You can bring things out of the dream world. That’s a fact.
I don’t mean anything physical in case you think I’ve lost my marbles.
I want to attempt my very first lucid experiment. Something I haven’t seen attempted before. I want to learn a certain skill inside the dream and be able to perform it in the real world.
The skill is a handstand. I want to learn to perform a handstand in my dreams then hopefully hold one for 10 seconds while awake.
Here’s my history of handstands
I thought I would learn handstands 6 months ago. A cool way to exercise, or so I thought. My handstands lasted less than 1 second before I crashed into the ground. I got bored after a few days and gave up.
I tried one a few days ago in my dream. Initially I was testing if being upside down would help stabilize the dream. By messing up my center of gravity like spinning, if you like.
The handstand was no problem. I held it. The dream began to go and I was out. I’ve not tested it since and here I am. Ready to begin my experiment.
The rules of the experiment
The rules are — there are no rules. (which is good because I’ve changed them slightly)
I’ll practice handstands in my dreams until I feel satisfied. I’ll carry them out near the beginning of the dream before I get distracted by some naked woman or something.
I’ll kick up and use a little dream help to hold me in position, then I’ll attempt to hold it for as long as I can.
After the practice sessions I’ll test it in the real world. Three attempts is all I get. If I can’t do it the experiment is a failure, so I want to give myself enough time until I feel ready.
Let’s get our lab coats ready
This is where I put my scientific cap on. I don’t want to look up special words. This is RAW stuff floating about my head. It could be miles off. Who cares?
We all know that practice makes perfect. We repeatedly train our motor skills and they get better. If you practice balancing upside down your brain will adapt and you improve. Makes sense.
The brain can’t tell the difference between where it’s getting the data. In the real world our senses send electrical impulses to our brain. In the dream world we still get those signals. Strange, but true.
I think I can build up the motor skills required to do a handstand in a dream and the brain won’t know the difference. I should be able to do it when I’m awake. Magic, huh? If it works.
What does it even mean?
Unfortunately, this doesn’t show you can learn a handstand from scratch inside a dream. Remember I can already stay up for a second, so my brain already knows what the equilibrium feels like. It does mean you can improve your skills.
This isn’t some super serious experiment where I’m trying to claim some world record in learning the handstand in my dreams.
I just want to know if I it works.
It’s only the beginning. This is a baby experiment. The simple handstand. I’m going to be coming back with much bigger experiments so watch out.
I’ll report back my findings as soon as I have them.
Hi Jamie,
I’m not going to lie – your handstand idea will definitely prove to be an interesting test.
It’s strange because I remember having dreams for example: I was trying to kick a football.
But every time I tried it would end up flying all over the place and not where I wanted.
It was almost the reverse for me. Consciously I can do it not problem, but in my dream – Not a chance. (Very annoying)
Hey Simmeon,
I agree the outcome may be interesting. I really hope this can work because it will open the gates to many other experiments.
I think if I can become fully lucid before I practice then it will work. I won’t just make a half-hearted attempt to kick my legs up. Anyway, I know from trying it once before that it feels pretty real. I just need to do it longer and when I’m more lucid.
Cheers
Hi Jamie,
Wow, this experiment sounds really cool. Have you ever heard of Rebecca Turner? She wrote a book on lucid dreaming a while back and I read it and had some really cool lucid dream experiences with it. I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to train yourself in your dream and then replicate it in our physical world.
I am curious to see what your results will be. 🙂
Hey Justin,
Yeah I know Rebecca. She’s cool. That’s great you’re a lucid dreamer.
I agree I don’t see why you couldn’t do it. I think it’s going to send my mind into overdrive if I can, all the other possibilities there could be.
Cheers
At first I thought you are going to try imagining shooting beams with your hands and fight with ghosts. The handstand idea is surely interesting. True enough, while you are in the dream you will not be able to feel any physical pain. So no matter if you fall or tumble while practicing you won’t feel a thing and only learn how to do it properly.
Great idea, John.
I should start doing handstands in dangerous places like the top of rooftops, because I can’t die 🙂
Learning skills in my dreams and then transferring them to reality was the main reason why I got into lucid dreaming in the first place at age 17 (..young, ambitious, obsessed with martial arts, do I need to say more? ).
I didn’t progress much due to the lack of basic lucid dreaming skills, but now that I’m back to it, I’ll definitely try to improve some skills in my dreams.
It’s really strange to me that there’s not much research and information on the topic of learning real world skills in your dreams, because if you can make it work, it should be very powerful.
Like, it’s probably not the best idea to get into real street fights to improve martial arts skills, but in your dreams, you can simulate all kind of fights you want (against a lot of people, against really scary people, against knives, etc.), in a safe environment.
Application of this would definitely give someone an edge in their field, whatever it is.
I completely agree.
Something I want to experiment with in the future is real life simulations against professionals. Like your subconscious watches professional fights all the time, so it knows all the proper moves even if you can’t consciously do them in real life.
If you could fight a dream figure who was “an expert” in those moves, because your subconscious could replicate it, you could improve much faster because of sparring. Like you said, not much has been tested which is strange. It’s definitely on my radar over the next few years.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/22/inception-is-real-people-can-learn-new-skills-while-dream-scientists-say/
you can learn new skills, it is a fact.
Thanks, James.
Great article!