WEBVTT 1 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:18.320 Welcome to Destiny. Now here's your host, Cliff Dunning. 2 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:21.359 Hey, how you doing. Come on in. 3 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:25.239 This is time for Destiny and I'm your host, Cliff Dunning. 4 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.519 We're talking about tools for transformation. People ask me, you know, Cliff, 5 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.439 why did you start destiny? What's destiny all about? Well, 6 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:36.240 if you really pay attention, and I know most of 7 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:42.079 you do, what we're doing here is providing evidence of enhancements. 8 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:45.520 You know, I use the term biohacking, which is more 9 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:49.560 of a present term for enhancing your brain, your body, 10 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:56.079 your spirit through vitamin's, minerals, foods, in some cases drugs. 11 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:01.520 And I mentioned that I am on OZIMPI and you 12 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:05.359 know I want to feel better. I want to live 13 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:10.959 long and healthy and vibrant, and so tools for transformation 14 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:15.359 on the physical level are very much into my my perspective. 15 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:21.159 The other side of things is what our ancestors use 16 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:26.159 tools for transformation. They were, you know, developing meditation. And 17 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.120 you know I've spoken about this before. When you meditate, 18 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:36.200 whoever figured out the keys to meditation was an alchemist. 19 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:40.760 When you meditate, you synchronize your left and right brain, 20 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.400 your hemispheres, your left and right hemispheres, and when you 21 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.760 do that, you sink that. You sink your brain so 22 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:55.000 it's functioning more harmonious, harmoniously, but also you heal your brain, 23 00:01:55.959 --> 00:01:59.560 and people don't. We don't have enough people that are meditating. 24 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:01.079 And you know, it's like I don't have time to 25 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:03.920 sit and close my eyes. I can't sit still. My 26 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:06.359 mother's never been able to meditate, and I've tried to 27 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:09.280 get her to get into some classes because it would 28 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:12.439 help her, but she can't sit still, and some people 29 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:15.520 just can't close their eyes. Well, that's one aspect of 30 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:20.360 tools for transformation. The others are yoga, they're tai chi, 31 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:24.599 their body movement, they're getting massage. 32 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:25.759 They're eating well. 33 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:34.479 They are looking for nutritional substances that are radically changing metabolism, 34 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.319 because as we age, your body begins to deteriorate. Yourselves 35 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:44.919 are not producing is frequently and you're kind of breaking down. 36 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.879 So we want to live into our eighties, into our nineties, 37 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:52.319 into one hundred, being one hundred. My goal is to 38 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.879 live to be one hundred and four. Now I don't 39 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:58.159 know if that's possible enough. My grandparents grandfather lived to 40 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:04.680 be ninety three, my mother's currently ninety four. Maybe maybe 41 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.400 my mother's pretty in pretty good shape. My grandfather he 42 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:09.879 was pretty good shape until the last six eight months 43 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:14.479 of his life. So maybe I'm wired for this and 44 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:19.360 maybe with the tweaking it'll help, but not just longevity 45 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.000 for me. I think the other thing which is critical 46 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:29.439 is lucidity. Being consciously aware as long as you can, 47 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:32.400 being productive, you know. 48 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.840 Being aware, being. 49 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:44.319 Impactful, having influence on your younger people, being a spokesperson, 50 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.840 being a guide as we get older. Not everybody's cut 51 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:55.919 out for that, but we all have opinions, we all 52 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:59.680 have points of view, and when we get older, people 53 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:02.439 look to you or look to us, and when we 54 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:07.000 get into older ages too, to be a voice, to 55 00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:11.240 give a perspective that is unique to that individual. So 56 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:16.920 tools for transformation. And what we're doing today is we're 57 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.399 talking about sleep, talking about dreaming, but we're also talking 58 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:24.120 about sleep. We have a returning guest who is presenting 59 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:27.879 data on the importance of getting not only a good 60 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:34.399 night's sleep, preparing to sleep very deeply and not having 61 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:39.160 restless sleep. A lot of us have problems with sleep. 62 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.519 We have sleep deprivation because we can't get six or 63 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:46.199 seven hours of sleep. We're sleeping three or four hours, 64 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:50.240 and that's just not enough, just not enough. And I 65 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.480 discovered a long time ago that if I don't get 66 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:55.519 at least six and a half seven hours of sleep, 67 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:02.120 I'm no good because I'm always thinking, moving, active, body, mind, spirit, 68 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.600 and the sleep time for me is sacred time. 69 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:11.720 So I don't have Currently, I don't have a problem 70 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:12.839 getting to sleep. 71 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:17.480 But some people are worrying about their job, their relationships. 72 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:21.360 They're paying the bills, they could have physical health problems, 73 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:26.360 their hips are not feeling great, they have pain, they 74 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:30.720 can't get to sleep without drugs. But getting a good 75 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:36.439 night's sleep is really, really critical. And one of the 76 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:40.360 topics in today's program is how to get good night's sleep, 77 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:44.319 how to get into that ram rapid eye movement level 78 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:48.720 of sleep where you're dreaming, because dreaming, although is an 79 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:53.480 alternative form of awareness and consciousness, also produces very, very 80 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:58.920 beneficial effects. And we'll also talk about today. We're talking 81 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:02.759 about lucid dreaming, where you begin to influence your dreams. 82 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:08.720 You set a dream path and what they call incubate 83 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.720 a dream. You develop a thought, you intend for a 84 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:17.120 good dream to happen. You set the stage, you close 85 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:19.639 your eyes, you go to sleep and at some point 86 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:24.079 you're so deep that you begin to process and you 87 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:27.800 are if you can do it. I'm still working on it. 88 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:34.639 You focus on these lucid dreams years and years ago, 89 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.279 I shouldn't be that long ago. Twenty five years ago, 90 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:40.680 I was the program director for Halife Expo here in 91 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.519 San Francisco. We had Stephan or Stephen Leberge on the 92 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:49.399 program who at that time was a professor at Stanford University, 93 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.000 and he had coined a book called Lucid Dreaming. Actually 94 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.120 the book was exploring the world of lucid dreaming. And 95 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:00.319 when he by the way, his talks were excellent, is 96 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:08.959 like twenty twenty, twenty five, two thousand and five, two 97 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:13.959 thousand and six, and he was exploring lucid dreaming around 98 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:18.240 the world, How other people cultivate lucid dreaming, the techniques 99 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:23.560 for discerning lucid dreaming, the techniques for intending to have 100 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.920 lucid dreamings. Because lucid dreams are so vivid, it's like 101 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:31.399 you're in a reality and then you know you're dreaming. 102 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.319 And that's the other topic that we will present today 103 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:42.399 is is cultivating, incubating, and creating these powerful lucid dreams 104 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:51.959 for healing, for manifesting, for prophecy, prognostication, you know, developing 105 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:56.000 a sense of what's to come. And some of the 106 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:00.000 better lucid dreamers that I've discovered can run a scenario. 107 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.480 They can set up a kind of a halo deck 108 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:08.160 hologram dick if you've watched Star Trek, where you go in, 109 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:12.480 you create the setting, and then you experiment with the outcome. 110 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:15.199 Is this the way I want it to happen? Are 111 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.439 these the people I want to interact with? Okay, I 112 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:20.600 want to try it this way. Oh I don't like that. Okay, 113 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:21.800 we'll go back, We'll try it again. 114 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:23.040 Wow. 115 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.000 I mean, can you imagine having active dreams like that 116 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:31.160 where you run a scenario on something you want or 117 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:33.240 a relationship you want. How how am I going to 118 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.960 interact with this person we're going to meet? What's going 119 00:08:36.039 --> 00:08:37.919 to be next? I want this to happen. I want 120 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.399 that to happen, and you run it, and if you 121 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:45.799 have enough access, you have other influences, then you get 122 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:50.759 a full spectrum example of a lucid dream and the 123 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:53.360 experiment is a success, and then when you actually run 124 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:58.320 it in the real world, it replicates. Now that's pretty advanced. 125 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.799 We're not going to get in that that today, but 126 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:05.519 it's something to consider. So today's program is all about dreams. 127 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:09.480 My guest is doctor Claire Johnson. We had her a 128 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:11.279 couple of years ago. She had a book at that 129 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:15.799 time called The Art of Lucid Dreaming. Today's book is 130 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:20.360 called Elexir of Sleep and it's a great one. Practical 131 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:24.480 solutions for a good night's rest. And listen closely those 132 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.399 of you who have trouble sleeping, because not sleeping at 133 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:32.120 night just adds to the weight of being conscious during 134 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.879 the day. So it's very, very important that we get 135 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:39.200 a good night's sleep. So again the program is Alexa 136 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:46.080 of Sleep, and my guest is Claire Johnson. Hey, spring 137 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:48.320 is just around the corner where there's going to be 138 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:51.879 getting better and better as we continue on into the year, 139 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:54.559 and this means it's time to think about getting away 140 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:59.200 on a vacation. 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It's important that we get 167 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:06.799 good sleep. 168 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:10.559 I have friends and family that have trouble sleeping because 169 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:14.639 their minds are busy, or they have had consumed some 170 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:17.120 food or a beverage that kind of keeps them awake. 171 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:22.679 But our focus today is on the importance of sleep 172 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.440 and what happens when we sleep. My guest, my returning guest, 173 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:29.159 is Clara Johnson. We had her a couple of years 174 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:32.000 ago talking about the art of lucid dreaming. This is 175 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:35.759 a brand new book that she's releasing called Alexor of Sleep, 176 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:42.159 Practical Solutions for a Good Night's Rest, and I had 177 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.399 a good opportunity to take a look at it, and 178 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:48.159 she has some highlights in here and some of the 179 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.879 important keys to why a good sleep, a good night's 180 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:56.799 rest is very very important. So Claire, welcome back to Destiny. 181 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:57.600 Great to have you. 182 00:12:58.240 --> 00:12:58.399 Hi. 183 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:00.919 Cliff, it's lovely to be back. Great to speak to 184 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:01.440 you again. 185 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:02.480 Yeah. 186 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:05.840 Hey, you know I was fascinated in the introduction of 187 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:11.039 your book. You talk about your childhood and the actual 188 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.000 fact that you began lucid dreaming at a very young age. 189 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:19.360 Talk about how you discovered that you were lucid dreaming, 190 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:22.840 but not only that, you know, what were the keys 191 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.399 to getting a good sleep and what you discovered as 192 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:29.639 a child, which you took into your adulthood, and this 193 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:31.519 unique work on sleep that you do. 194 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.159 Yeah, so I mean for me, it was very very 195 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:37.480 early on in life that I realized there were two 196 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:41.399 distinct worlds. One was the world of sleep and dreams, 197 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:45.000 and the other was the waking world. But my parents, 198 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:48.879 like most parents in those days, only paid attention to 199 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.559 one of those worlds. They only paid attention to the 200 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:56.559 waking world. But my dreams would not let me forget 201 00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:00.720 about the other world. So I would have many nightmares 202 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:03.480 when I was a little kid, and in one nightmare 203 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:06.840 when I was three, I dreamed that I was drowning 204 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:10.120 in a swimming pool. And at that moment, I had 205 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:13.360 my first ever flash of lucidity, which is when you 206 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:16.919 recognize that you're dreaming while you're actually in the dream state. 207 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.360 So I realized, wow, I have a choice. I can 208 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:24.399 stay in this nightmare and drown in this pool, or 209 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.919 I can wake myself up. And so I rolled over 210 00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:30.080 and over and over in this swimming pool to get 211 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:32.679 out of the dream, and I ended up rolling right 212 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:35.279 out of bed and landing on the floor with a bump. 213 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.519 And that's when my mother came running up, and she 214 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:41.440 told me that was just a dream that wasn't real. 215 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.440 And so for me, it was like a very very 216 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:48.679 strange thing to hear because I knew how real that 217 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:51.480 dream had been. The colors were there, that the color 218 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:54.399 of the water was turquoise. I had felt that water 219 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.960 going into my lungs. I had felt the panic and 220 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.360 it was also vivid, and said to be told that 221 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:04.159 that world or that experience was not real was just 222 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:08.840 so bizarre for me. I started to realize, Okay, you know, 223 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:11.799 my parents won't talk about this other world with me, 224 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:14.679 but this other world is not leaving me alone. It's 225 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.200 going to keep pulling and pulling at me, so I 226 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:20.480 need to find out more about it. And so as 227 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:25.480 I grew up, I continue to have very interesting sleep experiences, 228 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:29.639 you know, like sleepwalking and also lucid nightmares, which is 229 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:33.759 when you know that you're dreaming, but you can't necessarily 230 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.440 wake yourself up from the dream or control the dream 231 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.039 in any way. You're just kind of the victim of 232 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:43.320 whatever's happening in that nightmare. And that was really terrifying. 233 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:46.360 You know, as a child, you're pretty powerless anyway, because 234 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:50.279 your whole life is under the control of all these adults, 235 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:53.600 and then to have that going on in your dreams 236 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:56.639 as well. You know, it's a pretty big thing for me. 237 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:01.840 But I managed to figure out that dreams reacted to 238 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:06.559 my state of mind. I understood that if I calmed 239 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.559 down my fear, no matter how scary the dream was, 240 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:13.080 when I calmed down, the dream calmed down, it became 241 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:17.480 more friendly. The monsters would stop being so scary and 242 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:21.679 start wanting to be my friends. Or I wouldn't die 243 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:23.480 when I fell off the edge of the cliff. I 244 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:26.360 would just float down and land in a lovely meadow 245 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:28.519 of flowers. You know that sort of thing. So I 246 00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:34.200 started to grasp the all important nature, the thought responsive 247 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:39.240 nature of dreams, and I was then able to guide 248 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:42.399 my lucid dreams. I mean this took a long time, Cliff. 249 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:47.759 You know, this wasn't from one day to the next. 250 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:51.200 You use the term intention, and this is something that 251 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:54.879 everyone talks about now intention. But when you were a child, 252 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:59.000 obviously that's many years ago. To kind of consciously be 253 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:03.960 aware of your dreams or in ten is fairly advanced. 254 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:06.960 I can see why you became a dream expert. 255 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:08.480 Yeah. 256 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:11.079 I mean, I do think though that a lot more 257 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:15.200 children than we may think have these kind of intentional 258 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:19.240 dream experiences, and that they do learn to guide their dreams. 259 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.160 Because what I found when I started speaking about lucid 260 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:25.319 dreaming at international conferences, and you know, you get the 261 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.240 audience questions at the end, people would put their hands 262 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:31.519 up and say, wow. I never knew until I heard 263 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:34.480 this presentation that there was a name for the kind 264 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.599 of dreaming I did as a child, and that it's 265 00:17:36.599 --> 00:17:39.599 called lucid dreaming. But I remember those dreams and how 266 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:42.200 I love for them, and how I enjoyed guiding them 267 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.000 and deciding to fly. So for a lot of people, 268 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.920 you know, at least in those days, I mean this 269 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.119 was pre internet times, we just we didn't really, we 270 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.119 had to figure it out for ourselves. I mean, the 271 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.400 whole of the world has changed so much now with 272 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:59.279 the Internet and all of the information that's there at 273 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:02.240 the touch of a a phone screen for young people 274 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:04.000 who are growing up and want to check out what 275 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:07.200 experience am I having? We never had that. I only 276 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:11.240 found my first ever book that I discovered on lucid 277 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:15.440 dreaming was by Patricia Garfield. It was called Creative Dreaming. 278 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:17.680 I didn't find that until I was like, I think 279 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:22.279 I was nineteen or twenty or something, So that's really late, right, We. 280 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:24.400 Should let people know that you were one of the 281 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:27.279 only people that has a PhD or a doctorate in 282 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:31.480 lucid dreaming. And I don't know, you don't describe what 283 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:34.880 school you went to, but how did you get that 284 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:37.240 your professors to agree to that? 285 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.519 Yeah, it wasn't that easy. Well, this was at the 286 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:44.680 University of Leeds and I started it or when did 287 00:18:44.680 --> 00:18:46.519 I start? I think I started it in two thousand 288 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:51.839 and three. So basically I sent them a portfolio of 289 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:55.079 work that I'd done about lucid dreaming and also my 290 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:59.920 creative writing that I was working on, because this pH 291 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.319 d was a practice based PhD where I did research 292 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:07.640 into lucid dreaming as a creative tool, and so I 293 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:12.960 interviewed people who were artists and writers, and I also 294 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:17.839 wrote a lucid dream inspired novel called Breathing in Color 295 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:21.039 as part of the PhD. So part of the PhD 296 00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:25.799 was me doing experiments in my lucid dreams to meet 297 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:30.119 my novel characters or to try and get inspiration for 298 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:35.640 the plot or yeah, sort of get unusual imagery from 299 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:38.039 my lucid dreams and weave it into the novel. So 300 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:40.880 just sort of showing how this can be done, how 301 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:44.960 lucid dreams can inspire us so deeply on the creative 302 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:49.279 level that we that we can actually bring an original 303 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:53.039 work of art or an original novel out into the world. 304 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:55.640 And then you know, alongside all that was all the 305 00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:00.119 more academic formal research. So it's kind of almost like 306 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.640 doing two PhDs because I had the research part and 307 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:07.839 then I also had the creative writing part. But in yeah, 308 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:11.160 there was a lot of resistance around lucid dreaming in 309 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:16.440 those days because there was still this idea that many 310 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:24.200 Freudians believed. So many psychotherapists and psychiatrists believed that dreams 311 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:27.799 were the domain of the unconscious mind and that it 312 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:32.440 was actually not possible to bring conscious awareness and logical 313 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.759 thought into the dream state. They actually did not believe 314 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:38.480 that it was possible. So when I was presenting my 315 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.160 research at conferences, I would get people in the audience 316 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:45.759 getting really quite furious because it was going against their 317 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:49.559 worldview and everything that they'd learned in their own university degrees. 318 00:20:50.839 --> 00:20:53.000 So they would be saying, how can you say this, 319 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:55.680 How can you say that you're doing your PhD research 320 00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:02.279 while you sleep. This is absolutely preposterous and I would 321 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:05.279 say no, but this has been scientifically proved. It was 322 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:10.279 first scientifically proved back in nineteen seventy five by Dr 323 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:13.119 Keith Hearn at the University of Hull in the UK, 324 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:16.359 and in fact we're coming up to the fiftieth anniversary 325 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.160 of that on the twelfth of April in this year. 326 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:22.319 So I had to explain all this to these people 327 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:25.839 at the conferences. Here's the proof, this is the experiment, 328 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:28.680 this is how it happened. A lucid dreamer was wired 329 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:33.160 up to toeg and how to make these eye signals 330 00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:35.440 when they became lucid so that it could be visible. 331 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:37.839 And this is how it is all proved. So I 332 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:40.680 had to go through all of this explaining and then 333 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:44.960 they'd be like, oh, maybe this is possible, and I'd 334 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:47.279 say to them, it's possible. You can go and have 335 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:51.839 a lucid dream tonight. All it is is a thought away. 336 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:54.680 Lucid dreaming is a thought away. All you have to 337 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:59.079 do is think during a dream, Oh, i'm dreaming right now, 338 00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:02.519 I'm a sleeper dreaming. That's all lucidity is. It's just 339 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.680 a thought, an awareness, that's all it is. So it's 340 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:09.599 not hard. Anyone can do it. It's also learnable or relearnable, 341 00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:12.599 because many of us had this naturally when we were 342 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.119 kids growing up, So there's no big mystique around it. 343 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:21.400 It's just something that naturally occurs in consciousness. 344 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:24.559 Let's work on the foundation. Let's talk a little bit 345 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.279 about sleep itself, which is the title of Elixir of Sleep, 346 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.519 and we'll catch up with Lucid Jimmian in a second. 347 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:36.359 Why is good sleep so vital to our health? 348 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:42.119 Yeah, so we cannot survive without sleep, So it's always 349 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:46.279 been part of the evolutionary picture for humans, right, we 350 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:49.559 have to do this, we have to recharge. I sometimes think, 351 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.920 wouldn't it be interesting as an alien coming to this 352 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:57.559 planet and observing human behavior and seeing how we constantly 353 00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:00.559 have to lie down and recharge our batteries. We must 354 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:04.559 seem like kind of weak battery operated toys that kind 355 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:07.240 of run out of steam and then have to have 356 00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:10.799 to plug themselves into the source. Because that's what sleep is. 357 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:16.400 It's this, it's this incredibly important source, a vital source 358 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:21.880 for us. If we don't sleep, we immediately just after 359 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:25.039 one bad night of sleep. We've all experienced this, you know, 360 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:27.400 when we've been traveling, for example, and you just can't 361 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:29.480 sleep and you have to stay awake all night. The 362 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.359 next day you feel terrible. You can't think straight, you 363 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.599 can't get a simple sentence out of your mouth, you 364 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.759 can't drive properly. It's very, very dangerous to drive when 365 00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:43.920 you're sleep deprived. It's like being drunk when you're driving 366 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:48.319 a car. And so all of our cognitive abilities decrease 367 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:51.839 incredibly rapidly if we don't get a good night's sleep. 368 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:57.440 So just on that level of human survival, it's absolutely 369 00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:00.160 essential to get a good night's sleep. And there and 370 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:03.480 we need to consider the fact that sleep is a 371 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:08.200 healing elixia. It actually, you know, recharges our entire body. 372 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:13.319 There are these killer cancer cells you know, that are 373 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.200 produced when we sleep in the deeper stages of sleep 374 00:24:16.519 --> 00:24:19.559 that will stop us from getting cancer or help us 375 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:24.400 to heal if cancer appears in our body. Our immune 376 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:29.079 system is fortified while we sleep, our hormones are balanced. 377 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:33.640 And yeah, there's also the dreaming, which we've already spoken 378 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:36.519 about a bit, but dreams also have that incredibly important 379 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:40.680 function of acting as sort of nighttime therapy. They take 380 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:46.279 our concerns, our problems, and they turn them into stories. 381 00:24:46.359 --> 00:24:50.759 They give us solutions, they show us possible futures, and 382 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:54.799 they're also an incredibly creative source and they help us 383 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:58.400 with memory Consolidation's interesting. 384 00:24:58.039 --> 00:25:02.960 Yeah, because you have the five main benefits of sleep, 385 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:04.799 and I was really interested. 386 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:05.920 I'd like to go through those. 387 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:11.240 We've just covered number one, which is boosts the ability 388 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:17.720 to heal, and you're talking about hormone development and other healing. 389 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:20.519 I guess you could call it metabolism gets put in 390 00:25:20.599 --> 00:25:25.480 the motion when you're quiet and or relaxed. But you 391 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:30.200 also talk number two, which is support mental health and 392 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:32.359 this is something that and this is in the form 393 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:35.000 of dreams. Talk about how that. 394 00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:37.400 Is a mental health elix or. 395 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:44.720 Yes, so well, basically, I mean we all have problems 396 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:49.119 and issues, we all have relationship difficulties things like that. 397 00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:52.200 So let's say we come home, we've had a really 398 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:55.119 bad day, we've had an argument with a co worker 399 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:58.240 or our boss, and we get home and then we 400 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:01.799 have a terrible blow up argument with our spouse. We 401 00:26:01.880 --> 00:26:06.319