Tag: Social Sciences

The Mind Posted on

Losing your mind? Upload your brain and gain eternal life

A doctoral student at McGill says computers could help humans achieve immortality. While the scenario may sound like an episode of the X-Files, Randal Koene envisions a network of uploaded brains. The question is, who gets a shot at prolonged life? by Kathy Zucca Despite medical advances, humans are still subject to the law of aging; at some point our bodies break down and we die. But death may not always be the end result. The latest in humanity’s quest for prolonged life involves scanning brain tissue and creating an equivalent representation of the mind. Though still in the theoretical stages Mind Uploading, also known by the more technical term “Whole Brain Emulation,” could one day allow people to continue living long after their […] Read More

Dreams Posted on

1993: TESTING THE LIMITS OF DREAM CONTROL: THE LIGHT AND MIRROR EXPERIMENT

[From NIGHTLIGHT 5(2), Summer 1993, Copyright, The Lucidity Institute.] TESTING THE LIMITS OF DREAM CONTROL: THE LIGHT AND MIRROR EXPERIMENT by Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge Lucid dreaming offers the promise of enhanced control over dreams. Yet the question remains quite unanswered of how much dream control is possible. The ability to have lucid dreams also makes possible a way to study this issue. After having attained lucidity in a dream, dreamers can choose to carry out predetermined experiments testing their ability to achieve certain goals. In the “Free Fall” issue of NightLight (Vol. 4, No. 4) we asked lucid dreamers to attempt certain tasks in lucid dreams and to report on the outcome. An introduction to the many viewpoints on dream control will […] Read More

Dreams Posted on

1991: OTHER WORLDS: “Out of Body experiences” and Lucid Dreams

by Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. “Out of body” experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human. The simplest explanation is that OBEs are exactly what they seem: the human consciousness separating from the human body and traveling in a discorporate form in the physical […] Read More

Dreams Posted on

1989: How To Remember Your Dreams

Remembering your dreams is the starting place for learning to have lucid dreams. If you don’t recall your dreams, even if you do have a lucid dream, you won’t remember it! And, in order to be able to recognize your dreams as dreams while they are happening, you have to be familiar with the way your own dreams work. Before it will be worth your time to work on lucid dream induction methods, you should be able to recall at least one dream every night. Getting plenty of sleep is the first step to good dream recall. If you are rested it will be easier to focus on your goal of recalling dreams, and you won’t mind so much taking the time during the […] Read More

Living the Illusion Posted on

Live Forever – Uploading The Human Brain… Closer Than You Think

By Raymond Kurzweil, PhDhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/features3.html2-1-2000Thought to Implant 4: OnNet, please. Hundreds of shimmering thumbnail images mist into view, spread fairly evenly across the entire field of pseudovision. Thought: Zoom upper left, higher, into Winston’s image. Transmit: It’s Nellie. Let’s connect and chat over croissants. Rue des Enfants, Paris in the spring, our favorite table, yes? Four-second pause. Background thought: Damn it. What’s taking him so long? Receive: I’m here, ma chêre, I’m here! Let’s do it! The thumbnail field mists away, and a café scene swirls into place. Scent of honeysuckle. Paté. Wine. Light breeze. Nellie is seated at a quaint table with a plain white tablecloth. An image of Winston looking 20 and buff mists in across from her. Message thumbnails occasionally blink against […] Read More

Living the Illusion Posted on

2000: Live Forever – Uploading The Human Brain… Closer Than You Think

By Raymond Kurzweil, PhDhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/features3.html2-1-2000Thought to Implant 4: OnNet, please. Hundreds of shimmering thumbnail images mist into view, spread fairly evenly across the entire field of pseudovision. Thought: Zoom upper left, higher, into Winston’s image. Transmit: It’s Nellie. Let’s connect and chat over croissants. Rue des Enfants, Paris in the spring, our favorite table, yes? Four-second pause. Background thought: Damn it. What’s taking him so long? Receive: I’m here, ma chêre, I’m here! Let’s do it! The thumbnail field mists away, and a café scene swirls into place. Scent of honeysuckle. Paté. Wine. Light breeze. Nellie is seated at a quaint table with a plain white tablecloth. An image of Winston looking 20 and buff mists in across from her. Message thumbnails occasionally blink against […] Read More

Holographically Generated Pseudo-Reality Posted on

2001: Human versus ET Superpowers

THE SUPERPOWERS OF THE HUMAN BIOMIND vis a vis THE PROBABILITIES OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL SUPERPOWERS ORIENTATION and INTRODUCTORY Ingo Swann (08Feb01)  The first purpose of this Section 5 is to provide a function within this Website in which exploratory hypothesis and speculation can be indulged and expanded upon. This is in contrast to Section 1, the Ingo Swann Database Regarding the Biomind Superpowers, in which hypothesis and speculation are held to the minimum.  As most realize, HYPOTHESIS refers to “a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences,” and SPECULATION is defined as “to meditate on or ponder a subject.”  Speaking in the ideal, the basic function of hypothesis and speculation is not to make conclusions, but to […] Read More