Method and Technique?

**JadeGreen** · 01-13-2015 03:51 PM

This is just a quickie question, I've heard a lot of lucid dreamers discussing the difference between a Method and a Technique. I haven't been in on the discussion, and at the risk of sounding really dumb down the road, I fell like someone should tell me.

Thanks in advance.

**Zoth** · 01-13-2015 05:02 PM

What is the difference between method and technique?

Method is the general or specific way in which an activity is conducted, while techniques are the various methods and processes developed through knowledge, skill, and experience.
Example:
There is a method for changing a light bulb : the switch is turned off, the old one comes out and the new one goes in.
There are many techniques for handling a hot bulb, and for avoiding damage to the new bulb you're putting in.

Related to lucid dreaming:

There are two methods to achieve a lucid dreaming:

- DILD: become conscious inside a dream;
- WILD: enter the dream already conscious.

Everything else refers to techniques: specific procedures that allow you to achieve either a DILD or a WILD.

- Examples of DILD: reality checks, MILD, dream signs, intention, visualization, EILD, etc.
- Example of WILD: the classic WILD (where you stand there waiting for the dream), FILD, DEILD (which is basically a circumstantial WILD), etc.

While you can always tell the method used to reach the lucid dream (except in those few situations where you end up reaching a DILD while trying WILD, because you felt asleep but still got lucid pretty early in the dream, one of my favorite combos), it's not always clear what technique gave you lucidity: sometimes a certain element on the dream might act as a subconscious trigger, and while you haven't exactly noticed it, you may start to become suspicious that something is wrong, which may lead to lucidity. This also hints that most people use several techniques at the same time, especially because we still don't know exactly what processes are shared between things like intention, MILD, reality checking, etc. Even things like mindfulness and meditation have indirect impact on these techniques!
In the end, it's more important to consider technique as "your own way of reaching lucidity" because inevitably you'll end up tweaking things to your own preference/style.

PS: still too lazy to use the pie chart analogy xD