Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (Ssild) Part Ii Ld4All

-Dreamcatcher- wrote:The way you describe your version of the technique it doesn't require you to stay still as soon as you wake up and from the results people are getting I'm looking forward to this technique with great expectations and I thank you for introducing it here.I understood your technique but I would appreciate if you give an algorithm of actions someone who practices should use.What I mean is step by step instructions after waking in middle of night. ------- Dear Dreamcatcher, The SILD method was initially based on my own customized WILD routine, which given years of practice has enabled me to WILD at will. It was almost identical to Michael's technique plus a few extras. In the beginning we simply wanted to create a streamlined version of this WILD routine, but several revisions later we came to a very important realization -- it simply works better if we DON'T treat it as a WILD technique! Before I get ahead of myself, lets look at Michael's method first. You were correct that the hardest part of that method is remembering to stay completely still upon awakening. In fact, if you finally manage to do this you hardly need any technique at all. Another problem is the method being very demanding on the proper mind/body condition at the time of the execution. Given the right condition, it is not impossible to have a successful WILD within minutes, even seconds! However, when the condition is not perfect, for example, when you are rather wide awake, the method will unlikely do you any good. You can try wiggle your fingers without using muscle but that will feel genuinely fake. You then move on to stare behind your eyelids but you will see nothing but blackness. You then try squeezing your brain but that simply feel weird... Let's face it, how are you supposed to squeeze your brain? Of course, all of these become very easy and real when you are in the phase or are on the edge of a phase, but the exercise itself is not really designed to move you toward the phase. In fact, the amount of concentration demanded by the exercise will often leave you wide awake! Now let's look at SILD. Like Michael's technique, if you use SILD when you are in the proper mind/body condition, the cycling procedures will very likely result in rapid entry into the phase. However, since it is not a WILD technique, we don't care so much about producing immediate effect! Being able to WILD is a bonus, not a must. Thus, we do the cycling routines regardless of whether they cause any sensations to occur. Here we see a fundamental difference between the two methods -- where Michael's method requires focus, SILD requires un-focus. With SILD it is fair to say that the only thing you should focus on is how to quickly lose focus. You want to cycle through the senses in the laziest manner. You want to lose count. You want to forget where you are. You want to drag this on and on... Essentially you just want to fall asleep so much you give up on doing the exercise, which is perfect. SILD then works its magic after you fall asleep. You may suddenly wake up again, due to the motion caused by the cycling, and instead of awakening into reality you end up going into a phase because SILD has already prepared your mind and body into the proper condition. If you combine SILD with WBTB, then your chance of becoming aware within your dreams is greatly increased because the routine somehow is pretty good at messaging that little bit of awareness into your dreams, as noticed by Rhwin. As for your question, I suggest that upon waking up at night, you can immediately do a few rounds of SILD. This may lead you into a phase, but as I said you should not expect it. Better treat it as warmups. After 5 or 6 hours of sleep you will want to get up, stay awake for 5 to 10 minutes then go back to bed to do SILD. You may want to do a few extra cycles if you don't immediately feel sleepy. Remember, if you find yourself becoming more awake after doing SILD then you are apparently doing it incorrectly! I hope this helps Good luck and happy lucid dreaming!

flo148ebb wrote: Quote: The itch is also very likely an illusion. This may happen if you stay completely still. Your body uses this as a probe to see if you are truly asleep. There is a technique on DV that takes advantage of this, but it is extremely hard. The probing becomes so intense that most people just give up. ------- Oh so that's what that crazy itch is about. Thanks for clearing that up! I'd be interested to see that technique. Could you post the name or a link? Thanks for the great posts! ------- I can't find that article on DV anymore... It is very simple anyway. Just stay absolutely still and in 20 minutes or so the probing sensation will occur. Do not move during the probe then after it passes you enter into the dream consciously. this is simple but hard to accomplish. People often run into swallowing issues... But when it does work it is very exciting!

AJ wrote: Hollddupp... I want to try SILD, but will I hallucinate like WILD? Like, do I go into SP? Don't I just fall back asleep with SILD? I'm so confused. I hope it's not like WILD with hallucinations ------- It depends. Normally there will be no hallucinations -- just finish the cycles and go back to sleep, and expect phase entrance or DILD to occur later. However, if you work on each of the 3 steps aggressively, and given the right mind/body condition, it is still possible to experience many strange sensations including viberations, HIs, ringing noises, etc. My suggestion is that you should learn to deal with these, as they will be common in your journey of lucid dreaming. Learn to enjoy them -- they are fantastic experiences! Below is an unique experience recorded by one of the SSILD users on another forum: I just finished a Phase session where I used your cycling technique. In about 5 minutes I felt my physical focus waning. Then the strangest thing happened. I was was doing step 3 (which is to notice any strange body sensations) and all of a sudden I had a full vision of my body. It was dark in the area and I was kind of like outlined in white energy. Then something that looked like a "pac-man" head started to gobble my toes and work it's way up my leg, it did the same to the other leg and kept going higher. Piece by piece my physical body was being devoured. There was no pain or gore, since my body was just an outline. The sensation was incredible, the next thing I know my entire body is gone and I am in a land with the most vivid scenery and colors I have been too yet. The sensations of watching my body disappearing and then leaving me as just "total 100% conscious energy" was the most exhilarating I have ever had. The mental picture of this really drove that point home.

pnl wrote: cosmic.iron wrote:No pnl, you should keep eyes closed through the entire exercise------- so for 15-20 sec you are trying to see the images and the next 15-20 the sounds, and you are doing this again and again right? sorry for my bad enlgish (thats why i didnt understand the technique) im going to try it tonight! ------- Yeah that's pretty much it

pnl wrote: do you openn your eyes between the 15-20 sec with close eyes? ------- No pnl, you should keep eyes closed through the entire exercise lago wrote: First LD! ------- Congratulations. Next time upon becoming lucid remember not get too excited. Do some stabilization routines first -- rubbing hands, crawling on floor, shouting, and etc.

Innhyu wrote: this method, regardless of its original intention (LDing), is such a good method for people struggling with insomnia for sure! it only takes me 1, maybe 2 cycles to doze off... it's really hard to complete this few times haha ------- LOL, yeah it really is a form of self-hypnosis I guess.

pnl wrote: http://www.ld4all.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44453 here is my try to SSILD ------- Replied to your post lago wrote: Had 2 LDs last night... ------- Your welcome. Please take a look at the replies I gave to pnl as that might help you as well. apolo wrote:After 15-20 seconds of trying, how long must you pause or something and go on with the other try's? ------- No need to pause and you should never count the time. The 15-20 seconds is just a hint. Just do this technique in a relaxed and lazy manner. In fact, you want to lose count! (Sorry for bad english).

Hoodswigler wrote: I have some questions. Is it normal for your thoughts to drift off while doing the cycles? Every single time I try this my thoughts almost immediately drift off and I have to pull my focus back in order to keep going. Then I feel like it keeps me awake. Should I keep pulling my focus back long enough to do like 5 cycles? Should I let my mind drift off even if I didn't finish the first cycle? Am I too sleepy when I attempt this? I need help please! ------- It is quite normal for thoughts to drift off in the first cycle. For some people it is better to let it drift and event directly drifting to sleep. For some it might work better to keep pulling it back although it indeed might cause loss of sleep. I suggest you experiment with either ways to find the most optimal approach. Are you too sleepy when you attempted this? Hard to tell because some people seem to drift immediately even after staying awake for a long time! In general though it is better to have sufficient sleep prior to doing the exercise. Whe you get out of the bed you shouldn't fee too drawsy. That way you can comfortablly stay awake for at least 5 to 10 minutes then go back to bed to do the exercise.

wjxshow wrote: Hi cosmic.iron, I really want to give it a try, since regular methods are just too complex for me to pratice. I think it's a efficent way and simple to get that point. From your posted i learned that you are a very diligent man to collect information on LD. I also like to ask you what website of you said about that China forum, since iam chinese i can get some knowledge from there. thang you for your working. ------- The web site is Baidu Tieba. Once you are there search for "宇宙之铁＂(yuzhouzhitie). The Baidu platform is a horribly simple BBS with poor structures and very lame search facility. As such it was very difficult to collect data. In fact when we tried to collect results for the past 6-7 months we realize that a couple of months worth of data are missing from the search result. Despite that, we managed to collect more than two hundred first-time success stories. The total number of success stories are well in the thousands. I hope to see you on our forum.

thaifly wrote: Something funny happened last night Earlier during the day I tried to take a nap after doing some 5-6 SSILD cycles but could not fall asleep. Then in the evening when I was getting ready to go to sleep I decided to try SSILD again with WBTB and put my iPhone's alarm clock to wake me up at 4am. I woke up as the alarm went off and grabbed my iPhone in order to silence the alarm. However, the phone stopped ringing before I even touched it and the screen went black. I tried to restart the phone with no success. I stood up and my girl friend woke up as well. At that moment I realized that something was not right and did a nose RC and could breath! I became fully lucid but it lasted only for 1-2 minutes as I got too excited and woke up. So it was a very realistic FA! My question: is it possible that the cycles I did during day had something to do with the last night's false awakening? I found it pretty funny that the pure intention of using SSILD helped me to become lucid, even before I had the opportunity to do the cycles ------- That indeed is a funny experience. I wouldn't say the experience is resulted from earlier attempt of SSILD... it can't be that powerful can it? LOL. However, it is faily common to experience this kind of hyper realistic false awakenings after doing SSILD. You are right about intentions -- they are indeed very powerful. In fact, SSILD itself is a way to set up intentions. Words/mantras are not particularly effective at communicating intentions with our subconscious, but the SSILD exercise seems pretty good at that.

Apolo wrote: Hmm ok, so you dont need to pause? But how do you start the next 15-20 seconds then? Just immediatley after them? (So in fact you are doing those steps for like a minut or 2)? And how do you know you must fell asleep? Because at one point you say you have to pull your mind back and at the other step you say you have to fell in sleep as fast as possible? Another question. Do you have to do those steps at the same time of after each other?------- Just do one after another, without a pause. Make sure you don't do it too fast. You want to allow your mind to wander to the point you occassionally forget to do the exercise. You can allow the steps to overlap.

altheman9993 wrote: Well out of strange circumstances I ended up trying this. I woke up after a pretty poor night's sleep at 7 AM, got ready had breakfast, went to the gym to find out it's closed , so I come all the way home pretty tired and just went into bed. I remember reading this thread the other day so I decided to try focusing my hearing and touch, i forgot about vision. I did this about twice and then stopped. I then must have fell asleep cause I was then in a bath naked playing a online game with a friend. After a while I just became lucid out of the blue, though it only lasted for me to get out of the bath and walk downstairs until I woke up. Now I'm not sure if your technique was responsible since I only did it half heartedly and partly correct, though it seems to have helped ------- Doing it half heatedly is actually the correct way to do it! The out-of-blue-becoming-lucid is a very typical result associated with SSILD.

Apolo wrote: cosmic.iron wrote: Just do one after another, without a pause. Make sure you don't do it too fast. You want to allow your mind to wander to the point you occassionally forget to do the exercise. You can allow the steps to overlap. ------- Okay, I tryed last night. No result. I did the WBTB technique etc, (after 4/5 hours sleep) I get up and watched some motivation scene's from inception (stayed awake for 30 minuts), then I did go in bed and tryed the steps 4/5 times. But with no result. And it took a while before I get to sleep. So do you have tips? Another question is; When do you have to go to sleep? When you did it 4/5 times? Or when you get sleepy? Or do you just have to wait when you fall asleep? ------- How long did it take you to finish the cycles? Did your mind wander while doing the exercise? Did you occasionally forget about doing the exercise? If you did not experience any of these then you may be doing it too quickly, too systematically. If that's the case you want to slow down, do not count the time, and let your thoughts drift.

Hoodswigler wrote: Question for those who are fairly experience lucid dreamers. How does the quality of lucid dreams fare using SILD? Comparing it to being lucid from other techniques, does it create more vivid LDs? Shorter LDs? Longer LDs? More frequent FAs? ------- As far as I can tell, there is no difference between SSILD and other techniques in the quality of LDs they produce.

Somnium Viator wrote: Sounds interesting I think I'll give it a go tonight Edit: Success! My first proper LD! It happened in strange circumstances though managed to get through about five cycles and then my alarm went off. (I'd managed to use the MILD technique to wake myself up for WBTB and forgot I'd set an alarm as well ) anyway I was annoyed cause I thought I'd stuffed up the whole process, so I just decided to try WIlD but that I don't think it worked because my LD was a DILD. Another thing was that I had an FA right after it faded, but that was still a cool experience for me Anyway, awesome technique! I can't believe it worked first time for me Here's my recount of my dream if you're interested: http://ld4all.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=674393#674393 ------- Congrat! The FA is an indication that SSILD somehow kicked in even after the interruption as FAs are frequent side effects associated with the technique. No matter how real it may feel I suggest doing a RC as soon as you wake up after the exercise.

Kelsondra wrote: I tried this technique last night and didn't get any progress, although I had an interview to go to today and was stressing about that. I'll try again, going to have a nap soon. I do have a question about focusing on the sounds. I never heard anything no matter how hard I focused, is this ok? ------- As I always said, the proper way to do the exercise is to not focus on getting the sensations such as hearing actual sound. If you focus too much on trying to experiencing the sensations then you may lose sleep and never get into the trance, which is the state that your mind begins to wander and you constantly forget to continue the exercise. Next time do the exercise more slowly, without counting the time, and do not restrain your thoughts.

SnakeBelt wrote: I would like to try the SSILD technique. First of all, Cosmiciron, thank you for posting and sharing your technique. Unfortunately, I am very fastidious person, which means I have to analyse something to death before I feel confident to attempt it! Please answer my issues. ------- Hi SnakeBelt, for SSILD to work properly you need to get into the "trance". In the trance state your mind begins to wander so much that you frequently pause/resume the exercises. Thus, the orders and timings are not important. In fact, doing the exercise "systematically" almost guarantees failure. As I often said, the only thing you should focus on is to lose focus. You don't want to finish the exercise in a few minutes in an orderly fashion while your mind stays clear and alert. You want it to last a while due to momentarily losing and regaining consciousness. As for scanning the body sensations, you can do it either way, depend on whichever feels most natural. For example, you can scan up and down for sensations such as tingling, itchiness, numbness, heaviness, and etc. Or, you can simply focus on specific body parts such as the fingers and toes, head, abdomen, and so on. Some people even focus on more external stimuli such as the weight of the blanket. Practice the exercise during the day is not very useful, except during afternoon naps

antianticamper wrote: cosmic_iron, I think it would be a great thing to have a pure SILD website with all the material you've shared in this thread organized properly. SILD clearly seems to be an important new development in LDs and OBEs and I think a website devoted to all things SILD would be a huge success. aac ------- Thank you anticanticamper, I have been toying with similar ideas but I'm too lazy, LOL. Building a dedicated web site is no trivial task

SnakeBelt wrote: Thanks Rhewin! Maybe that will help me work out what I'm doing wrong - even though I know I'm doing it right! ------- The thread on DV also has collected quite a few dozen success cases. If you could provide me with a more detailed description on how you did the exercise, maybe I can help diagnose.

SnakeBelt wrote: cosmic.iron wrote: SnakeBelt wrote: Thanks Rhewin! Maybe that will help me work out what I'm doing wrong - even though I know I'm doing it right! ------- The thread on DV also has collected quite a few dozen success cases. If you could provide me with a more detailed description on how you did the exercise, maybe I can help diagnose. ------- I woke up for WBTB at 4am. I did the techniques and found myself starting to drift off to sleep so I woke a little and continued seeing/hearing/feeling. I was getting "lost" (which is good, yes?) and then suddenly became more awake. I wondered if it was FA so did a couple more seeing/hearing/feeling to see if it was a dream but they felt the same as before. I went to sleep. I woke up later and pinched my nose but I was not in a dream. I went back to sleep and nothing happened and I woke up later as normal. ------- Sounds to me you are doing it correctly and are actually very close to success. I suggest delaying you WBTB for one more hour, say 5am. Once you start drifting off it's ok to do one more cycle with slightly more focus. After that you should allow yourself to fall asleep ASAp and do not attempt doing the cycles at the same time as that may keep you awake.

Maneda wrote: But I am wondering if I should have stayed focus on those changing visuals on my eyelids instead of forcing myself to continue the cycle?------- Maneda, sorry for the late reply. Yes you should have focused on the visuals. Basically when you notice any sensations becoming real and pronounced, you will want to stay focused on it. The visuals will usually become larger, clearer, animate, and may eventually envelop you. SSILD is not designed to work right away while you are doing it, but it does seem to help deepen the state with each cycle; therefore, it is not uncommon to experience a WILD with it. Quote: Regardless, I found this to be an extremely relaxing technique; even if I wasn't trying to LD, I think I still would use something like this just to help me sleep. I love it in that it's mentally engaging, without requiring any active effort, like watching a really engrossing movie. ------- I like what you said here. It is precisely the correct way to do SSILD. Many people simply do not realize this though I will have to remember what you said here. Maybe I will include it in my revisions.

Lucid Wolf wrote: Total success! I can't believe that this technique worked on the first try. I was so sure that I had screwed everything up. My concentration had wandered a few times during the sense cycling but once I tried to get to sleep I felt kind of wired. I wound up "giving up" and flopping over to my stomach so I could get some shut-eye. After a little tossing and turning, I started hearing a weird noise from out in the hallway. I went into the hall to investigate. When I looked back into the bedroom, I saw this green-hued "energy storm" had gathered in my bedroom doorway. I walked back, curious, and pushed my way through it. It felt like walking in the open on a very windy day. Realizing that I'd had a false awakening, I pushed my finger into my palm for a reality check. Needless to say, the reality check confirmed everything for me and I took off at a run toward the window to try flying. The dream was quite stable. It seemed to last 10-12 minutes and required no intervention. I was quite aggressive throughout the dream, trying flying, falling from an enormous height, and conversing with dream characters. I even informed three of them that they were a part of my lucid dream and got three unique, very interesting reactions. I don't yet understand why this technique works but so far it is amazing. I can't thank you enough for sharing it! I hope it keeps delivering like it did last night. ------- Glad it worked for you, and I should thank you for trying One thing to note -- do not concentrate too much while cycling. Letting your mind wander is desirable as long as you don't fall into sleep in the first couple of cycles. Always do a reality check upon waking up after doing the exercise because SSILD is extremely good at producing totally realistic FAs. Congratulations!

Lucid Wolf wrote: Such a great technique. I've got a lot of issues to work out but I'm really enjoying the process. Is SSILD something that you still use yourself? Or now that you are in the thousands of LDs (!!), can you just lucid dream if you get bored sitting on the toilet? ------- Based on my observation, after performing SSILD for extended period, your mind and body gets into a state that is quite easy to invoke a WILD/OBE. This happens at two stages: 1. Immediately after performing extra cycles, say, 6 or more. You are still awake, may even have trouble falling asleep, but you are actually very close to getting a WILD. 2. The first time you wake up after the exercise. It is likely that you will wake up into a realistic FA. However, sometimes you do wake up into reality, but your body/mind is at such a state that with minimal effort you can enter a WILD. You can try the following method to trigger the WILD at the aforementioned stages: 1. Relax your head 2. Focus a bit on the hearings. If you hear ringing noises try to increase it. When it becomes loud enough you can do an RC and get up. 3. Assuming step 2 fails, concentrate on your hand and try to move it without using muscle. At the same time you can also imagine the motion of raising your hand to reach for your nose for the nose pinching RC. If all goes well you should be able to raise your dream hand and grab your dream nose, LOL. At which point you can simply get up and enjoy your LD. Nowadays I use SSILD extensively myself with very good result. My routine is this: 1. Sleep for 5 hours, get up for 2-5 minutes. 2. 4-6 cycles of SSILD. 3. Go to sleep. 4. Upon first awakening (regardless of it being an FA or real one) perform the above technique to enter a WILD. I have 100% success rate with this one. Prior to SSILD, I used a form of customized WILD. I was pretty good at it... although not so good that I can do it on the toilet, but there are times I could enter an OBE from being fully awake within a minute or two. I've also done it successfully in noisy environments such as on an airplane. However, these days I prefer SSILD over all other techniques I've used. It is simpler, faster, more relaxing (the WILD I used actually demands quite a bit of concentration and seems to consume a lot of mental and sometimes physical energy), and produces good results.

brian8u123 wrote: So, I tried this night, without much success, except for SLIGHTLY increased dream recall. I went to be at around 1 am, set my alarm for 7 am, and I woke. I laid down on my side and focused on my sight, then my hearing, then my touch. Sometimes, I would kind of drift off, and then start it again. After about 2 repetitions, I would start dozing off and coming back to start he exercise again. At times, I felt tiny tingling in my legs, but that's all. I eventually fell asleep. Am I doing anything wrong? I just wanna know because I'm gonna be using this technique for the next few days and I wanna make sure I get it right. Thanks! ------- Try to get out of your bed and stay awake for at least 5 minutes. When you have difficulty completing the first 2 cycles, it is a sign that you are not sufficiently awake. Of course, if you finish the 4 cycles in a hurry without ever going into the trance, you have awaken too much. KimokaJane wrote: Last night I tried this and I couldn't even get through ONE cycle without losing my train of thought. Does this mean that it's taking less time to get into 'trance' now that my mind/body is somewhat accustomed to this method? In other words, is it unnecessary to press through, since maybe I'm already there? Or do the fewer cycles lessen my chances of being successful? ------- KimokaJane, your problem is the same as brian's. Try to awake yourself a bit more before the exercise. You are also right that you have become somewhat accustomed to this method, which is a good thing. This means you can get into the trance much more quickly and less likely to lose sleep afterward.

brian8u123 wrote: Alright so second night with this technique and no success I'm gonna keep trying though! If I can master this then it would be a lot easier to LD in my opinion. Just one question: During WBTB's I literally drift off during the first cycle, sometimes before finishing the sight part of it. Do you suggest finishing at least one cycle, or can I just let my mind take me wherever it wants to, whenever? ------- dB_FTS was correct in his advice. Also you should stay awake a bit more before doing the exercise. While drifting off is desirable it should not occur during the first couple of cycles and should not prevent you from finishing at least 4 cycles.

cytariel wrote: I tried this with WBTB, and it was great succes which means i had a lucid dream . This will be my new main technique, for me it works really great and is so much easier to fall asleep after this + takes less time to execute then WILD or MILD. Just got a question, during second night of SSILDing I had a FA, and it happend 4 times in row, so it was rather bad. Everytime scenario was the same i sat on the brink of my bed, did RC, boom, black screen, FA again. Shouldn't i got lucid after RC? Is there anyway to prevent chain-FA? ------- This kind of FAs has almost become the signature feature of SSILD, LOL. For some reason, SSILD likes to produce hyper realistic FAs, therefore it is critical to develop the habit of RCing every time you wake up after SSILD. As for the blackout right after RC, this can happen and it can be frustrating. The way I deal with it is to first observe the hand till you see it clearly, with lots of detail. After that you can try to get up, or better yet, just focus your vision at some place in your room, and you should automatically zoom to the location standing up. You may also want to perform some stabilization techniques such as crawling on floor, shouting, etc. Once your dream scene stabilizes you should get out of the room as quickly as possible.

ritchie222 wrote: I am going to start trying this method properly but i have one question about it. As its stated its best with WBTB i don't feel i have the ability to get up for my normal time and then fall asleep while doing this, however i ALWAYS get up for the bathroom after awakening, what would you advise i do during WBTB, just go straight back to bed or stay up for a bit? Thanks ------- That's fine, as long as you have had a few hours of sleep. You can try to rinse your mouth. That should wake you up somewhat.