OBEs-Are They Dreams?

A great deal of controversy has accompanied the presentation of the theory, as in Stephen LaBerge’s bookLucid Dreaming(LaBerge, 1985), that so-called out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are simply dreams or possibly even pre-lucid dreams. That this is true is not surprising, since, as many who have had such experiences have noted, these experiences often surpass all others in vividness and emotional intensity. They leave one with an extraordinary sense of conviction that what one has just experiences is real, perhaps even more so than ordinary reality. However, this same conviction is often experienced by people in ordinary dreams not involving the OBE feeling. I have often heard recounted, and personally experienced the thought, “This cannot be a dream; it is too vivid, too real.” Upon awakening, however, the dreamer realized that the situation he or she was just experiencing was entirely fictitious--a dream after all

Induction of Lucid Dreams, Including the Use of the DreamLight

Today I would like to talk in a somewhat broader context than just the use of the DreamLight. I will give you a sense of why I have been working on developing this device and my view of the induction of lucid dreams in general. In case there is anyone present who doesn’t know what a lucid dream is—it is a dream in which you know you are dreaming while it is happening

Disk-related Bursts and Fades in Young Stars

We present first results from a new, multiyear, time domain survey of young stars in the North America Nebula complex using the Palomar Transient Factory. Our survey is providing an unprecedented view of aperiodic variability in young stars on timescales of days to years. The analyzed sample covers R_(PTF) ≈ 13.5-18 and spans a range of mid-infrared color, with larger-amplitude optical variables (exceeding 0.4 mag root mean squared) more likely to have mid-infrared evidence for circumstellar material. This paper characterizes infrared excess stars with distinct bursts above or fades below a baseline of lower-level variability, identifying 41 examples. The light curves exhibit a remarkable diversity of amplitudes, timescales, and morphologies, with a continuum of behaviors that cannot be classified into distinct groups. Among the bursters, we identify three particularly promising sources that may represent theoretically predicted short-timescale accretion instabilities. Finally, we find that fading behavior is approximately twice as common as bursting behavior on timescales of days to years, although the bursting and fading duty cycle for individual objects often varies from year to year

Similarities and differences between dreaming and waking cognition: An exploratory study

Thirty-eight “practiced” dreamers (Study 1) and 50 “novice” dreamers (Study 2) completed questionnaires assessing the cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional qualities of recent waking and dreaming experiences. The present findings suggest that dreaming cognition is more similar to waking cognition than previously assumed and that the differences between dreaming and waking cognition are more quantitative than qualitative. Results from the two studies were generally consistent, indicating that high-order cognition during dreaming is not restricted to individuals practiced in dream recall or self-observation. None of the measured features was absent or infrequent in reports of either dreaming or waking experiences. Recollections of dreaming and waking experiences were similar for some cognitive features (e.g., attentional processes, internal commentary, and public self-consciousness) and different for other features (e.g., choice, event-related self-reflection, and affect)

An Arabidopsis quiescin-sulfhydryl oxidase regulates cation homeostasis at the root symplast–xylem interface

A genetic screen of Arabidopsis ‘activation-tagging' mutant collection based on tolerance to norspermidine resulted in a dominant mutant (par1-1D) with increased expression of the QSO2 gene (At1g15020), encoding a member of the quiescin-sulfhydryl oxidase (QSO) family. The par1-1D mutant and transgenic plants overexpressing QSO2 cDNA grow better than wild-type Arabidopsis in media with toxic cations (polyamines, Li+ and Na+) or reduced K+ concentrations. This correlates with a decrease in the accumulation of toxic cations and an increase in the accumulation of K+ in xylem sap and shoots. Conversely, three independent loss-of-function mutants of QSO2 exhibit phenotypes opposite to those of par1-1D. QSO2 is mostly expressed in roots and is upregulated by K+ starvation. A QSO2∷GFP fusion ectopically expressed in leaf epidermis localized at the cell wall. The recombinant QSO2 protein, produced in yeast in secreted form, exhibits disulfhydryl oxidase activity. A plausible mechanism of QSO2 action consists on the activation of root systems loading K+ into xylem, but different from the SKOR channel, which is not required for QSO2 action. These results uncover QSOs as novel regulators of ion homeostasis