From: clint@waldron.Stanford.EDU (Jennifer Dole)
Subject: Re: DreamLight 
Organization: Stanford Univ.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 19:46:49 GMT

For those of you who saw the DreamLight on "Beyond 2000,"
or those of you who missed it but are still curious, the 
price is $990.00. Yes, it is expensive. It's not yet been
one full year since the Lucidity Institute started manufacturing
DreamLights, so the price is still a bit prohibitive for
some. Don't forget that it's also a fairly sophisticated piece 
of technology-- not just an expensive "toy." 

Lucid dreaming is sometimes equally as prohibitive in that it 
can be a difficult skill to cultivate. This is where the DreamLight
is of use. As a teaching tool of sorts, it can dramatically
reduce the time one spends trying to get the hang of lucid
dreaming. So the question to be asked is: What is your time
worth to you?

I thought I'd append the following, which is a piece about
the DreamLight, with some FAQs at the end, that I occasionally 
post to alt.dreams.

The DreamLight, developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, is a lucid dream
induction device (in other words, a tool that helps you have lucid
dreams.) It's a computerized biofeedback device that monitors your
sleep and delivers light and/ or sound cues when you are dreaming.

The key to lucid dreaming is memory. If you want to have lucid dreams,
you have to remember your intention to recognize when you are dreaming.
Most of us have memories that are fallible, and so in waking life if
we want to be sure to remember to do something, we use memory aids: we
write ourselves notes, and ask others to remind us.

However, as a reminder to recognize when you are dreaming, written
notes and other people are no help-- you can't take them with you
into the dream!

The DreamLight does that job for you. It watches while you sleep, and
gives you a gentle cue-- a "tap on the shoulder" as it were, to remind
you to notice that you are dreaming.

You wear the DreamLight mask (connected by a long cord to a small,
about walkman sized, control box) at night as you sleep, awaiting
the time when you enter "Rapid Eye Movement" (REM) sleep, the time
when dreaming occurs every night. When the DreamLight detects that you
are dreaming,it communicates with you!

While you dream, lights in the mask flash on and off for a few seconds--
just long enough to enter your dream and cue you that you are dreaming.
The DreamLight's cue is designed to readily enter your dreams without
waking you. When you see the light in your dream you say to yourself,
"Aha! The DreamLight! That means I'm dreaming!"

>How long has the DreamLight been on the market, and does it have
any competition?

Six months. No competition.

>Does the DreamLight interfere with sleep...?

It can if the settings one uses are not suited to one's sleeping 
habits, (i.e., a very long, bright cue will wake a light sleeper). 
The unit will wake most users from time to time, but these transient 
awakenings are conducive to dream recall and the practice of lucid 
dream induction techniques during the night, such as LaBerge's MILD. 
It's a trade-off, though. The feeling you can have during the day(s) 
following a lucid dream usually greatly outweighs any feeling of 
tiredness you may have over lost sleep. And, of couse, lucid dreaming 
per se yields no such feelings of fatigue at being "awake" the whole 
night.

>How quickly do buyers tire of the DreamLight?

There is a whole spectrum of responses. We get feedback from those
purchasers immensely satisfied with the product, and conversely, we
get some returns (5 -10% out of the nearly 600 that are out there in 
the world). I suspect, of course, there are some responses in between 
these two extremes!

>...personal testimonials?

Granted I'm not exactly your typical impartial DreamLight purchaser, 
but I am an occasional DreamLight user (1/mo.), and I also answer 
the DreamLight Help Line, a phone support service for users, so I
hear from plenty of purchasers. The DreamLight is a *tool* to aid in 
the induction of lucid dreams, it is not consciousness in a bottle, as 
it were. One must work *with* the unit, and bring to the experience 
a mind sufficiently prepared to have lucid dreams. Therefore, the 
efficacy of the DreamLight as a lucid dream induction device varies
from user to user.

The initial data we've compiled from purchasers of the product 
indicate that out of 75 first time users, 40% had at least one lucid 
dream in just the first week of use. As for long term usage, I think 
of Lynne Levitan, a devoted lucid dream researcher, who has used the 
DreamLight about 130 times over a three year period. Mental preparation
aside, she had more than 3 times as many lucid dreams on nights that 
she was wearing the DreamLight as opposed to when she was not. (These
statistics were presented at the Assciation for the Study of Dreams in
1987.)
 
As for me, when I go to bed with a proper mental set, and use the 
DreamLight, I'd venture to say I have at least one lucid dream upwards 
of 80% of the time.

For more information on the DreamLight, lucid dreaming, or the
activities of the Lucidity Institute:
 
email your physical address to:
clint@matia.stanford.edu
 
Or write to:
The Lucidity Institute
2555 Park Blvd., Ste. 2
Palo Alto, CA  94306 USA

Or call:
415-321-9969

Or FAX:
415-321-9967

Hope this has been helpful,

Jennifer

PS, If there is interest, I'd be glad to post the "Lucid Dreaming FAQ"
here.