Thread: Naiya's Simple MILD Technique

It's not overwhelming. Actually I think I'm doing too little of too much and I never get around to just getting into a technique and doing it right. MILD is my main from now on, coupled with some WBTB when I feel like getting out of bed.

Originally Posted by Origami

It's not overwhelming. Actually I think I'm doing too little of too much and I never get around to just getting into a technique and doing it right. MILD is my main from now on, coupled with some WBTB when I feel like getting out of bed.

Well, good luck to you. Like I said, MILD is a really good backup technique, if you stick with it you can test out other techniques on the way. But MILD is also great in that, once you master it, you really don't need to do more than just remind yourself to LD before you fall asleep.

That's where I want to get to. If it takes more effort and hard work, I'm willing to go that way over less work but having to keep up methods for as long as I want them.

Nice tutorial Naiya! I will try the mantra "I will lucid dream tonight" this one seems to have good results.

Hi. I have a problem: I use some time to fall asleep, so I use to wait a bit before visualizing and all that stuff. But I don't know when to start! I don't want to visualize for hours, but often I fall asleep before I reach to MILD... When should I start? :/

Well I did a WBTB at 5:30 this morning. I had 7 dreams last night, which is much better than the one fragment the night before. I think this is the best time for me to WBTB. I'm still working on my MILD.

If you go to bed at 12 then 5:30 is perfect, 5 1/2 hours after you fall asleep is when you have your longest REM period.

Very nicely written and very helpful, thanks a bunch. I'll make sure to jot down those mantras.

Week 1:
Lucids: 0
Dreams Recalled: 10.
Faithfulness to Method: 2 out of 10.
Dream Induction: I am on a plain white ship that scours the galaxy for habitable planets. I am staring out the window when a man in a teal robe coughs. He is humanoid. We understand each other.

So, this weekend I started the Simple MILD method. My method of doing it was as follows:

I would write a dream scene in my journal for the week, then as I would head to bed, I'd recall the image and try to visualize, while I repeat the mantra "I am dreaming." I gave myself a two because I think only one night of the whole week I actually VISUALIZED the induction, and it leaked a bit into the dream. Every now and then, I'd get a white interior or teal something or other. Tonight, I plan to go back over my dreams, and sit up during my visualization. Then, as I am heading to sleep I will hold the visualization and chant this week's mantra of "I recall all my dreams."

Originally Posted by TheKing

Week 1:
Lucids: 0
Dreams Recalled: 10.
Faithfulness to Method: 2 out of 10.
Dream Induction: I am on a plain white ship that scours the galaxy for habitable planets. I am staring out the window when a man in a teal robe coughs. He is humanoid. We understand each other.

So, this weekend I started the Simple MILD method. My method of doing it was as follows:

I would write a dream scene in my journal for the week, then as I would head to bed, I'd recall the image and try to visualize, while I repeat the mantra "I am dreaming." I gave myself a two because I think only one night of the whole week I actually VISUALIZED the induction, and it leaked a bit into the dream. Every now and then, I'd get a white interior or teal something or other. Tonight, I plan to go back over my dreams, and sit up during my visualization. Then, as I am heading to sleep I will hold the visualization and chant this week's mantra of "I recall all my dreams."

It sounds as though you are trying to incubate a particular dream, this isn't the objective of the MILD technique. The idea is that you imagine yourself becoming lucid in a particular dream, and then play out the lucid fantasy in your imagination to give your mind a representation of what it is you're trying to achieve, rather than the abstract concept of a "lucid dream". I suppose it is possible as Naiya suggested to create your own dream environment but the important part is visualising yourself becoming lucid, the objective is not to find yourself in the exact environment that you have been imagining. In any case, I'd recommend using your most recent dream over a fictional situation because you're reminding yourself of what the dream state feels like, and memory is state dependent. Even more beneficial would be to use this in conjunction with WBTB and use the dream from which you have just awoken for your fantasy, this way it will be easier to visualise and a better representation of what the dream state feels like - this is what Stephen LaBerge, inventor of the MILD technique, recommends in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

I started using this method a few days ago, since then I have noticed a massive upgrade to my visualisation skills and my imagination. I can remember at least one dream a night vividly and be completely chilled out about it, I used to really struggle with recall but last night (when coupled with WBTB) I had 5 recalled vivid dreams. Best of all, my dreams have become far less influenced by daily residue and have taken on more epic, fantasy, proportions. I feel like it's only a matter of time until this starts to yield regular lucidity, and until recently I'd been on the verge of giving up. So thank you, Naiya. I think what makes this so effective is that it distills what makes Stephen LaBerge's MILD so powerful and makes it easily accessible.

I love you!!!! lol. This is like a super simple beginners guide to conscious dreaming. Also, I got to say, I've been doing some simple dream cartography, just writing simple descriptions locations, and linking them, not a lot of detail, and my dream recall has shot up pretty good. I'm going to do this tonight, and Ill report tomorrow and tell you what happens. Ill do the Im dreaming, with visualization, and recalling dream with awareness of Im dreaming in it. thanks.

Originally Posted by unda

It sounds as though you are trying to incubate a particular dream, this isn't the objective of the MILD technique. The idea is that you imagine yourself becoming lucid in a particular dream, and then play out the lucid fantasy in your imagination to give your mind a representation of what it is you're trying to achieve, rather than the abstract concept of a "lucid dream". I suppose it is possible as Naiya suggested to create your own dream environment but the important part is visualising yourself becoming lucid, the objective is not to find yourself in the exact environment that you have been imagining. In any case, I'd recommend using your most recent dream over a fictional situation because you're reminding yourself of what the dream state feels like, and memory is state dependent. Even more beneficial would be to use this in conjunction with WBTB and use the dream from which you have just awoken for your fantasy, this way it will be easier to visualise and a better representation of what the dream state feels like - this is what Stephen LaBerge, inventor of the MILD technique, recommends in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

Ugh, I feel like I knew this too. Thanks for the tip.

Last night I had zero recall after a few seconds of waking. I'll give your tip a try, and hopefully, that will help. I'll post about it in a week.

I had no success

Originally Posted by fgopl

I had no success

Wow you managed to complete a technique that can take up to 2 months to be successful in a couple of days.

I decided i'm going to come back to MILD for a few months, seeing as i have had good success with it in the past ^__^

I tried this for about 3 weeks, maybe a little longer and nothing really became of it... I tried it well, and as best I could of course, but nothing changed at all. My recall didn't improve and I never had any nearly moments.

Excellent guide, thanks alot for putting this up
Can't wait to try it out, I've MILDed every single night since I started lucid dreaming, but only just found this guide. Hopefully it will improve my skills.

Originally Posted by Avalanche

I tried this for about 3 weeks, maybe a little longer and nothing really became of it... I tried it well, and as best I could of course, but nothing changed at all. My recall didn't improve and I never had any nearly moments.

Hmm, well, normally I'd recommend giving it at least 2 months before calling it quits. You might want to try WILD or a few other different techniques and just see if you find them any easier. For a lot of people, MILD is like the turtle in the aesop's fable. It might be frustrating because they don't see progress for a long time, but at some point there is a breakthrough and all that hard work pays off. It's just that it can take a lot of patience.

So the thing about MILD is that it does guarantee lucids sooner or later. Some people have lucids early on, and others don't seem to see any difference for a long time. My best advice is to stick with the MILD and while you're doing that, explore other techniques. That way, even if the other stuff isn't for you, you still have MILD to fall back on. It's up to you whether you want to call it quits now--you know yourself best. But like I said, personally I think it's still too early to tell in your case.

Yeah, I am sticking with it still, but not as much. Everything else I have tried has fallen through but MILD or SAT or ADA hasn't even gotten to the point where it would fail or not lol.

So I'm going to stick with MILD, and right now I am sick of every other technique failing I'm going to do MILD solo.
I can't deal with everything failing all the time.

Originally Posted by Avalanche

Yeah, I am sticking with it still, but not as much. Everything else I have tried has fallen through but MILD or SAT or ADA hasn't even gotten to the point where it would fail or not lol.

So I'm going to stick with MILD, and right now I am sick of every other technique failing I'm going to do MILD solo.
I can't deal with everything failing all the time.

I understand that it can be really frustrating to find the right technique for you. Just hang in there and you'll do fine.

Originally Posted by Naiya

I understand that it can be really frustrating to find the right technique for you. Just hang in there and you'll do fine.

I will. I'm going to stick with MILD and SAT. All this "ooh look, new technique" stuff has worn me out. I'm going to lay low and let my recall resurface, 4 nights without and dreams is horrible for me.
Plus WBTB takes it's toll on the body, no one enjoys having to stay up in the middle of the night, every night.

Thank you for the great tutorial, Naiya.

The part about persistence was something I had not considered before, but it makes perfect sense. I started this technique last night and will try my best to repeat a mantra right before bed for at least a few months.

I've had some past success with WILD (I think?) in the past. Basically I would day dream while going to bed without previous sleep and eventually I would force myself to enter SP and somehow it would become a lucid dream. Unfortunately most of these LD's were cut short; and since I doubt I can find enough quiet in my college dorm, I'm hoping your MILD technique will be less demanding and produce better results in the long run.

I'll post again if anything interesting happens.

Thanks for this tutorial, is has a very simple way of explaining the entire process, and the fact is that you make it sound simple enough that it isn't even a burden to try.

Btw, is it common having WILDS when you're trying to MILD after long WBTBs (1.5-2hours)?
Happened to me a few times, I was wondering if I shouldn't just clean WILD out of my head and only focus on falling asleep while repeating my mantra. Because I think I'm falling asleep repeating my mantra WHILE waiting for SP