Thread: How Does MILD Work?

MILD is where you tell yourself throughout the day a certain phrase - your mantra.

The fact that you say it so much is supposed to make it happen - it's a reassurance, of sorts.

What you're doing now is actually DILD - when you RC or notice something odd in the dream. MILD is where you repeat a personal mantra, like "Tonight, I will lucid dream".

To avoid confusions, let's just get one thing clear :

There's only 2 types of lucid dream induction:

- DILD (you get lucid in the dream);
- WILD (you are already lucid when starting the dream)

Now, you can attain an WILD with several techniques: with FILD, with SSILD, or most commonly, by simply laying there and waiting to fall asleep, paying attention to body sensations, meditating, noticing HH, using an anchor, visualization, DEILD, etc etc.
You can attain a DILD with many techniques as well: with a reality check (it works and you realize you're dreaming), through simple awareness (you find something odd in the dream, or become aware that you are not breathing, or realize that the person who you are talking to is dead), through MILD (you develop prospective memory to better remind yourself that you are dreaming in the middle of the dream), dream signs, EILD (using a device or a substance), and many other ways.

Now, there's only one method to WILD: you fall asleep and retain consciousness all the way into the dream itself.
There's also only one method to DILD: you become aware that you are dreaming while already being inside the dream itself.

Everything else: MILD, FILD, ADA, tholey's, visualization, reality checking, mantras, intention, DEILD, are all techniques to perform the same method: in WILD, to reach a dream while conscious, in DILD, to become lucid while dreaming. This is important, because most (if not all) techniques are based on the same principles: memory, awareness, and expectation. EILD might be the exception, but EILD is a whole different topic

This is a rather important aspect of lucid dreaming you want to keep in your mind, otherwise you will just become an onironaut who claims (using an anology) that playing piano with your left hand or your right hand are 2 totally different things. They actually are nothing more than just 2 different ways to achieve the only method (playing the piano), and in essence, their roots are the same.

MILD refers to the use of prospective memory in order to remind yourself that you are dreaming. There are several ways to perform MILD: mantras, mnemonics and visualization being the most common ones. But technically, if you repeat 500 times during the day (I will remember that I'm dreaming whenever I dream about my work-place), and during a dream you shout "wait! I'm at my workplace, I need to do a reality check", you just achieved a DILD using MILD (you become lucid inside the dream using the prospective memory technique). You can see that many times is kinda hard to determine whether you achieved a DILD using MILD or ADA, or Tholey, or simple intention, or spontaneous reality checking, but that doesn't matter: your goal is the lucid, and practically all lucid dreamers combined several techniques/exercises in order to achieve lucidity

so you are not supposed to become lucid spontaneously. MILD is to recognize a dream sign, not to just become lucid, right?

Originally Posted by LouaiB

so you are not supposed to become lucid spontaneously. MILD is to recognize a dream sign, not to just become lucid, right?

No I wouldn't say that. There is not really any "supposed tos" in LDing. Don't worry so much about the exactly how, just getting lucid is the key. I general, I think all DILDs boil down to increase awareness at the root.

That being said, my very first DILD felt exactly like a prospective memory target hitting: it just came entirely out of the blue with no previous slowly building awareness, I was just going along in my dream and all of a sudden "I'm dreaming" hit my mind and I was lucid, so it was very spontaneous.

So far I've not had to use RCs to become lucid. Most of my LDs after the first were a bit more slow-dawning awareness, or realizing I was in a situation that could be dream-like, then full lucidity came very quickly right after just starting to question. I have used an RC to confirm lucidity several times, once when I felt I may be losing it in a very vivid lifelike dream, and once just because I was curious how my dream hands looked (and I spent the rest of the time rechecking them since in that dream they were really weird looking).

Once I walked through a wall, performing kind of a non-lucid dream control (telling myself "there is no wall" and expecting to feel no resistance), and just after that, saying to myself "I guess I must be dreaming" then I became lucid.

thnx alot, you all helped me greatly, but one last question. MILD is when your prospective memory suddenly tells you your dreaming, so it is always aware when you are dreaming even when you aren't, right?

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 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

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 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.

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.

thnx very much It's clear now. Man I feel better

why do we become spontaneously lucid sometimes, for no apparent reason?