Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dream(ing), AKA The Dream Chaining Technique
There exist many popular techniques in the world of lucid dreaming, and as many personal techniques as there are dreamers. There are ones that have been published and talked about for coming up on two decades now, starting with the book
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming bringing them into the public eye. Among these, it can be argued that none have the potential of the Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dream, DEILD for short, also known as the Dream Chaining Technique.
The DEILD is simply a variation of the WILD technique, which will make it easier to pull off at first for those who have tried it, but it is much simpler, so don't let its ancestry scare you off if you've tried it before and failed. To illustrate the ease of the technique, ask yourself this: Have you ever laid in bed in the morning, decided that you were going to sleep in, and then had a dream while you were asleep? If so, you've already done the core of the technique without even realizing it.
Allow me to explain the purpose of the DEILD technique, and then I'll teach you how it's done. First, it is important to understand the WILD technique that DEILD was derived from was designed as a way for the dreamer to go directly from being awake into a dream while keeping the awareness that he was dreaming. Similarly, the DEILD technique also has this purpose, but it has the advantage of the user already being close to REM sleep while preforming the technique, so it's almost as easy as falling back asleep. It is for this reason that DEILD has a high success rate once you've got the particulars of it down based on your sleeping habits.
DEILD Step by Step
Waking up.Without further adieu, we come to the first step of the technique, which is simply to wake up. Sounds easy, right? From the time you wake up, you've begun working on the DEILD technique. It is important to keep your body as close to sleep as possible, so you'll want to avoid moving or opening your eyes. If you have to turn off that pesky alarm clock, or you need to roll over because your back is hurting you, that's okay, just so long as you don't think about it. Most people roll over many times in their sleep, so while moving will make the technique harder to pull off, it won't fail you in and of itself.
Reentering the dream.Now, once you're awake, you need to reenter the dream, being careful not to lose your awareness and forget that you're dreaming. There are many ways to do this, the simplest of which being to simply wait for another dream to take you. One minute you'll be laying there with your eye closed and the next you'll be a part of your next dream. This can be kind of disorientating, enough that you might forget you're dreaming and go into a non-lucid dream if you aren't careful, so you may find it helpful to silently repeat to yourself that you're dreaming.
Alternatively, should you have a specific dream in mind that you want to go to, you can use visualization to jump into that dream. This works especially well if you're trying to jump into the dream you just awoke from. Simply 'act like you're dreaming' and make things up. For example, if you were in a race when you woke up, picture yourself running and feel your legs working. You're running, and you can just see the finish line in front of you, and then you realize you're running in the middle of the street. Before long, the dream will have materialized around you and by the time you've hit the finish line you're in a lucid dream.
During this step, some people have reported symptoms of the WILD technique, such as feeling vibrations or going through sleep paralysis. I have personally never experienced these while using the DEILD technique, but it is important to realize that not only are these completely natural and safe, but they are a sign that you've almost succeeded in entering your next dream!
Stabilizing the dream.Once you're in the dream, you may feel that the dream is a bit unstable and you're fading in and out of sleep. From here, you have to stabilize the dream so that you don't lose it. The first step is to keep in the back of your mind that you are dreaming but not to focus on it. Instead, keep yourself calm and focus on something in the dream. For example, if you see a dream character standing not too far away, engage them in conversation. This will help you to sink fully into the dream, and before you realize it, you'll be in a vivid, life like dream and free to do whatever your heart desires.
Chaining.Once you wake up from the lucid, you may find it easier to repeat the DEILD, since you'll be conscious coming out of the dream and you can jump directly into another one with almost no trouble (as long as your body doesn't decide it isn't falling back asleep). You can repeat this technique as many times as you're able, and some people have reported seven chained dreams off of one morning using this technique. After a certain point you'll start to forget the dreams at the beginning of the chain, though, so it is important to find out what the right number of chained dreams for you is.
Congratulations, once you have done this, you've got the technique down. You should experiment to find out what the best time for you is to do the technique, how you want to wake yourself up to start the DEILD (autosuggestion is a possible alternative to using an alarm clock), and how you want to enter the dream, and once you've done this, you've mastered a technique that you can use to almost guarantee yourself lucidity on demand. Note that it may not work all the time, but it should work most of the time if you understand your own sleeping habits.
Happy Lucids!
(c) 2010 Wolvendeer. First Electronic Rights Mortal Mist. May be republished without modification with credit to previously mentioned entities only.
