From: clint@matia.Stanford.EDU (Jennifer Dole)
Subject: Re: DreamLight
Keywords: Lucid Dreaming
Organization: Psychology Dept, Stanford Univ.
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 20:51:45 GMT

Questions about the DreamLight have cropped up again, so I'll re-post
some information on it. Also, for anyone who has further questions 
about this device or the Lucidity Institute, if you email me your US 
postal address, I will send you any info on the DL or membership, etc., 
that you request. (I'll also re-post the Lucid Dreaming FAQ, for those
of you who might have missed it.)

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!"


In article <04OCT92.18893932.0006@tscc.macarthur.uws.EDU.AU> ABLB000 <ABLB@musica.macarthur.uws.EDU.AU> writes:
>I have read about Stephen La Berge's DreamLight, but was wonder
>ing if any people here have actually tried one out. 

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.

To my knowledge there are at least 3 DreamLight purchasers here
on the net. Any of you guys want to comment?

Jennifer



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