Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (Ssild) Part Ii Ld4All

Lucid Wolf wrote:What say all of you? What should I have done differently? Crawled around on the floor? Run out of the room as fast as possible? (I did this during my first SSILD lucid and it worked.) Stop being a weenie! Shout "increase lucidity" and just deal with an upset DC wife. Something else?------- I'd say all of the above, item number 3 in particular, LOL. The other things I'd recommend: 1. Find a switch on the wall and turn on the light. Granted, the light may not get turned on, but "something" will. We discovered this neat trick through a lot of experiments conducted on our forum. When you flip the light switch, some part of your dream always gets turned on, be it the room, the other rooms, or some place outside. For example, we have seen night turns day, stars coming out, street lamps turned on, and even lightnings that correspond to each flip of the switch! After you do this, your dreamscape will become bright and stable. 2. Imagine a cliff behind you and step backward to fall into it. This is a very fast and effective way to change the dream scene. 3. Turn on your mobile phone and use that to light up the place... no I'm not kidding. 4. Grab and examine some objects closely. This works well on restoring your visions. Very handy for those dreadful instances when you experience a total blackout. Hope this helps.

alexkid wrote: Very interesting technique ! I am not very good at LD but tried it yesterday with immediate success ! looks promising. My lucidity was low though and the recall is poor enough. Gone to bed at 11pm woke up at 4.30am (no alarm, I often wake up during the night). I did stay awake like 5 minutes before doing the cycles like 4 or 5 times. Then I turn back to my favorite sleeping position, felt asleep and had 3 FAs, which I believe is quite a lot. I Managed to do RC on each one which made me becomes lucid. Unfortunatly, as said before the recall is not very high, and the lucidity seemed very poor compared to WILD. Will try it tonight as well and see if the success rate is that high (look promising by seeing all reports on this forums as well as others !) edit: I was about to forgot, some people reported nightmares which I experienced too using SSILD. Do you guys think it's related ? Regards, Alexkid ------- I have seen hundreds of report, and based on what I saw there shouldn't be any relationship between SSILD and nightmares. One possibility, though, is that sometimes after performing SSILD one may suddenly enter SP or an SP-like state while asleep, and for some that can be a little scary and may turn into a nightmare as lucidity fades.

Okapis Rule wrote: I tried this the night before last and last night. The night before last I woke up at 5:15 and did WBTB for about fifteen minutes before doing this method. I did it and was able to concentrate well, but I wasn't able to fall back asleep before 6:30, when I had to get up. Last night, I woke up around the same time and tried it without WBTB, figuring I would be able to fall back asleep better. I wasn't able to concentrate as much, but I got through the exercise and tried to go back to sleep. However, I wasn't able to fall back asleep until about 6:15, and when I woke up at 8 I hadn't remembered any dreams that may have been influenced by it. ------- Please read carefully the bottom section of the article, which describes the reasons for not being able to fall asleep. Also, do not "think" about falling asleep. If you are worried about it you may just get what you fear for The cycling actually works very well as a way to make you feel very sleepy, if conducted correctly.

CyberD wrote: I've been trying this technique very casually for maybe a month now. I hadn't been having any success, I've fallen asleep during cycles, after them, been too awake some nights and tried to shift into a WILD a couple of times after seeing things during the cycles. I wake up during the night almost every night and so like I sometimes do I decided to give the technique a go. This time I see things during the cycles. I heard voices, vivid images appeared in my head. Normally I'd think "I can WILD here, lets do it." but this time I decided to just to keep going with the cycles. I think I made it to the third cycle when I fell asleep. I then found myself in bed and instantly knew I was dreaming, so I sat up and checked my fingers just to be sure and that was it. It wasn't a WILD since I know I was asleep for some time. Instead I think it worked for me because by not trying to WILD I didn't become too excited and I was able to fall asleep. I had the longest LD I can remember thanks to this technique. Later that same night I had a FA but didn't realize.... so I still have some work to do. I'm curious to know if many other people actually see things during the cycles. Usually I don't see anything before I fall asleep (which I understand is perfectly normal) but I don't seem to have any success when that is that case. Probably just need more practice ------- Congratulations! It is common to see things during the cycles. In fact, the cycles are designed to bring you deeper into the "state" very quickly. It works much better than focusing on one sense for extended period of time. You did the correct thing this time -- this is the reason I said in the article that we should NOT treat it as a WILD technique! That being said, you can indeed use the technique for WILD once you become more proficient with it. Have fun!

Zoef wrote: Thanks Cosmic Iron for sharing this amazing technique. I experienced my first OBE already after two weeks. Never thought it could be so easy. When I started, the lucid dreams were very short but soon became longer. Then lots of realistic FA's and more vivid normal dreams and the frequency of my lucid dreams went up dramatic. Now I am excercises when I lay on my left side (my normal position when I go to sleep again) instead of my back. I find it more easy to fall asleep. Does that make any difference ? ------- I'm happy for you You can use whatever position that feels most natural for you... as long as you don't fall asleep in an instant

ghanemhaithem wrote: but why does it work ,i don't seem to understand the point of it,anyways,this tech is going to have a place in my program,we shall see if i may ask,what was your name in DV ? ------- Let me give you one theory which I like the most (I'm not saying it is THE theory. After all, we know so little about these things in general, so it is always better to stay curious and modest than pretending we know it all.) First let me provide a brief overview about the Focus Point model of our consciousness. Our consciousness is a vast and seamless "entity" (for lack of better terms) which covers a wide spectrum of "areas." These areas include our waking state, dream, everything in between and beyond (higher state of consciousness). Just like how camera lense works, "focusing" on an area makes that area appear clearer, and other areas become blurry. Once it's completely in focus, it becomes the focal point of our "self-awareness". In this model, falling asleep and entering dreams is essentially the result of our focus shifting into the dream area. What we typically see as a slow and gradual process (falling asleep) can in fact happen in an instant if you could manage to shift your focus quickly. Whether or not this has any scientific basis I truly do not know. However, through years of practice I can indeed do this shift "manually" and sometimes extremely quickly -- shifting from complete waking state (with small degrees of controllable physical movements still present at the time of shift) to other states in mere seconds. One interesting state is the intermediate state between waking and dreaming. In this state, our self-awareness is no longer confined in our physical body, but it has not yet entered the "dreamland" and assumed a "dream body." Instead, it exists in pure intangible, shapeless state. Under this condition you can proceed to form a dream deliberately, or re-focus to move to a higher state of consciousness. This state is also extremely "fragile" because with but the slightest focus change you will return to the physical. In fact, it is not uncommon to be able to feel and command both the physical and mental at the same time, and that can produce some truly amazing results! Okay let's not get carried away, LOL. Anyway, because our physical input and output are not fully "shielded" from us at this fragile state, our "attention" can be rather easily distracted. For example, sudden sounds, abrupt change of ambient lights, physical touches, and so on. When they happen we inevitably "pay attention" to them and as a result we change our Focus Point back to the waking state. As you can see from the above, the way to move our Focus Point around is by "paying attention". If we pay a lot of attention to the physical then we remain physical. Likewise if we pay more attention to things beyond physical then we are moving the focus point of our self-awareness toward them much closer. That, is the theory behind SSILD. During the SSILD cycles, the first one is almost entirely loaded with the physical. You stare at the blackness behind your closed eyelids, that is physical. If your room is not completely dark you may even see the outside light, and that's even more physical. You listen, and your ears are filled with outside noises -- fans humming, wind blowing, and all that weird stuff. You try to feel and all you could feel is your bodily sensations -- blanket rubbing against your skin, some itches, and that horrible backache, etc and etc. However, as you do more cycles, you may start to notice that these external sensations begin to fade, and some "internal" ones begin to appear. The more you cycle, the more attention you are paying to the internal sensations, and less attention are being paied to the external/physical ones. And that, moves your focus point closer to other areas in your consciousness. Think of this as a gentle massage of the mind. You are loosening the grips of the physical and warming up your mind for the more fun stuff. Then you fall asleep. There are now more chances for you to become lucid in dreams because you have brought more focus/self-awareness with you. Or you may wake up into a false awakening. I suspect this is due to the fact that we all wake up multiple times at the end of each sleep cycle, and immediately fall asleep again. Since our focus point has shifted away from the physical so much during the exercise, when we briefly wake up we don't have the necessary physical input so our mind simply makes it up for such occasions and immediately goes to sleep again. Sometimes we do just wake up for real. However, our link with the physical world is still very loose due to the exercise, and thus we have much better chance to manually shift our focus at this stage. This is very powerful stuff. Once you can utilize this, you will almost be able to achieve 100% success with the technique. Additional note: I always encourage doing SSILD in totally relaxed, lazy manner, and allow your mind to drift into a trance. The trance allows you to relax very quickly and divert your attention from the externals. People often run into problems with SSILD because they try so hard to bring out the sensations, and all that does is to glue their attentions to the external ones. Traditional meditation/relaxation techniques do not mix in well either, because focusing on relaxing your body is effectively, well, focusing on the physicals. I hope this explains it rather than causing more confusion, LOL. Again, I must stress that this Focus Point model is just one way to look at this "consciousness" thing, and by no means I'm pitching it as a "fact". It will be a lot more useful if you simply treat it as a "tool". And in that case, it works wonderfully. Ps. My DV forum user ID is "cosmiciron". I no longer participate there outside the scope of SSILD related discussions.

ghanemhaithem wrote:i read it,and now,it's time for some questions 1-you said,The more you cycle, the more attention you are paying to the internal sensations, and less attention are being paied to the external/physical ones. but,as we are cycling,aren't we paying attention to our external/physical sensations every time we start a new cycle,you did said that we have to at the blackness behind your closed eyelids....etc,we keep doing this in each cycle,right? or we are supposed to do something else after internal sensations begin to appear? 2-how many cycles i'am supposed to do before going to sleep,and if i don't notice any internal sensations,should i just keep on going till i do? 3-you said that i should just use it as a "tool",does that mean that i can have success with it even if i don't know the Purpose of it. thanx in advance ,and sorry if i caused any Disturbance. ------- Questions are welcome, and no, it's no Disturbance at all, LOL. 1. You do each cycles in exact same manner, regardless of the sensation. Be it with or without the sensations, you just keep cycling through them. As you do more cycles, you get deeper into the trance (mind drifting back and forth), and you will notice that the external sensations become faded. For example, the humming from that ever-present AC unit no longer bothers you much, if not having completely faded away. Meanwhile, you may begin to notice the noises "in your head". And as you pay more attention to them they may become more pronounced. This has the effect of shifting your focus away from the physicals. The beauty of SSILD is that you do not have to do this deliberately. The trance works like a gentle wave that carries you away from the physicals. Thus, you need to ease up, and allow the trance to do the trick for you. Even if you absolutely do not feel anything you should continue to cycle, knowing confidently you are slowing detaching yourself from the grip of the physical world. 2. Typically 4 cycles are all you need. Some people fall asleep in the first couple of cycles and that is no good -- you are not done with your "mental massage" yet! Some people find it harder to fall asleep if they do more cycles, but that actually means they are doing the exercise incorrectly -- instead of riding with the wave, they are fighting against it! (People with traditional meditation/WILD backgrounds tend to do this.) Once you master the cycles, you can do as many rounds as you wish. You can massage your mind to such point that soon after your stop doing the cycles, you can shift your focus point in an instant and enter the dream world while being fully conscious. This, of course, is for more advanced users, so I won't recommend it to everyone. 3. Depend on what your beliefs are, the Focus Point model may contradict with what you believe to be the "truth". In order to not get into debate of whether or not this model TRULY describes the nature of our consciousness, I decided to call it a "tool". As long as it makes things easier then why not use it, LOL. For all matters of intent we now know that SSILD works, and this model seems not only explains it but compliments it quite nicely. I hope this helps

DaveTheJoker wrote: I posted this on the other forum but I don't think you saw: Quote: 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. ------- Can you help me out a bit more? Thanks. ------- Okay... the eye problem. It indicates several things: 1. You are using your physical eyes. Do your eyes twitch like that when you are sleeping normally? I guess not, right? Then you should do exactly the same. Just relax, don't focus your physical eyes. You are seeing things through your mind's eye. If you feel you are still stretching your eye muscles then just quickly move on to the other sensations. 2. You are under the wrong impression that you should remain motionless, as with all other techniques. With SSILD you should do whatever that makes you feel comfortable. If that means roll over a couple of times, scratch that itch, swallow, or whatever, just do it! 3. You are trying too hard and expecting to see immediate results. If you don't feel like you are seeing anything, that's PERFECTLY normal! You are not supposed to see things until your focus shifts away from the physicals (see my length posts above). You should not have any expectations throughout the exercise. Becoming lucid in later dreams can happen frequently, but they are not guaranteed. You should pay close attention to the awakenings after doing the exercise. It is very possible that they are FAs. Even if they are not, you should immediately do a few more cycles which might give you a WILD or DILD in the dreams that follow.

Nivv wrote: I have done this exercise 5-6 times in total and have had a lucid dream on the same night twice. It may well be a technique that works for me after all. Although I often have found myself forgetting where I am in the exercise and drifting away a bit, I have not noticed any peculiar imagery, sounds or sensations yet. In addition, I haven't fallen asleep instantly after doing the cycles yet; I may well try doing one or two more than usual (I tend to stop at 4) to see if that puts me in any more of a trance. Thanks for the post on the 'Focus Point' model. I suppose when the science isn't there, it's necessary to make somewhat bold theories like this. ------- Some people somehow tend to experience strange sensations more frequently than others. I'm still investigating this but so far no conclusion yet I will be interested in the result of your experiment as well.

Lucere2157 wrote: Hey, I have a question if you don't mind. So, I continued doing the SSILD technique, and had a few more lucid dreams and FA. However, I am now pretty convinced that when I do SSILD I either get SP or get SP in a FA. Its pretty confusing lol. So far, I have had successful lucid dreams with this technique when I have SP with a FA, but there are sometimes when I have SP with FA but can't exit my body. The normal techniques I would use to exit SP into a lucid dream/OBE don't work all the time when in a FA and I was wondering if you have any suggestions as to have a lucid dream with the FA and SP seeing as how its pretty complex. Thanks in advance! ------- A false awakening is just like a lucid dream, so an SP within an FA is essentially an illusion which is no different than being unable to fly or walking through walls. The method I find most effective in this situation is to focus on another place or object. For example, you could focus on the doorway of your room. A few seconds later you will find yourself standing in front of it!

Dri0m wrote: First try and i got an LD ! it was unstable and short, but still longer and more stable than my other LDs and, this is the first tech that actually worked for me, other LDs i had was my own experiments that didn't work well ------- Great! Make sure you also read my previous post on the theory, it might help.

Nivv wrote: Just to let you know, I did the technique this morning. I didn't really get to sleep afterwards, but I went into SP not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in total. On the last two of these I was able to step into a lucid dream for a few seconds. On all occasions, however, I was woken up by external noise. I have had these bouts of SP before in the morning, and am interested in finding out what it is that lets me be aware of it so easily. I just doze off without paying much attention to anything and then feel a bit of tingling which, once noticed, develops into full SP. SSILD could well help with getting into this 'mode'! I'll keep at it. ------- By repeatedly focusing on the various senses, SSILD seems to bring heightened awareness within dreams, as well as making you more sensitive to the sensations felt while falling asleep. On previous page there are couple of posts in which I was discussing the theory behind SSILD. Maybe you will find that interesting.

annebelle wrote:Questions, 1) any tips for making me go straight to sleep without being aware going into SP? This jolting myself awake maked it take a long time to finally fall asleep 2) is there really a distinction between OBE and LD? Mine seemed to morph from OBE to LD. Or was my whole flying dream an OBE?------- I think the key here "less intent" and "staying passive". When focusing on the sensations, do not expect to see, hear, or feel anything. As you cycle more, you will drift further into the trance. You will know its happening when your thoughts begin to wander. Do not fight it. Treat it like a gentle wave, allow it to carry you deeper and deeper. This process should be totally relaxing. Once you feel you have relaxed completely (ready to fall asleep in a second) you should stop and go to sleep in the most comfortable position. Personally I do not think there is a real difference between an OBE and LD.

skullgunner1 wrote: Hi guys. I practiced this method last night. I was defeated by the inabiliy to sleep and hunger... ever since I've been trying the WBTB method with an alarm I have been having trouble falling asleep. Any thoughts or guidance on how to fall asleep fast? I did have two fairly vivid ND though . ------- 1. Read closely the section which discusses the various common causes for losing sleeps after doing the exercise. 2. Do not stay awake for too long. I suggest starting with 5 minutes. General rule of thumb is: If you find it difficult to complete 2 cycles, then you are not sufficiently awake. On the other hand if your mind does not begin to wander after 4 cycles, then you are too awake. Adjust your WBTB duration using 5-minute increments. 3. Try some supplement such as 5-HTP or Melatonin before going to bed. These supplements will make you sleep better, and cause REM rebound after a few hours thus giving you large trunks of REM. 4. Have faith in the SSILD technique. Do NOT over-do it. Just 4-5 cycles and go to sleep. You WILL become lucid sooner or later. If you wake up without getting an LD, simply do another 4 cycles. Chaining the exercise like this will give you a very high success rate (please DO remember reality-checking often upon waking up as the method likes to throw you into super realistic FAs).

NAIAD wrote: I posted this on a separate thread but I will repost here: I tried SSILD last night for the first time after about 5 hours of sleep, because I woke up. I got to the 4th or 5th repetition before I went to sleep. But a short time later I woke up(?) with a massive buzzing/vibrating feeling centered in my head. I didn't know what to do and to be honest I found it quite scary so I think I woke up fully and then went back to sleep. What was this? ------- Sigh, you just missed a perfect OBE! The sensation is called "vibration", which is frenqently associated with OBE. It's nothing to be frightened about, just harmless illusions, and can be very exciting and enjoyable. You apparently did SSILD perfectly in order to achieve this effect. I suggest you read more about this phenomena to learn how to utilize it (Astral Projection people also use it for projecting, but I really don't suggest going that occult route in terms of both practice and view point. Science with an open mind will probably do you more good in this case).

SnakeBelt wrote: I experience no LD when I try SSILD. Where am I going wrong? ------- It's hard for me to tell without you giving me at least some details on how you did it... even though I think the technique is pretty solid it is not plug-n-play you know... and it comes with no warranty, LOL.

Mattrogers523 wrote: Okay so I have been looking into SSILD and it sounds very interesting, and promising. But I have one question about the technique, when you are laying down doing the cycles are you supposed to stay completley still, I would imagine you are because movements would distract you from the cycles, but do things like swallowing and moving your eyes matter like they do in WILD. I know that you are not trying to induce dreams from the waked state using this technique but would those things distract you? I just tried this technique for the first time the other night and I fell asleep while doing the cycles and I didnt get any results. Im really excited to keep trying this tech though. ------- Not requiring you to stay completely motionless is actually a FEATURE of this technique. You should do it in the most comfortable manner. If there is a itch, just scratch it; back feeling stiff? Just stretch a bit. You can always compensate by doing maybe an extra cycle or two.

SnakeBelt wrote: cosmic.iron wrote: SnakeBelt wrote: I experience no LD when I try SSILD. Where am I going wrong? ------- It's hard for me to tell without you giving me at least some details on how you did it... even though I think the technique is pretty solid it is not plug-n-play you know... and it comes with no warranty, LOL. ------- I woke at 4 last night. Stayed up five minutes. Then I did the cycles. By the end my mind was starting to drift and I was having slight - very very slight - auditory "hallucinations" (the type I get when I drift off to sleep at night or meditate - not like there was someone in the room with me). I lost count of the cycles so guess I did six cycles. I got back to sleep, then had a vague non-lucid. ------- Sounds like you performed the technique correctly which is the most important thing! I suspect the unsuccessful attempt was cased by one of the followings: 1. Not sufficiently woken up prior to doing the exercise. Try to adjust it in small 5-minute increment till you find the perfect one for you. 2. Fooled by FAs. Did you recall waking up after the exercise? Did you RC upon waking up? Did you abruptly get up when you woke? This last item is very interesting because we often wake up at the borderline between an FA and a real one. The transition from one to another can be seamless. You should treat each waking up after the exercise as an opportunity -- always RC, and always wake up "delicately". 3. Bad recall. Have you been keeping a dream journal? Also try not going to bed after 12. Keep at it. It will work! I'm always here to help.

SnakeBelt wrote: cosmic.iron wrote:1. Not sufficiently woken up prior to doing the exercise. Try to adjust it in small 5-minute increment till you find the perfect one for you. 2. Fooled by FAs. Did you recall waking up after the exercise? Did you RC upon waking up? Did you abruptly get up when you woke? This last item is very interesting because we often wake up at the borderline between an FA and a real one. The transition from one to another can be seamless. You should treat each waking up after the exercise as an opportunity -- always RC, and always wake up "delicately". 3. Bad recall. Have you been keeping a dream journal? Also try not going to bed after 12. Keep at it. It will work! I'm always here to help. ------- Hey Cosmic. Thanks for replying. 1. That's the one. Will try 5 minute increments. Incidentally, what do you recommend doing during the 5 minutes? Also, supposing I start at 5 minutes, how many nights should I stick with 5 minutes until I step up to 10? 2. Definitely did an RC. Was definitely awake. 3. Yes, I keep a journal. I'm usually in bed by 10pm. Quote: Keep at it. It will work! ------- I think it's always healthy to have a dose of skepticism but...are you.......sure? ------- You should fine-tune the time until you have success and then stick to it. I usually rinse my month and surf the web a bit with my iPad... As I said, the technique comes with no warranty but it is pretty solid. Many people have mastered the technique and achieved very high success rate. On my personal forum I require each member (the active ones) to keep a personal thread. They use this mechanism to record their experiences, and interact with me at an individual level. This kind of coaching is quite effective. One guy managed to have 400+ LDs/OBEs in less than a year, and even the less amazing ones now average 3-4 per week. Of course there are also people who absolutely cannot succeed, but if you look their stuff closely you realize they either never bothered to read the instructions carefully, or they mix things up and never could approach this in a systematic manner. One other thing I'd like to mention is the use of supplement. I highly suggest the combination of Galantamine + Choline Bitartrate + Alpha GPC. This is proven to enhance WILD, but it is even better with SSILD. With WILD you have to work a long time (up to an hour or more) to make this work, but with SSILD you just do your 4-5 cycles and go to sleep, then wait for miracles to happen. You WILL have multiple LDs/OBEs after that, and they can last a long time. Try it!

Lucid Wolf wrote: cosmic.iron wrote: One other thing I'd like to mention is the use of supplement. I highly suggest the combination of Galantamine + Choline Bitartrate + Alpha GPC. This is proven to enhance WILD, but it is even better with SSILD. ------- Very interesting! I don't supplement so my knowledge in this area is a little weak. I'd sort of been under the impression that galantamine and choline fit best with those who used the WILD method. But my own experience with SSILD is that it generates lots of DILDs (especially DILDs via false awakening.) Is there something special about SSILD that makes it uniquely well-suited for this supplementation or is this the general "lucid dreaming cocktail" that you like the best, regardless of technique? Also, what dosages and timings do you typically use/recommend for this combo? Is this a "right before bed" thing or "right before you perform SSILD cycles" thing? Is supplementation you still do yourself? Even though you clearly have no need for supplementation in order to have LDs (as you have thousands!), do you still personally prefer the enhanced clarity and recall that comes from this supplement mixture? ------- The combination is used as both a "trigger" and a LD enhancement. When used as a trigger with WILD, it generally takes a long time to work. First the supplements have to cross the blood brain barrier, and that takes time. Secondly, WILD itself is not that quick -- between getting relaxed and entering the trance it may well take an hour or even more! SSILD, on the other hand, does not require you to stay awake for that long. You do your normal cycles and fall to sleep. As you sleep, the supplements begin to have effect on your brain. Now combine this effect with SSILD, you will end up having a VERY high chance to have multiple DILDS, OBEs, FAs, and etc. With this combo you have very high success rate, and at the same time it is not very demanding and works quickly. As for taking supplements I mainly do it for experiments which I do all kinds. You should see my wife's face when she saw me wearing all those magnetic chips and wires from the Shakti device, LOL. However, I do find the supplements very beneficial so I take them from time to time. SSILD is like a good sports car but it doesn't run well on low-grade fuel, and the supplements are like premium gas which will bring out the performance. This is what I do on my "supplement day": 1. Take Melatonin an hour or two before I go to bed. This allows me to take advantage of REM rebound. 2. Wake up after 4 hours (I do this naturally). 3. Take 8mg Galantamine, 500mg Choline Bitartrate, 300mg GPC. 4. Stay awake for 5 to 10 minutes. 5. Go to bed and perform 5-6 cycles of SSILD. 6. Go to sleep. That's all it takes. Just in case you wake up without experiencing LD, you should remind yourself to perform an RC, and then do another round of SSILD. Hope that helps.

SnakeBelt wrote: Last night I set my alarm for 4am. I stayed up for twenty minutes. I went to bed and did the SSILD cycles. I lost my place a couple of times. At the end I was sort of half asleep, half awake. I drifted off to sleep. I woke about three times, did an RC each time and each time I was awake. I had zero dream recall. What now? ------- Getting close actually. Try wake up one hour later, reduce wake up time by 5-10 minutes, and see how it goes.

NAIAD wrote: After a few nights of nothing with this method I extended the WBTB time, and something strange happened. I had two dreams and sort of analysed them while I was still asleep, I thought, these seem weird, then I woke up a bit into sleep paralysis before going back into the dream but when I tried to speak there was only a static sound. The next few dreams were a series of false awakenings where I was at home (I'm at university now) and I noticed strange things, but in each one I tried to change the scenery, so it was like a dream inside a dream, before I came back to my bedroom again. I even told a dream character I was dreaming. So was this low level lucidity? ------- This is quite common with SSILD and no need to worry. It indeed is a low level lucidity.

Wings wrote: Just something I wanted to share with you all: Last week a very good friend of mine died, and I really couldn't accept it. There was just so much I wanted to say to her. So I then I thought of lucid dreaming, and I wanted a quick result. So I thought, let's try this easy sounding technique, SSILD. And it worked better than I could have imagined. Woke up at 5, did the cycle 5 times and fell asleep straight into an LD. I called my friend and there she was. We had a good conversation and said goodbye. She really comforted me, told me I was the one who was sad, and that she never had any pain. Now I can finally move on. I promised not to go to her again. I really want to thank the person who started this thread. I recommend it to all of you. And, this is a great example of how LD'ing can help you with dealing with problems. ------- Wow... Thank you for sharing this wonderful experience with us. We spent a great deal of effort to develop this technique, and your post single-handedly made all that feel worthwhile!

Golvellius wrote: Another question, I sleep like a drunk, so, do I have to stay completely still while doing the steps? Since I always fall asleep when I try this earlier in the night (after 4 or 5 hours of sleep) I was thinking I could do it while moving some fingers or toes to keep myself awake until I'm done. Oh, and can I do it while sitting up instead of lying down? That would help quiet these intrusive thoughts. ------- You can try adjust your schedule and the length of time to stay awake prior to doing the exercise. Not sure sitting up would work as that will prevent you from falling asleep. After all the goal is to be able to sleep quickly after, if not during, doing the exercise. You shouldn't try to quiet down those random thoughts though. That's the absolutely wrong thing to do with SSILD. Those thoughts are your friend.

Golvellius wrote: I wish I had've found this technique earlier. Very reliable, hassle free, always throws me into a dream in an interesting way. I've only tried it for the past two days, but it's worked both times. First time I just kind of appeared at the start of a dream, lucid, and thought "huh that's weird" Second time (last night) I did some weird OBE thing where I floated out of my body then was stretched and distorted. That was fun. Just one problem. Though it's not really a problem because I can still use this technique with it, but... when I get to the stage of doing the steps, concentrating on the things, I keep getting distracted. I always get a song stuck in my head and/or get really twitchy and have to move a bit. Any good ways to clear my head completely? ------- Glad it works for you. The song sticking your head is not a bad thing. It can be used in similar ways as visualization. Try to listen to it in your head instead of playing it yourself consciously. Don't play it by thinking about the lyrics, just listen to it as the whole no matter how faint it seems, as if your hearing the original music being played on some radio from far away. Doing this will ease the strain and help put you into a trance. As for itching, you should feel free to scratch. With SSILD you want to stay as comfortable as possible. If you moved, just do an additional cycle to compensate. Simple as that.

Lucere2157 wrote: How well known is this technique? I feel that it should be written about more in books because it took me a while to find SSILD and its really efficient. Or maybe its just me because I find MILD and WILD hard to do ------- This technique is still quite young, at least in comparison to the ones you mentioned. It is very popular in China though... Quite possibly being the most favored technique by Chinese dreamers. You are not alone in finding MILD and traditional WILD techniques difficult and inefficient. In the past years I worked with large numbers of Chinese dreamers (mostly novices), and my observations suggest there are things fundamentally wrong with traditional techniques/theories. The quest to find better techniques is far from finished.

Golvellius wrote: When looking for lights and patterns behind my eyelids, should I follow any scenarios that start playing or should I block them out and continue to look at the "static" instead? These "scenarios" are like short scenes that play out in front of my eyes, but like a movie, I can't interact with them at all, so I can't reach out and pull myself in. Oh, in case you are going to tell me to drop everything and focus on the scenario for a WILD instead, let me say that as soon as I notice them they disappear. So, if you're going to tell me to do so, is there a way I can stop that happening and use them as an entrance, like with DEILD? ------- To be able to interact (such as touching, step into, etc) with these imagery our body needs to be in paralyzed state. Unfortunately that's often not the case, especially if it happens during earlier stages of sleep. We can mentally immerse ourselfs into them, by imagining waliking into the scene, but again that depends on how deeply we are in the trance. Many suggest passively observing them, or try to increase their intensity consciously, but as you said this kind of mental activity often result in the disappearance of the images. Personally during (or even prior to) this stage I can command a subtle shift of focus from the physical body/environment to the dream body/environment regardless of whether I'm paralyzed at the time, which results in instant WILD. However, that is an entirely different subject so I won't elaborate here. One other method is to divert the focus to hearing or kinesthetic sensations. Focus on them and mentally increase their intensities seem easier to many people. In all, managing conscious phase entry is always tricky, especially during premature mind/body conditions. That's why I keep emphasis on the concept that SSILD is not a WILD variation. WILD may occur during the exercise, but it shouldnot be actively pursued.

Golvellius wrote: Alright then, thanks for the advice. If it's not too much hassle, could you tell me how my technique is? SSILD worked perfectly for me the first two or three days but for the last week it's gone terribly. - I wake up 5-6 hours after falling asleep (rather than the 4-5, because otherwise I pretty much pass out as soon as I turn my alarm off) - I sit up with my eyes closed for 5 minutes to wake up a bit - I lie back down and do the steps, though not very well. I get to the second or third repetition before getting distracted, feeling uncomfortable, falling asleep, or any mixture of the three - I wake up later disappointed ------- My suggestions: 1. Don't just sit up with eyes closed. You want a little bit of activity to wake up your brain so it starts firing the right kind of neurotransmitters. In this case, we want the kind that are called upon when we need increased awareness (especially spatial), focus, and attention. Try to get out of your bed and stretch a little, go to bathroom, etc. Of course you don't want to wake up too much. 2. If you feel uncomfortable then chances are you are trying a little too hard. I suggest you perform a series of really short and quick cycles first, say, a few seconds for each sensation, and do not attempt to actually feel anything. Doing this will help you relax very quickly. After the quick repetitions you can slow down and you will typically find it easier at this point and may actually be able to feel some subtle sensations. 3. If you feel uncomfortable, you should adjust accordingly and make yourself comfortable. SSILD does not require you to stay still. If you moved, just do one of two extra cycles to compensate. Hope this helps.