A Monotonous Life

The day started as usual, wake up from bed then proceed to freshen up and get ready for university. Now normally Varun's Uni would have been the same old boring mundane and repetitive classes, then proceeding to hang out with his "friends" who in reality were just mooching off him in order to copy his homework which he himself knew but humans are social creatures and normally he would have been completely fine with just ignoring them but since the pandemic he realized he required a social circle to make sure that his sub-par social skills did not degrade any further, in a way it was a somewhat symbiotic relationship between him and them and perks of being the quite guy in a group tends to at least let you know the latest gossip around town.

Today however was a somewhat different as they had a workshop based on the topic of lucid dreaming. Now Varun has always been a fan of workshops at his university as most of the time they seem to be part of quite interesting topics such as his last workshop which was based on the theory around Sherlock Holmes Mind palace. Now Varun is somewhat of a hybrid between a nerd and a geek and topics such that revolve around mind tricks as they always perked up his interests. His hobbies revolved around searching up random facts such as the know-hows of how black holes work and if you could potentially destroy them (Thanks Kurzgesagt), reading novels, Mangas and watching sci-fi or fantasy-based series/anime and swimming in beaches.

Now the workshop itself was quite informative as it explained the science behind lucid dreaming and what it exactly is. 

Lucid dreaming is a state in which a person is aware that they are dreaming while they are still asleep. During a lucid dream, the dreamer may have some degree of control over the dream's characters, narrative, and environment. This phenomenon typically occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a stage of sleep characterized by vivid dreams and heightened brain activity.

Now the key points between about lucid dreaming is the one you are aware of the fact that you are in a dream which can occur spontaneously of be induced via techniques which were discussed in the workshop. Now the second point is the fact that lucid dreamers can exert varying amounts of control over the dream's content. This can include changing the dream setting, influencing the behavior of dream characters, and manipulating the dream environment. 

Now the techniques that were discussed in the workshop that revolved around how to induce lucid dreams were: -

Reality testing: Frequently checking the environment to distinguish between waking and dreaming.

Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD): Repeating a phrase or intention to become lucid in a dream.

Wake back to bed (WBTB): Waking up after a few hours of sleep, staying awake for a short period, and then returning to sleep with the aim of entering REM sleep directly.

Now after the workshop was done Varun could not help but wonder if lucid dreaming could somehow enhance his nascent mind palace. Now the idea of a mind palace came from TV series Sherlock in which this technique is based on a real ancient memory technique known as the "method of loci." This technique involves visualizing a familiar place, such as a palace or house, and associating various items or pieces of information with specific locations within that place. The key components of the technique relies on: - 

Visualization: The core of the mind palace technique is to vividly imagine a familiar structure, such as a house, palace, or street, where you can "store" memories or information.

Association: Important information is associated with specific locations or objects within the imagined structure. By creating strong mental images or connections between the information and the location, it becomes easier to recall.

Navigation: To retrieve the stored information, you mentally "walk" through the structure, visiting the locations where the information was stored. This process helps in recalling the details associated with each location.

Practice: Developing a mind palace requires practice. Regularly visualizing the structure and reinforcing the associations helps in solidifying the memories.

Now the steps to creating a mind pace entrails choosing a familiar area for your mind palace, Varun chose his family beach house situated on a small Island, the next step is to identify specific rooms, corners, or landmarks where you can "place" information. Varun did that by creating a library inside his beach house by segregating information according to the rooms in his house.

The next step is to create associations each piece of information you want to remember, you have to create a vivid, memorable image and associate it with a specific location in your mind palace. An example of an association is the fact that the fridge in the kitchen has cooking recipes inserted in it in order for him to remember it. 

Now the last step is to practice and reinforce these landmarks and associations by regularly "walking" through your mind palace, this reinforces the associations and helps practice the recall of information.

The benefits of having a mind palace are: -

Enhanced Memory: Helps in memorizing and recalling large amounts of information.

Organization: Provides a structured way to store and retrieve information.

Engagement: Makes the process of memorization more interactive and engaging.

The mind palace technique leverages the brain's natural ability to remember spatial information and vivid images, making it a powerful tool for improving memory and recall.

The problem is that these techniques need a lot of practice, and it is nowhere as pronounced as it is in reality that it was as in the series. It has been 6 months since Varun has created his mind palace and has just only finished associating his knowledge and memories in his mind palace, and even then, it took quite a while for him to recall information as it takes time to scour through his mind palace and remember their associations. Now after reaching home Varun decided to try the techniques that were discussed in the workshop.

It took quite some time before he finally fell asleep and drifted to the realm of Morpheus. Varun all of sudden was at his beach house which quite similar to his imagined mind palace. Now the thing with a mind palace is that no matter how much you imagine you try to imagine it, it will always feel like and illusionary construct in your head, you won't be able to see it but only imagine it. Dreams are not the same, you can see different colors and such and also look at different people in your dream and converse with them. So truly looking at his mind palace increased its effectiveness by a lot.

Next, he walked out of his beach house and turned his head to the ocean revolving around his Palace and gazed upon it. He has always loved the Beach ever since he was a child. His passion of swimming arose from the environment of the beach and so could not help but want to take a swim in his own sea of dreams. When he first took a steep into the sea, he could not help but be surprised by the fact that he could actually feel the gently warmth of the sea at his feet, all the other parts of the mind palace did not really have a feel to it as his body just felt numb while interacting with the house. After submerging himself to the waist he finally began to feel the familiar chill of the sea around him and decided to check how far does this illusionary plane span, so in order to reach the limits of his mind palace he kicked offed and started to swim towards the horizon. 

Paddle, kick and breathe. These were the only things he was thinking and doing, in fact this monotonous action was slowly but surely becoming easier and easier to do. Varun had entered "The Zone", this state of mind is called by another name which is called the "Flow State".

Now the Flow state, also known simply as "flow," is a psychological concept where a person is fully immersed and engaged in an activity, leading to high levels of focus, enjoyment, and productivity. The term was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described it as an optimal state of consciousness where individuals feel and perform their best. 

Now the characteristics that encompasses the flow state are: -

Complete Concentration: The person is entirely absorbed in the task at hand, with no distractions.

Merging of Action and Awareness: The individual feels a sense of oneness with the activity, where their actions become almost automatic.

Loss of Self-Consciousness: There is a lack of self-awareness and a diminished sense of ego, with focus entirely on the activity.

Sense of Control: The person feels in control of their actions and the outcome, even if the task is challenging.

Time Distortion: Time may seem to speed up or slow down, with hours passing by unnoticed or minutes feeling like much longer.

Intrinsic Motivation: The activity itself is rewarding, providing inherent satisfaction rather than relying on external rewards.

Due to this state mind Varun did not realize the passage of time It could have been minutes or years since he first started his expedition towards the horizon, all he know was to keep kicking, paddling and breathing and eventually his grip on the surface of the ocean itself ceased and he fell.

He kept falling until the light of the surface of the ocean itself faded and all he knew was darkness.