Jump to content

A new way to control experimentation with dreams...


humble3d

Recommended Posts


A new way to control experimentation with dreams...


Device not only helps record dream reports, but also guides dreams toward particular themes.


Scientists figure out how to plant ideas in dreams


Real-life Inception as scientists figure out how to plant ideas in dreams


Researchers at MIT have been testing a fascinating new technique called targeted dream incubation, which allows them to insert certain topics into someone else's dreams

    
Dreaming: MIT details targeted dream incubation interface

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab reveals their Dormio targeted dream incubation interface.


It may sound like the plot of Inception, but scientists have figured out how to plant ideas into other people's dreams.


Researchers at MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces have been testing a new technique called targeted dream incubation (TDI), which allows them to insert certain topics into someone's dreams.


Past studies have shown that when sleepers enter a rare dream state known as lucid dreaming, they gain awareness that they're dreaming and can thus have some control over what happens in their mind.


TDI achieves a similar result by targeting people during hypnagogia, a semi-lucid dream state that occurs as someone is falling asleep.


Hypnagogia is a semi-lucid dream state that occurs as someone is falling asleep


At this moment scientists introduced "targeted information" to the subjects of a study, the results of which were published in the August issue of the journal Consciousness and Cognition.


The study involved 25 participants taking daytime naps. Before going to bed they would record audio prompts in an app such as "remember to think of a tree" and "remember to observe your thoughts".


They wore hand-mounted Dormio sleep trackers to monitor their heart rate and detect when they entered hypnagogia, at which point they were most "open to influence from outside audio cues", said lead study author Adam Haar Horowitz.
The Dormio sleep tracker was used in conjunction with an app to manipulate the participants' dreams

   

The tracker would then co-ordinate with the app to wake the participants up with their own pre-recorded vocal prompts. This was repeated several times, with the sleeper recording a brief journal entry into the app each time they were woken up.

 

"Simply put, people tell us whether the prompts appear in their dream," Haar Horowitz told Live Science.

 

"Often, they are transformed — a 'tree' prompt becomes a tree-shaped car — but direct incorporation is easily identified."

 

The researchers found that 67% of participants mentioned dreaming about trees following the prompt. Each time they were awakened their dreams became more bizarre and immersive.


Each time participants were awakened their dreams became more bizarre and immersive
    Couple having sex and a woman sleeping


    Sex dream meanings explained and what each kinky one signifies


    Have you had this common dream about your ex? Sleep expert reveals surprising meaning


Lucid dreaming is rare, with only about half the population ever experiencing it in their lives. The MIT researchers seem to have found a different way to allow people to shape the plots of their own dreams by interrupting hypnagogia.

 

Tomás Vega, a former graduate student researcher with MIT's Fluid Interfaces Group, tested the Dormio tracker on himself, using an audio prompt to plant an idea in his mind — the Oompa Loompas from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory singing their theme song.

 

"I started dreaming about being in a chocolate waterfall, surrounded by Oompa Loompas singing 'Oompa Loompa, doopity doo,'" he said — but there was a twist.

 

Vega is lactose intolerant, and the dream waterfall was made of dairy-free dark chocolate.
Scientists hope dream manipulation could one day be used to address a wide range of concerns...

 

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/scientists-figure-out-how-plant-22744977


https://news.mit.edu/2020/targeted-dream-incubation-dormio-mit-media-lab-0721

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 1
  • Views 924
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...