Object Induced Lucid Dream (OILD)
First Off I want to say this is all based on personal experiences.. Im sorry if this doesn't work for you, thats how she goes. Its a hell of a long post, with not alot of new information. Be ready. Also this is not a "final" technique, its in the works. I have kept this pretty personal lately while testing, Im sure im not the first to do so.. But I am defiantly not aware of anyone I took the "idea" from.
This is more or less ideas on how to improve some of the problems I run into in other methods then a real tutorial, as I said its not perfect yet. Its basically all about doing things without thinking about it.
Maybe I am just whore at false awakening, but its been kinda ridiculous how consistent its been lately. Some people are great at one method, dont get overly absorbed in this, its a long post with alot of "nonsense". Take what you will from it, if your interested in this way or stuck using other methods.. at least give it a try.
**--Super fast Version of this post--**
Its not necessarily an induction method, but there can defiantly be some benefits. How do you really achieve lucidity through a basic DILD? Usually you spot a Dream Sign, and reminds you to do a reality check. This is the same thing, its like a dream sign EVERY time you wake up (And occasionally in a dream) that doesn't require any conscious effort to actually get started, but the end result is the same awareness. Its hard to explain but its almost like your body automatically asks your subconscious instead of your "current conscious" having to decide whether or not to ask. Your constantly changing the object to keep surprising yourself, but the overall sign is very consistent.. Any abnormal physical sensations while waking up. This has just skyrocketed my false awakenings, and in turn has also given me alot of DILDs. (I will be running around in the dream with the object I had, a.k.a. I'll have the one glove on).
Relies on False awakenings, Simple, benefits greatly when used with WILD/DEILD for me.
1. Go to sleep with an abnormal object. (One Glove for example)
2. When you wake up a reality check should happen in your head without having to think about it. You just go why am I wearing a glove? This isnt helpfull if you wake up 'enough' to preform a RC, but newsflash.. the majority of your brief awakenings you are completely unaware of.. but your body isnt.
3. Brings you from zombie state to fully aware/conscious in a matter of seconds (With NO conscious effort to start the process).. It almost feels like I 'wake up' (Become lucid during FA) because of the abnormal sensations from the object.
4. You grow to expect abnormalities, when they are not there it causes a similar effect, but now it is a false awakening. It goes from your consciousness questioning the subconsciouses, to the subconscious tricking you. Only now its incredibly easy to notice it. In fact its hard not to notice it..
This brings two previously (usually) indistinguishable events (Brief and False Awakenings) to the point where you have to be a retarded jellyfish not to notice it. This has also greatly improved the amount of DILDs I have simply do to doing more reality checks on a regular basis.
**--And now the completely unnecessary wall of text, Enjoy.--**
The Low Down
You wake up from sleep to roll over to get comfortable, then doze off back to sleep. Sound familiar? Sure this really does happen many times throughout the night, most of the time you don't even remember it happening. Heres the problem, your not always doing this is real life. Basically the "real" times you do this is called a brief awakening, and its just that. Nothing more, nothing less. From time to time you will find yourself waking up from either a deep sleep, or a vivid dream (Lucid or not) and find yourself laying in bed, the difference is your still dreaming. Thats right, if you wanted to you could get up and fly through your roof right then and there.. such a waste to roll over and 'go to sleep' don't you think?
Well these are called False Awakenings! The are not overly common, but defiantly well known enough to take advantage of, because I believe everyone experiences these on a regular basis. If you are an experienced Lucid Dreamer already, I would be very surprised if you don't get at least several of these a week.
Now obviously these are nothing new, but I have found not only do I experience a few a week, I experience a few a night, at least. And this was useful information to me. Maybe I'm special, I really doubt it but who knows. The problem is my will to actively question reality in this phase of sleep. You may say you always test reality when you wake up, join the club. Problem is you dont always "wake up" enough to remember your even there, never mind concentrating on your lucidity goals. Im sure there are many methods such as auto suggestion to 'increase' FA occurrences, but thats really unnecessary in my opinion. Why not create a vivid sensation in that brief time to refocus you naturally. If you were to wake up tomorrow morning, even for a minute.. would you notice it if you were wearing 1 winter boot? Its a simple yes or no question, and Im sure you all answered the same thing. Its a very simple way of external stimuli that requires no real attention or focus.
This is what this feeds on, if you have a BA/FA and everything is 'normal' you get comfy and go to sleep. Now obviously the definition of normal is changed drastically in dreams.. but experience in lucidity generally counteracts that in my eyes. I really wanna stress how vulnerable this stage is by the way, you really dont have any frame of thought, your mind is blank, the last thing you care about is lucid dreaming. But its very easy to trigger something to produce a memory, which will make you alot more aware of the situation. (At least for me)
Having something out of the ordinary, such as wearing an abnormal piece of clothing or whatever will just briefly make you go what the eff. I've said it before, I'll say it again.. "If I were to take away one of the steps in the stairway of your house, when you get to the new top you would keep stepping up for the last one. Not because you count or ask yourself where the top is, because you simply expect it to be there.". Your brain makes predictions like this constantly. Your whole world is based on predictions. I realize that sounds like useless information, but its really how this works. The problem is keeping yourself surprised :).
I find if I wake up with say a glove on, its the first thing I think of because its just not normal. This is turn makes me ask myself "How did it get there? Oh I put it on last night because I wanted some stimuli for when I woke up. Wait a min.. am I dreaming?". I used to have BA's maybe once or twice every few days. Believe it or not, I go through at least 5-10 of these a night.. all of which usually don't last more then like a minute or affect my sleep cycle. The best part is.. later on in the night I will be used to that glove being there because I have woken up over and over with it.. so now every time I wake up, I expect it to be there, instead of what I usually consider "normal". The thing is, all the sudden it wont be. I believe this is because my subconscious really doesn't care that I've had a glove on for a few hours. It knows for 20 years I haven't had one on. So it uses what it knows. Now, this comes back to the whole definition of normal. Your subconscious still knows it inside out, but your "temporary consciousness" which has been experiencing waking up with this damn glove over and over now expects it to be there, and your brain farts. Well, not really but for me it just pulls me out of this stage where I normal wouldn't have even realized I woke up (If i did I wouldn't remember in the morning, because it literally lasts 5-10 secs) to a fully aware state. Not having at least one full on false awakening every night is rare for me now, because all these extra reality checks lead to more failing.
The first problem I ran into was that my subconsciousness's definition of normal was changing as the weeks went on, commonly waking up with a object I used on a different night for example, instead of the one I put on that night. Now, at first this was a bit of a brick wall because all I noticed was that the external stimuli was still there, so I assumed things were normal. Problem: It was the wrong stimuli and I just didn't know right/wrong. I don't know how I got over this, it kinda just happened. I think because of it I started to focus a bit more on what specific object I was using at night before I fell asleep so it was temporarily ingrained in my head. Really at the end of the day, it comes down to you. When you wake up you just really need to ask yourself what you used last night for an object. And make sure you still are feeling the same stimuli. Also, if you cannot remember what you put on last night, thats a good clue your dreaming. You don't need to move around if you don't feel like it, you should just know.
Overview:
If you find you rarely wake up during the night, this may not be very effective for you. Although you should still see an increase in BA's.. Some people just dont FA often. Please keep in mind using something like an alarm clock to wake you up will not generally work. I find it jolts me awake, and makes this technique useless. You cannot have an immediate false awakening if you have to actually wake up to turn the clock off. FA's being almost indistinguishable from a natural brief awakening is the problem, and this method is the answer.
A super simple explanation of it is as follows.
1. Relax in bed prior to falling asleep. (Achieving SP isn't important in this stage. You want to fall asleep regularly in a bit but this is just to cool you down from the day before.
2. When your mind is calm and you feel as though you can fall asleep within a few minutes with no problem, 'apply' the object (Depending on what you use, I basically mean put on the glove, get the item from your bedside table or whatever and put it in your hand, etc).
3. Fall asleep naturally, do not consciously over think about where or what the object is, but still obviously know what you did on that night. Its also best not to plan these things out far in advance I find.
4. During the night, every time you have a brief awakening (I generally have at least 5-10 a night).. You should automatically ask yourself about the object. I dont really "check" for it so to speak, its generally the object itself that awakens my mind. If you were holding something and feel like you have changed positions alot, and the object is missing.. preform another reality check or two before jumping out your window.
I tend to put a weird piece of clothing or something on, something in the hands is also usually great. But you should find either way, that at least one time you wake up at night that object will all the sudden be gone. I want to quickly say that I have yet to go a night without this method working.. The few times I haven't become lucid is because the reality check failed (My subconscious put the item in my dream, but on the opposite hand or something. But this in turn wasn't enough of a clue for me at first.. and I was to tired to bother preforming more RC's for whatever reason. That was just me being silly, because I actually woke up a few minutes later and noticed the glove on the other, original hand.
This is dimmed down about as much as I possibly can, but theres really not much much more to it.. Its a relatively easy technique, so the majority of this post is all theory on how it works, and how to improve it. Im not a scientist and I have only been playing around with it for a few weeks, but I figured why not share the method.
Now, if any of you haven't left because of how easy and unpractical it sounds, keep reading.. I don't know why I have had success with this, but for whatever reason it just blows me away. It might completely fail for everyone, in which case there are 50 other methods on the forums :). I just came across this through I guess a combination of a whole bunch of methods I've read on here.
General Info & Prerequisites
Well, this is all speculation but I truly believe this relies on your ability to surprise yourself or remain inconsistent. Think of this way, when you have a false awakening.. you usually wake up in your current room or most memorable room/area. You don't wake up in your friend Jimbo from the 3rd Grades house, where you slept one time. It always seems to be in a very familiar setting to say the least.. And something out of the ordinary is really what this method feeds on. Now this is whats beautiful about it. You don't need to tell yourself whats normal and what isn't. You already know without consciously thinking about it. The problem is your definition of normal can change. If you use a glove every night it will become so regular that you will overlook it constantly. Keep it fresh. Theres absolutely no limit on how many ways you can manipulate your expectations, and this will be a completely personal preference.
I will go into detail below about a bunch of my personal favorites to give you an idea, but I really cannot stress enough how important it is to remain inconsistent and generalize around an area that works for you. If you cannot fall asleep with handcuffs on.. don't bother using that as a method. (And yes I've used that, I've tried so many things lol)
If you have any prior experience in Lucid Dreams, and know some methods that work for you.. stick with it. Just add this in there. Although this is a very consistent method for me I still do not rely solely on it for lucid dreams.. But its one of those methods thats requires next to no thinking unless you want it to. I don't necessarily believe this method "induces" lucid dreams.. it just assists in the process. I find it better to take a more generalized approach to something rather then a specific set of rules. I think people are to hung up on trying to hard and doing everything perfect that it cripples the experience, and this is more or less aimed in their direction. Thats not to say it cannot be used by the most experienced person, but this is really nothing new or revolutionary. I find using this in combination with a DEILD can be pretty beneficial, and have even have several FA's occur on the nights I fail a WILD. Im sure some people who WILD will know what I mean by a consciousness "blink" while attempting a wild. Where you just suddenly feel like you wake up, but you were not asleep. Turns out for me half or so of these are FA's and smexy lucid dreams. The problem is while wilding, for me physical reality checks are out of the question but this one happens automatically. You just go "Wheres my glove?" without even thinking about it.
Ok, babbling way to much, here we go!
Tutorial
1. Relaxation - Calm your mind so that you will be able to fall asleep in a few minutes.
I am not going to go into huge detail here for the simple fact that its not overly necessary. Again find something that works for you. I find the only thing I need to do is take a 10 minute breather either laying down, or sitting upright with my eyes closed. I focus on my breathing and try not to over think about what happened in the day, or what needs to happen tomorrow. Let your thoughts flow around naturally. Be careful not to fall asleep here, dont worry to much about it though unless you are excessively tired. If you can fall asleep in under 5 mins on a regular basis then adjust as needed obviously.. There are no specific rules. Personally, for best results I get to the point where you can fall asleep in a few mins before even thinking about what object I'm going to use. Im fairly experienced in WILDing so I can gauge my level of consciousness pretty well. You will be to able to as well in time if you cannot already. The easiest way I can describe this is to say its when you find yourself flopping around from random thought to thought. You'll be fighting pirates on a ship, then as you jump off the deck you land in a pit of sand before you notice that your competing in the Olympics as a long jumper for example. Just random stuff, has no real significance usually... If you are fond of meditating or any other relaxation method feel free to use it. I have a complicated method I use for WILDing, but I just simply do not need it for this to be effective. The most important thing is that you can reach the point where you will fall asleep in a few minutes before you apply your object.
2. Object Time - Pick your object, preferably on the fly and fall asleep normally. Do not over think what you got and where it is.. If anything concentrate what is feels like. Obviously in the back of your mind be aware of what you got.. but just dont go crazy.
There are a few different ways I have done this to achieve results.. I dont believe it really matters to much if you put it on right before you lay down at night, or if you do a 10 minute relaxation first, then put it on so your closer to sleep. But personally since I've become very involved with this lately its hard for me to not really over think my object in my mind before I fall asleep. For this reason I have found it more effective to either set an internal or quite alarm clock to wake me up 90 mins after laying down. This gets me far enough into sleep that when I wake up the first thing I wanna do is roll over and fall asleep. Instead I wander around my dark room, find something, and lay down. Doesnt take more then 30 secs to get an item, no more then 2 minutes to fall asleep. Again my mind is very blank and tired, and doesnt even WANT to think about the object at this time.
I just feel like the best thing I can do is find something on the fly, if I over think or expect to use an object all day, it generally gets drilled into my subconscious one way or another (Glove on the other hand for example). When your in this sleepy state the mind is very vulnerable to suggestion. Feel free to combine auto suggestion or self hypnosis and tell yourself when you wake up you will not be wearing the belt you just put on, you'd be surprised how well this works. I really do not want to get into all the possibilities with all the current methods out there because this is long enough already, and we havent really done anything. If there is a positive response, and this is not simply a natural phenomena on my part, then I will continue testing and update this. Problem is I dont know anyone in real life who actively participates in lucid dreaming, so you guys get to be my guinea pigs.
So again, however or whenever you want to apply your object, feel free to do so. I just really dont recommend thinking about what your going to use extensively. And also make sure its not the same thing every night, or else you will become accustomed to it and will just FA with the object intact. I have found almost anything works, just pick something. Also dont rule out awakening with a different object that you have previously used in place of the one you actually using. I have also woken up with more then one thing (Left sock off and had a towell wrapped around my right forearm). This resulted in an LD because I knew I didnt put 2 things on. The end result is your subconscious almost tricks you into thinking your in reality, and its all about recognizing it while its happening. When you use such random and out of the ordinary objects, its honestly hard to miss it, so the weirder the better.
I find my body notices something wrong naturally instead of just FAing in a completely normal environment, knowing I went to bed 'normal'. This results in most people not knowing it was a FA, and just rolling over back "into" sleep. If on a consistent basis you always have something wrong (Not the same thing obviously, or else it wouldn't be abnormal anymore) you pick up on it. I cannot explain it, but I just know every time I wake up if something changed. Which leads me to thinking about what changed, what did I do differently "last night". I do not always know exactly whats wrong when I FA, but you just know. This subtle hints leads me to question reality instead of rolling over. Sometimes you can pick it out right off the bat though, which is even more effective.
3. Fall asleep naturally - Do not consciously over think about where or what the object is, but still obviously know what you did on that night. Its also best not to plan these things out far in advance I find.
Theres not a whole lot to say about this, so just fall asleep :). Again its entirely possible you sleep the whole night away, not have any brief awakenings that you recall, and in turn no false awakenings. I experience more then enough every night, and it seems like alot of people have a similar amount of awakenings. I really believe everyone has had false awakenings you just dont know it.. Its not abnormal to wake up in the middle of the night in your bed, so why would that trigger a LD you ask? Well, because its very abnormal to wake up at night and notice that you are not wearing the cowboy boot on your left foot that you are sure you put on.
4. Check for object - If your anything like me, during the night, every time you have a brief awakening the first thing in your mind will be that object. Whether its still there, or gone.. you notice. You expect it to be there, when its not your surprised. If it is ,you don't overly wake up like you would if you did a physical reality check but you still take note that its there, and reality is 'intact'. If you were holding something and feel like you have changed positions, and the object is missing.. preform another reality check or two before jumping out your window.
Again not a whole lot of info for this.. I do want to note something for the more unexperienced people. In case you haven't noticed its amazing how far "Reality" is stretched in dreams. You accept things as normal even though they are entirely out of whack. For example, you might not think it abnormal to see your friend from elementary in your high school with a rock star as the teacher in a dream. This is entirely possibly to apply to such a simple modifier such as wearing a shoe. I do believe you will simply overlook the change if you are over aware of it, or have no idea what it is. Its kinda hard to explain but as you become more experienced in Lucid Dreaming in general, you will know the feeling of a dream, and you dream signs will stand out alot more. This is very important because you will often test reality alot more anytime something is not normal, which in turn means more LDs. There are plenty of ways to increase dream awareness, that goes past the scope of this post at the moment. I want to see if the basic method even works for others before doing a bunch of extensive testing.
For me I rarely overlook the hints from a OILD, but thats not to say you wont do it every time. I personally think working on real life awareness and also working toward a consistent RC system can only help things. I really find it hard to not focus on abnormal physical sensation when I first wake up, but I find it super easy to shut my brain off, roll over and pass out. I believe this is why it works so well for me. I dont need to think about it, its a natural reflex.
Conclusion
I realize this is a huge post with really no specific techniques and such, theres no reason I could not have done this in under 100 words (Sorry, rewrite later if it works at all for you guys).. But maybe someone will pick up something from all the babbling that helps. Ask all the questions you wish, and give it a try. Please dont lay down for a nap with a shoe on and expect to LD. Also, dont expect every time you wake up for that object to be gone.. it wont be gone 9/10 times. The thing is you end up expecting it to be there, and the one time it isnt.. its such an obvious deviation that it really pushes you in the direction of questioning reality. (At least for me <3) And again, this works because your so over conditioned to "normal" sleep conditions that any modifications should be extremely noticeable.
Thats not to say that it wont happen the first time you try, its just unrealistic. Use this in addition to your most comfortable method of LDing. I personally love to wild, and the two can go hand in hand if your able to keep a clear mind long enough. If i succeed with the WILD.. well I wild :P which is a great time.. If I fail and fall asleep I have this as a failsafe for later on in the night. It basically sets up a system where any brief awakenings have a heightened chance of resulting in a FA.. and when I get up for my WBTB/WILD it only helps it further. I commonly blink out of consciousness while WILDing, which I never used to take for much.. because nothing felt different.. I didnt feel like I lost or really gained awareness, body felt the same usually.. There are really no distinguishable changes. But when you "wake up" and the object you had with you literally 2 secs ago is gone, its a very obvious hint your dreaming
I can see this being even more effective for a DEILD, so those of you who are very experienced and love that method, give it a try and let me know if it helps as you phase in and out of consciousness in terms of drawing the "line".
Examples of Random Objects
- Single shoe
- Single Glove
- Single sock
- Hat
- Earplugs, sleep mask, etc. (If you use regularly wont do any good)
- Towel/Fabric of some sort LIGHTLY wrapped around a limb
- Pencil above the ear
- Handcuffs/Rope tieing limbs to bedpost (kinky right? :).. Surprisingly for me this works a little to well. Its just such a weird experience waking up with a limb tied to something)
- Lay a book or heavy jacket or something on your chest
- Hold any small object.. dont get to specific with details
- Turn your bed a different direction (Bit drastic), or of course sleep in a different room which is a very well known way to help
- Show off your birthday suit (If you regularly wear clothes of course :P)
Could honestly go on for days, the above are all pretty generalized.. Be creative and switch it up. I have found that using multiple things at the same time only hurts my chances for whatever reason. Keep it simple and obvious.
FAQ (Temporary, until real questions are asked commonly, speculation as to what people what have problems with for now.)
Q: Why the hell is this so long, with basically the same info over and over? My eyes are bleeding.
A: Thats my style, it sucks I know.. but at the end of the day its 10 minutes of reading, not going to kill you. Rewrite later, Honestly I originally made this post in the Waking Journal section for reference for myself, but I figured its not going to kill the boards if its in this section.. and maybe it will get ONE person their first LD. Then its worth it.
Q: Is this Going to give me a LD?
A: Yes and no. Yes because for me its invaluable, has done nothing but give me multiple LD's every night.. Its to easy is the only problem, so I highly suspect this is going to fail miserably for everyone else. In theory it makes complete sense to me, but its very hard to get into all the details without spending hours and hours typing, so I want to receive a general opinion on whether you think it could work, or if it works/doesn't work for you. Again please don't try this once and tell me it sucks, Plenty of other methods on here may work better for you, stick to what works!! This works for me, and I wanted to share it.
Q: Can this be used as a stand alone induction method?
A: I do not see why it couldn't be, however I feel there are better and more reliable ways of doing so. I dont think this would do much if you dont awake several times a night, or have never had/tried lucid dreaming. I do believe like anything else, its an assistant. The dream is produced by the brain, not the method. You need to find something that works for you. I personally believe DILD/DEILD are the most common methods, so if you are successful with those this should be easy for you as I'm sure you've had several FA's by this point. WILD is my personal favorite because of the control you can exert during the transitional stage. Once mastered its basically guaranteed Lucidity whenever you want it. This is more or less an automatic reality check that initially requires no conscious effort I suppose, for me its a failsafe for when I wild. My WILD ability has improved tenfold after incorporating "controlled" awakenings.
Q: I am having alot of brief awakenings, but the object is always there.. what do I do?
A: It happens, you dont always have false awakenings.. this just takes advantage of the situation when you do (which for me is now a nightly basis). I think its like anything else, with conditioning the reliability increases. Im better at WILDs nowadays because I use the method consistently, not because I read about everyday. Be consistent, how much are you really losing by putting a glove or something on before you go to bed?
Also, its entirely possible for your subconscious to immediately incorporate the object in the dream, its just highly unlikely for me. Either way you should see a definate increase in awakenings overall, feel free to preform additional simple reality checks. More reality checks = More failed reality checks.
One more thing, if tactile and physical sensations aren't your thing, this may not work.. I use this method because I have problems with things that other people can do on a regular basis involving mental stimuli at night, so dont get to worried. If you have an already working method, stick with it is all I can say. Everyone is different.
Q: Two words.. Sleep Paralysis?
A: This has remained somewhat inconsistent for me. I have good control over SP because of all the WILDing.. I honestly dont wake up "into" sleep paralysis unless I was just attempting a wild that failed.. If you wake up into it often, it may be a bit harder to judge using this technique.. but feel free to take advantage of that situation to induce a WILD or DEILD instead. I think the secret to lucid dreaming is having an arsenal of methods that work for you based on specific situations.
Q: When I have a false awakening and become lucid I am stuck in my room, how do I get out?
I experienced this for a while, and the barrier is simply mental I've found. (Of course) Try to get out of the mindset that even though your dreaming, your REALLY lying you bed asleep because your reality check just failed. Seems like a common problem with FA's to experience this because you literally wake up lucid where your sleeping, it just doesn't make sense and causes problems or something lol.
Regular Lucid Dreams: You think your dreaming.
False Awakenings: You think your in your room sleeping and dreaming.
Not sure if this makes sense, but after I got around that mindset, never had the problem again.. if I do I just remind myself of the "Real" situation.. That this bedroom already doesn't exist.
Q: I dont want to sleep with a boot on for the rest of my life, why did you write this?
A: You dont have to, its a very obvious example. You can hold a guitar pick in your hand, something small, but I prefer something heavyish.
Q: This sucks, I've had better success trying to incubate my dream into a sponge
A: So be it :), Im not going to sleep any less soundly because it doesn't work for you, so please dont bother taking "personal attacks" at me because I decided I wanted to share a potential method. However, any helpful comments are more then welcome. I know I wont be stopping using this method anytime soon just because it does/doesn't work for you. Maybe one day I'll refine it to the point of some of these other techniques, to where it will be more usefull on a larger scale.. for now its food for thought.
