While a recent study found that 47 percent of respondents have had at least one lucid dream, Doyle's guests reported frequent and prolonged experiences. It is unclear why certain individuals are predisposed to lucidity, but research suggests that oneironauts tend to possess a greater puzzle-solving ability. It was also evident, from my conversations with dreamers, that training is critical for developing any innate potential.

This is something I've been experiencing for many years.  It's become an important part of  my life but it's a little hard to talk about.  I've considered mentioning it here many times but was not sure how to approach the subject.  It sounds a little new age-ish.  It's really not.  I've mentioned it to people who as they listened politely I could tell they did not believe it.  So I've become sort of careful when and where I bring it up.

But I bring it up because it's very very cool.  It's really almost impossible to describe what the experience is like if you have never experienced it.  OTOH I've encountered quite a few people who have experienced it at least once.

For me it's not much like the therapist stuff described in the story.  It just happened to me.  I honestly don't remember the first time.  But it was many years ago.  As far back as the eighties at least.  For many years it was something that just happened.  Occasionally.  Then, as described in the story, I learned "keys" to tell me if I was dreaming.  I guess they would be different for everyone.   For me there is basically two.  Though there have been the odd trigger once in a great while.

The first, that is the first time I learned to turn it on intentionally,  started years ago.   After I left NY.  I found I had a recurring dream.  It was never exactly the same but the point was I was looking for my car and couldn't remember where I parked it.  Always it a very urban NY like setting.  Which is odd because I never had a car when I lived in NY.  

The second more recent trigger is another recurring dream.  Of trying to use a cell phone that I can't make work.  This has become a very common theme.  Like the parked car never exactly the same but very similar.  I'm trying to call someone, interestingly (I guess) always or nearly always some one dead, and the phone is displaying all this gibberish and pop ups or whatever and no matter how I try I can't make it work.

Anyway

I have gotten so those two dreams particularly and a couple of others less so I can always realize, in the dream, wait, this is a dream.  The story described what some people do to test this.  What I usually do is make everything I'm looking at either change to something else or disappear entirely so I can start on a sort of blank canvas.

Again, anyway,

I share this because, trust me, you really really should try to do this.  I can not tell you how to do it.  I have no idea about how to beyond what I have said.  But trust me.  Imagine for a moment a world where literally anything is possible.  

For me there are basically to modes.  The first most common is to simple say ok I'm dreaming and just go with it.  The second a bit less frequent but not rare is actually taking charge and "making" things happen.

Without going into TMI territory I will tell you most but not all of the latter are erotic in nature and leave the rest to your imagination.  

Oddly I'm finding as years go by this whole lucid thing seems to be happening more frequently.  To say I'm fine with that would be an understatement.  Not long ago I was having a lucid experience and in the dream I remembered wondering if I was dreaming of if maybe I was dead.  When I woke up an wrote it down, that's one thing I have started doing which the story suggests is why they might be increasing, it occured to me it would be pretty cool if they increase and increase with old age  and I find that death is an unending lucid dream.  It's really not a bad approximation of heaven.

Are they allowed to drive? How do they manage to dress and feed themselves?

In other news, Trump is working on saving jobs--in China.  Trump wants the cheap Chinese phone company, ZTE, "back in business, fast."  ZTE has been blacklisted by the US Dept of Commerce because it sold its products (with US parts) to North Korea and Iran in violation of US Sanctions Law.

The White House has released almost no information about Trump's condition since May 14, when her spokeswoman said the first lady was undergoing a routine embolization procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center "to treat a benign kidney condition."

Her team chose to leave unexplained her extended five-day hospital stay for a procedure that is typically completed in one, or her subsequent disappearance from events where the public has come to expect to see her next to her husband.

If you can't see that you may be an idiot.

WTH is going on with people in this country? Do words no longer have any meaning?  Do people no longer understand context?

One America News Network host Liz Wheeler tweeted that she is "waiting for the liberal outrage and firing of Samantha Bee."

NBC's Megyn Kelly called Bee's language "disgusting" and criticized the media coverage of Bee's segment. "How is this acceptable?" Kelly wrote on Twitter. "And how are we expected to take any of these publications seriously if they gleefully repost something like this at the same time they (rightfully) condemn @therealroseanne?

Starbucks' employees will participate in the racial bias program that will include videos of top executives and board members speaking to the importance of diversity and improving as a company. The program will also have employees reflect on their experiences in a workbook, and watch a video that features Common, an Academy Award-winning rapper and artist.

Johnson, the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion, was convicted in 1913 under the Mann Act for taking his white girlfriend across state lines for "immoral" purposes. The Mann Act purported to prevent human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, but critics have argued it was applied inconsistently to criminalize African Americans and those with dissenting political views.
Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury in less than two hours and was imprisoned for a year. The sentence and imprisonment destroyed the boxing career of the "Galveston Giant." He died in 1946.

The initial movement to get Johnson pardoned started in 2004 by a group that included John McCain, Sugar Ray Leonard and filmmaker Ken Burns. Not sure why Bush and Obama didn't do it but I'm glad Trump did.  

Perhaps, David Frum's comments...

something missing from Trump where normal human feelings should go.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Tuesday, researchers have concluded that the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria is more than 70 times the official count of 64 casualties, adding a lowball figure of at least 4,645 unrecorded deaths.

So good.

But just want to say if you liked the movie you should go to the books.  The books are the movie on steroids.  There are many significant differences in the story and to mention any would be a spoiler but just one thing to make the point.

It has this theme of not knowing what is really happening.  In the books this is so much more.  One example is unlike the movie in the books none of the characters have names.  At least at first and some never do.  They are the psychologist the biologist etc.

"Building a massive barrier wall in Boston Harbor to protect the city from the increasing risk of flooding isn't worth a price tag that could reach $11 billion, according to a new study for a City Hall-led commission."

"The concept of a wall, which under one design would stretch 3.8 miles from Winthrop to Hull and be the largest in the world, was considered a year ago to be a bold but possibly necessary solution to combat the effects of climate change."

The Republicans have made the craven choice to stand with Trump as long as he delivers policies they like..tax cuts, gun control, fossil fuels, abortion and immigration.

During the trial the prosecution told the jury that Anthony killed her daughter Caylee with chloroform and duct tape. They said she learned how to make it by searching the internet but they never really explained how difficult/easy it is to actually make it at home.  

In the docu series the investigators concluded that making chloroform is no easy task and thought it was very unlikely someone with Anthony's background would be able to do it.

MOSCOW -- The assassination bore all the hallmarks of yet another contract killing carried out in the murky shadows of the conflict pitting Russia against Ukraine.

A photo of the victim, a dissident Russian journalist, showed him lying face down Tuesday in a vermilion pool of his own blood. He was found by his wife, and died on the way to a hospital from multiple gunshot wounds to the back, said the police in Kiev, Ukraine's capital.

Then on Wednesday, the journalist, Arkady Babchenko, to all appearances very much alive, walked into a news conference that Ukrainian security officials had called to discuss his "murder."

"First of all, I would like to apologize that all of you had to live through this, because I know the horrible feeling when you have to bury your colleagues," Mr. Babchenko told stunned reporters after the gasps died down. "Separately, I want to apologize to my wife for all the hell she had to go through."

When the video comes back, the officer is on top of Weinman with his arm on her neck. He then appears to swing his arm and hit her repeatedly - a moment apparently captured in a now widely-shared cellphone video showing an officer punching Weinman in the head. As she's being handcuffed, Weinman appears to spit at one of the officers. Later, the officers can be heard explaining their version of the events.

"She kicked him. And then I just, I hit her a couple of times," one officer said.

Another example of how bad things can happen when someone, possibly under the influence, doesn't cooperate with the police.

Her attorney released a statement saying in part, "These videos coupled with the bystander video show the officers involved overreacted to a situation which had no elements of violence or the need for anyone to be taken into custody."

Also tonight a new series on HBO after WESTWORLD,SUCCESSION

it looks good