Devised by a husband-and-wife team who split their time between Hungary and Beverly Hills, where their cozy storefront meditation center is located, Dream Reality Cinema is basically a 40-minute guided meditation spent in a prolonged twilight state. Seated in a zero-gravity chair — a really comfortable La-Z-Boy with an extreme recline — and outfitted with headphones and a pair of virtual-reality glasses, patrons watch a “movie” that walks them through a four-part meditation with instructional, empowering audio and trippy visuals. The point is to stay awake enough that your eyes are open to receive the imagery but fall asleep enough that you reach a different plane of consciousness called “dream reality.” I'll let the website explain: “Dream reality is an always-changing, intermediate state in which the nervous system regains its variability and flexibility.” In waking life we're dumbed-down machines, the narrator explains. Via dream reality, we can tap into a vast amount of potential that's inaccessible when we're just plain-old conscious. Besides facilitating relaxation in the short term, the program — over the course of at least five sessions (at $45 a session, or $200 for a month's unlimited-use pass) — is supposed to promote restful sleep (and, in turn, more wakeful days), eliminate nightmares and help people who want to learn how to lucid dream. The final stage of the meditation — empowered awakening — is equal parts empowering and amusing. As the narrator offers affirmations such as “You are unique” and “You are the creator of your life,” the viewer is treated to a montage of stock footage in motion: an American flag flapping in the wind, a businessman raising his arms in triumph, a woman enjoying a glass of juice. Ultimately, it's relaxing as hell and a fun challenge for the open-minded skeptic.

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