Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (Ssild) Part Ii Ld4All

Hey cosmic.iron, thanks for replying! In some ways I am glad you were not there to immediately answer my question because it would probably have made me more worried and stressed about minutiae! In your absence I have had to work things out for myself. The past few days have given me an opportunity to work the technique out for myself. Unfortunately the technique has not given me any LDs. I have experienced a significant jump in recall and dream vividness but I am not sure where to go from here. I have applied the tech over four nights and each night I have experienced a jump in recall. On a couple of occasions my mind has drifted, another couple my mind has become more alert and I've a little time to get back to sleep (I did RC, they weren't FAs). I am now sure I am doing the SSILD correctly. Not sure if I should combine it with another technique. Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

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 ------- I agree with that. Could you - cosmic.iron - ask the LD4all people if you could create a sub-section on this site just for discussion about SSILD? I know that people are doing experiments with the approach; they are combining it with other techniques. I am planning to do some experiments myself and don't know if the avenues have already been pursued by cosmic.iron and others. For example, if, when I start to lose focus during SSILD, I tried to incubate a dream scene (such as flying above Mount Everest) would I be more likely to successfully incubate that dream if I do SSSILD? Oh, there are so many questions to ask and experiment with about SSILD. For example, what happens if you skipped hearing and tried to imagine tastes instead? Would you dream about eating? Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

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

Just wondering, has anyone done the entire Betty Erickson hypnosis technique (Described here: http://www.wellspringreiki.com/wellspringhypnosis.htm  ) during WBTB to see if it has the same effect as the SSILD here? (They are both similar.) Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

Just got an idea on how SSILD works...maybe. If you look at the Betty Erickson hypnosis technique ( http://www.wellspringreiki.com/wellspringhypnosis.htm  ) with that, you don't do suggestions during the hypnosis itself, but you state your purpose before the hypnosis. With SSILD, it looks on the surface like there isn't a suggestion, but there actually is - we know our intention is to do 5 cycles of awareness. If we fall asleep before we reach the five cycles then our brain carries our intention to complete 5 cycles into sleep and that, in some way, makes us lucid? Probably bollocks, but let me know what you think. Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

SnakeBelt wrote: Are people still having success with SSILD? It has never worked for me. ------- Actually, cosmic.iron did make a post dedicated to nothing but success stories with SSILD just to prove that it does work . You can find it here: clicky Current LD goal(s): Defeat Xander in our lucid duel!

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.

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. Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

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.

cosmic.iron wrote: 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. ------- Okay, it's good to know I'm doing the right thing! I will experiment with a slightly later WBTB time. Thanks Cosmic. Current LD goal(s): Fly faster

So I've tried this 2 nights in a row without becoming lucid. However, my dreams have been much more vivid and realistic. Most of them seem to be bunched up in the hour or so before getting up (like a chain). Both of these things make it hard to determine when/if I'm dreaming. Though this mornings dream was mundane it was realistic enough that some part of me may not have wanted to accept that it was a dream as it was a little overwhelming. Now that I think about it....the reason the dream was different is because I was more aware of my senses! I could see and hear more than usual. Current LD goal(s): Achieve lucidity regularly

shelli wrote: So I've tried this 2 nights in a row without becoming lucid. However, my dreams have been much more vivid and realistic. Most of them seem to be bunched up in the hour or so before getting up (like a chain). Both of these things make it hard to determine when/if I'm dreaming. Though this mornings dream was mundane it was realistic enough that some part of me may not have wanted to accept that it was a dream as it was a little overwhelming. Now that I think about it....the reason the dream was different is because I was more aware of my senses! I could see and hear more than usual. ------- That's a great thing! Even if you didn't get lucid, you're a lot closer than you were before (and also, dreams can be VERY increadible even without lucidity). And welcome to LD4all

WILD, WILD... It feels like such a controversial technique, of course you will never have 100% success with any techinque, but it surely can be very useful wonce mastered, I'm convinced. Getting it to work is the big problem, I didn't have a chance to this day, I simply do not how to simutaneously fall asleep while keeping myself aware. Current LD goal(s): Have a two week long dream! (Longest one had two days)

Bleant...I know what you mean. The past three days I've had the nuttiest dreams in the last 30 minutes of sleep. I typically wake up when my husbands alarm clock goes off and lay there for a minute until he goes into the bathroom. I lay there awake without getting out of bed....just thinking and probably wondering if I can have a dream in 30 minutes. Next thing I know I'm in a dream! But I never feel myself falling asleep or notice the transition. I don't know how I can NOT be lucid then. Current LD goal(s): Achieve lucidity regularly

So I haven't bothered trying to LD in years, and admittedly my dream recall is horrendous, but after finally acquiring a decent digital recorder (after my old one kicked it I couldn't be bothered to keep a written dream journal) I'm going to give it another shot. Came back here to find that some new techniques have been discovered, which is pretty exciting. I really like the idea behind this technique; mostly the casual, relaxed part of it; no counting, no trying to stay completely still... those were always the things that killed me with other techniques; trying to focus hard on something just tenses me up and makes it hard for me to sleep anyway. I sort of gave this a limited trial run earlier when I lie down for an afternoon nap; though I found myself doing the little sensory rotations for more like 30-45 seconds just because I was so tired my brain didn't want to shift gears more often. By the third set I found myself losing focus and pulling myself back-- that was when I started seeing more than darkness on my eyelids, light and shapes and I think I made out a few complex forms, a birds head and some other faces. I found myself not wanting to leave the "eye" phase after that, because focusing on hearing and feeling was less interesting, but I forced myself to anyway, and pretty much immediately lost consciousness. If I had any dreams, I didn't recall them (but then I'm still very out of practice; I fully expect this will get better with time), and it didn't help that I was sharing a bed with a rather restless person who seemed to be dreaming about kicking things, hah. It was a very brief nap. 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? 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'll try to keep you updated on any future inevitable successes

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.

I'll either give this a shot tonight or after I've worked on improving my recall a bit more. Thanks much! I foresee that the avoiding rational thoughts or thinking about the technique part will be difficult for me, however. These last few nights I've been attempting MILD after about 5 hours of sleep and I cannot get back to sleep, even without a WBTB (despite total silence and darkness and no stress). Perhaps, however, as Maneda said, it will help with getting to sleep! I'm the sort of sleeper that finds it extremely easy to wake up after a dream and record it or do a WBTB but very hard to get back to sleep afterwards. EDIT: Night 1 - I went to bed around midnight and got to sleep around an hour later. I woke up at 6am but with only a few fragments of a dream in my head, as it has been for the past few days. I went through the procedure 5 times I think. By the 5th cycle I noticed a few odd outlines on my eyelids and a veeeery slight ringing sound. I also notice I twitched a hell of a lot haha. I got back to sleep half an hour or so after finishing that (can't do much better than that I'm afraid) and had a normal dream which I remembered with slightly more detail than I had been for the past few days. Night 2 - I got to bed at about 11pm. It took a little while to get to sleep again(this has become more common since starting with LD stuff). I woke up at some point, but felt as though it was too early and my REM time hadn't even started (couldn't remember any dreams or anything, and felt as though I hadn't really slept yet). I next woke up later in the morning and went through the SSILD procedure 5 times. This time I did not notice any shapes or odd sounds. After that I went to sleep slightly quicker than Night 1. I then had another normal dream, but remembered a few more details of it than last night's. Night 3 - Same as last night, except I had more difficulty getting back to sleep afterwards, and this time didn't remember any dreams at all, which hasn't happened in a while. I think to take LDing slower and practice my dream recall before moving onto induction techniques. An interesting one nonetheless so thanks! Current LD goal(s): SSILD/ADA/RCing throughout August

This sounds like a very exciting method. Congratulations to both cosmic.iron and the method's users on the many successes so far. I'll be sure to try this the next time that I awaken after the appropriate length of time or manage to snag an afternoon nap. Quote: We need a method that is as effective as it is idiot-proof ------- Then clearly this is the technique for me! I experience mild tinnitis (a very soft ringing in the ears in the absence of real external sounds.) I doubt that this will foul up the technique in any appreciable way but it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Hey, maybe it'll even help! Thanks for taking the time to post this up and help out with so many questions. Current LD goal(s): Stand on top of the Great Pyramid.

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. Current LD goal(s): Stand on top of the Great Pyramid.

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!

I have time to sleep in the mornings now and the last few nights I've been waking up in the early morning (probably because of the sun and noises) and then I feel it takes a little time to fall asleep again. I can't believe I forgot to try SSILD I'll try it again this week, as usually I would just fall asleep...

cosmic.iron wrote: 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! ------- Thank you for the advice. I think you pointed out something very important that I need to work on. After my initial resounding success, I've managed to try this three more times and had a couple of extremely interesting results (although not further LDs yet.) First, I think I am concentrating a little too hard. I often wind up "amped up" and have trouble getting back to sleep. I have even had the , very weird sensation of sinking into the bed. Since I didn't know what else to do, I tried to "amplify" this strange feeling but could never really convert it into the dream state or an OBE. I just felt a little "detached" but kind of didn't know what to do next. I've never performed a WILD and frankly had not prepared for this to happen. Thus, I was without a clue as to what I was doing. Cool experience, though. Second, I am still a real beginner at dealing with false awakenings and it is showing. This technique has created several ultra realistic false awakenings that I missed. I mean, like me dreaming for 20-30 minutes at a stretch about trying to fall asleep, complaining to my wife that "I can't get back to sleep", thinking my baby son is crawling around in the bed with me, you name it. Even the dream alarm clock gives me realistic results when I look at it! Somehow I just don't quite think to reality check or look at the clock twice. It's like I'm afraid I will "make it too hard to get back to sleep". 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? Current LD goal(s): Stand on top of the Great Pyramid.

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.