Oculus Rift & Vivid Dreams

Very interesting topic!

I think VR will open up a whole new world of "highs" for people to get. Whether its flying around like superman or exploring a zen garden, transforming ones sense of space will produce a wide range of effects in users.

Indeed forget about the Rift affecting your dreams, how about using the Rift to actively dream while awake? I've always imagined that truly immersive VR would affect people like a diet LSD. An active hallucination the user can control and interact with. Unlike LSD you can turn VR off, but just like LSD if the experience you had was intense enough it will likely leave a strong mark on your memory; perhaps infiltrating your dreams or even giving you flashbacks.

While I don't believe in balls of light and other new age theories of "energy" I do know the brain is quite the mysterious and amazing device. VR presents us with the chance to alter our brain chemistry through experiences that aren't real. What types of experiences and senses will produce the most transformative states in VR users? Will a walk through a realistic forest produce measurable increases in dopamine and relaxation in users? Could an abstract experience ala the end of 2001 trigger psychedelic thoughts or states of mind? As VR improves will it eventually need to be regulated like other drugs and intense experiences? Will holo-deck style VR be too addictive?

So many awesome questions to answer!

Notch has also been having dreams after playing with his Rift...

I've been lucid dreaming for a long time(not every night but pretty dang often) - they always start the same, I'm in the exact spot where I fell asleep, but from there I can go anywhere and do anything (though I have -lost control- while lucid dreaming and had to force myself to wake up - it can get scary sometimes).

What I wonder is, what if you fall asleep with your Rift and headphones on?

I've been having vivid dreams almost every night. Last night in my dream I looked in the mirror and saw a floating blue head of an unfinished, unanimated character controller. Scary as hell. Then I woke up and realized I was wearing the rift in my dream and it didnt seem as scary. Another thing that I'm sure has been affecting my dreams has been making rift games in unity. Besides trying to work out code, I think my mind is trying to dream up some whacked out experience to create for the rift.

WOW! I've been reading so much about the Rift and took delivery a week or so ago but just stumbled across this thread.

This has got me very excited for a couple of reasons. I have had lucid dreams and OBEs for over 10 years on a reasonably regular basis, although sometimes there have been big gaps between them. I've researched the subject various times to try and increase the frequency. Therefore I know how incredible it can be, it really is the kind of thing that can change your way of thinking altogether. It feels to me like surfing (if I imagine what it might be like to surf lol), always chasing the perfect lucid dream wave, and when you can sustain one for a while it can be a really mind blowing experience. I also have noticed my dreams increase in the last few days so I believe there could well be something to this...just how much of a 'something' time may tell while we figure it out. But the idea of using it to increase the ability to lucid dream is fascinating and something I hadn't even considered.

I've loaned the Rift out for a couple of days to my business partner (we've got more coming at some point then we won't need to share), but when I get it back I'm definitely going to experiment with this. Exciting times....interesting, very very interesting. I will feed back once I have had the chance to try some things out suggested here.

Hi All,

Just thought I would drop a quick post and share some lucid dream activity I had lately which is related to the Oculus rift.

In the past 4 days I have had lucid dreams on 3 of them. This is more than I normally experience and I'm pretty sure it is due to the rift and having VR on my mind more than normal.

DAY 1 - I was in a dream and became aware that I was dreaming. Then I looked down at a table and noticed a Rift laying on it. I wondered to myself what the Rift would look like if I peeked inside it while in a dream so I put it to my face to find out. As it grew closer to my eyes the image I saw caused an intense wave of shock. My entire field of view was overtaken by the most intense screen door effect I have ever seen. There was nothing but white pixels surrounded by a black lines which were thicker than the pixels themselves. It caused such a scare in me that I woke up immediately. :o

DAY 2 - I was in a dream walking toward a destination in a mindless normal dreaming state. After a couple minutes I realized that it was taking forever to get where ever I was heading to so I looked up to see where I was headed. I recognized that the place I was headed was the Epic Citadel Castle and it instantly made me realize I was dreaming and brought my full consciousness to the dream. I suddenly knew that since I was dreaming I didn't have to walk there and proceeded to fly Instead.

After I finished exploring the castle I went through numerous other dreams without any of my full wakefulness fading at all. I kid you not, for 3 entire hours I was fully awake in the dreams.

It was so real that it was like I was stuck in the dreams. Everything I perceived was so convincing that I don't think virtual reality could ever reach this level of immersion, at least not in our lifetimes. It finally ended when I entered a dream that was like a video game. I was somehow like a Pac-Man cartoony type character and the other lifeforms around me were also the same. At one point I pissed off a cartoon game shark and got bum-rushed by 20 different toons. Getting attacked instantly woke me up. It was simply an amazing experience.

Day 3 - This time I woke up in my dream but it had nothing to do with VR or Rift. I ran around for about 30 minutes fully awake in the dream but somehow every-time I got near an attractive woman my hands mysteriously were attracted to her breast. LOL :oops: Yeah seems a little pervy but it happens that way sometimes while lucid dreaming! I will skip the intimate details how that dream ended, but lets just say that sometime physical responses in dreams result in physical responses in your body in real life - at least after you become skilled enough not to wake up to early. (ok, too much information)

Anyhow, since my lucid dreaming is in hyper-drive, it certainly seems VR has great potential for enhancing dream awareness.

If anyone is having a periods where there lucid dreaming dries up a little then I would suggest trying to avoid sex/masturbation entirely for a short while. I've noticed that there is a direct connection with how often I use my energy sexually and how it reduces wakefulness during sleep. Not saying you need to quit sex forever, simply do an experiment and see how it influences your dreams. I know it sounds like BS but give it a try. Of course if your in a relationship you will have to fake a back injury to give up sex for a month or so. Haha! :lol:

3 hours for a lucid dream!!!??!! That's impressive. I considered myself pretty experienced with it, and I think I've only done like 5 or 10 minutes at a time. Really amazing stuff!

Yeah my typical LD only last 10-30 minutes so when these long 3 hour ones happen it is mind blowing.

You know how when people are in the Rift for longer than 5 minutes the immersion factor kicks in full gear - well same hear but multiplied exponentially. After a while you start looking at the other dream characters and start wondering if they are real. You have to stay very sober to keep remembering that it is all just a dream. But definitely more fun than a person should be allowed to have. HAHA

Who needs immersive VR when we could train ourselves to do ridiculously long and stable lucid dreams? 8-)