it? How a taste of it can affect one like that. It’s the freedom, I guess; we see that we are truly in control of our own universe. (D.W., Elk River, Minnesota).
3. One night I was dreaming of standing on a gentle hill, looking out over the tops of maples, alders, and other trees. The leaves of the maples were bright red and rustling in the wind. The grass at my feet was lush and vividly green. All the colors about me were more saturated than I have ever seen.
Perhaps the awareness that the colors were “brighter than they should be” shocked me into realizing that I was in a dream, and that what lay about me was not “real.” I remember saying to myself, “If this was a dream, “I should be able to fly in the air.” I tested my hunch and was enormously pleased that I could effortlessly, and fly anywhere I wanted. I skimmed over the tops of the trees and sailed many miles over new territory. I flew upward, far above the landscape, and hovered in the air currents like an eagle.
When I awoke I felt as if the experience of flying had energized me. I felt a sense of well-being that seemed directly related to the experience of being in a lucid dream, of taking control of the flying. (J.B., Everett, Washington).
As you can see from the above, Lucid dreams can offer the dreamer more fun than he or she usually has when entering a normal dream state. How many dreams have you had when you woke up and gone through the day totally unaware of what dreams you have had? To me, and to many others, it would be interesting to see what types of dreams we have in the moment of dreaming and remembering with vivid clarity, what we’ve dreamt the night before.
Tristan Lee is a writer who enjoys helping others with self-improvement and personal success. Read more of his self-improvement posts at his blog, http://tristanleesblog.com/.
Why are we overweight? This question has been asked many times and we all have different answers. The most common is because we eat too much, especially junk food, and exercise less. It is easy to say, I will lose weight and keep it off. Reality is that when we eat more calories than we can use for energy, our bodies store fat. The issue is whether we are seriously committed to change our lifestyle, adopt healthier habits and exercise more. After we gain weight, we find difficulty losing it. There is hope. Increasing our fat burning metabolism will help us lose weight.
Most people have tried many diets, such as quick weight loss diets with the hope of losing that unwanted fat, yet failed to keep the weight off. Why? Because quick diets are not the answer. Think for a moment, we did not gain all that weight in one week, but gradually, right? Therefore, we can lose that unwanted fat gradually and keep the weight off. This is why it is so hard to lose fat and to stay slim with those quick weight loss diets. Some of these diets are so extreme that leave you feeling hungry, weak, and the end is that instead of promoting a healthy eating habit to lose weight, you end up cheating and eating until you satisfy those cravings.
Back to our original question, why are we overweight? People are overweight for different reasons: eating too much, lack of exercise, slow fat burning metabolism, retaining water, eating too late, eating unconsciously while watching TV, eating the wrong foods. We tend to eat for emotional reasons too, as we relate food as calming our nerves. Sound familiar? Sure, we feel fine while eating, but is this the answer to calm our nerves? No. Definitely not. Anxiety can drive us to eat more and see food as an ideal comfort.
How to resolve the overweight issue?
First, we recommend you take a conscious decision of examining your eating habits and consult a physician to check your health before starting any nutritional program and exercise plan.
Second, keep a daily record of what you eat, drink at least 8 glasses of water, have green tea to increase your metabolism, consume lots of vegetables and fresh fruit, avoid junk food and heavy sugary products.
Third, learn to say no when friends or family members offer you second or third servings.
Fourth, keep a firm decision and a positive attitude to lose that unwanted weight, visualize the new you.
Fifth, contact friends who will encourage you to lose weight and motivate you when feeling down. There is always someone ready to keep you motivated.
Whenever you feel eating for anxiety, think twice. Stop for a moment and ask yourself, “am I really hungry or is just an emotional excuse?” Instead of eating impulsively, try to drink water or have a cup of green tea, go out for a walk, or contact one of your friends for motivation.
Remember you are not alone; there are many people trying to lose weight and helping each other is the most valuable tool. Others have lost weight and kept the weight off. I did it, so can you! Believe in yourself, you are special.
A Smithsonian Institution biologist, working with the Natural History Unit of the BBC, has discovered a new species of giant rat on a filmmaking expedition to a remote rainforest in New Guinea. The discovery was made in the crater of an extinct volcano named Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands province. This gigantic volcano’s crater is two and half miles wide and rimmed with walls nearly half a mile high, trapping the creatures inside a “lost world” of mountain rainforests probably rarely visited by humans.
Weighing nearly 3.5 pounds, and measuring 32 inches from nose to tail, the Bosavi woolly rat is one of the biggest rats in the world. Most surprising was that the rat was completely tame, a sign that animals in the isolated crater were unfamiliar with humans. “It is a true rat, closely related to the rats and mice most of us are familiar with, but so much bigger,” said Helgen.
The gigantic rat is silvery gray, with thick woolly fur. It has a vegetarian diet of leaves and roots, and probably builds underground nests beneath rocks and tree roots. A member of the genus Mallomys, it has yet to receive its formal scientific name.
Inside this white building, piles of sorghum are broken down into acids. The acids they produce can be used to make gasoline.
A company that has developed a process for converting organic waste and other biomass into gasoline–Terrabon, based in Houston–recently announced a partnership with Waste Management, the giant garbage-collection and -disposal company based in Houston. The partnership could help Terrabon bring its technology to market.
Most biofuels companies fall into one of two categories. Some use enzymes to break down biomass into simple sugars and a single organism to convert sugars into fuel, such as yeast. Others use high temperatures and pressure to break biomass down into basic chemical building blocks–carbon monoxide and hydrogen–which are then chemically processed into fuels. Terrabon has developed a process that combines the two. It uses a naturally occurring mixture of organisms to convert biomass, not into fuels, but into carboxylic acids. These can be converted into fuel and other chemicals using well-known chemical processes. Gary Luce, the company’s CEO, says Terrabon’s fuels can compete with petroleum-based fuels if prices are above $75 a barrel. (The price of oil is currently about $70 a barrel.)
The approach has an advantage over single-organism-based methods because the mixture of organisms used, collected from salt marshes, are adapted to survive in the wild. They don’t require the special sterile environments needed to prevent single-organism cultures from being contaminated, which brings down the cost of equipment.
These organisms naturally break down biomass into carboxylic acids, such as acetic acid, the key component of vinegar. These acids can serve as chemical precursors for a wide variety of chemicals and fuels, including gasoline and diesel, via processing steps that convert the acids into ketones and alcohols. The acids can be made without the expensive equipment required for high-pressure and -temperature processes. They can also then be processed into fuels using equipment at existing refineries, helping keep costs down.
The New Hairy Solar Panel
A new type of solar panel using human hair could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, believes its teenage inventor. Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world’s energy needs. The young inventor says hair is easy to use as a conductor in solar panels and could revolutionise renewable energy.
The hair replaces silicon, a pricey component typically used in solar panels, and means the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power, he explained. Milan and four classmates initially made the solar panel as an experiment but the teens are convinced it has wide applicability and commercial viability.
The solar panel, which produces 9 V (18 W) of energy, costs around £23 to make from raw materials. But if they were mass-produced, Milan says they could be sold for less than half that price, which could make them a quarter of the price of those already on the market.
Melanin, a pigment that gives hair its colour, is light sensitive and also acts as a type of conductor. Because hair is far cheaper than silicon the appliance is less costly. The solar panel can charge a mobile phone or a pack of batteries capable of providing light all evening. Milan began his quest to create electricity when he was a boy living in Khotang, a remote district of Nepal completely unconnected to electricity. According to him, villagers were skeptical of his invention at first.
About the Author: Craig Malone is a writer for SpiritNow.com . Visit SpiritNow.com, your online spirituality destination for psychics and tarot readings. Get a free psychic reading at SpiritNow.com .
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