lucky1990 wrote:
Hey Cosmic.iron,

I hv been having wonderful results in a week of using this technique. I have two questions for u.

1) I usually dont sleep quickly as i finish doing the technique. Can i momentarily open the eyes after doing the technique before falling asleep naturally?

2) Could u pls elaborate more on third component, the somesthic senses?

Yes you can open your eyes after the cycles. Just don't keep them open for too long.  What would you like to know about the 3rd component? It's really very simple -- just direct your focus/attention to your body, that's all. It can be certain part of your body or the whole, doesn't really matter. You can in fact think in terms of focusing on different axis -- Visual --z-axis; Hearing -- x-axis; Body -- y-axis. Let your attention glide through these axis and you will be fine.

Thank you.
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Yes you can open your eyes after the cycles. Just don't keep them open for too long.  What would you like to know about the 3rd component? It's really very simple -- just direct your focus/attention to your body, that's all. It can be certain part of your body or the whole, doesn't really matter. You can in fact think in terms of focusing on different axis -- Visual --z-axis; Hearing -- x-axis; Body -- y-axis. Let your attention glide through these axis and you will be fine.  

tony-nacho wrote:
I tried this technique last night. As I was doing the cycles I randomly went into SP. I thought, "Oh, I'm in SP, I guess I'll just WILD from here." As I am waiting to enter a dream, the SP sensation changes. I start to feel growing pressure all over my body. It becomes increasingly painful until I feel like I'm being crushed by a stramroller. I try to bear it but eventually I can't take it any more and I break the paralysis and sit up  . The pain immediately disappears, of course. I will try again tonight.

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It appears that you might have tried too hard. SSILD uses a very "lazy" approach and you should stick to that in order to achieve optimal results. Do not focus too much on the sensations, and do NOT try to stay completely still. When you try to stay still, you often become tense and that will keep you from falling into sleep. It also tends to cause SPs and various weird sensations, many of which are extremely uncomfortable.  

Nice, it did the job. I didn't really do the exact steps, rather, I remembered to do it just before I fell asleep, I was already in SP at that point so there was no point in doing the steps .

So a very summarised version of what I did in the LD:

I was on a small floating snow island in space where I learned 'Super Sight'. Then I woke up, decided to do an RC and realised I was still dreaming. Drank lucidity pills and tried to extend dream time. Summoned a door from the ground and made it change shapes. Got carried away and woke up.

I'm still not fully used to SP, I don't think I will lol

For those interested, here is the full dream:

Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)So, you know how SP is. Loud sounds, I could see faces and all sorts of stuff, I was just waiting impatiently for that 'moment'. All these creepy things became more and more intense and soon..... silence. I was ready to enter a dream.

I tried to enter the north pole, or atleast, somewhere snowy. It was pretty difficult at first, I kept visualizing that I was somewhere cold, with the snow blowing against me and stuff, you know, but I still saw darkness.

A distinct sound soon entered my ears though. At first, it was muffled and quite hard to make out, but excitement ran over me once I realised it was the sound of snow, compressing as my shoes tread over them. Slowly but surely each of my five senses 'phased' into the dreamworld. I could feel my feet, and soon, my legs traversing the snow. Then, I could feel the weight  and warmth of my clothes, and the freezing cold winds that blasted at me. Lastly, bracing myself to fully enter this dream scene. I opened my eyes.

It was very blurry at first, everything was surprisingly, or rather, disappointingly calm.  I could see the outline of the goggles that I was wearing. After awhile my dream eyes adjusted and the snow blizzard that I felt earlier wasn't there anymore. In front me was a wall of snow, literally, like a brick wall except made of snow, about 6 feet high. The sky was eerily dark, it was a mix of bright purple, blue, white'ish yellow and dark blue. Basically imagine you're looking at space with all those galaxies and nebulas. There was an opening on the wall, of which I entered to see the other side, half expecting to see mountains of snow far in the distance, but it wasn't exactly that. The ground just... ended. I was on an island of snow floating in space. I really wanted to go exploring and and have some sort of adventure but here I am stuck in this place.

I went back to the wall of snow to take a closer look at it. Unfortunately I started to lose lucidity. My vision blurred and I was phasing in and out of consciousness.

In a dire attempt I said out loud, "Increase lucidity".

For a second, everything then just became clear... too clear. It was like some sort of supersight. The detail on the snow was amazing, I could see each individual flake of the snow, but then it was accompanied by an extreme headache and loss of clarity afterwards. It didn't help when I kept doing it on other objects haha, I lost lucidity soon afterwards.

I woke up, feeling mildly angry. I cursed for a bit, ranting about how I could've done things better. Then it hit me... what if I was still dreaming? Nah it couldn't be... Well it couldn't hurt to try. I raised and looked at both of my hands, counting my fingers. 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5. Check. 1 ,2 ,3... 4?? BOOM sudden realization! I'm still dreaming!.

I was now in some sort small green room with a few furnitures here and there, but this time, I was determined. It felt like I just passed a test given to me by my subconscious and I felt awesome. Everything was clearer this time round too, it really did felt like real life.

"Okay,  I need to get there*, but first I have to make sure I don't lose lucidity again", I said, noticing how different my voice felt in a dream, "and then i'll start spawing a door or something"

(*For those wondering, I was referring to a place, a dreamworld to be exact, that I've been meaning to get back to, and it's probably the reason why i'm trying so hard to LD ...)

I tried every trick I could remember, shouting 'increase lucidity', looking at details around me. Eating a 'lucidity pill'. Just to make sure I was 'anchored' in the dream. I then remembered how Writerscube would control how long he dreamt for.

Pacing around the room I stated, "Okay subconscious, 2 hours of dreamtime, and umm... 6 hours of sleep", unsure if it would work or not.

"Well, time to start"

After cycling through different ideas, I decided to try creating a door. I readied my self and looked at the ground in front of me. Like some sort of summoner I raised my hands, attempting to 'pull' a door out of the ground. It was very difficult and tiring so I stopped and looked at my progress. There was only like this bump on the floor, not very promising  I took and step back and tried again, this time in a more relaxed manner.

A large door was rising from the ground. Excited I tried to alter the shape, making it wider, smaller, etc. I realised that the key to using dream powers is to not to do consciously, in a sense. It was more like knowing that it would happen. The more I tried to consciously alter the door, the harder it gets.

Anyway, at this point I sort of got carried away. I ended up just changing the shape of door and lost my original intent. It soon resulted in me waking up.  

I've been in LD "training" for just over a week now, working on becoming more aware in WL, doing LaBerge reflection/intention, RCing a lot during the day, and setting intention for dream recall at bedtime.   I've been shooting for starting MILD once I get enough DJ entries and start doing well on the LaBerge prospective memory exercises.    I've journaled successfully dreams from one or more dream periods every night once I started to intend to recall, some with a lot of detail.

Yesterday I read about SSILD 2.0 here and decided to give it a try if I woke up in the middle of the night.   I went to sleep last night with the usual intention to wake up and remember my dreams completely.    I went to bed around 00:00 and woke up around 04:00, I didn't move upon waking [normally I toss for a bit before remembering I should stay still] and recalled a few scenes and jotted down keywords in my journal.  Then I decided the time was right to try SSILD, so I got up, went to the bathroom, rinsed out my mouth, and got back in to bed.  I was out of bed for no more than about 3 minutes but felt very awake so I didn't want to stay out of bed any longer.    I did the cycles, first about 6 quick ones then about 4 slow ones, and tried going to sleep.  During the cycles I felt fairly relaxed but didn't feel at risk of falling asleep. After the cycles, I was highly alert and awake still.  Several times I tried changing positions, doing a few more cycles, and so forth, but I just remained incredibly alert and awake.  I periodically performed RCs several times (not too frequently to wake me up more) to make sure I wasn't in FA.   I eventually noted the time at about 0600, still very awake.    I did not do any relaxation (61 point or tense-relax) because the SSILD guide mentions not to do any other techniques since they can interfere (does this also include relaxation techniques?).

I finally drifted off to sleep at some time and woke at 0800, thinking I had no recall but eventually recalling a few short  scenes from the morning dream period but knowing I had forgotten a lot.   Normally (in the last week since I started spending effort on recall) my recall is best from the last morning period so that's sort of frustrating.

Maybe WBTB based systems are not good for me -- I generally fall asleep quickly at bed time but if I wake and become alert during the middle of the night I can have trouble getting back to sleep until very late morning (like happened here).   Although I will note that in the last week I've woken several times around 4-5am to do a quick journal and had no trouble going back to sleep.   Any mental activity that's not relaxation focused tends to keep me up, as seemed to happen with SSILD.

Or maybe I just had "one of those nights."  

Another possibility is that two days ago I've  moved from a vacation-environment (not working, in nature, dark nights, very quiet, fresh cool/cold air, no bed partner) back to city life (working at office job, street lights partially illuminate room, noisy cars on street outside, stuffier warmer  room air, bed partner whom I'm trying not to bother when I wake and journal).  I'm using ear plugs for the noise but I think I'll get a sleep mask to cut out the extra light.

Anyway, I think I'll stick with my LaBerge program as it makes a lot of sense to me and doesn't actually seem all that "difficult."   Exercising prospective memory seems like a highly valuable approach.  I thought SSILD sounded "too good to be true" and for me it looks like it is.   Mabye that's premature and it will change down the road, we'll see.

I'm very interested to hear any comments/suggestions!

thanks!
          Current LD goal(s): Increase LD frequency  

Hey, I just wanted to pop in and ask if this would be a good method for new lucid dreamers?  

Kaotic wrote:
Hey, I just wanted to pop in and ask if this would be a good method for new lucid dreamers?
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The whole thing was DESIGNED to be easy and effective for new dreamers. It tried deliberately to stay away from delicate mental exercises, relaxation techniques and other stuff that are very difficult for beginners. So the short answer is "yes", it is a very good method for new lucid dreamers.  

I have decided to try lucid dreaming again. I tried it ages ago and didn't manage to have the success I wanted.

I decided to try this last night, but it took me ages to get to sleep after doing the cycles, I think this messed up any hope of getting a lucid dream. Any tips?  

What book are your writing cosmic Iron  

I tried SSILD three times so far. The first two did not work, the first was at night before getting to sleep, so it did not have too many chances from the beginning, the second time was before an afternoon nap, and it didn't work. Last night it was the first time I tried it in the morning, after 3 hours of sleep and then 3 hours of being awake (insomnia problems), when I knew that I was probably about to finally get back to sleep. I didn't fall asleep right away, though. I remembered that it didn't matter, it could still work, and the result was that I had 4 lucid dreams in a row (so 3 false awakenings in which I realized I was still in a dream), very clear all of them, very lucid in all of them. The only downsize is that after the forth, when I finally got up, I could not remember as many details as I usually remember from just one lucid dream. However, still good recall and vivid memories.

Thanks for all your posts and explanations about this, cosmic.iron!  

The SSILD method is very effective. I think the key is that the method turns people into hypnagogic state fast, as it emphasize an easy manner instead of focusing.

I tried it last night and achieved 2 LD without failure.

Both of them were wake-initiated although the tutorial claims that DILD may occur.

However, this method did cause false awakening.

Both of my dream began with waking up in bed. Though I could quickly recognize the abnormal parts. Also, I have to mention that the pinch-nose reality check gave false result in one LD.  

I tried this last night but it didn't work, after rereading this post again I think I know what I did wrong, I'll try it again tonight and post my results. Wish me luck guys!  

I don't think it's a better way. How I understand it, the idea is to train your mind not to wander and instead focus on the senses. Then you'll more likely focus in your dreams and hopefully be more aware of your state overall. In SSILD you focus on senses and after a complete routine you fall asleep quickly. In WILD however, it's maybe good to focus on those wandering thoughts.

          Current LD goal(s): Reach the Frozen Planet  

May have had an FA last night but not sure since i dont recall "waking up" in my dream....but that could be an issue of dream recall....dreamt i was in bed in my room and my mom came in to turn off the A/C

Actually, the only reason i think it was an FA was that it only lasted a few seconds while my normal dreams last a few mins at least

Wait, now I'm really sure cos I just checked with my Mom and she says she DID come into my room to ask if I wanted the A/C turned off. This could be a case of dream/reality confusion while sleeping.

<mod>Merged the 3 posts together. Please remember that you are able to edit your post to add more information/comments  </mod>  

Well, I07ve been using SSILD for 4 days and see no results

Altought I had SP 1 or 2 times.

Shouldnt I expect results faster?

Also, the problem with SSILD (in fact I have problems with LD) is that I fall asleep when doing the cycles! What am I doing wrong?  

I think I may have had a FA from SSILD, but I was too stupid to notice it. Any tips?  

noobdreamer wrote:
seems like an interesting technique

i didn't see it the first time around, so I guess   Assurance dépendance

I'll give it a shot (especially since i still have to find something that works well enough for me, since almost all my previous LD have been rather spontaneous, or caused by a mixture of various techniques  )

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Diverse mixture of these techniques you are willing to share them on this forum.Thank you beforehand.  

Could someone interpret, what Cosmic.Iron meant in this interview with Alexander Jamie?

(http://lucidability.com/ssild-technique/)

Especially in this passage:

If you could go back to the start would you do anything differently?

Yes. I08d not have wasted so much time with many of the traditional methods such as building awareness during the day, non-stop reflections and autosuggestions, and so on. These, in my opinion, are based on many false assumptions. I hope one day more people will realize this. As of now there is simply too much misleading information on the market and they are bad news for beginners.

Does it mean, that critical awareness is not helpfull, when you do SSILD neither you make the technique true nor false. Do RCs after awakening only matter? And the rest of the day you can quiet "sleepwalk" if you manage SSILD optimally?

My question even belongs to the comment of SpiritualSeeker07s daughter in his dream, doesn07t it?

          Current LD goal(s): long flying session again  

So I have tried this today.

I am back from a hiatus (as far as forums are concerned), either way....

I read all about the cycles, set up an alarm clock to wake me up 4 hours in. As I was falling asleep, the first time around, I just repeated some reinforcing manthra.

I wake up not long afterwards. I check the time, it's 5:36 am. Damn. Overslept the alarm clock. Like... by a lot... But something isn't right. I mean, I just went to bed... how is it possible I overslept so much?

I check my phone again. Sure enough, 5:37. Damnit. Oh well, time to get out of bed, despite my gut feeling telling me something is waaaayy off.

Sure it was, I realized it by the time I woke up the second time only to find it's 11:36pm the previous day. FA's suck.

          Current LD goal(s): More LD's  

I just tried SSILD for the first time this week.



I went to bed around midnight, woke up at 3:40 because of the heavy rain making a huge noise, I ran outside to get my clothes off the window. After 5 Minutes I went back to bed and thought It was actually the perfect time to try.

I started to do the different cycles and felt asleep once I was done.

==> Long LD for the first try with this technique, I will try again later.
          Current LD goal(s): Do smth on stage in front of an audience  

The night before last, I tried to use SSILD. I woke up at 3:30, stayed up 10 minutes, then got back into bed and closed my eyes. I started a cycle, but my mind got distracted fast because my thoughts were everywhere at once. I couldn't even get through a single cycle without being interrupted. Eventually, my mind slipped and I woke up the next morning with no lucid dreams.

Last night was very different. I stayed up for only 5 minutes, so I was more sleepy when I got into bed. I did the warm-up cycles to get into the flow, and I was relaxed enough to concentrate on my senses. I slipped into a dream. In that dream, my eyes were closed. I heard nothing, saw nothing, and yet I knew immediately became lucid. I got out of bed (since I expected myself to be in my bedroom). But after that, I lost lucidity, unfortunately.

It seems like I'm making progress at least, so thanks!
          Current LD goal(s): Lucid dream at least once a week and maintain those dreams for at least 10 minut  

I just read about your technique and it sounds very interesting! I also like the Chinese name for it (how is it pronounced in chinese? im learning japanese so the kanji are not so mysterious anymore haha)

Anyway it sounds very interesting and I will definetly try it! Im also not a big fan of WILD so staying awake just for some minutes like using the bathroom etc sounds good for me.

I will keep an eye on the tutorial and techniques! I want to see how it develops in the future or how people use it/how it works for others^^  

Tried this last night. I got a chain of fa. How can you turn these into LDS? Very good though worked on second attempt!