Hello Friends,
It's October and one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is often really nice—if not warm, at least it's generally clear and sunny. Waning daylight hasn't fully immersed my spirit in darkness. My cooking magazines are full of images of the holidays.
The only thing about October that is a bummer, and it's not an insignificant thing, is Halloween. Often the thought of Halloween brings me to a sweaty panic. It’s not the horror movies—those are fine. I mean, they are not Hallmark…
It’s that I find no other specter of the entire year as anxiety producing as the contemplation of "costuming." Throughout my entire life, whenever anyone has inquired, "What are you going to be for Halloween?", I've retorted, "Nothing. I find it hard enough being myself."
For me, dressing up in public is the stuff of nightmares.
And, speaking of dreams, someone has figured out how to invade other people's dreams.
It's true that both people in the study were willing participants, and both parties had to work to get themselves into the state of lucid dreaming. Despite that, it's a start down a very slippery, wet-leaf covered road.
Dreaming is possibly the last private event that we have. The first thought that popped into my head when I read this article was, "How long until we start seeing advertisements in our dreams?"
Lucid dreaming is the moments in your dreams when you realize that you are dreaming. Some people experience this more that others. And, it is possible to pay attention while your dreaming to recognize when this happens and take advantage of it.
During these periods of a lucid dream, you can control what happens—you can direct the movie of your own fancy. It's kind of fun. You can turn the tables on someone who is chasing you in a nightmare or enhance the excitement if you are in a pleasant fantasy.
Well, now, someone can lucid dream next to you and enter your dreams like a cat burglar.
This is creepy, particularly if you're not expecting it, and if they are intentionally doing it. An unscrupulous person could take all kinds of advantages, implant specific messages, and coerce you to tell them where you hid your gold.
Imagine this Sci-Fi vision where a drone silently (must be the future because current drones are annoyingly loud) hovers outside your bedroom window and uses lucid dream technology to enter your nighttime visions. Rather than sugar plums, you envisage friendly sugar-free colas.
I'm just saying… It's another one of those science-y things to file under "Just because we can do it, should we?" Of course, it does make good Sci-Fi fodder.
Oh, and this is happening.
Happy October. Happy reading, writing, and dreaming.
David
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