Thread: MILD, Aloud or In Head

You can do both. But I guess you'd have to do it in your head right before sleeping, since the goal is to fall asleep, and you can't sleep if you say stuff out loud. I personally say a few repetitions out loud, then go on to do them mentally until I fall asleep.

That is good advice. During the day you can sing the phrase to your self or any thing that makes it entertaining. I sometimes sing to the tune of Row Your Boat, but I change the words to fit a mantra.

Dream, Dream, Dream the dream
I will lucid dream
Dream, Dream Dream, Dream
This is all a dream!

That is one example. As long as you find a way to repeat the thing out loud during the day, the form it takes does not really matter.

When doing DILD you should repeat the mantra as you are drifting off to sleep in your head. You try not to think about other things, and just keep thinking the phrase over and over, until it becomes a drone in the background as sleep takes you.

During your day you can also just repeat the phrase in your head if saying it out loud would be weird, like on a bus.

You can as paigeyemps said both state the affirmation out loud or think it qutely in your head.

Although I would like to suggest a third option that seems to work as well. In a way you can do all three at the same time.

Have you ever really given up on lucid dreaming and suddenly got a spontanious lucid dream that very night? I did in my first years of practise, and that made me think, ALOT.

Why is it that I can lucid dream the night I don't want to but can't the night I want to???

Then I read Carlos Castaneda - The Art of Dreaming where they talked about intent.

To not into too much detail I'll summarize it all and say that for me the best intention is the passive one.

If I go to bed and say "I will be aware of my dreams and I will realize that I am dreaming" it's kind of hard to wake up the next day and not be disappointed if I didn't had a lucid dream.

Although if I set the intention passively without stating it directly, then I will sort of make an attempt without doing one. I know how crazy that sounds but listen to this.

I was once addicted to the idea of WILDing at my bedtime and I did attempt over and over but with no WILD success of course.

Although I realized that I was much more aware of my dreams and started to have lucid dreams spontaniously!

I wondered why and did my brain research... And one theory was that I prevented the aminergic system (brain system that governs critical thinking) to decrease while I was trying to stay aware but at the same time my body was falling asleep. Another theory was that my intent was indirectly set, you know the thing Stephen LaBerge said about MILD?
The last thing we think about while falling asleep is what we will have on our mind when we dream and even when we wake up.

So don't be stressed when you fall asleep! But anyway on my WILD attempt the only thing that was in my mind was to stay aware and in a meditative aware state.

Now think about having that in a dream!

So the way to use this passive way of intending is to think as much about being aware of your dream during the day, state it loud in the morning and in your head during the day (to not seem crazy ^-^), but as you go to sleep just trust that it's already in your mind and fall asleep peacefully or make a WILD attempt if you feel motivated by that now.

One can vary this passive mindset as much as one want, you can for example tell yourself that wearing a ring is a reminder that you are dreaming, and then make a habit of wearing it every night. But those night where you no longer think about the ring's purpose and you just put it on as a habit, that night will be the successful one. Because then the purpose is passively set in the subconscious and well already a part of your dreams.

If you can intend without worrying about outcome then it is ok to do it at bedtime as well, but I hope this post gave some insight into the art of intending.

Everyone is different so you have to find what works for you. For me it isnt mantras, but falling asleep at around 5 am, after a brief awakening, and just thinking about some very specific action I intend to do when I realize I am dreaming (like pick up an object)...I need to fall asleep with that thought 'loosely' in my mind... dont actively keep thinking it over and over or you wont drift off.

I rarely speak or think a mantra. I visualize one. I simply visualize the words Are You Dreaming, or variations of that, as if they are appearing on a billboard in a dreamscape.