Senses Initiated Lucid Dream Ssild

Originally Posted by Sydney: A random question; but CosmicIron, do you know if waking up naturally or by alarm would be better for SSILD? (I know we've probably discussed this earlier on in the thread, but I guess I'm just refreshing my memory xD) It's weird. When I wake up by alarm in the middle of the night I remain drowsy until I get back in bed, where I fall asleep when I hit the pillow. Without alarm, I'm able to actually walk around in some awareness and actually focus on something. If naturally is the way to go, I'm having trouble waking up at a specific time. Do you think mantras would help in this case? Although, I find it hard for me to fall asleep at the beginning of the night with mantras, but that's just me. Thanks. -------- Usually when we wake up during REM we feel less drowsy. As for SSILD, if you find yourself having difficulty to complete the first couple of cycles then you are too tired to make it work. You would be better of going to sleep and do the exercise when you wake up again. I find no difference between using alarm and waking up naturally though.

Originally Posted by CosmicIron: Usually when we wake up during REM we feel less drowsy. As for SSILD, if you find yourself having difficulty to complete the first couple of cycles then you are too tired to make it work. You would be better of going to sleep and do the exercise when you wake up again. I find no difference between using alarm and waking up naturally though. -------- Ok

Originally Posted by WDr: Just woke up, it didn't work didn't manage to consentrate and relax at the same time, and after I was done with the repetitions, I couldn't sleep... Oh well, I'm trying again tomorrow -------- You don't want to "concentrate" -- you will have hard time to fall asleep if you do that. The keys to make this technique work are: 1. Get plenty of sleep and wake yourself up sufficiently but not overly... I recommend 5 minutes for starter. 2. Do not concentrate on the effects/sensations. This is especially true with the first couple of cycles. As you enter the later cycles, some sensations may occur, but you should not pay too much attention to them unless they become very pronounced, in which case you should cease cycling and focus on increasing the sensation mentally in order to achieve a WILD. 3. Always remind yourself to do an RC upon awakening after doing the exercise no matter how certain you are. This technique is very good at producing extremely vivid FAs.

Tried again this night, and it didn't go so well after about 2 repetitions, my thoughts started wandering, and I didn't feel like I got any proper inputs from my eyes, ears and rest-of-body... Then I just fell asleep, and woke up many times... EDIT: Originally Posted by CosmicIron: This thecnique is very good at producing extremely vivid FAs. -------- Hmm... I may have got some FAs... When I think about it, I dreamed that I talked to a person about my dreams that I had that night. Don't remember if it was before of after I did the SSILD..

Originally Posted by WDr: Tried again this night, and it didn't go so well after about 2 repetitions, my thoughts started wandering, and I didn't feel like I got any proper inputs from my eyes, ears and rest-of-body... Then I just fell asleep, and woke up many times... EDIT: Hmm... I may have got some FAs... When I think about it, I dreamed that I talked to a person about my dreams that I had that night. Don't remember if it was before of after I did the SSILD.. -------- It is okay to let the thoughts wander. That is the desired effect! You don't want to seek "proper inputs" from the sensory, just do the steps regardless of whether you experience any sensations. If you focus too much on the sensations you will lose sleep, besides, the first 2 cycles normally do not produce any sensations anyway. Also make sure you do the full 4 cycles. Judging form your feedback, you were in and out of FAs numerous times Next time please remember to do RCs immediately after waking up, no matter how sure you are.

Hey CosmicIron, I have been trying SSILD for a few nights. I am having trouble finding the "happy medium" between being too tired and not being sleepy. Also, even when I do find the right amount of tired-ness, it just doesn't seem to do anything. I don't know what I am doing wrong here. SSILD worked for me the first time I tried it, now I can't get it to do anything.

Originally Posted by DaveTheJoker: Hey CosmicIron, I have been trying SSILD for a few nights. I am having trouble finding the "happy medium" between being too tired and not being sleepy. Also, even when I do find the right amount of tired-ness, it just doesn't seem to do anything. I don't know what I am doing wrong here. SSILD worked for me the first time I tried it, now I can't get it to do anything. -------- Hi Dave, You don't need to try deliberately to fall asleep. Doing that will have adverse effect. Treat the cycles as hypnosis (in fact it is), and allow that to bring you into the "trance". Many people, myself included, have discovered that the cycles can easily make us feel sleepy even when we were wide awake. That is, if you do them correctly. Too many people try to use the cycles as way to bring out HIs, vibrations, and etc., and while they occasionally may succeed, they are doing it wrong. Usually during the first couple of cycles, we are wide awake, and our mind haven't quieted down yet. As a result it is very unlikely we will feel anything at this stage, and if you force it, you will end up becoming anxious! Therefore, you should simply do the first couple of cycles as it is, without any attempt. Just do it for the sake of doing it, allow it help you to relax. As you become more relaxed, you will feel your mind quieting down, and you may begin to "notice" some sensations. For example, the darkness behind your closed eyelids may not be so dark. You may notice some lights, movements, etc. As you listen, you may notice that the outside environment noise become less distracting, and instead you start to hear the ringing noise inside your head more clearly. When you notice these sensations, don't get excited, and don't "focus" on them (unless suddenly they become very obvious). Just quietly observe them without any intent. Doing so will help you get into the trance very quickly. Another thing you want to keep in mind is that SSILD is very good at producing FAs; therefore you need to develop the habit of doing RCs every time you wake up after the exercise. When you find yourself not being able to fall asleep, or repeatedly waking up, you should definitely do an RC since these are signs of FAs produced by SSILD. If you post more detailed description on how you performed the technique I might be able to help you more. SSILD works! It has been a year since it was developed and we have seen huge successes, so even the slightest doubts have diminished. If it doesn't work for you, then it's something in your routine that needs some fixing. I'm here to help.

Originally Posted by CosmicIron: Hi Dave, You don't need to try deliberately to fall asleep. Doing that will have adverse effect. Treat the cycles as hypnosis (in fact it is), and allow that to bring you into the "trance". Many people, myself included, have discovered that the cycles can easily make us feel sleepy even when we were wide awake. That is, if you do them correctly. Too many people try to use the cycles as way to bring out HIs, vibrations, and etc., and while they occasionally may succeed, they are doing it wrong. Usually during the first couple of cycles, we are wide awake, and our mind haven't quieted down yet. As a result it is very unlikely we will feel anything at this stage, and if you force it, you will end up becoming anxious! Therefore, you should simply do the first couple of cycles as it is, without any attempt. Just do it for the sake of doing it, allow it help you to relax. As you become more relaxed, you will feel your mind quieting down, and you may begin to "notice" some sensations. For example, the darkness behind your closed eyelids may not be so dark. You may notice some lights, movements, etc. As you listen, you may notice that the outside environment noise become less distracting, and instead you start to hear the ringing noise inside your head more clearly. When you notice these sensations, don't get excited, and don't "focus" on them (unless suddenly they become very obvious). Just quietly observe them without any intent. Doing so will help you get into the trance very quickly. Another thing you want to keep in mind is that SSILD is very good at producing FAs; therefore you need to develop the habit of doing RCs every time you wake up after the exercise. When you find yourself not being able to fall asleep, or repeatedly waking up, you should definitely do an RC since these are signs of FAs produced by SSILD. If you post more detailed description on how you performed the technique I might be able to help you more. SSILD works! It has been a year since it was developed and we have seen huge successes, so even the slightest doubts have diminished. If it doesn't work for you, then it's something in your routine that needs some fixing. I'm here to help. --------: This morning I attempted SSILD again. I woke up at 7:00AM after 6 hours of sleep. I stayed awake for about 20 minutes, walking around the house and such. I went back to bed already feeling tired, but not too tired as I couldn't get my repetitions completed. During the repetitions I felt eventually felt an odd feeling, but it wasn't very . I am not sure exactly how many I did, but I think I did at least 4. By then I was so tired that I stopped and rolled over and went to sleep. I woke up at 12:12PM remembering 3 dreams, none of them lucid. The only slight trouble I have had performing the technique is that my eyes are very twitchy when I try to stare at my eyelids. My eyes refuse to cooperate and move around so I can't stare. I think this might be related to the fact that I have abnormally shaky hands, arms and such. Anyway, it is difficult to look at my eyelids when my eyes are zooming around in random directions, refusing to stay still. I am no sure how to make them stop, because thinking about it only seems to make it worse. I was thinking maybe it is possible that I am having lucids/FA's and not remembering them, so I was thinking about setting an alarm maybe an hour after doing SSILD, what are your thoughts on that? Thank you very much for your help and I know soon I will succeed with this technique.

Wow, great technique!! Thanks for all your work CosmicIron! I tried it last night for the first time and man, u weren't kidding about the FA's! My first attempt was looking at the blackness, which turned into a loud ringing noise, which then turned into a semi-lucid dream and ended. I blew it. The next awakening, same thing, stared at the blackness, saw a few stars start dancing around which then turned into me looking into a window and someone was painting cool pictures. I thought to myself "this is really weird, I must be phasing, but I feel too awake so it can't be" - I almost did a reality check, like u said to do, but I again dismissed it because I felt like it was probably nothing. - IDIOT! I look forward to working on this technique and perfecting it! Thanks!

Hi, I just registered to try and get some help with this technique. So far, I've had no real success with it and I've done it for about a week. I start using it, and it works for a bit. I'll start seeing mental images, hearing sounds, etc. About the time I start getting anything close to a dream, I'll completely forget I was ever doing the techniques, fall asleep, which I thought was the idea...and nothing happens. The closest thing I've gotten to lucidity was a dream about me closing my window because it was cold when it was in fact cold because I left the window open. What am I doing wrong? I'm not really concentrating on anything, I'm doing WBTB when I have a chance, but it doesn't work during the night or during daytime naps. I do leave a fan on in my room because I find it easier to fall asleep with white noise in the background. Is this okay, or should I learn to fall asleep without it? It's also not always completely dark when I go to sleep as my curtains don't block a lot of light.

Originally Posted by Wanderlust: Hi, I just registered to try and get some help with this technique. So far, I've had no real success with it and I've done it for about a week. I start using it, and it works for a bit. I'll start seeing mental images, hearing sounds, etc. About the time I start getting anything close to a dream, I'll completely forget I was ever doing the techniques, fall asleep, which I thought was the idea...and nothing happens. The closest thing I've gotten to lucidity was a dream about me closing my window because it was cold when it was in fact cold because I left the window open. What am I doing wrong? I'm not really concentrating on anything, I'm doing WBTB when I have a chance, but it doesn't work during the night or during daytime naps. I do leave a fan on in my room because I find it easier to fall asleep with white noise in the background. Is this okay, or should I learn to fall asleep without it? It's also not always completely dark when I go to sleep as my curtains don't block a lot of light. -------- Please provide me with the following information: 1. What time did you go to sleep? 2. What time did you get up? 3. How long did you stay awake? 4. How many cycles did you perform before drifting to sleep? 5. How long did it take you to fall back sleep? 6. Roughly how long did you perform each step (see, hear, and feel)?

Originally Posted by CosmicIron: Please provide me with the following information: 1. What time did you go to sleep? 2. What time did you get up? 3. How long did you stay awake? 4. How many cycles did you perform before drifting to sleep? 5. How long did it take you to fall back sleep? 6. Roughly how long did you perform each step (see, hear, and feel)? -------- 1. ~9 PM (Yeah, I know, I go to bed early.) 2. Set my alarm for 3 AM 3. Just long enough to use the restroom. 4. Maybe two or three. 5. Only a few minutes. The first time I did this, I lost sleep because I was concentrating too hard. 6. I performed them as long as it felt "right." Whatever felt like 15 seconds, I did. Could've been longer or shorter, I suppose, I wasn't paying attention.

Originally Posted by Wanderlust: 1. ~9 PM (Yeah, I know, I go to bed early.) 2. Set my alarm for 3 AM 3. Just long enough to use the restroom. 4. Maybe two or three. 5. Only a few minutes. The first time I did this, I lost sleep because I was concentrating too hard. 6. I performed them as long as it felt "right." Whatever felt like 15 seconds, I did. Could've been longer or shorter, I suppose, I wasn't paying attention. -------- Based on your feedback, I think the cause is insufficient effort. Don't despair, this is better than the other way around actually My suggestions: 1. Extend your wake time, say, 5-10 minutes 2. Make sure you do the full four cycles. Rule of thumb is That after your mind begins to wander you should do at least 2 complete cycles. In your case that would be 4 or 5 cycles. 3. The last cycle must be performed more diligently. 4. The "feel right" approach is perfect. No need to change anything I guess for now. Let's do this and see what happens. Keep me posted so we can adjust it to make it work for you. Good luck!

Originally Posted by CosmicIron: Based on your feedback, I think the cause is insufficient effort. Don't despair, this is better than the other way around actually My suggestions: 1. Extend your wake time, say, 5-10 minutes 2. Make sure you do the full four cycles. Rule of thumb is That after your mind begins to wander you should do at least 2 complete cycles. In your case that would be 4 or 5 cycles. 3. The last cycle must be performed more diligently. 4. The "feel right" approach is perfect. No need to change anything I guess for now. Let's do this and see what happens. Keep me posted so we can adjust it to make it work for you. Good luck! -------- Haven't had a chance to try it yet, will try tonight. Is a fan okay in the background? I find it makes it easier to sleep.

Originally Posted by Wanderlust: Haven't had a chance to try it yet, will try tonight. Is a fan okay in the background? I find it makes it easier to sleep. -------- It is okay as long as it doesn't interfere. Typically though, the quieter the room is, the better it is. As you go through the cycles, your attention shifts from the external senses to the internal ones. For example, the external sounds may become quieter, while the noises in your head becomes more obvious. When this happens you know you are getting deeper into the "state". If there is too much external noise, then you may not be able to shift your focus away.

Just had my first ever LD with this method after about a week of attempts. At least, I think it was this method. I woke up from a dream into an FA. I typically RC when I wake up but I missed it in the FA because my attention was kept on somebody who had woken me up. After a few minutes, I walked upstairs into the bathroom and turned on the light, but nothing happened. I tried it again, and still nothing happened. It immediately clicked in my head to do a nose RC and I could breathe! I was so excited that I panicked so I tried to grab on to the first thing I could to help stabilize the dream which happened to be the person who woke me up and followed me to the bathroom. The dream faded before I could reach her and I woke up in SP trying to breathe really heavily for about 2 seconds until I came to my senses and realized I just need to stay calm. It was one heck of a night in general. On average I record about 1 dream a night with poor-good quality. This night I recorded 5 dreams and 3 of them with incredible vividness and quality. Here's my night recap:: Spoiler for Sleep Recap: -------- 9:50 pm: Take an allergy pill, B6, and slam 2 glasses of milk and half a glass of water. Set alarms for 2:30 am (4.5h), 4:00 am (6h + 30m WBTB), and 6:30 am (8h) (Working on increasing my DR so it helps for me to wake up during or right after REM). 10:00 pm: Fell asleep. 12:15 am (2.25h): Woke up. No dream recall. 12:20 am: Fell asleep. 1:40 am (~3.5h): Woke up, recorded a dream of poor quality and length. 1:50 am: Fell asleep. 2:30 am (4.25h): Woke up to alarm. No dream recall. 2:35 am: Fell asleep. 3:10 am (~5h): Woke up, recorded a dream of great quality (2 full notebook pages of block text written as short-hand as possible, took me so long to write I reset my 4:00 alarm to 4:30). I had to urinate really bad at this point, and I even did so in the previous dream successfully. I waited to go to the bathroom until 4:30 in case I had another dream where I'd go to the bathroom so I told myself to RC the next time I do. 3:35 am: Fell asleep. 4:30 am (~6h): Woke up to alarm. No dream recall. WBTB for 20 minutes while reading DJ. 4:50 am: SSILD 5 cycles, achieved trance but was wide awake for 5th cycle. Laid in bed for 25 minutes before trying again. 5:15 am: SSILD 4 cycles, achieved trance but still couldn't fall asleep. Laid in bed for 20 minutes before trying one more time. 5:35 am: SSILD 3 cycles before roommate wakes up and makes a ton of noise upstairs. I give up, curse the method and start thinking about not trying it ever again, put earplugs in and try falling asleep. (At this point I haven't slept for more than a few minutes in over an hour) 5:55? am (~6.5h): Woke up and recorded a dream of great quality but the dream was pretty short. Just tried falling asleep like normal again. 6:15 am: Fell asleep (I know I fell asleep after 6:10 cause I called my roommate and she told me that's when she left). 6:30 am (~6.75h): Wake up from FA LD! Great quality and decent length, although lucidity itself only lasted about 4 seconds. I also recorded another dream before the FA of poor quality. --------

I've been a lurker for a litte over a month now, and I feel like this is the perfect time to join. I used this method last night and had my first lucid dream in ages! (albeit very short, but that was my own fault) I went to bed at 2am (I'm a night owl) and set my Alarm for 8am. When my alarm went off, I got out of bed to shut the window, so I had no distractions. I also have a sleep mask, which I didn't take off at all, even when I shut the window. It took my about 20-30 mins to fall back to sleep, and I just assumed I failed and it didn't work. I lost count of how many cycles I did, but it was way more than 5. Next thing I know, I literally feel myself falling asleep. Tingles all over my body and I knew I was creeping into sleep paralysis. Even though I know SP is not harmful, my heart was racing like mad, I really didn't want to see any freaky stuff. As soon as I attempted to move, I think I then had an OBE. I just remember leaning up in my bed and doing a couple of reality checks. (Although I knew it wasn't reality, because everything was really blurry, I just did it anyway) Then suddenly I see myself in third person, above the clouds and I just remember being hit by a wave of happiness (I know that sounds really stupid, but that's the best way I can describe it) Then just as I was getting into it, I hear my alarm and it woke me up I set up a back-up alarm, so if it didn't work the first time, I could try again. But I didn't take into account that it would take me so long to fall back to sleep, so that was a fail on my part. Nevertheless I'm extremely happy that I experienced it, and I really hope it wasn't a fluke. I also forgot to mention that my dream recall was incredible. 10x better then it has been for the past 2 weeks. I still remember a couple of my dreams vividly right now. Big props to the OP, I think I've just found my new method!

I don't get it. The last few times I've tried, I simply haven't been able to do it. My mind wanders restlessly from topic to topic, and won't do the technique for very long. I can do maybe 1 1/2 cycles before my mind begins to wander, but I'm still wide awake. What can I do? Is it just my mind is all screwed up? (That wouldn't surprise me, honestly. I do have severe depression. Maybe that has something to do with it.)

Originally Posted by Wanderlust: I don't get it. The last few times I've tried, I simply haven't been able to do it. My mind wanders restlessly from topic to topic, and won't do the technique for very long. I can do maybe 1 1/2 cycles before my mind begins to wander, but I'm still wide awake. What can I do? Is it just my mind is all screwed up? (That wouldn't surprise me, honestly. I do have severe depression. Maybe that has something to do with it.) -------- No, I don't think your mind is any more screwed up than the rest of us, LOL. To counter your problem, I suggest the following: 1. Get more sleep. Go to bed earlier than usual, and do not wake up until you have at least a good five-hour sleep. 2. Read this post: http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/theory...-ssild-135234/ Cheers

1. I always sleep 6 hours before waking up and doing stuff for a few minutes. I was told this is ideal for this sort of thing. 2. Maybe what I took away from that is that I'm looking for results too hard. Last time I tried this, I was wearing earplugs because it was an afternoon nap and people were milling about and there were sounds all over the place. I noticed I paid a lot of attention to my breathing. Is that okay? It's just extremely frustrating. I'm using this technique to try and produce OBEs. I tried Raduga's methods for over a year with almost no success, and I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I haven't had any success. I find I do a bunch of cycles, then fall asleep and nothing happens.

Originally Posted by Wanderlust: 1. I always sleep 6 hours before waking up and doing stuff for a few minutes. I was told this is ideal for this sort of thing. 2. Maybe what I took away from that is that I'm looking for results too hard. Last time I tried this, I was wearing earplugs because it was an afternoon nap and people were milling about and there were sounds all over the place. I noticed I paid a lot of attention to my breathing. Is that okay? It's just extremely frustrating. I'm using this technique to try and produce OBEs. I tried Raduga's methods for over a year with almost no success, and I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I haven't had any success. I find I do a bunch of cycles, then fall asleep and nothing happens. -------- You summed it correctly -- you are trying too hard. You shouldn't pay attention to ANYTHING! Stay as comfortable as possible, allow your mind to wander. If you wake up without success, don't despair, just keep doing more cycles till you fall asleep. Repeat this and you will have success.

Originally Posted by CosmicIron: You summed it correctly -- you are trying too hard. You shouldn't pay attention to ANYTHING! Stay as comfortable as possible, allow your mind to wander. If you wake up without success, don't despair, just keep doing more cycles till you fall asleep. Repeat this and you will have success. -------- Still nothing. Last night I noticed that when I'd hear a sound or see something very briefly, it would catch my attention, then disappear shortly afterwards. What is this a sign of?