SHADOW is an iOS app in development that, at its most basic level, will help you record and remember your dreams.
But there is a lot more to SHADOW than meets the eye. As I write, the creators are rounding up a Kickstarter campaign, having raised $77,000 (of a $50,000 target). Their primary goal: to create the world's biggest dream database and analyze that data. No doubt then, SHADOW is an ambitious app, created by some ambitious dreamers.
Essentially, SHADOW is a smart alarm clock that provides escalating alarms to gradually transition you through your hypnopompic state.
When you awaken, you dictate your dream and SHADOW will transcribe it into words - or you can type it into a blank text box. If you can't remember any dreams, SHADOW will ask you a series of questions to jog your memory.
Once the data is recorded in the app, you decide how far and wide you want to share it. SHADOW is designed to be social, but dreaming is inherently private. So it's really a judgment call - and every dream may be different. Keep dreams to yourself or push them to the cloud, where your personal data is removed and your dream content ready to be analyzed on a larger scale...
When combined with dream reports from other app users from all over the world, the SHADOW team can mine the data and make new discoveries about the nature of our dreams. Over time, patterns emerge.
As a user, the more dreams you record, the more accurate and rewarding the experience becomes. SHADOW visualizes your sleep and dream patterns and identifies common themes. When combined with other users' dream reports, it turns these symbols and experiences into insights.
All the while you're learning about yourself, the SHADOW team are working behind the scenes to organize the dream content into the largest database of human dream knowledge in the world.
Thanks to a rush of early backers, SHADOW reached its fundraising goal in the first week. The initial $50,000 raised will be used to create the iOS version of the app, which will be available from December 2013 onwards.
However, there are still a few days left to contribute to the app development, giving you early access to SHADOW as well as other bonuses. While the iOS version is fully funded, you can still contribute towards its more advanced features (an even smarter "smart" alarm), or you can pledge money to the Android and Windows versions, which haven't yet reached their goals.
For more details on this innovative app, check out the Kickstarter campaign.
A lot has happened in the last 5 months. But how did we go from business as usual to changing the face of the entire lucid dreaming supplements industry? It’s a story that I think will interest you – and you might even learn a thing or two in the process. When I was first taken on-board as Chief Lucidity Officer in 2016, one of the first things I was tasked with was taking a good look at our operations and giving things a bit of an overhaul.
To lucid dream is to examine an intensely heightened state of self awareness, with all the senses activated - a uniquely human experience. What's more, lucid dreaming offers profound benefits that touch all of us, no matter our culture, beliefs or life circumstances. Ultimately, I think all of these benefits put together could play a serious role in advancing the human race.
To lucid dream, I recommend being able to remember at least one vivid dream per night. That will boost your self awareness in dreams (making lucidity more likely) and also means you can actually remember your lucid dreams. Which is nice. Here are four detailed tips on how to remember your dreams more frequently. And if you don't think you dream at all - trust me, you almost certainly do. It takes an extraordinarily rare sleep disorder to deprive someone of dream sleep.
Years ago, before I had my first lucid dream, I had a very specific idea about what a lucid dream would feel like. I thought it would be intense and magical and a little bit spooky. This turned out to be a pretty accurate representation. Becoming aware in the dreamstate is like entering another world. One where physical laws can be manipulated (there is no spoon, Neo) and your fantasies can come true in an instant. There's definitely something magical about that - and it's as if the lucid dream world is a living, breathing organism that can react to your very thoughts.
Experts agree that everyone is capable of having lucid dreams. Dreaming itself is a normal function of the mind. We all dream every night, even if we don't remember. And we all achieve conscious awareness while awake every single day. So what does it mean to combine these states? Why, the amazing ability to have conscious - or lucid - dreams. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why do I keep hearing from people who say they can't achieve their first lucid dream?
It is estimated that these wise and wily Indians have been using mugwort in their healing and ritual practices for 13,000 years, where it is known as the ‘dream sage’. They use the herb to promote good dreams, which they consider an essential aspect of normal human functioning! But that’s not all...