Thread: Practicing SSILD and MILD for 30 days

Day 7

No LD today.
LD:2

Day 22=
I had semi_OBE again. I woke up and I felt I am too light and I heard a phone is ringing. But when I woke up for real, that phone ring disappeared.

LD= 1
Semi obe= 2
Semi_wild= 2
FA=5
Missed OBE= 3

Day 23=
Nothing special but vivid dreams. I have to mention that I never do the cycles after each time I wake up so it can potentially decrease my LD chance.

day 24=
it was the first time i had such a vivid dream!

Day 25=
Better than yesterday.

You guys don't seem to be doing so well after all those attempts.. <.<
Perhaps stop for a moment and try to find what might be stopping youse from gaining lucidity?

you are right mimihigurashi!
I think the combination of SSILD and MILD is not very good, at least for me....but it could change the foundation of my believe that i CAN be a lucid dreamer. previously although i could have LD nearly at will by methods such as CrazyInsane WILD method which is performed by alarm but i always deeply doubted that i can be a lucid dreamer and i was lucid only if i used many alarms (every 15 minutes) which gave me LD but also headaches....

at least now, i can accept that LD is not that hard which is a gift of doing MILD. SSILD is doing well for me and day by day, my awareness inside the dreams and also the clarity and vividness of my dreams is increasing.

So LD itself is not important for me now (as i can easily have it by other methods which also disturb my sleep cycle and bring headache to me). I am looking for a method which can gradually build my awareness step by step so i can be a real lucid dreamer without much effort! I think also i didn't have much success with MILD and SSILD but i think i am on the right path to fundamentally change my subconscious to have LD with ease....


In my case, most of my LDs are results of methods which are very similar to DEILD, so after this 30 days, i wish to start practicing SSILD with DEILD.

day 26=
I was too tired to do the cycles but at least i did the MILD part.

Originally Posted by yaya

you are right mimihigurashi!
I think the combination of SSILD and MILD is not very good, at least for me....but it could change the foundation of my believe that i CAN be a lucid dreamer. previously although i could have LD nearly at will by methods such as CrazyInsane WILD method which is performed by alarm but i always deeply doubted that i can be a lucid dreamer and i was lucid only if i used many alarms (every 15 minutes) which gave me LD but also headaches....

at least now, i can accept that LD is not that hard which is a gift of doing MILD. SSILD is doing well for me and day by day, my awareness inside the dreams and also the clarity and vividness of my dreams is increasing.

So LD itself is not important for me now (as i can easily have it by other methods which also disturb my sleep cycle and bring headache to me). I am looking for a method which can gradually build my awareness step by step so i can be a real lucid dreamer without much effort! I think also i didn't have much success with MILD and SSILD but i think i am on the right path to fundamentally change my subconscious to have LD with ease....


In my case, most of my LDs are results of methods which are very similar to DEILD, so after this 30 days, i wish to start practicing SSILD with DEILD.

day 26=
I was too tired to do the cycles but at least i did the MILD part.

I see, if vividness is increasing, that's good, though one thing I'd like to point out.. You say you want to LD via other methods than WILD to kind of prove to yourself that you can be a 'real' lucid dreamer? That sounds great but doesn't failing to get lucid with the same techniques after trying many times have a negative effect on your confidence? I know it would have an effect on mine.. Confidence plays a big role in success at LDing, and usually when you don't manage to get lucid after trying hard, your confidence drops, which in turn lessens your chances of lucidity, which in turn again decreases your confidence, you know what I mean? Like a negative loop feeding into itself. That's a dangerous thing to fall into.

Also, if you want to gradually build your awareness, why not use one of those 'methods' where you are mindful and self aware throughout the day? If you aren't doing that already. I'm pretty sure MILD and SSILD are not techniques that gradually increase your awareness in order to produce LDs. With MILD, you pretty much attempt to program your brain to recognize the dream state at some point in the very near future, it uses prospective memory, not so much awareness. As for SSILD, it's a WILD technique, the idea behind the cycles is to help you maintain a temporary awareness, long enough to transition from awake to asleep without losing consciousness, it doesn't deal with the general increased awareness that you need to recognize the dream state on a regular basis.
Of course, I could be wrong, so let me know, but this is what makes sense to me.

Oh thank you very much for your tips...

I've never felt helpless in my life as i do now....maybe i was wrong to accept to be an LDer without much effort....!
so....what should i do now?

I saw in another web site that CosmicIron (the founder of SSILD method) told (in an interview) that before he practiced SSILD, he practiced all day awareness (ADA). so maybe he had high levels of awareness that SSILD could work for him.

I have practiced ADA before only for 1 or 2 weeks and the result was amazing but i didn't continue it as i wasn't serious that time.

So can ADA and SSILD be a good combination if i put my effort on them?
Or maybe gravity RC most of the time with SSILD?

I am looking for a method which doesn't disturb my sleep. I mean not like WILD or DEILD as they only work for me if I use lots of alarms which is overwhelming!

You're welcome, glad I could help ^_^
Yeah, for most people, lucid dreaming regularly doesn't happen without a lot of work and dedication, unless you're really lucky.

About ADA.. I don't wanna discredit anyone's techniques, ADA works for some people, the problem with it is that it focuses too much on the environment and not nearly enough on the dreamer. Sageous talked about this issue here, if you want to try ADA, you should read at least Sageous' OP about it. ADA exercises the, maybe not wrong, but unideal type of awareness required for lucidity. It can increase recall and vividness which is great, but at the same time it can backfire and make the dream more realistic without triggering lucidity. Whereas with self-awareness you are mindful of where you are, what you're doing, what's going on etc, so it's easier for your mind to click that 'wait a minute, something's not right here'..
Again, not trying to discredit anything, if ADA works for you, then more power to you, I just happen to agree with the logic of awareness vs self-awareness.

I agree your opinions...those times i practiced ADA, only my dream vividness and recall have boosted but nothing special about LD...people are different...maybe ADA works best for some of them....

So what is the best method for increasing self-awareness inside the dreams? having sense of doubts about reality of my environment and doing RC every 10 minutes?
people here talk about self-awareness a lot but i am confused how to gain it? Is there a clear tutorial about it? is it equal to practices done in DILD?

Is this tutorial complete about self-awareness stuff? Naiya's DILD & WILD secrets.

thanks again for correcting me...not only i need help to correct myself but as some other people may do the practices i do here, so i don't want to misguide them too....!

Well, as with most things about LDing, I don't think there is a 'best' method, things work differently for different people. Honestly, I find it kinda hard to accurately explain self awareness, but I'll try, and I haven't found many tutorials on it either. Which is a shame because I think it's very important for both triggering and maintaining lucid dreams. Yes, doubting your current reality is good, RC every 10 minutes is a bit overkill though, lol.

So it's pretty obvious that most people sleepwalk through their day, like mindless robots, with very minimal awareness, which is obviously very bad for LDing. Ideally, we would start being mindful of our thoughts, our emotions and actions, our environments and ourselves. And by being mindful of ourselves I mean like.. take a moment and try to really feel your own presence here, right now, where you are. Become aware of your thoughts and emotions and your own sense of self. Like I said, it's hard to explain, I hope someone else can do it better.. And it might sound like too many things to do at once but it's really not, all you have to do is be a passive watcher, mindfully observing yourself.

I haven't read that tutorial before but I see it's reaaaally long, and I gotta go to bed soon, I'll read it tomorrow. Btw, I think Sageous' first WILD class talks about self-awareness, specifically those Reverse Reality Checks, those help improve it too, check it out if you want.

You could try a mixture of ADA and self awareness? ADA to increase vividness and recall, and self awareness for lucidity. There's nothing wrong with doing both, I reckon.

Dear mimihigurash! Thanks for your guidance! so i think it's better to start like this:
- every 30 mins, i would stop and become aware of myself....and i ask myself: where i have been some minutes ago? is my environment part of a dream? how do i know that i am awake? because when i am dreaming, i also think that i am awake...so what is the difference? how can i guarantee that now i am awake?
then i try to deeply doubt about my state in reality....then to help myself to fully realize that i am dreaming or not, i do a RC.
it may take 1 minutes....
then after 30 mins, i repeat all these procedures...

is it enough or Did i miss something here?
according to these modifications, i will start another thread to practice what we are deciding here...

Dear AstralMango!
thanks for your tip....ADA in my case works as SSILD in increasing vividness and clarity of my dreams so maybe SSILD in combination with self-awareness is equal to what you said. because SSILD is really shorter and easier than ADA, so i choose SSILD to be able to remember my dreams with full clarity. in fact, it works as dream journal for me!

--------------------------
summery of these 27 days:

LD= 1
Semi obe= 2
Semi_wild= 2
FA=5
Missed OBE= 3

Gee, last night was kinda zany.. I couldn't fall asleep for two hours, I had two OBEs at 2 am, and then couldn't fall asleep for another two hours, and then almost had another one in the late morning XD I never thought I could OBE without any sleep prior.. Anyway, back on topic.

Yaya, you're welcome. That sounds like a great reality check, very thorough. It's also good if you could maintain some of that higher awareness in between the RCs too. You could make a thread about it but building awareness takes a long time, it requires consistency and the results will most likely not be visible in a few days. For most people, assuming you make a consistent effort, techniques like this start showing minor results after a few weeks, and more noticeable results after a few months. You could make a thread if you want, but you will probably not get results soon, as I said, it takes practice, and you'd just get disappointed and lose confidence, which is a no-no for lucidity.

As for combining ADA with self awareness, ADA takes a lot of mental effort, I read many posts by people complaining that ADA drains them a lot mentally, so using both sounds very difficult and tiresome. Just my two cents..

I have heard OBE unlike LD is not depended on theta brain waves (which appears with maximum length after hours of sleep). for example, professional runners feel they are out of body after long runs. also in book of astral dynamic, it was mentioned that OBE and astral projection can occur while we are awake. even some astral travelers can astral project and experience OBE while they are doing simple jobs in waking life. but LD mostly occur when we are sleeping and our brain wave must be at theta state...
so that might explain your case...

I see....so i shouldn't report my progress daily as it takes lots of time to see much results as you said!!! so maybe i create a thread and report there only weekly... !
it's very important to have a guide like you in LD....you saved a lot of time for me...i was in huge mistakes and you arrived on time...i don't know how to thank you dear mimihigurashi !!!

I wish you best in your journey toward yourself!

I'm pretty sure you can reach theta with deep relaxation, which is what I was doing last night, my body was very relaxed for a long time but I couldn't fall asleep mentally, probably because of the silly mp3 I made, so it's likely I got to theta and OBE'd because my body was asleep but my mind awake.

Yeah, a friend of mine told me about his friend who was able to do that, she could carry out tasks around the house while astral projecting, pretty fascinating stuff, I imagine you must be a super expert in order to do that though.

Sure, make one if you want, writing down what you're doing to increase your chances of LDing can boost your confidence and motivation.
I don't think you were making a 'huge' mistake by trying SSILD and MILD, you can keep doing it if you want, what's important is to increase your awareness like you said you want to, in order to get lucid more naturally and frequently via DILD. WILD is great for an on-demand LD, but as you saw, it's tricky to get for most people. But anyway you're welcome, glad I could help, and good luck to you too~