Lucidity Institute P.E.S.T User manual

THE LUCIDITY INSTITUTE, INC. © 1994
©
Programmable Electronic State Tester
User‘s Guide
P.E.S.T.

2 P.E.S.T. USER’S GUIDE
P.E.S.T. © THE LUCIDITY INSTITUTE, INC., 1994
P.E.S.T. DESIGN: by Stephen LaBerge
MANUAL: writing by Lynne Levitan, design by Ethan Speelberg
Thanks to Mushkil Gusha for the usual assistance.
WARNING: This Product Attracts Every Other Piece of Matter in the Universe, Including the Products
of Other Manufacturers, with a Force Proportional to the Product of the Masses and Inversely
Proportional to the Square of the Distance Between Them.
Quiescent P.E.S.T. shown attached to
host in recommended POCKET position.
Notrecommendedforattachingtobelt.
Active P.E.S.T. shown on reverse.

3
Congratulations,youhave boughtathing thatbeeps,flashes, chirps,andvibratesunexpectedly
throughout the day and night! Yes, you are the proud owner of a
P.E.S.T. Now you may ask
yourself, “Why did I buy something that can do nothing but ‘bug’ me? There must be a
reason, if only I could remember...oh yeah, to help me learn to have lucid dreams!”
How Can Your P.E.S.T. Help You Become A Better Lucid Dreamer?
Sometimes your best friend is the one who nags you and won’t break
down—who persists in reminding you to stick to your plans, stand by your
ideals, or do your Reality Tests. Although it is not necessary to replace your
current best friend with your new P.E.S.T., it will be there when no one else
is (that goes for your brain, too) to remind you to practice your Reality
Tests.Researchhas shown that people who do more RealityTestsin the day
also have more lucid dreams at night (see NightLight 5.3). Furthermore, if
you never do Reality Tests while you are awake, you are unlikely to do them
in dreams. This is because, in non–lucid dreams, people usually believe
they are awake. The purpose of Reality Testing is to establish a habit of
challenging the tacit assumption that you are awake, and of actively testing
your current reality to see if it might be a dream, after all.
The difficulty in laying down a new habit is that it requires bringing
your daily routine back into the light of consciousness out of the hidden
depths of automatic unconsciousness where it has been whirring smoothly
along for years or decades. The unconscious part of your mind that
operates the basic machinery of your daily activities only has an easy time
learning new tricks if it is reminded. A person who has just had wisdom
teeth removed, for example, will not forget to take pain medication every
four hours because pain serves as an excellent memory aid!
Pain and its lesser relation, irritation, are natural reminder systems
motivating us to stay in one piece, healthy and happy. You eat when you
arehungrybecausebeinghungryfeelsuncomfortable.Aneffectivestrategy,
therefore, for learning a new behavior, is to have an annoying reminder.
The P.E.S.T. is designed to annoy you. The level of irritation is
adjustable, so you can pick what type of stimulus you need to get you to do
Reality Tests. The P.E.S.T.’s advantage over other types of reminders, like
the hourly beep on a watch, is that it is sneaky. If you have ever used the
beep on a digital watch for an extended period of time, you may have
noticed that after a while your mind tunes out the beep, and hours go by

4 P.E.S.T. USER’S GUIDE
withoutyou hearing it atall. Your brain learns to expect regular events, and
if they have no great significance for your survival, it suppresses your
perception of them. The P.E.S.T. gets around this problem by randomizing
the timing of its reminders. You decide, for example, that you want to have
a reminder about once an hour, and the P.E.S.T. picks a certain number of
minutes to add to that minimum interval between reminders. Therefore,
your brain cannot predict when, exactly, the reminder will come.
Select Your Own P.E.S.T.ing Style
A really obnoxious reminder is most likely to get your attention, and you
can have one if you like—the P.E.S.T. can flash, beep and vibrate all at once,
long and loud. On the other hand, there will be circumstances in which you
will want the P.E.S.T. to be unobtrusive, so that only you know it’s there.
To really benefit from Reality Testing, you need to practice during the
many different activities of your life—at home, work, or play. In the office,
at a movie, or wherever you want it to be quiet, you can set the P.E.S.T. to
give you only a vibration as a reminder. Therefore, you can take your
P.E.S.T. with you and practice reality testing wherever you like.
Reality Testing with the P.E.S.T.
To make sure that you have no excuses for not doing your Reality Tests when
reminded, the
P.E.S.T. is prepared to help you with the actual test. Machines
are notoriously unreliable in dreams, so if you can operate a device with no
glitches you are probably not dreaming. That goes for the
P.E.S.T. , as well as
the NovaDreamer and DreamLight, both of which are equipped with
“Reality Test” buttons. When you get your reminder (or anytime you
suspect you might be dreaming), you can start your Reality Test by pressing
the
P.E.S.T. ’s button. What it is supposed to do is flash once in both red and
green “eyes” and beep, all at the same time. However, if in a dream you try
this with your dream
P.E.S.T. , something will inevitably go wrong. On the
simplest level, the dream version of the
P.E.S.T. will just not flash or beep
when you press its button. It’s quite possible, too, that stranger things will
happen, such as the
P.E.S.T. having a too many buttons, or displaying a
message like the pager it resembles. The trick is to be alert for any deviation
from the normal flash–beep and realize that odd
P.E.S.T. behavior means
you are probably dreaming. (See the Reality Testing procedure on pp 9-10.)

5
If You Miss a Cue
There will probably be times when you are involved in something so
exciting and engaging (falling off a cliff, watching C-SPAN, or whatever)
that you fail to catch one of your P.E.S.T.’s cues. (Of course you wouldn’t
leave your P.E.S.T. alone while it is working!) So that you don’t blame the
P.E.S.T. for your forgetfulness, it will tell you if it has given a reminder
while your mind was elsewhere. Each time the P.E.S.T. gives a reminder, its
red eye will begin to blink. It will continue to blink until you press the
P.E.S.T.’s button (and, of course, you will do a complete Reality Test). The
red eye will also start blinking when you put the P.E.S.T. into an active
mode (Modes 1, 2, 3, or 4) after it gives the sample reminder. It will
continueto blink untilyoupressthe button. As youpressthebutton to stop
theblinking,doaRealityTest,andaffirmtoyourselfthatyouare committed
to attending to the P.E.S.T. and focusing on lucid dreaming.
Getting to Know Your P.E.S.T.
Your P.E.S.T. comes to you asleep, with a few months worth of food in its
belly (a.k.a. AA–battery), and fully trained. All you need to do is learn how
to tell your P.E.S.T. what you want from it, and to develop the habit of
responding accordingly. First, though, let’s take a look at the creature.
P.E.S.T. Anatomy 101
The P.E.S.T. (common name) is a member of Class Electronica, Order
Microprocessoria, Family Smaller–than–a–Breadboxia, Genus
Oneironautica(sharedbytheDreamLight,NovaDreamerandDreamLink),
and species for–crying–out–loud–it’s–that–bleeping–thing–againia. From
this taxonomy, it would be simple enough to deduce the organism’s
structure, but easier still to examine it in vivo.
A hard case, or carapace, encloses the P.E.S.T.’s delicate internal
organs. However, it is not fully protected against damage from impacts.
The P.E.S.T. is not prepared to survive falls on hard surfaces or smashing
against walls. Nor is it adapted to extreme high temperatures such as are
found in ovens, dryers, or bright sunny windows. It cannot swim or
breathe underwater and, in fact, can be injured by exposure to excess
moisture. It will not like showering with you.

6 P.E.S.T. USER’S GUIDE
A roughly triangular clip on the P.E.S.T.’s side enables it to attach itself
to its host (you) on a thin belt or waistband. It can also be happy nestled in
a pocket (see front cover). Remember that no P.E.S.T. can thrive without
close contact to a host; if left alone a P.E.S.T. will pine for human
companionship.TheLucidityInstitutewillnotberesponsibleforpersonality
changes that develop in neglected P.E.S.T.s.
The P.E.S.T.’s sensory organs, which enable it to communicate with its
host are all located on its face, the upper flat panel of its body. These
features include:
• A program dial for selecting the P.E.S.T.’s mode of operation
• Two LED eyes, one red and one green, which the P.E.S.T. uses to give you
feedback about its settings and activities, and to give you reminders
• A black button for changing the P.E.S.T.’s settings and for conducting
Reality Tests
• An orifice for insertion of a NovaDreamer or DreamLight cable so that
the P.E.S.T. can be triggered when one of these devices detects REM sleep
Inside the P.E.S.T. are several important organs (please don’t open it):
• A vibrator, the P.E.S.T.’s main way of reminding you to do a Reality Test
• A vocal apparatus (speaker) for giving reminders
• The P.E.S.T.’s brain (circuit board)
• One AA–battery (You will need to open the case to change the battery
after it runs down, but each battery should last several months. Please
refer to Appendix B for instructions on changing the battery.)
P.E.S.T. Behavior Basics
The P.E.S.T.’s main job is to give you reminders to do Reality Tests at
unpredictabletimes.Youcanprogramthefollowingaspectsofitsoperation:
1. Pre–Set Programs. The P.E.S.T. arrives pre–programmed with three
patterns for giving reminders. You can choose to use one of these, or devise
your own pattern (see #2 below). The three preset programs are:
• Long Interval: Gives a 5–sec vibration reminder, with alternating light
blinks, every 120 to 240 minutes. This provides 4 reminders in 12 hours.
• Medium Interval: Gives a 5–sec vibration reminder, with alternating
light blinks, every 60 to 120 min. This provides 8 reminders in 12 hours.
• Short Interval: Gives a 5–sec vibration reminder, with alternating light

7
blinks, every 30 to 90 min. This provides 12 reminders in 12 hours.
2. Adjustable Program. When you have gotten to know your P.E.S.T.
a little (or right away if you like), you can teach it some tricks of your own
choosing. The following features of the P.E.S.T.’s operation can be tailored
to your wishes. They apply in the Adjustable Program mode. See Mode 1 on
page 11 for how to use this feature.
3. Minimum Interval Between Reminders. This refers to the amount
of time the P.E.S.T. waits after one reminder before giving another. It is
called “minimum” interval, because the Randomness Factor (see item 4
below) adds some amount of time to the interval. There are ten available
minimuminterval settings, ranging from20 to 720 minutes (12 hours). See
Mode 8 on pages 12–13 for how to use this feature.
4. Randomness Factor. You can set the P.E.S.T. to choose randomly an
amount of time to add to the minimum interval between reminders (see
item 3 above) that is less than or equal to a certain number of minutes.
There are nine choices of Randomness Factors, ranging from 0 to 255
minutes. For example, if you selected a Minimum Interval of 60 minutes,
and a Randomness Factor of 15 minutes, then the time between P.E.S.T.
reminders would vary between 60 and 75 minutes. You would not know
the exact length of time, and each interval between reminders would be
different. See Mode 9 on page 13 for how to use this feature.
5. Reminder Type. The P.E.S.T. can remind you to do Reality Tests
with three types of stimuli: vibration, sound, and light. You can choose
from the following combinations: vibration only, vibration and sound,
vibration and light, or vibration, sound, and light. You can also choose to
make your P.E.S.T. act especially pesky. See Mode 7 on page 12 for how to use
this feature.
6. Reminder Length. You can select the length of time the P.E.S.T. will
vibrate, beep, or flash each time it gives a reminder. The minimum length
is 0.5 seconds; the maximum is 127 seconds, or about 2 minutes. See Mode
5 on page 12 for how to use this feature.
7. Light and Sound Intensity. There are three available settings for the
brightness of the P.E.S.T.’s flashing lights and/or loudness of its beeps in its
reminders. Light and sound intensity change together when you set this
variable. The vibration intensity is fixed. See Mode 6 on page 12 for how to
use this feature.

8 P.E.S.T. USER’S GUIDE
8.NumberofReminders.TheP.E.S.T.cantellyouhowmanyreminders
it has given you since you last turned it on. You can use this information
to evaluate whether you’ve been paying attention to your P.E.S.T., to keep
records of the number of Reality Tests you do in a day, and to find out how
many cues the P.E.S.T. gave you during the night. See Mode 9 on page 13 for
how to use this feature.
Take Your P.E.S.T. to Bed
After spending all day in the company of your friendly little P.E.S.T., you
might feel like inviting it to share your bed. Do not hesitate to do so,
because the P.E.S.T. is really good between the sheets.
If you own a NovaDreamer or DreamLight, you can attach the P.E.S.T.
to it with a special cable (see p. 15). When your device detects REM sleep
and gives you a cue to become lucid, it will also trigger the P.E.S.T. to
vibrate. Because you will have practiced doing Reality Tests all day in
response to the P.E.S.T.’s cue, it will be the best thing to remind you to
question what reality you are in as you dream. (See Appendix C: Using the
P.E.S.T. with the NovaDreamer or Appendix D: Using the P.E.S.T. with
the DreamLight.)
YoucanuseyourP.E.S.T.inbedevenifyouarewithoutaNovaDreamer
or DreamLight. Although the P.E.S.T. cannot detect REM sleep, you can
setit totriggerits remindercuesatintervals thatarelikely tointerceptREM
periods, such as once every 90 minutes. Keep in mind that you may want
a less intrusive reminder from the P.E.S.T. when you are sleeping than
during the day; you might want to use the vibration cue alone. To turn off
the cue from the lucid dream induction device so that you receive only the
P.E.S.T.’s reminder when you are dreaming, check your device manual for
how to turn off the device’s cues.
Once you have set up the P.E.S.T. and, if you have one, your lucid
dream induction device, you need to select where to place the P.E.S.T. in
yourbed. One option is to attach ittoyourpajamawaistband,ifthat’s what
you wear to bed. You could also just place it beside you in the bed, under
the covers to mask the sound of the vibration. Or, if you have set the
P.E.S.T. to beep, you can place the P.E.S.T. on the nightstand, or on the
pillow next to you. Only you can choose the best placement for your own
needs.

9
Lucid Dreaming Training with the P.E.S.T.
The P.E.S.T. is a tool to spur your progress towards mastering lucid
dreaming. It is best used in conjunction with a complete training program
in lucid dreaming, as is provided by The Lucidity Institute’s A Course in
Lucid Dreaming. Your P.E.S.T. will increase the power of your efforts with
the Reflection–Intention technique in the Course by reminding you to do
Reality Tests. It can also be used at night, as a reminder to become lucid,
when you are dreaming. TheCourse provides instruction in these methods
as well as many other techniques for improving lucid dreaming skills,
including the use of lucid dream induction devices like the NovaDreamer
and DreamLight. The following exercise, for special use with yourP.E.S.T.,
is part of the Reflection–Intention Technique described in Unit Two of
The Lucidity Institute’s A Course in Lucid Dreaming, modified specifically
for use with the P.E.S.T. It is important to go through the entire procedure
below each time you do a Reality Test while awake.
The P.E.S.T. Reality Test
Do this Reality Test each time the P.E.S.T. gives you a reminder, or any other
time you think of it and have your P.E.S.T. with you. While looking at your
P.E.S.T.’s face, press its button once quickly (for less than one second). It
should flash once, simultaneously in both red and green “eyes,” and it
should beep in concert with the flashes. You may do this several times to
make sure that it operates correctly. If you have a digital watch or some text
nearby, continue with the Reality Test by looking carefully at the watch
numbersor the text, looking away,and looking back while tryingto will the
numbers or letters to change.
If you are not dreaming, that is, if you are awake now, theP.E.S.T. will
operate as expected: text will remain the same, and a digital watch will keep
telling the actual time. However, if you are dreaming, theP.E.S.T. will very
probably fail to work properly in some way. Either there will be neither
flashnorbeep, or one or the other will be missing, or there will be the wrong
numberof buttons or lights. If you cannotfindyourP.E.S.T., andyouknow
you had it with you, this may well be a sign that you are dreaming. You
should be sure to do the test with text or a watch. In a dream, letters and
numbers will change. They may look perfectly normal the first time you
read them, but when you look away and look back, or when you stare at

10 P.E.S.T. USER’S GUIDE
them and try to get them to change, they will mutate in all kinds of creative
ways. These things happen in dreams because the P.E.S.T., whose button
you are pressing, and the characters you are reading do not exist outside of
your mind, and your brain has difficulty duplicating them accurately and
repeatedly. When you stare at dream–text (or even at the dream–P.E.S.T.)
the natural instability of dreams shows up, causing them to change before
your eyes.
Now look around you and ask yourself if everything appears normal.
Is anything or anyone out of place? Do you remember how you got here?
Assumingnow that yourRealityTesthas told you thatyouareprobably not
dreaming, imagine that you are dreaming. If you are certain that you’re
awake, tell yourself, “OK, I’m not dreaming, now. But, if I were, what
would it be like?” Imagine as vividly as possible that you are dreaming.
Intentlyimagine that what youare perceiving (hearing, feeling, smelling or
seeing) around you is a dream: the people, things, trees, sunshine, sky and
earth, and you, yourself—all a dream.
Observe your environment carefully. Look for dreamsigns. Is there
anything present that is dreamlike? Imagine that your P.E.S.T. failed to
deliver the expected flash and beep when you pressed its button, and that
you therefore now know that you are dreaming. Visualize also that the
scene is unstable: If you turn your back on something, it will likely
disappear, or be replaced by something completely different.
As soon as you are able to vividly conjure within yourself the feeling
that you are dreaming now, tell yourself, “The next time I’m dreaming, I
will remember to recognize that I’m dreaming.”
Now, imagine that you are lucid in this dream. What would you like
to do now? You are not restricted by anything—no physical limitations, or
social rules. Perhaps you want to fly, soar through the ceiling, talk to
someone special, maybe even kiss someone? Or maybe you have another
particularapplicationofluciddreaminginmind.Thinkofwhatyouwould
like to do in your next lucid dream.
Continue the fantasy lucid dream, and imagine that after having
become lucid in your present environment, you now try out what you have
decided you would like to do, in your next lucid dream. As you visualize,
firmly resolve to remember to recognize that you are dreaming and to
remember what you want to do in your next lucid dream.