Review: Explorers of the Lucid Dream World (DVD)
November 26th, 2007
I recently got my hands on a copy of Explorers of the Lucid Dream World, a new documentary about lucid dreaming. The DVD arrived in the mail on Friday and I immediately popped it into the player and watched the documentary and all the special features that accompanied it.
The documentary covers the basics of lucid dreaming, what it is and what it can be used for. It includes interviews with prominent researchers in the field — Stephen LaBerge and Alan Wallace, among others — along with comments from longtime lucid dreamers involved with the Lucidity Institute.
The documentary won't teach you how to have lucid dreams, but it offers a good introduction for people who are new to lucid dreaming. It includes a description of how to perform a reality check using text, so it gives aspiring lucid dreamers a place to begin their practice. One thing I especially liked was how the documentary subtly emphasized the fact that while lucid dreaming can be a vehicle for entertainment it also can lead you to a much deeper understanding of your unconscious mind.
The special features on the DVD were a highlight for me because there are additional interviews with each of the people featured in the documentary. The interview with Alan Wallace is more than thirty minutes on its own, and how can you go wrong with 30+ minutes of Alan Wallace? (Answer: You can't.) Patricia Keelin also offered some great insights in her interview.
Explorers of the Lucid Dream World was written, produced and directed by Richard Hilton. You can order a copy of the DVD through his web site in exchange for a small donation.
Bill Perry says:
Kris,
That sounds like an awesome DVD for beginners! One thing that bugs me is that I must not be "Normal" because I've only had text change on my in my dream, and that was when I WILLED it to change. It was one of thise "Today's Special is…" boards like in a Diner. Where they use that fluorescent marker stuff to write on there.
Text doesn't change for me in my dreams, does that happen for anyone else?
Nov 27th, 2007 at 5:08 am
reality shifter says:
Hi Bill,
That's very intriguing about the text not changing in your dreams. Text usually changes in my dreams but I sometimes encounter text that seems stable. Whenever it happens, the text usually also carries some sort of important message (either in relation to the dream events or as part of a message surfacing from the unconscious), which makes me wonder if the text remains fixed in place because my unconscious mind wants to make absolutely sure I read the text and receive the message. When people use text for a reality check, sometimes they're more concerned with just quickly glancing at the letters or at a few individual words to see if they're dreaming, and they don't pay as much attention to the message being conveyed. Maybe stable text is a way for the unconscious mind to give the dreamer an added opportunity to read the entire message and understand it.
I've also noticed book titles usually remain stable in my dreams. The text on signs and in newspapers typically changes if I use it for a reality check, but book titles always seem stable. That could be because the text in newspapers and on signs changes daily in waking life too.
Regarding the DVD, in terms of being used as an intructional video to teach lucid dreaming, I'm not sure how it compares to the Saltcube DVD recently reviewed by Hatter on his web site. I haven't had a chance to view the Saltcube DVD yet. "Explorers of the Lucid Dream World" is more of an overview than a breakdown of individual techniques, but it's worth watching (even for experienced lucid dreamers) because of the commentary from the people who were interviewed for the documentary. I'm a fan of Alan Watts so I thoroughly enjoyed watching his interview, and of course Stephen LaBerge always has insightful things to say about dreaming.
Kris
Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Bill Perry says:
Interesting what you say about book titles, Kris.
Have you ever pulled the books and tried reading them?
I think I did once, but as I was trying to read it, even
though the text was stable, there was no COMPREHENSION of the words. I could see what the words were, but couldn't understand them. Like being in a fog.
The coolest thing that's happened to me with text in dreams, is one time when I was looking for some meaning in my life, and one night, I was in a lucid dream. I went lucid, and tried to do normal lucidity stuff, flying sex, all that.
Well, suddenly it was as if I could feel my lucidity being TAKEN from me, not just losing it, but being taken by some outside thing, and the dream turned very symbolic after that. The dream went on forever and forever it seemed, and I found a fax machine and as I looked at it, a fax came out, and the fax said,
"This is from your subconscious mind. The answer you need is …." and gave me an insight into my problem I was having at the time.
Nov 27th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
reality shifter says:
Hi Bill,
Wow! Talk about getting a direct line to your subconscious mind! That would be fantastic. I've never had something like that happen in my dreams. Usually when I'm supposed to glean something important from a dream, someone shows up in the dream and starts conversing with me about it and seems to answer my questions in a very clear and direct way. It's different from the typical conversations in my dreams, so it always stands out enough for me to take notice.
Whenever I try to read the pages of a book, I seem to run into the same problem you described. Even if I can read the words, the necessary level of clarity or comprehension isn't there.
~ Kris
Nov 28th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
The Mad Hatter says:
That's funny, I was just looking at that DVD from another source yesterday. I was wondering about the interviews mostly, because those are some pretty big names.
The interview with LaBerge was my main interest, how was that?
-Hatter
Nov 30th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
reality shifter says:
Hi Hatter,
Most of the interviews were shorter than the interview with Alan Wallace. There were some short clips of commentary from LaBerge within the documentary and then a few more short clips in the special features. (Each clip is 2 to 4 minutes long.)
If you're looking for a long interview with only Stephen LaBerge, I recommend getting the DVD of his interview with Jeffrey Mishlove. They sell the DVD at Thinking Allowed and it contains 60 minutes of Q&A with LaBerge about lucid dreaming.
~ Kris
Nov 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm