Alot of Reading

Pearce Chapter 4: questions and answers
In this chapter Pearce discusses Eureka!, "which is the illumination of lateral thinking come about". To me it seems like he's talking about an apifiny, or everything in your life is going so well it seems nothing you think or feel is wrong. Its hard to explain but i feel an example would help me here. When i played semi-pro ball i always went through this routine and if my pre-game routine went well, it just seemed like the whole game went well and if a problem arose i knew exactly how to fix it. Pearce also explained outer body experiences, people "communicating" with history and not just history in the past but history that will be in the future also known as mental illumination. Pearce also interviews a man named Kazantzakis and he spoke about going out to Mont Athos and pushing his body to the limits such as cold,hunger, and thirst. He claims it was here that he had his illumination. I have read some pretty outlandish stuff in my life but i would have to say this tops them all. First Pearce has a lack of evidence and by that i mean all these people are doctors and scientists or at least have some degree of higher education. I really am trying to have an open mind, but this is out of control Pearce is talking about people going back into history and knowing exactly what happened then going into the future and knowing what will happen.

Hughes Chapter 4 Dreams and the Unconscious
Finally something i understand, this was a great reading in the sense i found out a lot of information that i understand before. For example i knew REM sleep constituted dreams but i had no idea there was a correlation between REM sleep and a persons health. Also Hughes states that everybody dreams and goes onto say some people may not remember their dreams. I can honestly say i have never remembered a dream, i will wake up and know i dreamed but i couldn't tell you what it was about. Another interesting aspect of the chapter is when Hughes states that dreams are much more exciting when the subject is sleeping in there home rather in the sleep laboratory. It just amazes me that the human body can tell where one is and adapt accordingly. Shamans were also believed to be "professional dreamers" which were people who used this skill to assist the community through prediction and healing. The Romantics also surprised me in being the first group of people prior to Freud to explore the unconscious, trusting the visions from the underworld and the heavens. We know enough about Freud so ill just skip him. The science of dreaming was the best part of the chapter, because this is my proof and we all know how i must have proof to believe. "REM-on" cells move violently in the cerebral cortex which drive the eye's into motion. Basically what i got from Hobson is during REM sleep the brain is processing so much information it has a hard time sorting it all out, which is why we have dreams a lot of times that don't make sense. Last but not least, Lucid dreaming and i have to mention this because of one aspect that really caught my eye. "To prepare for a Lucid dream, is to concentrate on an object before falling asleep, and find it again in a dream. Recognition of the object will trigger awareness that one is in a dream.