First Steps to MILD (for all basic MILD related Q&A)

I’ve been trying MILD for a few months now, and I don’t think I’m doing it right.

I think one problem that I’m having is that I usually sleep for either a really long time or a really short time. I’m going to computer animation school with a terrifically large workload, so I’m up late pretty well every night working on my laptop. This means that I can’t afford the time to set my alarm to wake me up at 5:00AM to kick in a dream method, seeing as I probably went to sleep at 2:00AM and need to get up at 6:00AM or 7:00AM (except on days when I have class in the afternoon). I usually catch up on my sleep on Saturday, when I sleep until like 11AM. I guess telling myself to wake up naturally could be a good idea, but I’m not sure how well I can do that…

Anyways, here’s what I try to do: when I’m in bed and am too tired to move, I start repeating this passage in my head: “I am going to dream now. I am aware that I am dreaming. I recognize it as a dream.” Sometimes I add an intention like “I’m going to fly out my window,” or if there’s a Dream Quest, I set that as an intention. I tend to repeat this over and over until I go to sleep, and it’s never worked. Sometimes my mind gets distracted, but I’m usually able to refocus it on the chant.

I chant like 30 times before I go to sleep. That sounds like a problem right there, as well as the fact that I’m not sure that I’m looking for dreamsigns. Whenever I look at my watch (which is quite frequently), I tend to ask “Is this a dream or not?”, which might be on the right track. I’m also starting to notice some common themes and features of my dreams, which could also be good.

Sometimes I also like to use the Lucid Dream Induction sound recording by putting my headphones under my pillow (the sound carries through fine). I think it works better if I set a delay so that it starts a few minutes after I start the CD, giving me time to get to sleep. I’ve tried using 10, 15 and 30-minute delays, but those always come on too early, so now I have one with a 50-minute delay, but I’m afraid that comes on too late.

Another huge problem is that I might be trying too hard; treating this too methodically. The one time I had a fake lucid dream, which is the closest I’ve got so far, I didn’t try anything. I think my dreamsign was that the sun was too bright, or everything was too white.

I considered doing WILD when MILD wasn’t working, but considering how much harder that’s supposed to be, I’d better learn to crawl before I try to walk. Can anyone tell me where I’m getting this right, and where I’m stumbling?

First thing off WILD isn’t any harder than MILD unless you take a while to fall asleep. As far as your mantra goes are you saying he words or are you concentrating on the meaning
of the words. If you just mindlessly repeat the mantra with no thought to it you won’t have much success. In addition it helps to incubate a dream scene in which you see yourself flying and realize that “I’m Dreaming”. Don’t get caught up in having perfect technique, its like playing sports in that regard, you can have a horrible technique and still be effective.

As for the watch checking…that is a good RC but RC’s need to be done very frequently (on the order of 20-30+ times per day) until they become habit, at which point they will carry over into your dreams.

I suppose I didn’t think of it that way. Considering that lucid dreaming is such a mindful thing, the fact that I’ve been going about it so mindlessly is a pretty dumb error. I’ll know enough now to develop a mental picture and not just chant. :ohno:

I find it doesn’t take me long to get to sleep these days, so the WILD method doesn’t seem so far-fetched, but it would probably be best to stick to the MILD method until I becomes a bit more experienced.

Alright, good tip. It’s probably best to do just one reality check, so that it sticks better in your subconscious, right? Is it relevant if I ask if this is a dream out loud or not? 30-odd times out of the day, I’m usually in an awkward place to ask out loud if I’m dreaming. :bored:

So, RCs with autosuggestion is best suport for MILD - You do can learn to have Lucid dreams that way. MILD is a method that causes DILD’s. RC’s and autosuggestion does same thing, so it’s worth to use them. In RCs you have just to really ask yourself, think that you are dreaming or not, dont just mindlessly starting at hand.

At first, throughts while falling asleep are often important part of froming dream. You have to MILD while falling asleep, to moment of losing consciousness. A repeating (short ones are better, but dont make it three words) sentence will get into dream, causing your dream mind to recogenize dream state way more often.

In reality, think it. When you are nearly sure that it’s dream (like you see a flying car), you should ask iot loudly, to get more lucid.

Wow, it gone long :tongue:
Just my point of view at MILD.

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When you are saying “I’m dreaming, I know I am dreaming, etc” do you actually say it verbally or do you just say it in your mind? Because if I say it verbally then I can’t go to sleep…

You say it in your mind. I would say " I will dream and i will remember my dream" If you like say that in your head. When you get better start saying " I will dream and I will realize im dreaming" If you want that is.

yes, you say it in your mind.And make sure that you actually mean it.I usually visualize myself becoming lucid (doing a RC , noticing soemthing strange in a dream, etc)

I do that some times to. Visualizing myself in a dream.

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Hello. Im gonna try MILD tonight but i’m confused about the steps to follow. Laberge says that when i wake up after a dream, i have to recall it and write it down. Then go to bathroom, and wash my face with cold water. Get back to bed and read my dream report. Then practice MILD: recall my dream, see myself becoming lucid, etc…
But in other books, and also ld4all homepage, it doesn’t say anything about write my dream, go to bathroom. It’s says that when i wake up after a dream, practice MILD inmediately, without write my dream, go to bath, etc.

What’s the “official” way for practising MILD? how do you guys use this technique?

Thanks in advance!

Uh, isnt this already been a topic? Well the way i do it is lay down in bed and go to sleep while saying " I will dream and, I will realize im dreaming" i breathe out and say the first part then out the 2nd. But you should probably say " I will dream and, I will remember my dream" Only if you dont have good DR were you can at least recall 1 dream a night.

i dont beleive theres an “offical” way to do MILD, Just do whatever works for you!

I just go right back to sleep… i don’t even get up from bed! :grin:

Thanks all for the reply. I think that i’m going to write my dream after wake up, and then practise MILD, because last night when i wake up and stay in bed recallling my dream i just fall asleep, hehe.

I record my dreams when I wake up, and as I’m falling asleep tell myself Im going to have a lucid dream. Its been working pretty well.

BTW, I guess that when Beersheba said about writing dream, getting up, etc., he meant MILD after WBTB. It’d more propable because he said about dreading DJ. You can do like that, then MILD supported by WBTB will give bigger chanse of having LD :yes:

And sapmangat was right… do MILD like works for you :tongue:

we’ll there’s one important thing i keep in mind; i read it in EWLD today (and overlooked it in the past).

But LaBerge claims autosuggestion en MILD differ in the following way: If you put much intentional effort (try hard) in MILD the outcome is probably positive because prospective memory thrives on motivation; but if you put much intentional effort in autosuggestion the outcome will likely be negative:

The argumentations for this are somewhat like this:
If you put too much intentional effort in your auto suggestion, in other words, if you really expect to LD tonight, and you fail, you’ll get a negative association with autosuggestion (‘it won’t work anyway’); you wont truly believe it works anymore.

whereas with MILD intentional effort is a good thing; the more you really plan to recognise the dream; the more motivation you have and the better your prospective memory does his job.

I thought I’d share this with you because “trying too hard” is also sometimes a problem; and the advice is often too let it alone a few days or weeks…

“You can perhaps try to wake up without an alarm clock by using autosuggestion.”

What’s auto suggestion?

auto suggestion is telling yourself you will wake up and your subconscious obeys.

(just like you can tell yourself you will know you are dreaming etc)

ok, I was originally going to try WILD, but while convincing myself that I was just asleep in my bed and that the old hag wasn’t real, in my dreams I would notice I wasn’t in my bed and do a RC, so MILD seems to be what my subconcious likes to do.

Auto-suggestion has been failing for me for a whole week… so I’ll try this method next :plotting: