Tactile tech(ppl still wandering about tactiling and blah)

Ellow dreamviewers again.. Some know me, some don't, anyways. Some ealised that i share my knowledge of lding bit by bit to help this community understand and develop faster, interesting watching ppl find out their selfs on lding then "giving" the answers. Anyways, I haven't been on here for couple months now or something and still yet to see everyone make it from a-z. Guess I'll give a lil boost. Heres a neat lil tech that should lite the fuel and give ideas to others. This description I got isn't from me but from a website called advanceld (<---mods if you think showing the web addr. is advertising then just edit the name..i'll understand...) here it does I guess...

Transitioning into a Dream

When a person remains conscious as they move from the waking state into the dream state, they often experience an intense sense of motion. This experience is referred to as “a transition” and is usually characterized by a purely tactile sense of acceleration, vibration, and/or floating.
Transitions can be extremely powerful events and it is important that they be understood and anticipated so that they don’t cause fear or other negative emotions that can interfere with your personal development.

Do transitions always occur when you consciously enter a dream?
No. Transitions refer to a specific manner in which one enters a dream and are characterized by the person’s sense of touch leading the other senses. Another common way to enter a dream is to have the sense of sight lead the way. When your dream vision develops prior to your sense of touch, although profound, the actual movement into the dream state is more gentle: the dreamscape forms around you followed by an awareness of your dream body. In this case the actual sense of entering the dream is more like that of a dream experience than that of physical experience. However, when your sense of touch develops first, your dream body momentarily exists outside of the dream (in between the awake and dream states) and usually overlaps and feels authentically to be your physical body. Suddenly a dramatic sense of motion is experienced and it feels as though it is the physical body being moved rather than the dream body. The motion itself can last for a minute or longer and can be extremely powerful.

When are transitions likely to occur?
Transitions are most likely to occur when a person has properly positioned themselves between the awake and dream states. This unique position is characterized as being aware, void of external sensory perception, and not yet dreaming. A person can be trained to recognize and enter this state (see Achieving Dragon Status below) and in doing so sets up the ideal conditions for consciously enter their dreams. Once balanced between states, a transition can be initiated using straight forward mental techniques or may occur spontaneously.

Typical transition experiences.
The most gentle of these types of transitionsgenerally starts as a feeling of floating, or at least as certain parts of your body as floating. The floating can literally lift you upwards and carry you away. The floating may not be stable and you may feel like your body is bobbing up and down or from sided to side.
A very common type of transitionis referred to as an acceleration. This type of transition can be very intense. It is characterized by the body being suddenly swept away at, what can be, extremely high speed. The velocity can vary greatly from experience to experience but can be faster and more realistic than you can possibly imagine. Furthermore it may suddenly stop or change direction in a totally unpredictable way. You may feel the texture of the ground or floor underneath you, like you are being dragged by some incredible force (don’t worry it never hurts).
Another common type of transition involves a rotational motion. You may feel as though you body is spinning like that of an ice skater or rotating from head to foot over and over again. Again the speed can be slow or it can be incredibly fast.
Another type of transition involves a sense of vibrationthat starts at the back of your head and spine and grows in intensity as it moves towards the front of your body. It’s like walking backwards through an electric curtain.


It is not uncommon for these transitions to be accompanied by a sense of paralysis and total lack of control. The good news here is that you can learn to control them and some report that the feelings make them feel more alive than they have felt.
There are most likely many other types of transitions possible and understand that it impossible to imagine the profound nature of these events without experiencing them firsthand. They are all life changing. Advanced lucid dreamingis not for the meek and timid, you are moving into a virtually unknown dimension that is every bit as real as the physical. Although you shouldn’t be scared of the unknown, you should always maintain the very deepest respect for it.

How does one go about initiating a transition?
Whenever a person consciously enters or exits a dream, they must pass over this unique in-between state point. It is at this time that it is possible to initiate a transition by using a relatively simple mental approach. The transition then functions to carry the conscious and aware person into the dream state.
To become proficient at consciously entering dreams, one must first learn to recognize and enter into this in-between state of balance (see Theory Behind WILD Development below). Once there, the person can perform a transitioning exercise that will initiate the actual transition.
The types of exercises that can aid in transitioning are usually referred to as tactile exercises and are best described as a type of visualization that makes use of the sense of touch instead of the sense of sight. There are many exercises quoted in the literature and although they may seem very different at first glance, the most effective ones are built on the premise of imagining some type of motion: floating, falling, climbing, and so on. Although there are many techniques reported, some are easier to perform than others. AdvancedLD has developed and recommends the Turning Like a Wheel exercise for beginning students (see below)

Transitioning Technique #1 - Turning Like a Wheel



This technique was developed primarily to help beginning students successfully transition into a dream. In many ways this is the ideal transitioning technique because it takes advantage of several important principles.



Advantage #1: It is a passive technique.

In this instance passive means that your body position does not change during the transition. You are moving, but it is your entire body that is doing the moving as opposed to specific parts of your body. An example of an active technique would be climbing a ladder or trying sit up. In both these examples you must actively move parts of your body. Active techniques require more practice to master. Passive techniques allow you to remain motionless (i.e. in a natural lying position) while your entire body is moved through the transition.





Advantage #2: It allows you body to maintain its natural position

When a person has balanced themselves between the awake and dream states (the ideal time to initiate a transition) are aware yet also sleeping. This unique balancing point is characterized by maintaining the ability to think, having a sense of the body and its position, having all external sensations shut down, and not yet being in a dream state. Because of the fact that you are aware and can sense your body you may not recognize that you are actually sleeping. However an important marker exists that allows you to accurately identify this balancing point: your external senses will have ceased to function. For example, if there is ambient noise in your bedroom (crickets, baby monitor, wind, snoring, etc) you will no longer be aware of it. This is different than saying that you are not paying attention to it: it is absolutely no longer there and has been replaced by silence (see Using the ASI technique to Develop the Ability to Consciously Enter Dreams below). In this situation however, you do still sense your body and whether it is your physical body, your dream body, or some combination of the two is unclear but it often seems to have the same position as your physical body. Using the Turning Like a Wheel Technique, whatever position you feel your body to naturally be in will be the position that is carried into the transition (i.e. you do not need to try to change your body’s position in anyway).





Advantage #3: It is a purely tactile technique:



No visualization is required to perform this exercise. It will be a pure sense of motion; in this case a rotation. You will feel it but you won’t see it. You don’t need to try to visualize anything and it is recommended that you don’t try to. Let your sense of touch lead the way.





Advantage #4: It is easy to control



Using this technique, your body will slowly rotate around and around. All you have to do is give it a little mental push to get it going and the transition will take on a life of its own. The speed of the rotation is mostly determined by the pace you set with your imagination and there is no need to go for extreme speed. It is the motion itself rather than the speed of the motion that moves you through the transition.



Advantage #5: Once initiated the transition will continue on its own.



Unlike active transitions, once you initiate a passive one it will continue on its own. You don’t need extraordinary amounts of concentration to keep it going. You just start it and let it carry on by itself after that. Remember that a transition is likely to occur when you have balanced yourself between the awake and dream states. All you need is the slightest bit of imagination to tip you towards the dream state. Once you start moving towards that state the transition will take on a life of its own which results in a totally authentic sense of motion. The motion will continue on its own unless you interfere with it.



Advantage #6: It can be used to induce OBEs and LDs



The only difference between WILDs (Wake Induced Lucid Dreams) and OBEs (Out of Body Experiences) is location; meaning where you end up when the transition is complete. If you relax and let the transition continue on under its own power, your sense of sight will eventually become activated and dream imagery will form. Once your sight is active, the motion will generally stop and you will find yourself standing in a dreamscape. This is the recommended method for people just starting to learn about transitions.

There is another method however that you should be aware of. Once a transition has started and you feel your body moving, you can rest assured that you are feeling your dream body (i.e. astral body) and not your physical body. If you force yourself to move (i.e. roll over or stand up) the sense of motion will suddenly stop. At this point you will most likely wonder which body did the moving: the physical or the astral. Most likely it is the astral and here are tips for keeping the experience going. First of all keep moving: get up and walk around. Secondly if you can’t see yet, don’t worry. Your sense of touch led you through the transition and you completed it before your sense of sight has become active. It is very common to have serious tunnel vision. A proven method to activate your vision is to look at something and jump up and down. The jumping helps keep your sense of touch active since it is the only sense holding you in the dream at this point. Looking closely at any object will let your brain know that it is time to turn on the vision. After a few jumps your vision should snap into place. At this point you will probably notice that you are standing in your bedroom instead of an elaborate dreamscape.





Procedure:

The first step is to develop the capacity to recognize when a transition is likely to occur. There are several signs you can use:



1. You may notice that any ambient noises have been silenced

2. You may notice that you feel “floaty” (like part of your body is starting to float) or dizzy (like your mind is starting to spin).

3. You may be going back and forth between wakefulness and dreaming (i.e. dreams start to come and where you almost lose consciousness but then you become aware, then dreams come again, then awareness, and so) until you notice that something is different (usually due to the floatiness feeling or silence).



As soon as you notice any of these things, immediately initiate the transition. Try to avoid thinking about whether you are asleep or trying to listen hard to see if the noise is really silenced: shoot first and ask questions later.

The Turning Like a Wheel approach requires that stay relaxed and imagine that your body is slowly rotating. To understand the type of rotation utilized, imagine that your body is a spoke in a large wheel; your head connected to the wheel at one end and your feet are connected to the other end. The turning motion thus results in the sensation of your head rotating from the headboard of your bed down to the footboard while your feet are rotated up to the headboard, then your head is rotated back up to the headboard, and so on (like a wheel lying on your bed turning around and around). The turning needn’t be fast and seems most effective if it is slow, smooth, and consistent.

It is helpful to practice imagining this type of motion before actually using it to initiate a transition. This type of practice will develop your ability authentically feel the rotation which in turn develops your ability to get the actual transition started. When you imagine it, try to feel your body go all the way around in big, full circles. After you have developed the ability to imagine the motion, you are ready to use the exercise to enter a lucid dream.

If you have positioned yourself correctly between the waking the dream states, the slightest bit of imagination will start the transition happening. You will not need to keep trying to imagine the motion once the real motion starts. Once initiated the turning motion takes on a life of its own and is easily distinguishable from imagination. You will feel your whole body turning around and around in a totally authentic manner.

The transition may last several minutes before your other senses follow your sense of touch into the dream. Once your other senses become involved, the turning will naturally stop and will find yourself fully conscious within a lucid dream.





An Ideal way to Practice

Learning to recognize when a transition is likely to occur and learning to successfully initiate one takes some practice. With each success it gets easier. One ideal way to practice transitioning is to exit a lucid dream and immediately re-enter it.

As you exit a lucid dream you must cross over this balancing point. You will have reached the critical point at the first instant you become aware of your body lying in bed. You should immediately initiate a transition by imagining the rotation. By practicing in this way you will learn to recognize the critical balancing point as well as the actual transition.

Once initiated the turning motion takes on a life of its own and is easily distinguishable from imagination. You will feel your whole body turning around and around in a totally authentic manner.

The transition may last several minutes before your other senses follow your sense of touch into the dream. Once your other senses become involved, the turning will naturally stop and will find yourself fully conscious within a lucid dream. There is good chance you will find yourself standing in your bedroom in which case you can start to ponder about the relatedness of lucid dreams and out of body experiences.

You know, you could have just provided a link....

you know, I've tried that before and it's been removed cause of "advertising" but thx for the suggestion anyways.
Besides, i posted the important stuff on site and specific idea that I'm trying to get across to ppl still lost under tactiling and it's meant as an idea for ppl to get more progress done, just incase you missed the topic's name.

But... you didn't contribute anything...

Of course its pretty much seen as advertising if you slap a link down and think thats gonna be it.. If you were to take the time to actually contribute your views, spark some discussion and/or answer some questions that would be totally different.

Thanks for the information malac, very interesting read.
It makes a lot of sense to me too. I use a technique sometimes to kickstart hypnogogia if i need to fall asleep fast, I find if you simply mimic hypnogogia in your imagination your brain usually takes over and continues it, dont think its ever failed for me either. Can't see why it would be any different for a transition into dreaming.

Hell, It may even be possible to bring on mind awake/body asleep using the same type of technique, now that would be interesting... and combined with this would lead to a really useful technique.

Well, this method just doesn't work and a easier tactile method was proposed by Paradigmshift, which is basically the same. Note: I have tried the spinning technique roughly six times.

Quote:

---

Ellow dreamviewers again.. Some know me, some don't, anyways. Some ealised that i share my knowledge of lding bit by bit to help this community understand and develop faster, interesting watching ppl find out their selfs on lding then "giving" the answers. Anyways, I haven't been on here for couple months now or something and still yet to see everyone make it from a-z. Guess I'll give a lil boost

---

wow...

great technique

im gonna try it tonight

Yeah Paradigmshift already said basically the same method but imagine you are sliding across your bed. I liked the info though on when to recognize your in a transition and began the rotating/sliding right when you notice it

This is exactly how I have a lucid dream, I've been wanting to work on tactile sensation for sometime, I hope I can eventually get myself in the right state to trasition myself in at anytime, I often wake up at night half way in but usualy I do a summer salt to get in I'll have to practice the wheel technique during meditation.

Guys stop hating on malac, it's not like we already knew this, I don't know anyone that does this besides me :P and I can do this just about everynight if I try hard enough, trust me it's valuable to learn.

I've never used this to enter a lucid but I've played with the tactile technique before to get me to sleep - imagining floating or rocking gently. This sounds like it could be a good technique for me... I'll let you know if it does, thanks!

I'll be sure to give this a try. Thanks for the detailed description and all, I've felt some of those sensations before, but never imagined them as a technique. Perhaps this would work delightfully with a DEILD, when your in that void between waking and dreaming...