MILD hypothesis

Happy new year everyone, full of lucid discoveries !

I will present some hypothesis about MILD that i am happy to submit to different opinions.

So, according to the MILD described in ETWOLD, the third step is to focus your intent and say to yourself " next time I am dreaming i want to remember i am dreaming ".

I have always thought this step is not perfectly ajusted or at least not very well phrased ( first because it is redundant and second because i have always thought that MILD does not work because of prospective memory but because of pavlovian response and mechanisms of association)

The first part of the sentence says "next time I am dreaming". How am I supposed to .know next time I am dreaming ?
If we go literally by the meaning of the sentence why do I need to remember that I am dreaming, if i can fulfill the implicit action of the first part of the sentence ?

So i think it is not well phrased. we should supress the first part of the sentence because it is redundant and makes too long a mantra. Even if this redundancy (or even the whole step)turns out to serve the purpose of intention reinforcement, i think it can be shortened (hypotheses 1)

I personally think the four step of mild is really what makes it effective, and maybe we could go a step further and instead of rephrasing the third step we could just simplify and dispense it for good (hypothesis 2) and let the mind absorb and concentrate on the meaning of the visualization of the fourth step, with the outcome to prove being non-inferiority in terms of lucidity induction.

The third ypothesis (3) is to demonstrate that mild is nothing but the training of the mind to notice dreamsigns and not to remember anything besides what a dreamsign is. That in my mind is what gives meaning and purpose to reality check practice. I don't reality check because I think I might be dreaming. I do it because I want my mind to remember to RC everytime I see something similar to my dreams, and i have chosen to RC when I feel surprised or curious, or shocked or my memory does not work properly or feel confused. I am sure there are other things to chose to RC about, and other personal dreamsigns, but i feel that this little emotion called surprise or strangeness is ubiquitous in dreams.
That is also what, for me, gives meaning to the practice of dream journalling in the context of lucidity training - to maximize the recognition of dreamsign content within the dream.

And so comes another hypothesis (4). We can clarify our mind.about the desire to notice dreamsigns, and so experiment with another "third step" mantra - something along the lines " i will remember to reality check when I "insert dreamsign" or " i will notice my dreamsigns" - followed by visualization of one becoming lucid and acting an intended plan as suggested in the fourth step.

The glue that guarantees continuity between day time reality checks and night time dream journalling is the intention to recognize dreamsigns and establish a pavlovian response to question one's reality. And that is what MILD is designed to do, and the reason I am proposing these hypothesis


So, let me know your thoughts

Classical conditioning and antecedent events according to Pavlov help to set a desired behavioural stage and to me this certainly makes sense in the context of lucid dreaming.

I believe you are onto something here. As you rightly pointed out, it's not that we need to remember we are dreaming because that presupposes awareness of dreaming to begin with, and if one starts from a vantage point of being conscious of dreaming at bedtime (which is not the case) then that is already lucid dreaming and all that remains is to maintain the state—no need for mnemonics!

Now, if we say to ourselves at bedtime that we must remember to do a reality check the minute we find ourselves elsewhere other than in bed, then that is a different matter. This can be as useful as saying to ourselves, 'I must remember to make a withdrawal when I see the bank on the way to the shops.'

What you propose makes perfect sense to me about MILD and all I can say is, well spotted!

Os Portuguêses sabem usar o cérebro! Hehehe!