Thread: How Does MILD Work?

I wouldn't be so concerned about definitions. The term MILD describes a technique that uses visualization of recent dreams and prospective memory triggers to induce DILDs. MILD does not describe the experience of becoming lucid. There are no such terms in common use that I know of (like "lucidity due to prospective memory target", or "lucidity due to feeling something is strange").

In MILD, you're supposed to imagine the intended trigger of recognizing that you're dreaming happens the next time you're dreaming, just like prospective memory exercise targets like "the next time I see a red car I remember to check my state". Whether or not this is actually happening inside the brain when lucidity occurs, who knows.

My personal entirely unscientific theory is that lucidity is all about heightened (self) awareness perhaps together with subconscious expectation, and that MILD is one way to achieve it. People get better at lucidity over time because the neural pathways active during lucidity, and in being self-aware and checking your state get more and more established and take less and less effort to occur, and occur more frequently, over time.

that can't be right. MILD is a technique that makes you lucid at will. Other then noticing a dream sign, it also makes you automaticaly lucid , because your prospective memory remembered your intention to become lucid and made you lucid. This concept is not related to the strangeness of the dream, or the awareness or dream sign. It just spontaneously happens for no obvious reason. That's why it's a method for having lucid dreams on demand when you become skilled at it. It can't be on demand if you rely on dreamsigns, because they may not appear.

Originally Posted by LouaiB

that can't be right. MILD is a technique that makes you lucid at will. Other then noticing a dream sign, it also makes you automaticaly lucid , because your prospective memory remembered your intention to become lucid and made you lucid. This concept is not related to the strangeness of the dream, or the awareness or dream sign. It just spontaneously happens for no obvious reason. That's why it's a method for having lucid dreams on demand when you become skilled at it. It can't be on demand if you rely on dreamsigns, because they may not appear.

Nothing guarantees "lucid at will." It is a technique to improve the likelihood, that's all.
I never said anything about dreamsigns or strangeness. If you're confused about just what MILD is, read it directly from the man who invented it, Stephen LaBerge, look for "A Course In Lucid Dreaming", he describes explicitly step by step what MILD is, and that's what I've described.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

I wouldn't be so concerned about definitions. The term MILD describes a technique that uses visualization of recent dreams and prospective memory triggers to induce DILDs. MILD does not describe the experience of becoming lucid. There are no such terms in common use that I know of (like "lucidity due to prospective memory target", or "lucidity due to feeling something is strange").

In MILD, you're supposed to imagine the intended trigger of recognizing that you're dreaming happens the next time you're dreaming, just like prospective memory exercise targets like "the next time I see a red car I remember to check my state". Whether or not this is actually happening inside the brain when lucidity occurs, who knows.

My personal entirely unscientific theory is that lucidity is all about heightened (self) awareness perhaps together with subconscious expectation, and that MILD is one way to achieve it. People get better at lucidity over time because the neural pathways active during lucidity, and in being self-aware and checking your state get more and more established and take less and less effort to occur, and occur more frequently, over time.

So when we say "next time I'm dreaming, I want to realize Im dreaming" we mean spontaneously realize we're dreaming? Or like see a dreamsign? Or both? Trust me I've studied this technique a milion times, but since I never experienced one, I don't know what is meant by "remember to recognize I'm dreaming". By using prospective memory? How? Does it know when you're dreaming? Does it put a dreamsign to make you lucid? Or just spontaneously make you lucid? This is not well explained in Laberges book.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

In MILD, you're supposed to imagine the intended trigger of recognizing that you're dreaming happens the next time you're dreaming, just like prospective memory exercise targets like "the next time I see a red car I remember to check my state". Whether or not this is actually happening inside the brain when lucidity occurs, who knows.

That is the association part of MILD, associating a dreamsign with dreaming, but what about the main part, that is about remembering to realize you're dreaming? Is MILD only about realizing you're dreaming by seeing a dreamsign? I'm still confused. I feel like I'm being a pain for you :p

wait, so MILD is all about realizing that you're dreaming when you see a dreamsign? Nothing more?

Originally Posted by LouaiB

wait, so MILD is all about realizing that you're dreaming when you see a dreamsign? Nothing more?

It's about remembering to recognize that you're dreaming when you're dreaming.

You mean like remember to recognize that I'm dreaming by remembering that a dreamsign=dream?
Sry Frying man, I didn't mean to put words into your mouth, but I'm confused how MILD makes you lucid. What confuses me is that : MILD is about giving spontaneous LDs? You just become lucid out of the blue? Yes or No plz

Originally Posted by LouaiB

You mean like remember to recognize that I'm dreaming by remembering that a dreamsign=dream?
Sry Frying man, I didn't mean to put words into your mouth, but I'm confused how MILD makes you lucid. What confuses me is that : MILD is about giving spontaneous LDs? You just become lucid out of the blue? Yes or No plz

You insist on asking for "yes or no" to a question that doesn't have a yes or no answer!

MILD is about inducing lucid dreams that start from within a dream, otherwise known as a DILD, PERIOD, that's all. I have personally experienced both what felt like spontaneous and slower awareness based on situation lucidity. At the time I was practicing many different techniques and practices recommended for inducing LDs (spending time during the day thinking about LDing, reading posts on DV, reading books on LDing, doing RCs, doing Tholey/LaBerge Reflection/Intention, SSILD, MILD, dream journaling, etc, etc, etc.), it is of course impossible to know precisely which ones (or the combination of which ones) produced the LDs.

The inventor of MILD (LaBerge) claims that it is prospective memory based, that you're "remembering" to recognize that you're dreaming. I think his claim should be taken with as much a grain of salt as anyone else's: we can't really know! To him, his *expectation* was that it was based on "remembering to recognize you're dreaming," so that's what worked for him. IMNSHO.

I think it is just as likely, if not more, that in fact the raised awareness and improved memory from doing prospective memory exercises, RCs, and the wakefulness boost that doing MILD visualizations during wakings, and the subconscious expectation built from doing this, is what produces the LDs, but of course I'm guessing just as much.

Originally Posted by LouaiB

That is the association part of MILD, associating a dreamsign with dreaming, but what about the main part, that is about remembering to realize you're dreaming? Is MILD only about realizing you're dreaming by seeing a dreamsign? I'm still confused. I feel like I'm being a pain for you :p

That is NOT what I wrote! I said it was "like" the red car example. The language he uses is, "The next time I'm dreaming, I remember to recognize that I'm dreaming."

I personally find that rather vague and cumbersome wording, and prefer to simply visualize dreams that I've had, or that I desire to have, and repeat to myself "I'm dreaming" while I'm visualizing.