courtesy of Gene Ariani.
——————————————————————–
Following is instructions on how to build and use Dream Light
Goggles. These goggles are intended to be a mechanical aid to Lucid
Dreaming. They are roughly patterened after Stephen LaBerge’s
“Dreamlight”.
THEORY AND USE: The best way to understand the use of dream light
goggles is to read Stephen LaBerge’s book,
“Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming”. The
function of the goggles is based on the use of
“dreamsigns”. A dreamsign is simply something
within a dream that serves to trigger our
recognition that we are dreaming (and become
lucid). If you are working on inducing lucid
dreams, dreamsigns become important. And the way
to use dreamsigns is to take notice of common,
recurring objects or events in your dreams.
Especially if these objects or events have
triggered lucidity before.
For example: The most common dreamsign for me is flying. I have
been doing this flying for so long, that now, as soon as I find
myself flying in a dream I almost always immediately recognize that
I’m dreaming.
Another dreamsign I discovered by looking back over my lucid dreams
is “cliffs and high places”. I have found that these experiences
often precede my becoming lucid in a dream. Only a couple nights
after I realized that cliffs were a dreamsign for me I had a dream
in which I was climbing up the face of a cliff. I was having
trouble and thought I might fall. Then suddenly it hit me…
Climbing a Cliff! I’m dreaming!.
Once you learn what your common dreamsigns are then you must program
yourself to recognize that dreamsign as a indication that you’re
dreaming.
Now the problem with dreamsigns is that we must wait for them to
happen and then hope that we recognize them when they do. And that
is the function of the dreamlight. The dreamlight provides a ready-
made dreamsign that you can program to happen when you choose.
The dreamlight or “dream goggles” as I call my device, are designed
Page 1
to flash a bright red light in your eyes at a predetermined time.
Unlike LaBerges dreamlight these goggles have no way of determining
when you are in REM sleep. So we must use a hit and miss technique
of having them come on when you’re dreaming. There are two methods
of doing this:
(1) Set the alarm clock to come on about 1-1/2 or 3 hours
after you think you’ll fall asleep, and set the
sound/light switch to light. Then put on the goggles and
fall asleep. The reason for 1-1/2 or 3 hours is that we
normally have 90 minute sleep cycles, and you want the
lights to come on as you are passing through REM on the
way _out_ of a sleep cycle.
The problem with this method is that there’s a very good chance that
you won’t be in REM when the lights turn on. Also it can be
difficult to sleep for a long period of time with the goggles on.
However this has a hidden benifite in that it interrupts your sleep
pattern so much that that in itself can bring about a lucid dream,
(it worked for me).
(2) Set the “sound” alarm to go on at a time early in the
morning, at least an hour before you have to get up. When
the alarm wakes you up reach over and push the snooze
button, then put on the goggles and switch the alarm to
“lights”. Now you have 9 minutes to fall back asleep. If
you can fall asleep before the alarm (lights) comes on
again you will most likely be in a dream. If you aren’t
quite asleep yet, just push snooze again and try again.
I have been sucessful with this method. However more often than not
I am so tired when the alarm goes off that I either don’t bother to
mess with the goggles or I put them on and then fall into a deep
sleep and sleep right through the flashing lights.
This is not a fool proof method of attaining lucidity in a dream.
However I believe if you put enough effort into it (more then I
have), it could prove to be valuable aid.
Good Luck!
——————————————————————–
DISCLAIMER – I believe the device constructed in the way I describe
to be safe, but I’m no electrician. I’m not responsible if it burns
down your house, or shocks you. If you’re going to be taking apart
electrical appliances you really should know what you’re doing
yourself.
——————————————————————–
HOW TO BUILD THE DREAM LIGHT GOGGLES
PARTS: 1. AC powered LED Alarm clock with at least a 9 minute
snooze function. The clock I use is a Spartus model
1108, it is small, about 5.5″X3″X2″. It cost about
$9.00. Any small LED clock would probably work as long
as the voltage to the speaker is not too high. The
speaker voltage on the Spartus is about 7 volts DC.
2. Swim eye goggles. Cost about $7.00. The main thing is
to find a pair that is fairly comfortable. I’m using
Speedo brand. You can get cheaper ones, but it might be
Page 2
worth it to get a pair you can actually sleep with.
3. Two Radio Shack Red High-Brightness Jumbo Blinking Light-
Emitting Diodes Catalog No. 276-020 $3.99 ea.
4. One Low-Current Red LED (Light Emitting Diode) $0.89
5. About 6 feet of speaker wire.
6. One toggle switch. This should be a 3 pole, 2 position
switch, like Radio Shack’s Mini DPDT #275-663 $3.59
——————————————————————–
ASSEMBLY – STEP ONE:
Using a tapered steel centerpunch, or some other suitable device
burn a hole in the center of each plastic lens of the swim goggles.
A tapered punch works well. Use a torch to heat it up, it doesn’t
have to be red hot (if you make it red hot you will take the temper
out of the punch).
Then burn a hole in the lens until it is just the right size to
snugly fit the Jumbo Blinking Diodes. The diodes are tapered and
you don’t want them to fit all the way into the goggles or they
might touch your eyelids. Once you’ve done this put the goggles
aside until you wire up the diodes.
STEP TWO:
Making sure the clock is unplugged, unscrew the back and take the
clock apart. You should be able to get to the flat piezo type
speaker. Next burn a hole in the body of the clock at the top to
hold the toggle switch. Make sure you put it in a place where it
won’t touch anything on the inside of the clock.
STEP THREE
Cut the positive wire leading from the circuit board of the clock to
the speaker. Use a voltmeter to tell which one is positive. It’s
not necessarily the red wire. On the clock I used the black wire was
positive.
It really doesn’t matter if you use the negative instead of the
positive, except that the diodes are directional, they have a
positive and negative pole and so will only work in one way. The
way I’m describing is assuming you are using the positive side.
Be sure you cut the speaker wire in a place that you can get the
solder leads to it. Now solder the positive speaker wire you just
cut coming from the circuit board to the middle pole of the toggle
switch.
Now take the small red LED and solder the long lead of the diode
(Pos. side) to one of the outside poles of the toggle switch. I
found that there is a residual voltage in the speaker circuit even
when the alarm is not active, and this is enough to cause the diodes
in the goggles to emit a small amount of light even when the circuit
is not active. I tried resisters but I found that putting this red
LED in the circuit worked the best to prevent this. For this reason
this LED can be inside the clock box, just make sure it doesn’t
short against anything.
Page 3
Next solder one end of one wire in the two wire speaker cable to the
other lead of the red LED (the short one). Most speaker cable has a
way to identify one wire from the other. Some have a white line on
one wire, or one wire may be brass and other silver. It’s best to
use the wire with the marking so that you know that it is the
positive side. The length of the wire is to determine how far you
want to be from the clock when you’re sleeping. 6ft should be
plenty.
Now take the other end of the positive speaker wire and solder it to
the long (pos) lead of the first Jumbo Blinking LED. Then take a
short piece of speaker wire and solder it from the short lead of the
first Jumbo LED to the long lead of the second Jumbo LED. Be sure
you make this jumper wire the right length so that the two LEDs are
spaced the proper distance apart to fit in the goggles.
Next take the goggles end of the other speaker wire (neg. side) and
solder it to the short lead of the second Jumbo LED. Take the clock
end of that same wire and splice it into the negitive speaker wire.
This makes a complete circuit from the positive side of the circuit
board, through the toggle switch, through the lights in the goggles
and back to the negative speaker wire leading to the circuit board.
This means that when the switch closes this circuit the lights will
come on every time the clock sends an alarm pulse to the speaker.
Now you must conect the other side of the speaker wire you cut (the
speaker side) to the other outside pole of the toggle switch. You
will probably have to solder in a jumper wire to do this. This
completes the speaker circuit so that when the switch is set to
speaker the speaker sounds when the alarm turns on. Be sure you
insulate all your exposed conections.
Now burn a notch in the back panel of the clock for the goggles wire
to pass through and put a knot in the wire just inside the box so
that it can’t be pulled out. Now put the clock back together.
The last thing to do now is to put the Jumbo LEDs into the holes in
the goggle lenses. Use a black tape to tape them into place and
block out light into the goggles from outside. Insulate all the
exposed leads of the LEDs. Run the wire from the LEDs along the
goggle strap and tape them to the strap so that the wire exit the
goggles from the strap at the back of the head. Leave enough slack
to allow for stretching of the strap.
Well, now your ready. Good luck, and please report back to me if
you have any success (or problems) with it. I’m always hanging
around Sec. 13 of the New Age Forum. See you there I hope!
Jeff Wiley #70750,1544