Yes, it has a remarkably long thread title. No, this technique doesn't have a cool acronym. Yes, it worked for me. No, it's not even so much a 'technique' than anything. I thought it was probably time I shared it anyway. I hope some people can find some use in it.
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What I find with your standard 'lucid dreaming inductions' - your DILD, your MILD, your whatever-ILD, is that the real basic point of it all gets lost in translation whenever it's explained. The techniques are generally (but not always, I've seen some very well written guides) explained in such a way that defeats the primary purpose. People get confused, and people forget what they're doing. So I'll start by stating the obvious.
"A lucid dream, your lucid dream, happens when you become aware that you are in fact dreaming."That's all you want. You can shoot it any way you spin it, and spin it any way you shoot it. There is nothing more and nothing less to it, and how you accomplish that goal is pretty much fair game. There is no rule that says you have to meditate, which certainly helps plenty of people. There is no rule that says you have to confirm it with reality checks, but that's core in most techniques and very very useful to most people. I just want you to conceptualize, for now, that all that is a means to an end - you just want the thought, the awareness.
None of my lucid dreams have ever come from an -ILD. WILD didn't work for me because I could never sleep. MILD didn't work for me because it just didn't work. DILD worked, because that's just a descriptor for getting lucid.
I don't know about you, but I'm sure some of you have gotten frustrated that all these techniques seem to get in the way of your normal functioning. Reality checking whenever you see stimuli sure looks strange when you're in the supermarket checkout line. Waking up for a WBTB only ever caused me some sleep deprivation. Meditation and all those things held no real benefit for me personally, and I never bothered with galantamine and things because I really didn't care much for bothering with them. To me, a good 'technique' doesn't get in the way of the most important part of my life - my day life. So, my success came from a different method.
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Be aware. Plain, painless, simple and actually beneficial to your day to day doings. I don't mean your standard, "Yes I'm on a bus and it is driving" awareness where you just mark whatever is going on by focusing on it and recognising it. I prefer to use the phrase 'awareness aquesience' - Being completely resigned to the fact, that for good or for bad, strange things are going to happen and you are going to spot them. All it takes is just clearing your head and taking in all your senses - and without actually thinking in words, just try to be aware of the things that are happening around you. I found that by doing this I'd notice everything with minimal effort and just 'know' when things were out of place.
The state you want to aim for is just a simple state that you accept reality and dreams for what they are, and you will simply judge everything you see, hear and smell as probable or improbable.
With this in mind, you're just trying to raise your 'baseline awareness' - how aware you are of your senses, of your thoughts, of your actions, of others, of probability and improbability. Think of it like you're the driver, and you have somebody over your shoulder judging everything for probability.
It's always a good idea to back any doubts you might have up with a good, plain reality check or two.
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I hope I've managed to put it into words well enough for you to understand. To recap:
1. Induction techniques are great and proven, but their real aim is often lost in translation. So long as you fulfill that aim, no matter what you do, you have succeeded. There are no concrete walls to this.
2. Awareness and criticality are all that is needed for this 'technique' to work. No flashy things, you just want a baseline awareness that is hightened enough to see the obvious quirks in your reality, awake and asleep, without needing to think in words. Just like a sensation of innate criticality.
3. Back up any of your doubts with a reality check or two, and only when you have doubts that things are not right.
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Final NotesQ. But isn't this just what everybody else has been telling me anyway? Why bother making a thread and pedalling it like this is new, you idiot?
A. I hope what you can take away from this is that there are no set guidelines on how to do it, and I wanted to try and explain as clearly as possible that all a very basic technique needs is to build up enough of a sense of innate criticality that you just spontaneously become aware in a dream. That's how it worked for me.
Q. Has this even worked for you?
A. Yes, it has. I got my first and best cluster of lucid dreams when I stopped trying so hard and was just left with this residual feeling of... incredible peace of awareness. Just a sensation that I felt in my gut that 'something wasn't quite right', and a clear head. Thinking too hard seems to cloud your awareness and you lose track of your environment.
Q. Can you clarify this further?
A. I can try, if you like. Just ask away and I'll see if I can make it any clearer.
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- Awake
