Crazy MILD+VILD variant

Hey guys. This is going to be long!

I've found a very interesting MILD/VILD mix which I'd like to share with you. Let me just say that before this I sucked hard at WILDs, FILDs, and any "active" techniques despite all the patience, determination and confidence I sure had during the last three months... I had this idea when I moved to ADA but realized it was a bit overwhelming for me since I'm currently studying for some very important exams and I'm just too focused to "taste" the environment around me.

As usual, this might just be something that happened to work for me. But I had 5 fairly long and extremely vivid LDs in a row (over 5 nights, I don't WBTB or use timers anymore) and I think that's some interesting success rate to say the least after months of failures... this is definitely worth sharing.

So... what does your usual, generic Googled LD tutorial tells you to repeatedly ask yourself during the day? To my experience the "am I dreaming?" question is not really reliable nor effective because you are usually too busy in your dreams to remember it and nobody genuinely doubts that during the day... you KNOW you are awake and it all comes down to a mild MILD (ow, terrible pun there). Where's the loophole?

Let me turn it the other way round.
I ask myself at random intervals (say 5, 6 times per hour):
"Am I dreaming?"

I then start examining the environment around me, as if I was trying to find THAT little weird insignificant detail which must have caught my attention... if I don't find any in a few seconds (nothing actually triggered that thought, I made it up) I pretend to realize I'm just wasting time and refuse to perform any reality check at all before I return to whatever I was doing.

"Scrap that. Why am I even questioning myself? I can't possibly be in a dream, because ALL of them somehow start with [my dream guide] telling me I'm dreaming and she usually stays with me the whole time just to make sure I don't make stupid mistakes and lose lucidity... I know every second I'm dreaming."

Now, the tricky part.

When I go to sleep I don't just mindlessly visualize the same scene over and over like a mantra (I honestly envy Pedro and those who can do that, it didn't work for me) but I try and think of the very first moments of the last 6-7 dreams I recently noted in my dream journal, one after another, and what would have instead happened if a friend of mine, who I now consider my dream guide/assistant (she happens to be an unusually recurring dream character, and she was the first and only one who ever told me I was dreaming years ago) walked on me out of nowhere, pinched my nose (yep, I used to, but now SHE does that for me :eek:) and told me to breathe deeply.

I don't know why, but it works surprisingly well for me. I can't remember any single unconscious dream during the last 5 days without my friend magically appearing and making me go lucid. The AMAZING part is that she actually follows me around (or I just feel her presence, hard to explain, think of an antivirus "background process" :P) and reminds me to spin when the dream fades out, to avoid following the dream plot when I get too excited and stuff like that. Yesterday I found myself under a rain of fire and she told me not to believe that crap because I already dreamt about it months ago. She even slapped me once (no pain, but damn if it was hilarious!) when I saw my mother sleeping and I thought of my real body...

I don't guarantee this will work for you, but it's something you might want to try :)

Ohh, that's cool!

My friend achieves lucidity by putting Star Wars' Anakin in all of his dreams, and when he sees him, he gets lucid.

However, I'm pretty baaaaaddd at dream incubation. ADA works great for me, and it doesn't distract me for some reason. As I am writing this post, I am simulaneously perceiving the sound of the police training outside, the glow of the 3G wireless adapter in my peripheral vision, and the feel of the little key-markers on the keys F and J on the computer. By the way, most people I know have used typing for years and never noticed the small bumps on F and J, which are on every computer I find. That's the opposite of ADA and what makes people have absolutely stupid dreams.

There's a caveat to ADA though. Once I started practicing ADA, my dreams became so detailed (like with those bumps on the keyboard) that they almost become too real. More often than not, the book reading RC, the clock RC, and the light RC both indicate "reality." Thank God I still have the nose-pinch RC, which works wonderfully.

Honestly that would be awesome. Most of my dreams end with me forgetting to stabilise and i wish i could have someone to do this for me. I just realised that i need to whip my dream guide into shape. Shes been getting lazy.

I found a way to make it even easier, and I'm telling a few friends of mine who are struggling with LDs to try this...
I'm going to update the thread if they also have success :)

Wow, I actually had some success with this. I don't remember the whole dream though. I was going to WILD but then someone resembling a person crossed with a black dragon come up to me and pinch my nose. I became lucid, but it ended quickly.

Thanks for this!

Nice! It was probably random, but I wouldn't be surprised if something inside you triggered after reading this :)

This idea actually flashed through my mind while I was rewriting and optimizing a chunk of code (I'm an amateur programmer) and I realized how periodic background checks are usually less efficient than scheduled interrupts... I'm far from being an expert but I guess "remembering to recognize dreams" (classic MILD) is stressful/challenging for our mind and that's why it only gives random sparks of lucidity before you spend a few weeks getting used to it.

Our subconscious probably finds it easier to create the "Try calling the dream guide!" attachment to execute whenever certain conditions are met (new scenario around you?) and then forget about it, just like when a song suddenly reminds us of random irrelevant stuff we completely forgot about (those who are familiar with NLP know how powerful these associations can be :))

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whiskee

Nice! It was probably random, but I wouldn't be surprised if something inside you triggered after reading this :)

This idea actually flashed through my mind while I was rewriting and optimizing a chunk of code (I'm an amateur programmer) and I realized how periodic background checks are usually less efficient than scheduled interrupts... I'm far from being an expert but I guess "remembering to recognize dreams" (classic MILD) is stressful/challenging for our mind and that's why it only gives random sparks of lucidity before you spend a few weeks getting used to it.

Our subconscious probably finds it easier to create the "Try calling the dream guide!" attachment to execute whenever certain conditions are met (new scenario around you?) and then forget about it, just like when a song suddenly reminds us of random irrelevant stuff we completely forgot about (those who are familiar with NLP know how powerful these associations can be :))

---

Weird how random sparks of knowledge can come like that. I don't think it was random though, because I created that person as my guide. I actually put up a guide on a new tequnique I have been trying that is partially based on yours.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whiskee

...When I go to sleep I... try and think of the very first moments of the last 6-7 dreams I recently noted in my dream journal...

---

That is an interesting technique. I might try that one. Thanks!