I used to LD frequently as a child and it was almost always a negative experience. As far as I recall I would tend to become aware during a period of sleep paralysis, which I found terrifying, and having started off on such a footing the subsequent episode of LD was equally frightening. This continued erratically a few times a month from the age of maybe 8 or 9 until I read something or other in a book at perhaps 14 which explained it, and after that it lost its terror and became a curiosity to explore. By then it started to occur far less frequently and eventually faded completely. In hindsight I think I can relate episodes of SP and LD to migraines in the preceding day or two, and these also faded in my teens.

Anyway, a few days ago, probably not far off 25 years after my last LD, I became aware of sleep paralysis as I dozed one rare quiet Saturday morning and I excitedly latched onto the opportunity to enter LD, which I did only briefly until rudely shattered by real life wife/child/cat requiring some kind of interaction.

One memory this brought flooding back to me is the sensation of buzzing. As I lay there in SP there was a strong sensation of auditory and physical buzzing, and I immediately recalled experiencing this sensation as a child as the precursor to SP. Now with the benefit of spending mere seconds on google I know this is a common part of hypnagogia. I would have loved to have this facility when I was younger, have the fear removed and have been able to explore the weirdness rather than fearing it!

Actually, it just occurred to me as I finished typing the above that my parents split up starting when I was 8, and both settled with new partners when I was about 14.

No idea why, but I can understand where you're coming from. I'd consider myself to be an emotional person, although in the past 5 years or so that seems to have been heightened considerably. Maybe having kids makes one more sensitive? No idea, although I would observe I'm more sensitive in the mornings.

Customer says no.

But she already agreed!

Sue, or do not sue?

Well done, I guess! Props to you for examining it in such a methodical way. The next question is can you manipulate you dream content in other ways? You examined your fears and had a nightmare, so can you mentally examine you favourite food, for example, or a sport during your meditations and see how or if that affects your dreams?

This is interesting to me because it might have been conceived with the intention that it would never come to anything. I'm suggesting the idea was probably designed as a deliberate exercise in failure.

In order to achieve success it's necessary to achieve failure along the way. Inspiration and improvement can be drawn from that failure, so deliberately designing an outlandishly impractical device is not a waste of time but a source of inspiration in an iterative process.

The model proposed here whereby a central bank administers such a scheme in an apolitical way does overcome much objection, but I just can't see it getting off the ground here in the UK at least. The right wing media would laugh it out of sight in short order by characterising it as a reward for slacking.