Varying your Mantra?

So I was curious, In MILD, the point is to preform verbal (or sometimes written or mental) affirmation that you will lucid dream tonight, and the purpose is to get the idea to stick subconsciously? And the generally accepted idea is that you simply repeat the same phrase over and over again, and that the longer that you can stick to that one mantra, the better.

I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.
I know when I am dreaming.

It's easy for me to do that for a very, very long time. Because I can just copy and paste it. In the same way, when I spend half an hour auto-suggesting that phrase in during my commute, I will start up with autosuggestion thinking about it, but very quickly, I find myself saying it without giving any thought to what it actually means. So it's pointless and I might as well listen to music or daydream about something else.

Now you could make the argument that the purpose of MILD is to get your Mantra stuck in your head when you are falling asleep. But this doesn't work for everybody. Either they keep themselves up half the night or end up drifting off on other thoughts and becoming frustrated by their inability to focus. And of course you have the issue of your brain simply repeating the phrase on 'auto pilot' without thinking about what it really means.

I personally think that varying your mnemonics is more effective. It forces you to put more thought into it.

I know when I am dreaming.
My dreams are clear.
I always remember my dreams.
I am good at lucid dreaming.
My dreams are congruent.
I will reality check when I see a dream sign.
I will remember my dream goals.
My lucid dreams last a long time.
If I am in outer space, then I am dreaming.
If I am on a beach, then I am dreaming.
If I am at high school, then I am dreaming.
I am in control of my dreams.
If I see my dream guide, then I am dreaming.
If I see a tsunami, then I am dreaming.
My dream goal is to bend all four elements.
I lucid dream every night.

This took me about five minutes to type out, and took a lot more thought. In a way, I try to think of everything that I should focus on. Recall, Clarity, Becoming lucid, and what I want to do when I become lucid. It helps to keep the mind fresh and focused while you focus on your mantra.

Better yet, if you want to repeat something like this, then more power to you. You're going to have to put much more thought into what you are saying if your mantra is more complex. Same goes for writing it or mental affirmation. And the way I see it, It's the thought that counts, especially in lucid dreaming.

So... Thoughts?

I don't repeat my affirmation during the day, as I think MILD (as LaBerge formulated it) is about conscious effort at the time when you momentarily expect to be dreaming, and not very much about subconscious training (getting a mantra stuck in your head, or whatever). Mantras really have almost nothing to do with MILD proper.

Concerning your idea, anything that gets your mind on dreams (and the dreamlike nature of reality) will be helpful in becoming lucid. Better to be thinking about dreams than not. On the other hand, if you are practicing this while falling asleep, I think you risk never falling asleep due to too much thinking.

When I was starting out, I found that the best way to utilize MILD when falling asleep was to set yourself a cutoff point to prevent insomnia. (Say your Mantra 50 times then let yourself drift off) or some such thing. It might dampen the effectiveness somewhat, but if you let yourself fall asleep without pushing yourself to exhaustion it will help you in the long run.

MILD is something I do while lying in bed because I see it as a way to direct your thoughts before sleep. I will say a few affirmations aloud first. Usually a very powerful, determined. and happy, "I will have a LD tonight." I will repeat this about 5 times. Then I silently go through a list of what you said, Recognition, Clarity, Control, Goals, and Recall. That looks something like, "I will have a LD tonight. The next thing I see will be a dream. My dream signs are... I will recognize that I'm dreaming. I will be calm and attentive in my dream. I have complete control of my dreams. I have absolute power over my dreams. In my dream I will... Tomorrow I will remember every detail of my dream." I will say this 2-5 times, and I may start to shorten it to the "essentials" as I continue. Then I start my "actual MILD." In my mind only I will repeat again and again a single phrase. Usually, "I am dreaming." If my mind drifts to something else I simply continue my phrase once I catch myself. I do not reprimand myself or get frustrated in any way that my mind drifted. Doing so will only put energy into that thought and then into your frustrations which will take power and energy away from your MILD. Instead, I see it as a good sign that my mind is drifting off to sleep. By doing MILD this way I can just keep going and it actually helps me to sleep. In fact, I think if you are keeping an internal calculator of how many times you have said your phrase it puts more focus on getting it done than the meaning behind it.
You mentioned that you don't like the repetitive phrases because your mind loses concentration on them, but I would argue that's the point. You want the phrase in your subconscious. If you are repeating it without using your conscious mind then it's your subconscious that is working. So repeating it this way is embedding it deeper and deeper in your subconscious.
Like I said though, I do use the technique you mentioned to begin with, but I do this to create a positive affirmation in my conscious mind so that when my consciousness becomes active in my dreams I won't be lost.
Hope this helps! I'm pretty tired so I'm not sure, lol.

Well I suppose there are really two schools of thought there; both completely valid. Repeating a single Mantra can be effective and simply getting the general idea across with varied suggestion can be effective as well.

I like that you hybridize both schools of thought. Using varied suggestion to get across your goals and other points and then returning to a repetitive mnemonic once your mind is active. It's nice to know other people are considering this. :goodjob:

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Originally Posted by EamonWill

I do not reprimand myself or get frustrated in any way that my mind drifted. Doing so will only put energy into that thought and then into your frustrations which will take power and energy away from your MILD.

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I'm guilty of doing this way too much. :P

It's easy to become frustrated with yourself when you find yourself slipping away from your mnemonic, unless you can learn to see it as a good thing. Like I said, I see it as myself drifting to sleep which is the point so I accept it. What I didn't mention before but I also do is to use it as an indicator of my where my thoughts are and where my dreams may go. For example, if I catch myself thinking about work I realize I may dream about work. If I catch myself dreaming about riding my bike I may dream about riding, or some of the paths that I ride, or simply the woods. Then I tell myself that if I see those things it's a dream. Then I go back to my mnemonic.

PS - I don't think that either school of thought is wrong, but I think either one alone is incomplete.

I pretty much answered on the same topic in another thread so just going to leave this here:

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post2120301

I find that the specific content of the mantra itself doesn't really matter so long as the theme and goal of it stay the same. For example, just repeating "I will lucid dream" over and over will have very similar effects to "I know when I'm dreaming" or "I will perform a RC" or something similar. As long as the topic is lucid dreaming or some goal that you have set, the specific words don't have that big of an impact on it. It's the message and feeling that you get from it that actually brings you success.

I'm not so sure about that, Burke. I think there could be a difference, even if it's very subtle.

Sometimes visual mantras are good too, as well as sentient mantras. ie: Visualizing yourself in a dream, looking at your hands and then feeling the happiness of turning lucid. Repeat that image over and over and over... and bang, it works.

Visualization has always been difficult for me. I've always been great at daydreaming, but for the life of me, I cannot get my daydreams to carry over into lucid dreaming. It seems that I have no ability to choose what the theme of my dreams is, even if it is something I commonly dream about.

Back when I was a little newbie, I always visualized and auto-suggested that I would appear on the beach from my first lucid dream. I thought that if I could appear there routinely, then I could just consistently lucid dream every night by always spawning that same scenario. And the project flopped harder than a stunt-biker on America's Funniest Home Videos.

As I've gotten more mature, I've tried to bend to what would seem more effective. Basically a visual autosuggestion. I will take a dream scenario that I recently encountered and visualize myself becoming lucid in it, and then carry on to accomplish whatever goals are pertinent at the moment. Recently, I even started writing fake DJ entries using the 'custom pages' feature in my DJ entry to visualize lucid dreams. It doesn't seem to have much effect on my lucid dreams in either content or consistency.

If you have any tips on visualization, send them my way. It sounds like something that, if I were to get a little bit of advice on; I could be really, really good at.

Yeah, it individual will have a preferred way for mantras/visualization, etc. It is up to try them and find which one works best.

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Originally Posted by Bobblehat

I'm not so sure about that, Burke. I think there could be a difference, even if it's very subtle.

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Agreed! There is a big difference for me which is why I have the process that I have, Burke. When I first began I would say a simple mantra like, "I am dreaming." When I became lucid I would have no recall of why I wanted to be lucid or what my dream goals were. These dreams were short and hard to manage or recall. Now, I am having longer lucids and I know instantly what I'm supposed to do to make the dream stable and what my goals are! It's all because my mantra reminds me and preps me for it right before bed.

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Originally Posted by JadeGreen

Visualization has always been difficult for me. It seems that I have no ability to choose what the theme of my dreams is, even if it is something I commonly dream about.

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I feel ya, I feel like dream incubation is hopeless!

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Originally Posted by JadeGreen

And the project flopped harder than a stunt-biker on America's Funniest Home Videos.

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Nice analogy! haha