Senses Initiated Lucid Dream Ssild

Originally Posted by rynkrt3: Yes, that is what I meant. I do not doubt you or your technique, I just find it odd that no one on this site has really found long term success with it. I just wander about people having success with it, but when that initial excitement phase wears off they start not having success. This happened to me. I found mild success a few times with this technique (a few shorts lucids and a few FA's.) but now no matter what I do I can't find success. -------- Such evidence are not difficult to find on this site alone. There is a thread that people record their results over a 30-day period and you can see some amazing statistics there, for example. To get sustained success with a technique one needs to not only practice but also analyze. This applies to every known techniques, not just Ssild.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus: This leads me to a bit of an "advanced SSILD" question. I've had a good number of lucid dreams via SSILD (56, according to my Dream Journal tags), so I am definitely a person that had success with this technique over a long period. This tech works. In spite of all that success, I can't help but be curious what you and the other SSILD practitioners with a 100% success rate do to get perfect results. One great thing about the technique is that it's so straightforward that it's fairly easy to instruct someone how to do it. But beyond those basic steps... in your estimation, is there anything that you and the other 100%ers do differently from those of us who "only" get good but not perfect results? -------- Sorry for the late reply... To get 100% success rate, we need to learn to actively shift into the dream during a special trance state often induced by SSILD. During this state, we walk a very fine line between waking and sleeping. It all depends on where you place your focus -- if you think you are awake, then you will be moving your physical body immediately and the transition from the trance to full waking state is totally seamless. On the other hand, if you move your focus away from the physical body then you will immediately be in the dream state, again in a completely seamless fashion. A easier way to do this is to relax your head, allow it to sink into you pillow, then try to move your hand with only the slightest mental effort. Use it to pinch your nose to perform a nose plug RC in one smooth movement. If the RC succeeds, then simply maintain the same level of focus and roll out of the bed. This special trance state can be had spontaneously, but most often occurs after performing the SSILD cycles. It is not the same as FA because if you are not careful you will indeed move your physical body and there is no "waking" process associated with it. Utilizing this technique you can achieve almost guaranteed success. After performing SSILD cycles you will have many subsequent awakenings. Some of those are FAs, and many are this type of trance states. Normally people would consider them failed attempts of SSILD, but by using the above technique you can turn them into perfect launching platforms. Sometimes you can succeed even after you have moved your physical body upon waking up. That's how powerful it is. It's definitely not DEILD. I hope this helps! Happy dreaming!

Originally Posted by rynkrt3: Are there ways to tell if we are in this phase that cosmic speaks of, or is it more of a you just have to guess? After preforming SSILD cycles for a while I do feel closer to sleep but I dont feel as if im in a certain transition phase. -------- Basically you will be in this phase during any of the subsequent awakenings after performing SSILD. If you spend a long time *cooking* the cycles then chances are you will succeed during the very first awakening. Otherwise you can perform the cycles one more time and be in the phase upon waking up again.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus: I'll let Cosmic Iron speak for himself on the second part of the question, but as for the technique itself, yes, it's a lot like visualization. If you've ever used dream control to make something happen without actually "moving", then IMO you have the right idea. It's like you cause the RC via visualization, yet it's still very much like experiencing it rather than simply imagining it. It's a bit strange, so I hope that the explanation helps. Again, I've only used this for WILD so far, and I'm assuming that it's pretty much the same in the SSILD trance. -------- That's exactly how it works. Though later with more experience, one should be able to just "know" how to shift the focus between the physical and dream bodies without the visualization part.

Originally Posted by EmptyBucket: ^^ When you guys mention moving your hand for an RC, do you mean to visualize yourself doing an rc, or actually physically doing an rc(which I guess is counter-productive) And do these after the SSILD cycles, or in between? -------- Either way is fine, although visualization is the safer approach as it allows you to take advantage of even the lightest trance state. You can do this right after the SSILD cycles and that may give you a authentic WILD experience. For easier and more reliable result you will want to do it upon subsequent awakenings resulted from the SSILD exercise.

Originally Posted by tofur: cosmic, do you clearly remember the period in which you get up and do the cycles in the morning once your awake for the day? I ask because my memory seems hazy even though I get up and go to the bathroom and then do cycles. I'm never sure exactly how many of them I did, or if I even made it past the first phase of them. I feel like I did, but I also am feeling like I'm not so sure about that. Should I stay up longer or is this common? -------- Personally, the act of getting up and returning to bed to do SSILD is always based on conscious decision. Thus I can remember clearly the process as well as majority of the dream initializations. Sometimes I get lazy and do not want to get up. SSILD done this way usually have lower success rate, and it is not uncommon for me to fall asleep right away and remember very little of it. So yes I definitely recommend you to stay awake a little longer, or get more sleep before attempting the exercise.

Originally Posted by Denholm: Something I'm considering doing is preparing half a page or so of text, and then when I wake up to perform SSILD, I'll put the light on and read over this sheet. It'll basically just have some of my goals and intentions etc on it, as well as things like reminders to watch out for false awakenings etc. I think this may help me to become just alert enought to finish SSILD without falling asleep prematurely, and has the added benefit of reaffirming goals for when I become lucid. -------- I think thats a good idea!

Originally Posted by Guitar48300: I've been trying SSILD for months and have maybe only gotten 3 total lucid dreams. I feel like it's because I cant seem to get myself to do the same general number of cycles every night. Sometimes I'll do it, but then some nights I'll only successfully do the cycle only once. Is this affecting my SSILD success? -------- I think so. Unless you can learn to take advantage of the intermediate state, as described in the last few posts, upon waking up from SSILD, you really need to wake up sufficiently prior to SSILD in order to get it to work reliably. Of course, you don't want to wake up too much either since you may not be able to fall back to sleep. The key is to experiment to find the best balance.

Originally Posted by Aremus: Hello, I'm new in this forum, and wanted to write my experience. I've been trying for this week the SSILD technique with no luck. I've been waking up after the 4 hours of sleep, the first day wasn't very sleepy as the next days. That day i tried the cycles. Started to feel very relaxed, then when i finished the cycles, it took me several times to sleep. Didn't get any LD. The next days has been very different. For example today. I woke up after 4 sleep hours, then got up for 5 minutes, but felt very sleepy. But better than the days before. So i got back to bed to start the cycles. It started well, but this has been happening a lot. I do the cycles, when i start with the sight, i start to drift away in my mind, then when i realize i'm drifting away, i try to repeat the cycle or going to the next one, i start but then drift away again. But i don't fall asleep. Today i did a quick ones because of this issue, then do the long ones, but didn't feel relaxed, so i let my self sleep with no result. Any suggestion on what could i do to accomplish this? Thanks in advance! -------- The second try sounds like you were doing the technique correctly and getting the desired results. When you begin to drift in and out, chances are you are already in a trance state and very close to being in a dream. You could be already in an FA too! I suggest you do a couple more cycles with longer durations for each step and see if you experience any strange sensations. If nothing occurs, then simply do an RC, stop, and fall back to sleep quickly.

Originally Posted by BaronKriminel: If that many people had success with that method there wouldn't be in every forums so many pages just to ask how to do it properly Glad it works for you tho -------- Isn't that the point of having a forum -- asking questions and get help? I'm not gonna argue whether it is more effective than other stuff, but there is no lack of recorded successful cases in this thread, on this forum, and all over the web. Saying "No one really succeed" is either the wrong observation or deliberate denial.

Originally Posted by LucidProdigy: I've tried SSILD for the past two days and have gotten 6 FAs. I was only planning on using it to increase to overall awareness of my normal dreams so I would have a better chance of becoming lucid...but wasn't quite expecting this. I haven't successfully converted any of the six into a full blown lucid yet but I'll try again tonight. -------- It is extremely important to perform RC every time you wake up from SSILD. The chance of it being an FA is quite high. Sometimes it can be a strange state in between an FA and real awakening which, with more delicate handling, can be easily converted into a full-blown lucid dream. Originally Posted by fogelbise: Threads for techniques that don't work for a good sampling of people tend to die out and not have 800+ posts and 35 pages. The technique helps in some way for both DILDs and WILDs. I have seen many members here have success with it including myself. It is probably not for everyone though. -------- Thank you for backing me up. I agree that the technique is not as easy and bullet/idiot proof as I'd like it to be. I too would love to see a technique that works for everyone with minimal efforts. Originally Posted by Bobblehat: Seems a pretty accurate assessment, Baron Creepyphoto. One of the problems is, SSILD seems to have some effect, but nobody knows why it works (I've had sporadic success, btw). With MILD you can kind of see why it works, but with SSILD it's all guesswork - unless we assume it's just a short and fancy way to do WBTB and nothing else. -------- Honestly I'm not sure if the assessment is THAT accurate. There are numerous success cases on this forum, in fact, too numerous too list. I'm not saying it's the best, never said that, but it does work for many people. As for why it works -- we don't even know what lucid dreaming really is, right? Human consciousness to this day remains a mysterious subject. Can we REALLY say we know exactly WHY the other techniques work? I don't think so. Originally Posted by satsujin: Hmmm, there's probably a very good reason SSILD has not been working for me. I just noticed you need to wait 4 to 5 hours before trying it. After going to bed at 10:30, i usually get up once around 1:00am and again at 5:00am. I've always tried the method at 1:00am so now I'll wait for my second awakening before attempting it. Wish me luck... -------- You do need to get sufficient amount of sleep prior to trying SSILD.

Originally Posted by Imaginary: How do you know when you are in false awakening or false awakening is going to happen? I mean in the past trying DEILD, focusing on tactile sensations waiting for dream to appear i would like stay awake for too long or just pass out for a brief moment and wake up in false awakening with no transmition sensations or anything, few times i did RC and found myself into false awakening still waiting for the dream to appear and still focusing on my body sensations. I didn't get any signs of transmition or anything. Is there a way for me to know when false awakening happens and identify it while doing this? -------- There is no way to identify the FAs easily -- they can be quite convincing. Worse, some of the SSILD triggered FAs can be extremely life-like. The good news is that the chance of having FAs after performing SSILD can be very high, and when you are into these FAs you usually can remember clearly that you are waking up from SSILD. Thus, if you can develop the habit of reality checking upon awakening then you will have a much higher chance to catch these FAs.

Originally Posted by mitten1997: i've found success with ssild only twice and hadn't yield any real results since...there must be something wrong i'm doing, it's such a promising technique for me. last night i slept a bit before 12 and woke up around 3:50, stayed up for five minutes. fast cycles no problem, then the longer ones. i focus on each sense for at least 30 seconds. is that too long? i find that when i'm successful with this technique i feel like i'm losing sleep.. -------- So what happened last night? Did you fall asleep after the cycles? If so how long it took you? Did you remember any dreams afterward? Any subsequent awakenings? Let me know more details so I can help you diagnose.

Originally Posted by mitten1997: hello as soon as i did the cycles i turned over to fall asleep, which was difficult. i was falling asleep during the cycles though. i spent the next two hours in light sleep and didn't dream at all. when i woke up i did an rc and failed. the thing is i also slept like this when the technique resulted in a dild on two occasions. the weird thing is that i felt like i was conscious during those two hours, it didn't even feel like i was asleep that long. -------- This is normal, and usually goes away with a little bit more practice. If you are falling asleep during the cycles, just let go and sleep. The trick of SSILD is to know when to give up Originally Posted by FryingMan: Yeah, but I don't pay much heed to success stories unless they hold steady and regular for serious time (months, years). "It worked once for me!" is really not statistically interesting (people LD for the first time sometimes just by being excited about this new thing). But I know you personally get a lot of LDs out of it, so that to me means it should remain in serious consideration... -------- There is also a thread in which people test the technique continuously for 30 days. While the technique is far from perfect, it does work consistently for many people, and the evidences are all over the net.

Originally Posted by Iriba: I tried this for my 1st time after 4-5 hours and nothing happened to me. I was "reporting" what task would be next as well such as: "next stage i'll have to imagine a color" Maybe that interfered in my sleep? I also take a long time to sleep, so i just have to re-do it over and over again? -------- You don't need to "imagine" seeing things. That interferes with the technique and causes stress to prevent you from falling sleep. Just passively observe what's in front of you, with your eyes closd of course, and do not strain to see anything. It is perfectly okay not to see anything. Just the action of seeing is enough. Don't think too much.

Originally Posted by solpic: First of all I want to say that this technique has worked wonders for me. I have a pretty much 100% success rate with LDs now and that was going from having maybe one LD a week, and never knowing when it would happen. And the really cool thing is that when it works, it really works and I'll tend to have at least 3 or 4 LDs with it. I am curious and at some point in time I am going to test whether it is the technique, or just wbtb that is making me lucid, but for now I'm enjoying having tons of LDs and will have faith in the technique. Now the question I have is this, except for helping with deilds, does dream journaling help when using this technique? Also, should I be doing the technique every time I wake up after my initial wbtb? Thanks! -------- Dream journaling is nice and improves dream recall, but I personally don't feel it adds extra value to the technique. As for your other question, I feel that since you already have a very high success rate you probably shouldn't alter your routines too much. There is no definitive BEST way to do this technique. What's best is the one that works for you

Originally Posted by Matt1: Hey Cosmic, it says in the tutorial that doing the cycles upon initial sleep is a waste of time. However, I have found that is not the case for me. Lately I have been doing the cycles upon initial sleep, then waking via alarm somewhere between 3-5 hours later. And I have noticed that my recall/awareness is way higher during that time when I did the cycles beforehand than when I didn't. -------- Your observation is true, I think. On our forum there are quite a few people who have managed to use SSILD to trigger LDs during initial sleep. Personally I also observe better recall and dream vividness whenever I perform the cycles.

Let me try to address some of the questions I saw since my last visit here. "How do I focus on the senses?" Very simple. Just say this in your head -- "I'm now focusing on ____". Then mentally scan the corresponding directions. For sight, it's the "up" direction. For hearing it's the horizontal direction. And for body it's the vertical direction. You don't need to see, hear, or feel anything. It's the "ritual" that matters. "How long should I stay awake before doing SSILD" It depends. If you REALLY want it to succeed then you should become fully awake, but then you may never get back to sleep. You can also stay in your bed and not get up at all and try to chain the exercise upon each subsequent awakening, which tends to be very effective if you practice it well. The thing is, SSILD works by increasing your chance to become lucid, but it does not guarantee success. If it works today, great. If it doesn't, you still a lot of opportunities to try it in your life. That's the attitude SSILD promotes. If you absolutely want success every time, then I suggest you look at some of the WILD methods. But I warn you, a method that theoretically guarantees success doesn't necessarily mean it will apply to you. "Why has SSILD stopped working" No definitive answer here. Could be the timing, your physical and mental condition, or the way you perform the technique, and etc. One thing that may be universal though could be intention. Do you intend for it to work this time? How ? A person who never know what Lucid Dreaming is May have lower chance to become lucid, with every technique. That's intention at work here. Here is a tip for all of you, not just those with the questions -- SSILD can put you into a delicate state between reality and dream upon each awakening. There is no apparent line between these two states. You think you are awake? Then you are truly awake. You want to go into your dreams, we'll you can do that too. At this strange stage, you can choose to move your physical body or your dream body. Soon as you move your dream body you are in a dream. If you learn to utilize this special state then you will have 100% success rate, guaranteed. I and some of my friends have learnt to do this naturally, easily shifting the focus from physical to dream, and vice versa. For beginners you can try this -- you wake up from SSILD. You are absolutely certain you are awake. Don't despair. Relax and allow your head to sink into the pillow. Focus on your nose and imagine that you are lifting your hand to pinch it. You probably will feel some weight on your nose and that's great. That sensation will help you. It is the sensation caused by your imaginary fingers pinching it. Once you manage to feel that your fingers have grabbed your nose you can try breathe. If you can breath the you are already in a dream. Don't let go of your fingers,. Keep focusing on them and roll out of your bed. Voila, you are in your dream world. Keep in mind -- I'm not talking about false awakening here. This is real awakening. But if you do what I say, with practice, you may be able to turn these real awakenings into lucid dreams, even AFTER you have physically moved. That's the beauty of SSILD. "is SSILD just WBTB?" What isn't.? You need WBTB for just about every techniques. WBTB alone with intention may work, but that's more hit and miss. Some people read up on lucid dreaming during WBTB to set up their intentions, and if you wish, you can consider SSILD to be the equivalent of doing that. Treat it like a way to anchor your intentions and nothing more. As long as you are getting the result I'm happy for you On the other hand, my experience as well as those of many others lead me to believe there is much more to the technique than just a simple intention-setting tool.

Originally Posted by Bobblehat: I've got a big problem with SSILD. I do use the technique sporadically and I'm fairly surely it improves my dream vividness. I'm also sure cosmic has brought something new to the LD world's table. The problem I have is, nobody can say for sure how it works but everyone seems to accept the current form of the technique as THE finalised technique, like it's a finished product. Surely if we're not sure how something really works that leaves room for improvement and we should all be tweaking/experimenting like mad? Cosmic did a lot of the development of SSILD and experimenting on a Chinese language forum but I'm left with the feeling that we, at dreamviews, are not privy to the experimenting that's gone on - we're only left with the final, "perfected" version. -------- I totally agree that more experiments are needed in order to improve the technique, and I'd never claim the current version is final and "perfected". As for why and how it works I feel that all theories are essentially hypothesis until science understands what lucid dreaming really is, and that applies to just about all techniques. Therefore, even though there are no lack of people who claim to know exactly how the technique works, I have always told them to keep an open mind and consider other possibilities. Originally Posted by Imaginary: Lately i've been having this chills/shivers that happen to me when trying to SSILD. After WBTB i will go back to bed, lay down, start relaxing and start doing the cycles. As i do more cycles and my trance deepens, in the middle of my back this waves of chills/shivers will start and then sometimes spread up to my head, down my legs or just back area. They feel as if you are slightly cold but the room isn't cold. If i roll on my side and continue to sleep normally, i don't get them, only when i do SSILD. This has been happening a lot to me for a while now and i have no idea what these chills/shivers mean or if they are some sensation asscociated with how close i am to enter SP, dream or something. I know they are not vibrations for sure, since i had few experiences with vibrations and know how they feel and look like. --------: I've had similar sensations coupled with slight sinking sensations. Usually at this point I know I'm getting close.