If you want lucid dreaming without having to wait for a Gamma Wave Zapper, there is one alternative. Sertraline (Zoloft). I've been on and off of it a few times in the past 10 years for anxiety. After a few weeks of being on it, the lucid dreaming kicks in. Sometimes I wish I could record these dreams and make them into movies. It's quite the experience.
I know it's not a 'quick fix' - but (no offence intended, just IMHO) it feels rather disrespectful to randomly flood the brain with chemicals to make it 'perform.' The chemistry in there is extremely complex, I am terrified to mess around with it.
Much the same way I wouldn't dive into a complex dev project randomly changing methods, unless I knew the larger scope.
I wouldn't scorn such "shortcuts." It's difficult for people to put sustained effort into something without having some sense of what the payoff will be like. "Cheating" once or twice can provide sufficient motivation for developing the skill permanently. Psychedelic drugs, for example, can provide a flash of mystical enlightenment that motivates people to begin meditating.
At no point did I scorn such "shortcuts" - read what I wrote without the assumption that I'm anti-drugs. I wanted to point out that you're playing with complex chemistry, and something as strong as sertraline chloride is a serious choice.
Also sertraline chloride vs something like (as an example) DMT - are very much not the same thing. DMT being a natural, powerful psychedelic used for many years in many forms by many cultures.
I wouldn't compare mushrooms to Zolpidem either, though the effects are similar. One is not like the other. Zolpidem (branded as stilnox at the time) gave me very similar effects, I basically had a ??real-life lucid dream?? within 20 mins of taking it. I stopped immediately.
Either way, to each his/her own - I merely wanted to offer a different perspective. If it works for you, go for it.
I actually just wrote about this (both the "zapper" and recording your dreams), check out the last segment of the article regarding turning lucid dreams into movies: http://www.lucidsage.com/the-future-of-lucid-dreaming/
I've read somewhere about curious practice of writing down everything you can remember from the dream immediately after waking up (to facilitate the recall keeping your eyes closed was recommended, I think). Maybe you should try that and see what comes out of it!
