From the category archives:

Mind/Consciousness

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

August 22, 2009

In this powerfully moving video, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor recounts what it felt like to have massive stroke. She describes with intense passion the experience of watching her brain functions shut down one by one, losing speech and motor functions, and ultimately losing self-awareness, culminating in a feeling of oneness with everything.
Her experience brings [...]

Read the full article →

Calvin Has a False Awakening (Calvin & Hobbes)

September 5, 2008

I just came across this great Calvin & Hobbes comic today. In it, Calvin experiences a classic false awakening. He dreams of being woken up, having breakfast, and going through his usual morning routine, only to discover it was all a dream. I've had false awakenings like this one many times.
Click on the image on [...]

Read the full article →

New Articles & Some Changes In The Works

May 13, 2008

The dream blogging zone has been unusually quiet over the past couple of months. With the exception of Ryan, who continues to post great new articles over at the Dream Studies Portal, many of the folks who blog about dreaming have been silent lately.
I'm guilty of it myself. I like to think it's because we're [...]

Read the full article →

False Awakenings and Lucid Dreaming

October 15, 2007

A false awakening occurs when you're dreaming and believe you've woken up when in actuality you are still dreaming and only dreamed of waking up. You "wake up" and begin to go about your daily routine — visit the bathroom, brush your teeth, get dressed, etc. — until eventually you realize [...]

Read the full article →

Nutrition and How It Affects Consciousness

October 11, 2007

It's no secret that what we eat affects our health, but how does it affect the mind? Can eating specific foods help you think more clearly, improve your ability to focus, or increase your creativity? By the same token, can avoiding certain foods have a similar effect? Can your diet also increase or decrease your [...]

Read the full article →

Why I Don't Use Psychoactive Drugs to Achieve Altered States

October 9, 2007

There has been a recent resurgence in the use of psychoactive substances* to aid in achieving trance states or spiritual experiences, so I thought I'd write an article about why I made a personal decision not to use them in my own exploration of consciousness.
Though many of these substances have been used for centuries in [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries