Thread: Aild

As my brother and I were discussing methods to induce lucid dreaming, we found that we created what might be a new method. I am relatively new to lucid dreaming (a bit more than a week of actual research into it), so forgive me if a method such as this has been formed.

I call it Association-Initiated Lucid Dream (AILD). I am not sure if this acronym has been previously used.

From fairly basic psychology, one might learn of association. Research from Ivan Pavlov shows how this works. It is known as classical conditioning, among other things. Essentially, by combining two things commonly, you can condition a response to the stimulus. This can be seen very well when observing animals.

Maybe, you have had your own experience with it. I remember a while back when I watched a certain television program, there was a particular food I ate while viewing it. Eventually, and it did not take too long, I associated the program with that food. Whenever I watched it, I thought about that food. In fact, I craved it at that moment. This sort of thing has happened to me more then once too.

Now, the hypothesis is, if you associate a certain stimulus with the conditioned reflex of a reality test, you will think about a reality test whenever that stimulus occurs. I know that there are some methods that use time in a similar fashion. Problem is, they are relatively hard, or if nothing else, a hassle to practice.

Here is one way one could practice my method:

1. Pick a song, preferably something with a very smooth melody, that way it is prone to induce sleep rather than keeping you awake.
2. Listen to the song throughout the day and, while listening, perform reality checks periodically. I suggest for this step that you have it repeat for a certain period of time in which you may designate. By doing this, you will give yourself a longer moment to perform the tests. If the song is already fairly long, then you probably don’t have anything to worry about.
3. Wake up about 4-6 hours after you go to bed. Play this single song and have it loop. Now, just go back to sleep.

One could probably perform a WILD with the song on as well. I am not sure if either would be hindered by using this method. It could very well help a WILD.