Yo! I decided to write this guide because I get a lot of people asking me how I do MILD, due to my recent spike in lucids.
Month 1 (Just rcs): 3 Lucids
Month 2: (Started doing MILD at the end of month): 12 lucids
Month 3: (Strictly MILD, nothing else): 20+ lucids
Not to flex, but as you can see MILD is very effective and reliable if done right, it’s a common misconception that MILD is unreliable and just for beginners. To be honest with you, I didn’t actually believe MILD worked when I first started, now all I do is MILD, and it gives me great results.
Of course, everyone is different, but in my opinion, if done right, MILD is the easiest and most effective way to have lucids. If you don’t want it to, it doesn’t even need to take up any of your time in the day, all my MILD is done at night due to me being too stressed in the day.
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I’m not the best at explaining, but I’ll try my best to give you all the info about how I do MILD.
For me the main idea behind MILD is **Intent**, it’s a very simple concept, but hard for some to understand (this was the case for me, I literally read all the MILD guides and it made no sense lol.)
To explain why MILD and the idea of intent works so well, I’ll try to use a simple analogy or scenario, whatever it’s called :
-You have work/school tommorow, you leave a pack of chewing gum in your kitchen, **intending** to pick it up tommorow morning and take it with you. You’ll probably focus on this intention for a while to remember to pick it up, and most likely it’ll be in the back of your head and you’ll pick it up tommorow morning if you have decent memory.
This is exactly what MILD is to me, I’m setting the **intent** to **remember** to become aware/lucid in my dream. I might forget to pick up the gum tommorow, or the next day, or the next, but eventually I’ll pick it up if I focus on my intent, it’s guaranteed (unless something is really wrong with my brain). The same goes for MILD, stay consistent and focus and you’re going to become lucid, in my case I got results around the same week.
**How to set the intent**
While you’re doing MILD, it’s best to have a clear head so you can really focus on the intention, something like meditation greatly helps with this.
There’s many ways you can set the intent, the most obvious one is repeating a mantra, something like “I will have a lucid dream to night”. Remember! You’re not just saying the words and hoping they’ll make you lucid, that’s a common mistake people make, you need to set the intention while you’re saying the mantra, it would help to emphasise the words “lucid” and “will” off the top of my head. Basically, just focus on your intent, and believe it will work!
Many people use visualisation to help them become lucid, something like visualising themselves becoming lucid in the last dream they had, while you’re doing this, it helps to set the intention once again, or repeat your mantra.
Or in some cases, no words or visualisation is needed to set intent, it’s just a simple as knowing you’ll become lucid, and kinda, just doing it.
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**What I do**
I repeat a mantra before bed until I feel I’ve set my intent, go to bed, naturally wake up, do the same thing. Generally putting all my focus into becoming lucid, and by doing this, I’ll randomly become aware in my dream as a result of me remembering and setting intent to become lucid.
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As with anything, WBTB greatly increases your chances of being successful with MILD, it’s recommended, but not needed.
If you have really bad prospective memory (the ability to remember to do something in the future, like picking up that pack of gum, or becoming aware in your dream), here is something you should read -
This sounds counter intuitive doesn’t it? Stockpiling alcohol however doesn’t mean being drunk and disorderly and unable to cope with the situation…
In fact, there are a number of very good reasons why you should stockpile alcohol – particularly wine and spirits rather than beer, which does not have such a long shelf life.
Drinking Alcohol and Rubbing Alcohol – Do I Need to Stockpile Both?
There are two different alcohols – ethyl alcohol (chemical formula C2H5OH) as used in the intoxicating beverages you can drink, and isopropyl alcohol, commonly called ‘rubbing alcohol’ (chemical formula C3H8O) sold as an antiseptic and which can be used around the home.
As you can see, they both have carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules, but in different combinations. Stockpile rubbing alcohol as well as your drinking spirits as you seriously do not want to be donating a good bourbon to household cleaning!
Warning: Do not ever consume isopropyl alcohol, it is a poison, and keep it well out of the reach of children, as you should all alcohol. But you can use ethyl alcohol – your precious rum or whiskey for various solutions around the home too, if you can spare it.
Ready?
1. Alcohol is a sought-after currency
It may be heavier than gold coins, or medicine (which are both great trade items) but alcohol is always in demand. Even if you don’t drink it at all, it is a commodity to stockpile to swap for items you may need.
Red wine and spirits are particularly popular. If you are able to distill your own spirits (not something you can do in the USA) you are in a winning situation, because if you have stockpiled enough sugar and yeast you can just keep on making!
2. It helps people deal with difficult situations
When people are forced to live on basic foods for months on end, a small stockpile of treats like coffee, sweets and alcohol to pick up the mood after a hard day, or to celebrate an occasion, all come in handy.
3. Surgery
We’ve all seen the movies where a tough character is given a liberal swig to drink, lies down, the wound area is then doused in alcohol prior to the surgeon giving the patient a stick or rolled up piece of cloth to bite down on while the surgeon goes in to remove a bullet or repair a wound.
Also, ethyl alcohol that is 60% proof can be used for surgical purposes.
4. First aid
For cleaning a small wound, a 40% alcohol concentration will do. Make no mistake it stings, but it does kill the majority of the infection-causing viruses and other pathogens.
5. Disinfecting surgical instruments
Surgical instruments are usually boiled to disinfect, but if this is not an option in an emergency then submerging the instruments in alcohol will sterilize them.
Wiping or spraying them is not good enough – they must be submerged to ensure all pathogens are neutralized.
6. Red wine for heart health
There have been a number of studies showing that red wine, in moderation is good for heart health.
It seems that the anti-oxidants in red wine help with the HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol – that’s the “good” cholesterol compared to the LDL cholesterol. This is no excuse to indulge in red wine – particularly if you are prone to arthritis or gout.
Taken in moderation with a Mediterranean diet containing olive oil and lycopene from tomatoes, red wine can help protect from free radical damage due to the action of the anti-oxidants in this type of diet.
7. Hot toddy for colds/flu
A shot of alcohol, hot water, lemon juice and a spoon of honey mixed in a glass are the ingredients of a hot toddy, designed to make you feel relaxed while the ingredients go to work on the germs.
8. Fungal infections
A mix of alcohol and warm water in a 50:50 solution can help for fungal infections of feet, ears, and arms, and alcohol dabbed between toes can stop the wetness that fungal infections thrive on.
9. Poison ivy
Alcohol swabbed on the rash can provide some relief when poison ivy is driving a person crazy.
10. Insect bites
Swab bite sites on the body with a cotton pad soaked in alcohol to provide some relief from the bites of mosquitoes and midges.
11. Toothache
Vodka swished around the mouth is said to provide some relief from toothache. Also, chewing a whole clove can help.
It is not advised to deaden the pain by drinking the whole bottle of vodka, though!
12. Vodka as deodorizer
Because vodka does not have a bad smell, it can be used in a spritzer along with a drop or two of essential oil to freshen rooms.
Rubbing alcohol can be used to remove oiliness from mirrors at home – hairspray, splotches of face cream and marks from kids who love misting up mirrors by kissing them, or even those who put lipstick kisses on their mirrors.
14. Cell phone, Laptop and TV screen cleaner
Because rubbing alcohol evaporates quickly it can be safely used for cleaning electronics rather than something water based.
Using alcohol avoids the risk of water damage to these items, allowing them to dry streak free, however don’t rely on them to disinfect the devices, as the alcohol content is less than 70%, not to mention they evaporate quickly.
15. Stain removal
Spraying rubbing alcohol on a stain, and then washing well should get out most stains.
16. Hand sanitizer
Make your own hand sanitizer with rubbing alcohol, aloe vera gel, and some essential oil.
You will need a pump action container – use an empty liquid soap one, clean and dry then fill 3/4 with rubbing alcohol, 1/4 aloe vera gel and add about 20 drops of tea tree oil.
This will be a bit runnier than the store-bought hand sanitizers, but it will work. Various health organizations recommend at least 70% alcohol content in the hand sanitizer. This one is around 73% so you can add more aloe vera gel if you wish.
Hand sanitizer is best for use on fairly clean hands to kill germs, viruses, but soap and warm are more effective for cleaning hands.
17. Erase permanent markers
When kids decide to extend their artwork to your kitchen counter tops, some rubbing alcohol will erase those marks – provided it’s on a laminated top.
Do not use rubbing alcohol to try get marks off leather or wood.
18. Defrost your windscreen
A spray bottle with rubbing alcohol can save you plenty of time and effort instead of trying to pry ice off a windshield.
A spritz with the spray bottle means the windscreen will be defrosted in no time – to do this mix 1/3 water with 2/3 rubbing alcohol, shake to mix and spray.
The reason it works so well is the freezing point of isopropyl alcohol is way lower than that of water at minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit.
19. De-tick your dogs and yourself
When spending time outdoors the pesky little blood suckers manage to crawl into places you wouldn’t ordinarily see them.
When going over your own body and those of your kids, and dogs, dab a little of the alcohol, either ethyl or isopropyl on the tick, wait a little, and then pull it straight out – if you twist and pull you risk leaving the head behind which will cause a small sore.
The alcohol encourages the tick to stop burrowing down, giving you a chance to get it out in one piece.
20. Insect repellent
If spending plenty of time outdoors, mixing some alcohol with olive oil, and rubbing it over your skin will provide you with some protection against stinging bites, and help prevent ticks latching on and burrowing into your skin.
Mix ½ rubbing alcohol with ½ water in a container with a fine mist spray, and use it to deter fruit flies from hanging around your kitchen.
22. Clean chrome, glass, and stainless steel
A fine mist of rubbing alcohol will get rid of greasy marks on chrome, stainless steel and glass doors and windows.
The best part it that is evaporates quickly, so you don’t get those streaky marks to keep going over until the glass/chrome/stainless steel is clear.
23. Clean jewelry
Soak jewelry in a small container filled with rubbing alcohol, take out and wipe off residue, then polish with a soft cloth
24. Fire starter
In a pinch ,you can use a little alcohol soaked into some lint to start a fire.
25. Kill deadly molds
Certain molds can be deadly. Don’t give them a chance. Spray with rubbing alcohol – it dries them up and kills them.
26. Removing sticky residue
In SHTF situations you have to reuse and recycle. Don’t let those sticky jar labels beat you.
Get of as much as you can with dishwashing liquid and water, then bring on the alcohol. It will break down the stickiness so the jars can be cleaned and repurposed.
27. Gun cleaning
When gun cleaning oils and products start to run out you know you can rely on rubbing alcohol to get the job done and keep weapons in peak firing condition – your life may just depend on it.
28. Red wine for stews
Adding red wine to hearty meaty stews ups the level of richness, adding depth and flavor to the meal. Use when you feel the family needs a special lift.
29. Infused alcohol
So you can’t go out and buy your favorite cherry liqueur? No problem, use whatever fruit is available locally, and create peach infused brandy, cherry vodka, and a whole host of other tasty drinks with just your basic spirits and some well-chosen seasonal or foraged fruit.
30. Create grown up desserts
People can’t resist a little alcohol added to desserts to give them that extra decadence. Even if times are hard a tablespoon of brandy flambeed over a stack of pancakes will create oohs and aahs of delight as the blue flame plays over the dessert for a few seconds.
A little rum added to whipped cream, a 1/3 cup of brandy added to the sauce for a date pudding – all these lift the spirits and don’t use a lot of the precious liquid.
Cheap 433 MHz wireless switches are a tempting way to enter the world of home automation, but without dedicated hardware, they can be less easy to control from a PC. That’s the position [TheStaticTurtle] was in, so the solution was obvious. Build a USB 433 MHz transceiver.
At the computer end is a CH340 USB-to-serial chip and the familiar ATmega328 making this a compact copy of the Arduino. At the RF end are a pair of modules for transmit and receive, unexpectedly with separate antennas. This device is a second revision, after initial experiments with a single antenna connector and an RF switch proved not to work. On the software side the Arduino uses the rc-switch library, while on the PC side there’s a Python library to make sense of it all. The code and hardware files are all on GitHub, should you wish to experiment.
The problem of making a single antenna transceiver is not for the faint-hearted RF engineer, as while diode switches seem on paper to deliver the goods, they can be extremely difficult to get right and preserve linearity. We’re curious that a transceiver module wasn’t used instead, but we’re guessing that cost played a significant part in the equation.
I've been doing a bit of research, since I've been keto now for a few weeks. I've noticed these past weeks that my dreams have gotten very vivid, and excellent recall (although no lucidity yet outside of a few seconds).
I was reading about acetylcholine inhibitors (Galantamine and Huperzine-A), and how they work. Then I learned about how essential choline is to dreaming. So, naturally, that lead to foods containing choline. Some foods include meat, fish, eggs, dairy, broccoli and brussel sprouts, and peanuts. ALL of these foods are keto-friendly, and are frequently consumed on this diet.
What are your thoughts on the relationship between dream recall, vividness, and lucidity, and the ketogenic diet?
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/3dCCFhJ
I have heard told that conservatives are the only real romantics since we are far more disposed toward hanging on to the things that were, those things that matter to us as individuals and as members of a shared culture.
Despite flowery appeals to peace, love and “we are all the world” tripe, progressivism is marked by a disturbing trend of flattening and eliminating meaningful cultural differences while simultaneously consolidating power with psychopathic busybodies who cannot live if they cannot tell others how to.
Conservatives ultimately just want to be let alone to tend, foster and enjoy the things that are important to them.
That is quite the trick to pull off in this era of increasingly invasive government interference as well as punitive social consequences for wrongthink thanks to the popularity of cancel culture.
If you feel an itch in your mind that you just can’t scratch and find yourself having trouble articulating your thoughts about matters of conservatism, it is time to sharpen your saw!
Deep reading of classic works of conservatism that are full of meaning, cultural value, objective virtues and historical markers will do that for you.
The words of those who came before and paved the way to where we are today and are an excellent way to improve your rhetoric, broaden your intellectual horizons, and foster a deep appreciation for both what we have, where we came from, and where we are heading.
It is up to us, today, to carry the fire that our ancestors paid so much for. Below is my selection of some of the books that every conservative thinker and citizen should read.
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
The private writings and musings of Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from A.D.161 to A.D. 180 remain one of the most accessible and greatest works of ethical reflection and practical advice for good living ever written, and deserves a spot on every conservative’s bookshelf.
Aurelius wrote often about such topics as overcoming adversity, dealing with outcomes and situations that you cannot change with grace and dignity, interacting correctly with family and strangers alike, and coping with the perpetual struggle of desire against duty.
Few have ever codified the pressures of leadership but also the remedies as well as Marcus Aurelius.
Sometimes writing at length and sometimes in only a few clipped, crisp sentences, this essential work is absolutely central for the doctrine of stoicism, and is as accessible and relevant now as it has ever been since its translation. A must-have, and one of my favorites.
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, by Milton & Rose Friedman
A seminal work by economists Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose remains one of the best and most complete arguments for free markets and minimizing government intrusion in the economies and lives of citizens.
A strong condemnation of interventionist policies, and written in his trademark style, Milton Friedman, along with his wife Rose, compare and contrast the economic systems of developed nations all the way back to the 18th century through the 20th century, using historical examples to show what works, and what does not work in economy’s all over the world.
No punches are pulled, and no detail is spared when examining the economic systems of the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Russia and the United States pointing out where correct action was taken that resulted in prosperity, and where missteps, greed, and invasive correctional policies at the federal level resulted in failure, depression and destitution.
Beyond economics, the Friedmans make links to the education system and federal institutions of other kinds that impact the economy, even making links to urban renewal and gentrification as positively or negatively impacting the prosperity of a nation.
A must-read for anyone who wants to argue intelligently for minimizing the size of the government as well as its impact and reach into economic systems.
Have you ever wondered why Americans bicker and argue so passionately about what really constitutes American values? Why, in the largest melting pot on earth, is the “you’re obviously not from around here” mentality still so prevalent?
Author Colin Woodard answers all of those questions in a fascinating and entertaining deep-dive into what makes America so divided and contentious, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with contemporary political issues.
As it turns out, it has everything to do with political and cultural differences going all the way back before the founding of America.
When an entire continent is settled by massive influxes of people each with their own unique and sometimes competitive political, religious and ethnic differences, these people will naturally congregate into large tribes which will form regional cultures and subcultures which will be allies in one era and enemies in another.
The argument that there is no broader, truly unifying American culture is a persuasive one, and chances are this book will answer many questions you might have asked about the state of our own culture in the 21st century.
This book dexterously makes the case that local cultural differences have a far greater impact on people’s lives and outlooks compared to national ones in a country that is so large and expansive it is a continent unto itself.
The seemingly unstoppable onslaught of globalist ideology has made maintaining, much less forging, meaningful bonds with like-minded people, be they family or friends, more and more difficult.
People today, especially men, are expected to care about absolutely everybody that might be in need, with no mention made of the natural corollary that if you care about everyone you can truly care about no one.
With real bonds having been slashed away and replaced with one-size-fits-all consumer identities, it is no wonder the meaninglessness and ennui have overtaken red-blooded people in America at an alarming rate.
Jack Donovan’s follow-on book to his surprise breakout hit The Way of Men attacks and completely dismantles this modern way of thinking in what he calls “The Empire of Nothing”, and makes a case for thinking tribally, correctly, again.
This book does much to reverse the programming of globalism and universalism, and challenges readers to find a tribe made up of people that really matter to you, come up with a purpose for yourself and devote your life to your purposes and your people above everything else. A crackling good book.
The magnum opus and final work of fiction by author and objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged is a novel that tells a story about a world all too similar to our own, one that is sliding into a proper dystopia.
Within the bounds of the book, a story is told of two broad classes of people, those who produce and those who look to profit from their production from no effort or ingenuity of their own. Explores themes of efficiency, government invasiveness, capitalism unbound, the virtue of man, and the rightness of working for his own ends against the world around him.
A sprawling book, and one that is very readable but containing hidden depths full of difficult-to-access meaning.
This is a book where the characters are not mere symbols as in other works, but instead are human beings acting virtuously, or not, in spite of that not being recognizable to an audience who has not been mentally equipped to see that in action.
This is definitely a book that you have to peel back little by little at a time, like an onion, and an understanding of Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is helpful.
But even without all that, this is a book that will definitely move you and make you think about the direction our own country and culture are heading. The parallels cannot be ignored.
A masterwork and a classic of political philosophy, pioneering economist F.A. Hayek’s clinical warning of the dangers of socialism and the looming threat of increasing government economic control remains one of the most important and cited works in its category of the 20th century.
Published all the way back in 1944, before socialism was largely viewed as the oppressive evil that it was and is by the West, author Hayek was empowering readers with a grim but accurate analysis of what fate awaited all nations that allowed direction of their economies to be consolidated in the hands of a powerful few.
For any conservative who has yet to grasp how far-reaching the implications of socialism are, this is the only primer you need, provided by one of the sharpest and most brilliant minds of our era.
Remind yourself that this is the overarching objective of progressivism and the modern breed of progressive liberal.
The stakes are high, the evidence is irrefutable and the world has already seen in shocking detail what this abhorrent ideology does to formerly prosperous and free nations.
Those who came before us have been warning us for a very long time, and it is up to us as conservatives to carry on the fight.
Rules for Retrogrades, by Timothy J. Gordon and David R. Gordon
It is no secret and will be admitted by any honest conservative that the ground game of progressives has long outstripped our own.
With media, institutions of learning at all levels and much of the government completely infiltrated and locked down by progressive influences, it seems like no matter where we go we lose arguments and the ones that we win are crumpled up and thrown in the trash can, buried under an avalanche of negative publicity or media suppression.
One of the chief architects of the progressive left’s current stratagems is Saul Alinsky, whose book Rules for Radicals has formed a so-far uncounterable playbook by which leftists will dismantle conservative culture piece by bloody piece.
Enter Rules for Retrogrades, an antidote to the insidious machinations and subversive strategies of the progressive left, and the resounding answer to Rules for Radicals.
This call to action contains advice and procedures for speaking the truth no matter how badly the left tries to obscure it, standing up for objectivity and goodness in an era of debauchery and hedonism, countering the left’s ongoing control of language, and knowing who to trust in the shifting sands of the 21st century political battlefield.
First published in 1948, Ideas Have Consequences remains an incisive, cerebral treatise on the decline of western civilization due to the author’s assertion that we, as a civilization, have rejected and replaced the idea that there is an absolute truth from which all other determinations can be made.
He posits that the result is the decay and subsequent dissolution of traditional Western art, education and, most importantly, morality. The parallels he draws with the encroaching apathy of the day are still clearly visible even now.
Even more chillingly, Weaver might have been the first to put a name to the concept of a unified, invasive media construct by which perceptions, beliefs and emotions of the populace would be controlled with the objective of turning subjective truth into a commodity, something he called The Great Stereopticon.
While a heady and intellectual work, a reader who is up to the task will be positively struck by the implications of this particular warning written so long ago.
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, by Thomas Sowell
Brilliant social theorist Thomas Sowell’s masterwork that dissects the ideological differences between liberals and conservatives that always seem to culminate in political disagreements and potentially violence is the product of over 30 years of his work in the fields of economics, social studies and cultural trajectories.
If you have ever wondered what the roots of the disagreements are that exist between conservatives and liberals this book will explain it with extraordinary clarity and detail.
Sowell offers his take on everything from war, peace and ideological divides to criminal justice, income distribution and the progressive left’s obsession with equality of outcome.
For anyone who places their faith in blood ties, voluntary associations, traditional customs and self-determinism this book will deftly illustrate why such conservatism is so important to you, but also why it is so important to the health of the populace at large.
A sharp critique against the debunking and devaluing of natural law and objective value brought on by indoctrination in higher education, C.S. Lewis makes a strong case and intellectual stand for both in this book.
First delivered as a series of evening lectures at King’s College, Newcastle, England, Lewis tackles this subject with great nuance and skill, criticizing science as something that should not be used to debunk natural and objective value, while simultaneously defending it as worth pursuing for its own values.
Elsewhere in the book, Lewis makes the claim that it is impossible for a moral subjectivist to remain morally consistent in any meaningful way as they make observations and interact with the world.
In the end, Lewis describes a world that to him was only theoretical, but to us will appear frighteningly familiar, one in which the majority of people have their values and morals controlled or decided for them by a tiny group of elites who influence them through perfect and complete understanding of human psychology.
If the modern plague of moral subjectivism has you tearing your hair out in frustration and defiance, put Abolition of Man near the top of your reading list.
Without question, one of the most important books of the 20th century and winner of a Nobel Prize in literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago is the most heart-wrenching, disturbing, and also unflinching look at the terminal effects of socialism and communism on a society.
A work comprised from sources drawn from statements, diaries, legal documents and the authors own grueling experience in the Soviet gulags as a prisoner, this is a book that will shake you to your core, and more than any other will show you a terrifying glimpse into what the future holds if the progressives are allowed to have their way.
Serving as both literary masterpiece, a fiery indictment of Soviet political machinations of its era and an impassioned warning against the ultimate processes and terminal effects of Communism, The Gulag Archipelago is a must-read for everyone who believes in freedom.
A classical work examining the concept of natural right against a natural wrong (or manufactured “right”), author Leo Strauss argues that there is indeed an objective, natural firmament for the case that is observable in reality.
This observation is then further extended through a distinction between right and wrong, culture, politics, ethics and relationships. This stands in stark opposition to subjective right or wrong based on cultural norms or legal precedents.
If you are tired of progressives constantly moving the goalposts and attacking the foundation of an agreed-upon and objective standard for truth as a sort of a WMD in conversation or in debate, this book will give you the tools you need to cut them off at the knees.
It is not the easiest book to delve into, but for sturdy readers and for those who have the intellectual horsepower to get through it it is still one of the best, and most controversial, works in its category.
The Constitution of the United States of America, by the Founding Fathers
If you seek to uphold the legacy and traditions of our country as written and intended by our founding fathers, you must first seek to become a scholar of the document upon which our nation was founded. Failing to do so is foolishness in itself.
How many times have you had an argument about what the Founding Fathers meant or intended or what the Constitution said, but you could not quote it section, chapter and verse?
If you would take the time to study the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence you would not have that problem.
The Constitution is the cherished fundament of our nation and also the ultimate legal document and institutional backbone of our country.
Both mandate and restrictor upon our government, reading and understanding this most important legal document is mandatory for every conservative American.
Get The Constitution of the United States of America on Amazon.
The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
Unquestionably the best companion work to the Constitution itself, The Federalist Papers comprise 85 articles that defend, explain and expand on the ideas behind it in the words of several of the Founding Fathers themselves.
First written and published anonymously, three of the Constitution’s framers- Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison- talked at length about principles of government, political science and political philosophy.
The Constitution in tandem with the Federalist Papers leave no room for doubt or misinterpretation about our Founding Fathers intent for our country, our citizenry and our government.
Reading the Constitution without reading The Federalist Papers means you may miss out on crucial nuance and frame of reference vital for a complete and holistic education in the rights of our nation, as written and as intended.
American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms, by Chris Kyle
Everyone knows that guns are inextricably linked with American culture, and were so important to the founders’ intentions for a newly born nation that the right to own and bear them was ensconced in our own Bill of Rights as the Second Amendment.
Love them or hate them, guns have played a pivotal role in all major eras of American history, and continue to influence both the political landscape, and inform the rights of citizens in various parts of the nation. To understand the gun is to better understand history.
This book, written by Chris Kyle of American Sniper fame and published posthumously, tells the stories of 10 legendary firearms, and the role they played in equally legendary and pivotal events in American history.
Understanding the impact these firearms had, both on technology and the events surrounding them, helps colorize and further inform the nuances of the era. An entertaining read, and one that is packed full of interesting historical details. Highly recommended.
Every conservative should make expanding their intellectual horizons on such diverse subjects as ethics, American history, economic principles, political theory and governance a regular part of their self-directed education.
It is only by constantly taking in new information, comparing and sifting it against what you already know and formulating ever-sharper arguments and insights on the side of liberty and self-determinism that one can hope to push back the tide of progressive bugthought.
Today’s ham radio gear often has a facility for remote control, but they most often talk to a computer, not the operator. Hambone, on the other hand, acts like a ham radio robot, decoding TouchTone digits and taking action — for example, keying the radio and reading off the weather — in response to the commands received.
The code is in Python and uses numpy’s fast Fourier transform to identify digits. We’d be interested to test the performance of that compared to doing a Goertzel to specifically probe for the 8 digit tones: there are four row tones and four column tones. On the other hand, the FFT is handy and clearly works fast enough for this application.
The project is actually a spin off from [notpike’s] failed project to send paging tones. It is set up for a specific Yaesu handheld, but any radio should be workable with it. However, if you are connecting it to the same radio, there were a few tricks involved that you’ll want to read about.
Remote operation is getting more common and this probably would be one place to start if you wanted to build your own remote setup. If you ever thought about being a ham, we can do it for about $50.
Analyzing and troubleshooting a modern AM/FM radio, digital radio, or TV can be a pretty daunting task. However, a common AM radio is easy to understand, experiment with, and repair. Learning about that will help you understand more complex circuits later. That’s the idea behind the Elenco AM radio which is built on a wide-open PCB with markings for all the important sections. [The Offset Volt] uses one of these to explain how a receiver works, especially how a diode detects the signal and how the automatic gain control works.
Between a series of diagrams and live scope demonstrations, you can see the effects of capacitance in the receiver along with other circuit effects.
There are only a few simple constructs needed to understand a large number of circuits. Voltage division, resistor/capacitor charging, and capacitive/inductive resonance will cover a lot of ground. You’ll see that in several places here — many manifestations of just a few concepts.
Even if you cut your teeth on old AM radios, this kit might be just the thing to get a young person started learning the mysteries of radio. How simple can a radio be? Pretty simple. If FM is more your speed, you might enjoy reading about its history.
A dipole antenna is easy, right? Two wires, each a quarter wavelength long, emanate from a coax or other feedline. Unless it is an off-center dipole. The length is still the same, but you move the feed point to a different part. [KB9VBR] explains how this changes the antenna’s impedance from the nominal 70 ohms of a standard dipole.
Why would you want to do that? The trick is to find a feed point that has acceptable impedance on multiple ham radio bands. Most automatic tuners can handle a certain range of mismatch so using an antenna like this with a tuner can allow one antenna to serve multiple bands with no traps or switches.
[KB9VBR] uses a 4:1 balun to convert the relatively high impedance to something close enough for a tuner to work with. A cordless soldering iron comes in handy for antenna work and in the video you can see a gas-powered iron making short work of the connections to the 14 gauge wire.
The impedance also depends on height and he suggests 30 feet, at least. Does it work? If you watch the end of the video, it apparently does. If you are in the mood for technical talk about ham antennas, you could do worse than watch this MIT video. If you want a novel take on why antennas work, you might want to read about the kink.
No prepper who has spent any amount of time focused on improving their personal readiness to face disasters needs to be told that a big part of being prepared is having the right supplies, the right equipment and enough provision to make it through.
The myth of the one, lone survivor who knows absolutely everything, and therefore doesn’t have to carry anything with him is exactly that; pretty much a myth.
Chances are you are not this singular and legendary figure, and I know I am not either, so for us material preparation is a virtue.
Assuming this is not your first time on the internet you will have doubtless found by now dozens upon dozens of websites and articles offering you advice and checklists on what to stockpile, store, stash and generally squirrel away in order to make it through a major disaster.
These lists will include tiny items and large pieces of equipment, meals-ready-to-eat and sacks of basic staples. Total preparedness is generally the watchword for prepping.
But if there is one thing you can count on in all of this ceaseless buying, storing and rotating it is the fact that you will invariably overlook something. Maybe there’s something that you did not account for, or failed to plan for.
Maybe you just forgot about it or never in your wildest dreams anticipated you would need it. In this article, I’ll share with you ten of the most important preps for long-term survival that I see most preppers forget!
Context is Everything
It never fails then when some people come across any sort of recommendation list on the internet, be it a Top 10, 5 Worst, All Time Best or anything else, there are some folks who take it upon themselves to launch into a tirade in the comments explaining how the author’s reasoning is fatally flawed and that one, multiple or all the items on the list are poor candidates for the title in question.
I don’t take any issue with someone taking me to the cleaners in the comments for any particular reason since spirited debate is often instructive, but I do take issue with the attitude I described above. Let me explain.
The reason why it bothers me so much is simply that the people who go off on such a tear obviously believe that the only survival context or scenario they could possibly exist is the one that they have planned for or are envisioning. It is simply a form of imagination failure.
I don’t bring this up now to cut off any sporty and civil discourse in the comments, but instead want to preface the recommendations on my list.
I want you to think long and hard about the items I am recommending and how they will fit into your own plans for survival, and more importantly avoid falling into the trap of believing you didn’t miss anything…
I can tell you this honestly: Most people, facing most disasters of any kind will benefit greatly from the items I have included on the list here. Why? Simple:
Most disasters, man-made or naturally occurring will not change the basic necessities of survival! I indeed assert that the vast majority of people trying to survive and live through any potential long-term survival scenarios would be extremely well-served by everything I’m about to share with you.
10 Critical Items Most Preppers Overlook
Below you will find my ten recommendations, items that most preppers specifically forget to include in their stockpiles, or drastically underestimate the importance of.
Before you write off any of them as unnecessary, remember the old saying “no plan survives first contact”, and that certainly counts for disaster preparation.
If you planned to bug-out but are instead forced to bug-in, and do so for an indefinite period of time, you may very well be singing a different tune come The Big One. Consider that.
10. Important Docs Package
It is easy to get swept up with the idea that a major disaster will effectively erase civilization and life as we know it in the immediate aftermath, and for an indefinite amount of time thereafter.
If we are all being honest, most of us have post-apocalyptic visions or fantasies of the world made over and what it might look like. It is understandable and may yet, horrifyingly, come to pass.
But chances are, statistically, the civilization will go on much the way it always has in the aftermath of even a serious regional crisis, and if not in your immediate neck of the woods, then elsewhere in the country and in the world.
Civilization entails a gargantuan amount of administration. Records. Important documents. All of the minutiae that make the modern world “go”.
It would not do to forget that you will still need all of these things, and need access to them, after a disaster unless it is truly a world toppling one.
Because of this, no prepper should ever omit a personal file containing electronic or paper copies or even originals in some cases of all that important stuff you need day to day or a few times a year.
I’m referring to things like passports, driver’s licenses, your social security cards, college diplomas, birth certificates, bank and credit card account information, mortgages, deeds and titles to land and other real estate, as well as vehicles and anything else you can think of that is crucially important.
You might decide to keep a paper file, weatherproofed, or turn to electronic copies kept on a flash drive that is then encrypted for safety.
No matter which mode of storage you decide to go with be sure that you keep this as well hidden and secure as possible until the fateful day you need it; if any bad actor were to get ahold of this information they would literally have the keys to your life.
9. Manuals and Guides
Even though the internet has become so ubiquitous it might feel like a part of your own flesh and blood body, it is still one modern miracle and supreme convenience that you will not be able to count on once the balloon goes up.
Anything, and I do mean anything, that you do not already have committed to memory, written down or even accessible on a self-contained device is as good as gone.
If you need to know something, and don’t have access to the information (and cannot find someone to teach you) you will have to do without or resort to trial and error.
You can prevent this feeling of being set adrift out of your element by accumulating useful manuals, guides and instructional tomes on all kinds of topics, everything from home repair manuals and permaculture guides to practical first-aid texts and even books on small unit tactics for group security.
All could wind up being essential for preppers living in the aftermath. No matter how good you are, no one has all the answers and time for study and for training is always at a premium even in the best of conditions.
This is one area where electronic storage can make sense, especially with the rise of portable and extremely efficient solar chargers. A single tablet or e-reader can store an entire virtual library inside a device that weighs less than a single paperback book.
If you absolutely must have paper, or it is all you have access to, you should consider purchasing smaller, compact versions of well-known subjects that are easier to transport and store.
If you forget something, or never knew it in the first place, a manual can remember it for you.
8. Hand Pumps and Siphons
Virtually every prepper is well aware of the fact that they might have to gather water wherever they can and even salvage fuel from wrecked or immobile vehicles in order to contribute to their own supplies during a survival situation.
What few of these preppers consider, though, is just how difficult accessing any of these liquids that are otherwise free for the taking will be.
The quintessential scenario we envision when the time comes to gather water is simply tiptoeing down to the edge of the stream or pond before dipping our bottle or filter directly into it.
The reality is often not that simple, and it is definitely not that simple when the time comes to obtain fuel.
The facts are that you will have to obtain water and fuel where you can get it. You might be forced to fish it out of a shallow depression, a laborious and frustrating task if all you have is your bottle.
Getting fuel back out of a fuel tank without crawling under the vehicle to cut the lines or puncture the tank itself can be equally maddening.
Instead of driving yourself crazy and wasting time, you could simply whip out a manual hand pump or a siphon to quickly and efficiently extract your chosen liquid from whatever holds it.
So long as the tube can make contact with the body of the liquid itself you are in business!
Don’t rely on mouth suction and rubber tubing, either. Get quality tools you can depend on without risking a mouthful of gas or foul water.
And since we are on the subject here is a pro-tip: always make sure you have two pumps or siphons- one only for water and one only for fuel. If you use one to do everything you will definitely be contaminating your liquids, whatever they are.
7. Manual Washing Machine
This is another one of those “why didn’t I think of that?!” items. You will easily find preppers who have extra clothing packed as part of their survival accoutrement, but very few who have dedicated equipment and plans for cleaning their clothing in the aftermath of a crisis.
As much as I hate to say it, the “wild men” who plan on wearing the same soiled clothing for the duration of an event, since they apparently care little for such “social niceties”, are more numerous than you think.
The joke is on them though, since keeping your body clean is about much more than just social graces.
This should not be a shock, but your clothing must be washed periodically. This is critical not just to keep the nasty stench down so that other humans can tolerate being near you, but also to keep your clothing functioning correctly and minimize your risk of skin infections.
Yes, I did say “functioning correctly”; clothing that is soiled starts losing its insulative or cooling value in direct proportion to how filthy it is.
Of perhaps greater importance is the fact that filthy clothing will trap germs against your skin, greatly increasing the chances of rashes, fungal outbreaks and other assorted nastiness that will serve as a serious annoyance during a disaster scenario or even turn into life-threatening open sores.
A manual washing machine can prevent this bleak outcome. Using just a little water and a little bit of detergent these compact and surprisingly efficient wonders rely on a foot actuated pedal or a hand-operated crank to agitate and wash clothes with remarkable efficiency.
They can even spin cycle so that your clothing, once line-hanged, will dry out even quicker.
Using one of these clever little machines your clothing will last longer, work better and smell infinitely nicer, even in the aftermath of a disaster!
6. Building Supplies and Repair Materials
You should count on having to enact repairs after a disaster, since so much of the time their occurrence will result in all kinds of widespread damage and havoc.
Almost no one forgets the tools themselves, all those implements you will need to get your Bob Vila on, but plenty of people forget the needed materials that they will need to enact those repairs, be it to a structure, a vehicle or some other piece of equipment.
This is especially crucial if you plan on bugging in for the long haul. When you need to patch a leaky roof or repair some mangled bodywork on a vehicle you’ll need the materials to make that happen.
Don’t assume that you will just be able to pick and scavenge what you need from the area around you, either; even wrecked homes and vehicles still belong to someone, and your scavenging might easily be mistaken for opportunistic looting if you are surviving in a suburban or other built-up area…
You don’t need to stock everything that your local metal works or lumberyard offers, but you should have a supply of typical lumber and plywood, sheet metal, wiring, heavy duty plastic sheeting, a variety of fasteners including nails and screws, all-purpose construction adhesive and epoxy, plenty of duct tape and a variety of piping for various purposes.
All of the above used in conjunction with your tools and a little bit of know-how will help you get things back in running order or just makes him a little more livable.
5. Fuel
You don’t need me to tell you how badly you will need fuel if any motor vehicle or generator figures into your plans, but it is still my duty to tell you that you are liable to need far, far more fuel than you are anticipating if you want to survive a long-term or even indefinite-term aftermath with full facility.
Our nation, and many nations around the world, are completely dependent on an intricate and interconnected web of services and industries that make commerce happen down to the local level.
It does not take much in the way of disruption or destruction of any one of these fragile pieces to bring the whole thing grinding to a halt. Imagine how much worse things will be if a truly major cataclysm were to occur, and affect all of the parts in many places all at once.
One of the first casualties is likely to be a liquid fuel, both gasoline and diesel, as all the places you typically get it are completely dependent on daily deliveries to keep their tanks full so you can keep your tank full.
A single, small backup gas can, or even a 5-gallon jerry can is just not enough for long-term survival. While A-OK for over-the-road top offs, you’ll be almost completely dependent upon scavenging in a very short time.
So will everyone else, meaning competition for fuel will be fierce. You can prevent this eventuality by keeping even a single 55 gallon drum of fuel (or even multiples if you can afford them and have room to store them) that you draw from regularly while keeping them topped off with good gasoline or diesel.
Consider that the vehicle you get running or the generator you power might not be your own; what would you do if you had a close friend, family member or neighbor stop by begging you for any gas you might spare?
If you don’t have it to spare, you have a tough choice to make. However, if you have stored fuel in abundance you might very literally be their savior.
4. Fire Extinguishers
Residential fires are among the most common, destructive and deadly disasters that any of us are likely to face in our lifetimes, and they reap a toll yearly that numbers in the thousands of lives and billions upon billions of dollars in property damage.
Considering how common they are, especially in the aftermath of a disaster when damage is widespread and scattered debris makes them even more dangerous, most preppers either go very light on firefighting equipment or even omit it entirely.
This is a bad idea, especially considering how affordable and how effective modern fire extinguishers are.
You don’t have to be a firefighter to appreciate or use one, and having the right extinguisher in the right place and at the right time might mean the difference in having a damaged house but needs a little cleanup, or a pile of smoking rubble where your shelter, and all your preps used to be.
Generally, any home anywhere will benefit from having at least two fire extinguishers of the correct type placed strategically within.
For most of us, an ABC rated fire extinguisher of moderate to large size will be all we need to tackle a small blaze before it starts to consume our entire house.
Fire extinguishers of this rating can handle any type of fire except those caused by flammable metals, which are admittedly rare occurrences, thankfully, outside of certain laboratory and industrial settings.
Make sure you keep them maintained, and place them strategically in locations that will be easy to access, but are unlikely to be the initial starting point of a fire.
3. Bleach
Common, standard chlorine bleach is a survivalist superstar, and serves many important functions for preppers. Bleach does far more than just make your white clothes pearly white: with it you can clean, sanitize and sterilize surfaces and tools, even your skin!
Among all the chemicals that you will have ready access to, none is more effective at so many things and is more affordable than common, household bleach.
Most important, however, is the capability of regular off-the-shelf bleach to purify contaminated or suspect water sources by killing any bacteria or viruses hiding within (so long as correct ratios are used!).
By using a standard formula of splashless, unscented six- to eight-percent solution chlorine bleach in the correct ratio to a given quantity of water you can be assured of nuking any nasty little germs it might be waiting and willing to make you gravely sick, or even kill you.
I cannot overstate how vital water purification is in a survival situation, and a cheap, bog-common bottle of bleach will purify an awful lot of water!
Bleach is also as you might expect an ace at decontaminating any surface, any tool or any fabric that has come into contact with human bodily fluids that are also apt to harbor germs.
Bleach is especially effective on hard, smooth surfaces, and a weakened solution of chlorine bleach makes for a very effective cleanser around the house, even if you do have to be cautious around your clothing if you don’t want it spotted up.
There is one catch for diligent preppers, however: bleach loses its effectiveness over time. That means you’ll have to rotate it just like you do any other perishable prep, be it medicine, food or something else.
Generally speaking, anytime you notice bleach losing its distinctive odor, that chlorine “pool-like” smell, you know it is losing power.
You can reliably depend on it to sit on your shelf for about a year before it starts to degrade, but you should make it a point to keep plenty on “tap” and rotate it regularly.
2. O.C. (Pepper Spray)
Almost everyone plans to acquire the tools of lethal self-defense, guns, knives and other melee weapons in abundance, but few stop to think how important less-lethal tools might be in the aftermath of an SHTF event.
It is true that our fellow man might sadly be one of the most dangerous things we have to deal with in an already dangerous situation, but that does not mean you should have a one-size-fits-all tool for self defense.
In general, anyone who is serious about self-defense should want to make use of multiple options for defense depending on the threat at hand. If the only thing you have is your fists and feet and then a gun, you are leaving a wide gap in capability between those two extremes.
Face it, not everyone needs to be shot, and not every fight is worth prosecuting with your fists. If you want something with range, but something that is also less lethal than a firearm, you have very few options that will be as reliable in as many situations as pepper spray.
A good brand of pepper spray deployed correctly and accurately will have an extremely high success rate, and is the ideal solution when someone is getting rowdy or unruly, or just won’t leave you alone in an uncertain encounter.
But assuming you do zap someone with your pepper spray and they persist in accosting you, you should have a significant advantage over them since their vision and breathing will both be significantly impaired.
Aside from its obvious efficacy at mitigating a bad encounter with those people who don’t warrant shooting, wouldn’t it also be a good thing to run off a desperate person who might be attempting to steal from your supplies but is otherwise not a lethal threat, and do it all without inflicting lethal damage on them?
A smart prepper will obtain pepper spray in two sizes, a smaller container for keeping at the ready in a pocket or clipped to their belt and a larger canister with a much greater range and spread for fending off crowds or groups.
1. Antibiotics
A medical kit is a must for serious survival, and you will rarely find a prepper who goes anywhere without one, at least a lean, basic medical kit. Nonetheless, no medical kit is complete and ready to serve in a SHTF capacity if it does not have antibiotics in it.
Think about it: you are not going to have the ability to just run down the street to the doctor or clinic when you are busy surviving in the aftermath of a crisis.
Chances are much of the world or at least your local area will be turned upside down, and what doctors and nurses do remain will be busy serving where they are needed most; triage will definitely be in effect.
Antibiotics are one of the single greatest inventions in history, and have saved countless lives over the years since their discovery and refinement.
Antibiotics make illnesses and injuries that were once extremely serious, life-threatening events into trivialities. Even way back when, minor wounds always stood a significant risk of infection, and that simple cut on your finger or hand could let a raging infection into your bloodstream that would later kill you.
Today, we enjoy the ability to go get treatment and the correct prescription at the first sign of infection, and it is very rarely if ever an issue after that. You will not enjoy this modern miracle or the luxury of prompt, institutional medical care when things get really serious.
Common, “wide-spectrum” antibiotics can give you an insurance policy against all kinds of illnesses and injuries, and ones like amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin are common in trauma kits all over.
But you might be asking yourself, “If it makes so much sense and antibiotics are so important, why don’t you hear about more people keeping them in stock for their personal survival stash?”
That part at least is simple to explain: getting a good supply of antibiotics and then rotating them so they remain potent and viable requires effort, time and money, and is all-in-all a bit of a pain.
First you’ll need to get a non-essential prescription from your doctor, then pickup and pay for these often expensive medications.
You must keep in mind that antibiotics don’t live forever, even when stored in ideal conditions and they will steadily lose strength over time. Just like your food, your fuel and all your other perishables you’ll need to rotate out antibiotics over time, but unlike food and drink you can’t just eat it with no ill effects.
Unless you can donate it to a place that can make use of it, this will be money literally going down the drain every time you have to rotate your stock of pills.
Despite all this heartache and hassle, antibiotics are essential enough to be worth it, and even if you don’t want to go through all the expense and trouble of getting traditional antibiotics from a pharmacist, you might consider looking in to veterinary grade or even fish-specific antibiotics, which can be effective in humans under certain circumstances and much cheaper to boot!
Conclusion
Prepping correctly often means obtaining an awful lot of varied supplies, a mountain of gear and a warehouse’s worth of equipment, but even the diligent can overlook a few items now and then.
Make sure you review the list of ten commonly overlooked items above and make sure you are not leaving any glaring holes in your preps!
For those starting to wade into radio as a hobby, one of the first real technical challenges is understanding trunked radio systems. On the surface, it seems straightforward: A control channel allows users to share a section of bandwidth rather than take up one complete channel, allowing for greater usage of the frequency range. In practice though it can be difficult to follow along, but now it’s slightly easier thanks to software defined radio.
This guide comes to us from [AndrewNohawk], who is located in San Francisco and is using his system to monitor police, fire, and EMS activity. These groups typically used trunked radio systems due to the large number of users. For listening in, nothing more than an RTL-SDR setup is needed, and the guide walks us through using this setup to find the control channels, the center frequency, and then identifying the “talk groups” for whichever organization you want to listen in on.
The guide goes into great detail, including lists of software needed to get a system like this started up, and since [AndrewNohawk] is a self-identified “radio noob” the guide is perfectly accessible to people who are new to radio and specifically new to trunked systems like these. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not too hard to scale up, either.
Hi everyone,
For some reason, I felt the urge to get back into Lucid Dreaming...
When I first learned about LD, in 2011, I was a very active oneironaut. Most of my practices and experiences faded away with the pass of the years.
I'm glad I found Dream Views again!!!
Thank you! :armflap:
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/3fxbAxB
So, pretty much since the first time I started to properly learn about lucid dreaming, I started to do reality checks every so often; I do reality checks a few times a day, how many just depends from day to day. But I do reality checks pretty much every day.
A few things that struck me recently however;
1) is that while I'm doing my reality checks, in waking life, I am often also doing other things, like walking, looking at objects, etc. Sometimes even talking to someone or cooking at the same time. And I'm doing so in a way that isn't related to my reality checking but is related to what I was actually doing before starting my checks, it's just that I start checking while allowing everything else to run on auto.
I wondered if other people have any experience with this, and whether they found it to be either detrimental or insignificant. I don't think it's being detrimental for me, but I realised that it's often the case when I'm doing a reality check, so I wondered what other people thought or have found regarding this, at least for themselves.
2) is that when I find it's time to do a reality check, I never actually ask myself "Am I dreaming?"; I just carry out my reality checks and assess the overall consistency of reality. I don't actually believe that I have to say something to realise I'm dreaming, because all the times I've ever become lucid, I didn't have to ask a question like that. Even so, I realised perhaps the fact I don't ask myself vocally (even in my mind) if I'm dreaming could be part of my issue with DILD, but again, I'd like to hear other peoples' thoughts on this.
The other thing is, from all my previous lucid dreaming experiences, the problem isn't usually the checking, because I do usually realise that I'm dreaming when I do check. It's more often the problem that I have to remember to check at all, which for some reason just doesn't happen in dreams. For me, remembering to reality check in a dream that wasn't a WILD or WBTB is almost impossible for some reason. I know WBTB works well for me if I dedicate myself to it, but I find it too tiring to do and with limited energy and an already unusual sleep pattern, I can't really do WBTB.
I'd love to do WILD, as it's quite reliable for me in terms of actually becoming lucid, but I take unusually long to fall asleep even under normal circumstances, primarily because of how my condition affects my sleep, I believe. When my sleeping conditions are better, my rate for lucidity and dream recall seem to be much better overall anyway, which I suppose should be expected...
In summary, the advice I want is one about direction, I think. It seems that no matter what I try, none of the methods for becoming lucid seem suitable for me, for one reason or another.
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/2Y5MUqs
Bugging out is a central concept for most preppers. The notion being that when times get tough and the skies darken you will take off into the wilderness in an effort to avoid trouble and stay alive.
It’s hard to argue with this logic, and you should always have a plan to bug out in case a situation becomes unmanageable or unsurvivable, but knowing where you’re going is paramount to making this strategy worthwhile.
If you ask any given prepper about, this they will probably answer that they’re heading out into the “woods”, the “hills”, the “desert” or some other remote, natural locale to wait for the whole situation to blow over.
This is obviously not a very specific answer when it comes to a BOL (bug-out location), which means they probably don’t have a very specific plan unless they are being evasive with you on purpose. Even so, a great many preppers will answer this question similarly.
This is a potential failure of planning but more importantly it is a failure of imagination! There are all kinds of places where one can bug out to for temporary or semi-permanent respite from a dangerous situation that you have likely not even considered.
In today’s article, we’ll be showing you several potential BOLs that can work for you in times of trouble.
Bugging Out, the Law and You
Before we get into our list of alternate places to bug out, we need to pause and consider the law and its impact on our plans. I would never advocate, and nor would the owners of this website, that you break the law for any reason.
Or at least break it without an extremely good reason! Bugging out to save your life and the lives of your family from a major disaster or some other crises that can threaten your lives is probably a good reason.
But nonetheless in our case the land, building or any other location that you are heading to doesn’t belong to you.
At least it probably doesn’t; it belongs to somebody else, and ultimately the rule of law will likely give them the right to determine who gets to access to their property, and much less who gets to stay on that property.
You must understand ahead of time that even though existential circumstances may mean you choose to trespass in a time of uttermost need that it is excusable; assuming your trespass gets found out it could be forgiven, but it does not mean it will be.
Also, you must never assume that a given location will be unguarded, even in the midst of a crisis.
Some property owner who gets really bent out of shape, including potentially the federal government, that you were not respecting the rule of law as it pertains to their land/building might not be willing to forgive it and may press charges in the immediate aftermath when things settle down.
I don’t say this to scare anybody out of doing what they need to do to stay alive, but it is something you must be aware of. And you must be doubly aware of it if you plan to scout any routes to, in and out of your chosen bug-out locations ahead of time!
With that said, on to the list!
8 Places to Bug-Out You Have Never Thought Of
Hunting Camps
Hunting camps, whether they are ones you yourself have made use of, or only know about from prior travels or conversations, can be great locations to bug out to in a pinch.
The trails going to them are usually well established if discreet, and many of them have structures that can provide ready shelter from the elements, or at least help you establish shelter against the elements.
A cabin, even if its furnishings are spartan, is a much better thing to head to than a bare plot of land, especially if the weather is wet or cold.
Of course you must be cautious: if you do not own the hunting camp (and even if you do) other people might have the same idea, especially people that are more of an outdoorsy bent.
If there is any category of people that you can count on being armed under these circumstances it is hunters, a fact which can both help and hurt you. An unknown contact with scared and desperate people who are armed might end in tragedy.
On the other hand, it is far from out of the question that you can find tools and even find some spare ammunition stored inside an old hunting cabin that you can make use of in a pinch.
Utility Easements
Utility easements for major installations like high-tension cross-country power lines and pipelines can make convenient places to bug out to, mostly because they will be easy to get to once you know where you are heading and because they make navigation easy even when GPS system stopped working or you lose your map.
It is very difficult to get lost when you are following a major utility easement.
Utility easements also feature typically clear ground all around them, which will reduce your energy expenditure when traveling along them.
They are also so large and so lengthy that they are typically unguarded, even by fencing, so long as they’re not traversing directly through a built-up or populated area.
You can think of these places as sort of an easy shortcut to a bug-out location even if it is only a temporary one to catch your breath, or as a rendezvous with other people, or assess the situation.
Campgrounds
Plenty of folks think about getting away to a campground when it is time for a little R&R away from civilization, but not too many will be thinking of them when danger is close at hand.
Even in the midst of a disaster, these can still be good places to bug out to, being typically removed from civilization, off the beaten trail and having roads that are reasonably easy to navigate, along with many of them having multiple ways in and out.
If you are bugging out in a vehicle, especially a larger one like an RV, these more commercialized campgrounds could be ideals spot to head to first, and may very well have facilities that you can still make use of.
Even campgrounds that are more difficult to get to could still have value, as they are an easily referenced, and relatively secluded rendez-vous point.
Friend’s Property
Not that I would recommend making yourself an unwelcome guest and letting yourself in, but a remote property that belongs to a friend, or a friend’s family, is a great place to bug out to when you need some measure of certainty middle of an emergency.
If worse comes to worst and other people show up at the property you are more likely to encounter people who know you and, hopefully, trust you. I would always rather deal with friends and acquaintances in an emergency than strangers!
Lots of folks have remote cabins in the mountains, lakeside homes or just remote pieces of unimproved land that they use for hunting, investment and recreational purposes.
When you hear a place like this come up in conversation, perhaps inquire a little more about them, and stick a pin in your map for a rainy day.
Even better, if your friend or your friend’s family is of a like-minded attitude when it comes to prepping, go ahead and broach the subject with them, and you might have a pre-made survival group in the waiting.
Industrial Installations
Large industrial facilities and installations will more than likely be abandoned when things get really bad, perhaps containing only a token custodial presence if that.
Considering that these places do not typically have commodities or other items that people consider valuable and worth looting in the context of a disaster, these areas can make for great, quiet places to head to when it is time to bug out.
These facilities will also usually have plenty of places to hide, and their large and expansive nature means that hiding smaller vehicles will be a cinch.
There are some attendant dangers however: many industrial facilities contain physical dangers like heavy, automated equipment, mega-voltage power sources and hazardous chemicals that you must be cautious of.
Unfortunately, many of them are also known for high crime and other human dangers in their vicinity, though this is largely dependent on where they are sited.
But with those dangers comes opportunity: you can be assured of finding plentiful first-aid supplies and other raw materials that might help you on your journey.
Commercial Buildings
You can depend on your typical office buildings being abandoned at the first sign of trouble when a major disaster occurs. It is hard enough to get cubicle workers to stay at their desks on major holidays, to say nothing of a serious crisis.
These buildings have advantages for preppers in that they are usually multi-story, strong buildings that can provide great shelter, and contain plenty of usable goodies inside; food, water and a few first-aid items not the least among them.
You will need to exercise extra caution when it comes to choosing a commercial building to bug out to since many of them will be located in metropolitan or suburban areas, and that means plenty of people.
Plenty of people means a greater likelihood that someone will have the same idea you do, or have an interest in the building for some other reason.
Ghost Towns
Ghost towns comprise a category of abandoned places they can take many forms.
From ancient settlements that were just left behind by the march of time to more modern villages or towns that were cut-off due to the loss of industry, prior major disasters or simple ennui.
Ghost towns are great places to get away from people while finding some nominal amount of shelter.
Of course any place that has been long abandoned or has only inhabitants numbering in the single or low double-digits is not likely to have much in the way of supply and other resources you can make use of.
You’d be surprised at how many ghost towns there are around the world; many of them keep standing until nature reclaims them or redevelopment knocks all the buildings down.
You might also be surprised at how many people don’t know about ghost towns that are near them.
Make it a point to talk to some old-timers in your social network and ask them about ghost towns in your region. Chances are they can provide one or two, even if it is only a small clutch of buildings left abandoned and forgotten.
You can also check out this Wikipedia list of ghost towns across the United States.
State/Federal Parks
State and federal parks have many advantages for preppers who desire to head out into the middle of nowhere and wait for a disaster to blow over.
You can likely find a patch that is as remote as you please, and can take advantage of professionally maintained infrastructure to help you get to it. Many state and federal parks have roads and trails that lead to and at least partially into the lands within their confines.
Many will also have a variety of pre-mapped and marked campsites, trails and natural features that can help you get into and out of where you are going.
For all but the smallest of these installations, there is more than enough room to get lost and make yourself extremely hard to find, whether you intended to or not.
Perhaps their only disadvantage is that they are so well-known that other people might seize on to the idea. Increase your chances of getting in and out discreetly by looking for alternate ways into the parks besides the main road, gate or whatever.
Conclusion
Bugging out is serious business, and if you are serious about it you had better have a wide variety of potential bug-out locations to cover every contingency.
Don’t think you can just head off into the wild blue yonder without a plan and a specific destination. Get ahead of the pack and keep yourself and your family safe by plotting routes to several of the non-traditional bug-out locations listed above.
