Quote Originally Posted by Linkzelda View Post
This is the the biggest cons with MILD, the mantra/mnemonic is only as useful as you make it out to be. If you start stating the traditional mantras like “I will have a lucid dream tonight,” or whatever laconic phrase newcomers and experienced lucid dreamers blindly go through, you're going to get random results. It's pretty simple, the more specific you are, the more likely you'll have your mantra work out for you, but it doesn't just stop there, you have to actually visualize yourself having the mantra successfully working.

The mantra/phrase in itself is just a guide towards shifting yourself in the right direction in visualization and shifting to your dream senses. You have to think about how the mind works when you're worried that MILDs only happen with you having a “random” realization. If you state something like,

“I am going to become aware of my dreams tonight,” chances are, you're going to have something random, because the mantra itself was vague.

Compared to something like, “I am going to become aware of my dreams the moment I descend into deep relaxation" combined with visualizing yourself doing that.






Your theory isn't really that much of a variation/deviation/alternative way of what ADA was meant to be defined as. The conflict lies in the person trying to practice it not really giving much effort into it; or just being too lazy to have to acknowledge their experience with looking forward to a lucid dream after going through the frequent checks in waking life.

Like you've stated, the more you envision yourself being in a dream like state, the more likely you'll have a lucid dream, that's not really anything different from ADA. People have good intentions of trying their best with ADA, but they mostly go through a mental conflict on whether or not it's going to work. And the reason behind that (presumably), is that they're too busy with other life goals, like you stated when you become distracted with normal things again in real life.

So to have practical application of the ADA, you'd have to get yourself in a relaxed state that enables you to have a stronger concentration on a goal that it becomes difficult to become distracted. And with any skill or concept to grasp, that takes practice. This is why I personally use self-hypnosis when I want to have a lucid dream, and although I haven't made a detailed script for myself for it, when I go through a session, I get into a deep state of relaxation pretty quick, which enables me to get into the suggestive state faster than I did months ago.

And if I were to read a script aloud that's custom-made for the goal I had in mind, it has a higher chance to bypass the critical factor (the part of your mind that takes in new info and compares it to currently accepted belief systems and schemata). I started realizing that it was easier to be focused on a goal because I would go through a calm, relaxed, and confident tone of voice while visualizing what I want out of this experience as well.

When I do this, I also let my subconscious do the imagination for me rather than me putting conscious will in imagining. If the subconscious is aware of things we take for granted, it surely can be a threshold in helping you foresee/envision the excitement, the thrill, the joy, the state of being in complete happiness when you become aware that you're dreaming. And the more you do this, the more you condition yourself into naturally being interested in having optimism in all results you get from practicing ADA, the easier it gets.

The drug analogy you stated, based on the logic of what you stated before, there can't be a tolerance if the person shifts themselves into a suggestive state that promotes optimism. Which brings me back to why self-hypnosis is more consistent than using only affirmations or going through mantras in a monotonous and rushed tone of voice. When you can get yourself relaxed and into the suggestive state, the easier it is to have those pleasure surges because the subconscious makes it a habit, it becomes part of the program of how you prepare with ADA, and it becomes natural.

And instead of thinking you're “pretending” that you're lucid dreaming, try going with the idea that you're merely practicing how you're foreseeing yourself being aware in the dreaming state, just like you stated before with imagining the thrills and excitements of being lucid in a dream. I personally believe there's nothing wrong with doing this since it is a form of dream incubation, and if you put motivation and effort into it, there isn't going to be a “plateau effect,” simply because,


Self-Hypnosis (which is just getting yourself into a gradual relaxation towards a clearer mind)

+

Giving post-hypnotic suggestions when you're in a suggestive state (where your mind is clear and open to suggestions) so that you'll have increased assurance of what will happen after you're out of the hypnosis

+


Having a natural condition to be motivated and excited with ease on foreseeing yourself being aware in the dream life state

+

Being descriptive in your experiences, using all 5 senses if possible, and speaking to yourself aloud (if possible), or mentally

+

Letting your words be a tool for the subconscious to imagine rather than you consciously trying to imagine

+

Foreseeing yourself accomplishing the state of lucidity and sustaining it for as long as you want, and continuing to acknowledge your actions/emotions/etc.

=

Higher chance to become aware in your dreams since you bypassed the critical factor, and it's ingrained into your subconscious.



Your theory isn't flawed honestly, and personally, from going through months of finding how I can apply self-hypnosis to have a relaxed but focused concentration towards my lucid dreaming goal, I can tell you that as long as you have motivation and effort that comes naturally after relaxing, and with repetition, it's going to become easier.


There's no tolerance or plateau that is built up, think about that analogy you used before a bit more. Let me use an example:

= Let's say you wanted to stop eating chocolate bars (Snickers, Hershey's , etc.). You would go through imagining how eating chocolate bars won't be a benefit towards your life, so you would go through methods that will eventually become natural to the point where it's a reflex. So how would you go about doing this?

You could imagine the chocolate bars representing fecal matter, something the majority of people don't really like eating (hopefully). And if you were to use gradual relaxation techniques, have suggestions (both pre- and post-) that you'll envision all chocolate bars as less rewarding and disgusting (because of the fecal reference), you'll find yourself with repetition (and I don't mean mechanical actions), you'll stay away from the chocolate bars without even thinking about it.

And once it's in the subconscious' programming, it'll be difficult to change it, which means in the perspective of the subconscious (or unconscious if you're into Old Term thinking), there is no “tolerance” through repetition or “plateau effect,” it just happens naturally.



I know the example is far-fetched in some way, but I hope you get what I mean. Anyway, I wish you luck! I'm pretty sure you're going to get positive results, because that's what ADA is all about. It's just just about awareness, but about applying that along with visualizing and foreseeing yourself benefiting and accomplishing whatever goal you want from it.

***Also, try to imagine yourself and not just mostly the environment around you. Imagine your level of clarity as you go around in you dream body and such, and you'll have an easier time to solidify yourself into the dreaming state and having as much awareness as you want from the dream.


Again, good luck!
Woah this helped a lot! That was intensely informative. Thanks for that! I've been lucid dreaming for a while (Countless lucid dreams) and it's literally been a miracle due to the fact that I am extremely LAZY. Hahah as I said to Zoth, this theory is mostly like a "cheat code". All of my lucid dreams have literally come from strong belief and a sickening amount of self-talk (mantras as a lot of people on here call it) before I fall asleep. I have a hard time staying persistent with redundant things (Like reality checks), so this just happens to work tremendously for me (At least I feel it will, I still have to test it out ). But I just react more to it. I just really feel the sensation of being in a dream when I say "I am dreaming!". I really hope it works cause this theory would be one hell of a shortcut for other people like me hahah.

I'll have to try out the Self-Hypnosis! I never really looked into it, but now you've intrigued me. My meditation and relaxation has been non-existent these past couple of months for various reasons, but I'll be sure to get back into it soon since that seems to relate to self-hypnosis.

I know my theory isn't completely new. I feel like the way I presented was more straight forward and easy to follow. I mean all it is, is a simple mantra of "I Am Dreaming!". What's more simple than that?

A lot of my theories (And I can't wait to post most of them on this forum!) are straight forward and don't take a lot of thought. I don't really like to have step by step guides and routines that have to be memorized. I do understand the importance of them and see the benefit in them, and the hard work pays off no doubt. But lucid dreaming came (Some what) easy to me and I just want to give people my a taste of my theories and ways of thinking so that they may tackle lucid dreaming with the ease that I experienced when doing it myself. The only huge problem I find with the way I do things is that, if step by step guidelines aren't revealed and talked about, then there is no real science behind the dreaming. There are just strange theories that seem to work well just based of the way our brains work. And something inside me doesn't like that. I really want to get into the depth and science of lucid dreaming! But I'll leave that to some one else for the time being since I really feel like my theories can give people quick, fun, easy tastes of lucidity .

I battle with the urge to crack the code of quick lucidity, and the urge to get into the deep, true, logic behind this mysterious dream-state. I strive to achieve both