SSILD--"A Very Mysterious Technique"

[Sunshine]

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[majic]

It works and failing a LD its a great relaxation technique

[johnb]

Definitely sounds promising, MB! Seems like I once read something similar to it somewhere else on MM, but it wasn't explained as well as here. I'll try to find that other thread.

I do sometimes meditate while falling asleep. And it does seem to have induced a few LDs. One way I meditate is to focus my attention on bodily sensations, which is the same as Step 3 of the "Cycle". I also focus attention on the feeling of breathing (inhaling and exhaling), which is a bodily sensation. But focusing on sight and hearing could also be really good. And cycling through all three seems like a great idea. One thing it might do is help keep your attention from drifting. When you just focus on one thing, such as breathing, it's very easy to get distracted by various thoughts and find yourself thinking about something, having forgotten to focus on the sensation at all. But cycling between three forms of focusing attention could make it less likely to get distracted. So it may be an easy way to stay in a meditative state for a longer period of time and also to achieve deeper levels of concentration and awareness. Besides being an LD-induction technique, it could be the key to achieving world peace. That would be a nice side effect.

Interesting that the cycle starts out with sight, which is the most complex and (yet) superficial of all the senses and ends with touch, with is the most basic, and (yet) profound of the senses. And hearing is somewhere in between, so it's Step 2. Might be a way of leading the mind gradually from a superficial level of awareness to a profound level of awareness. Or maybe not. Could be way off base about that.

[johnb]

OK, found that previous reference to the technique, posted by Tom in May 2012:

http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,5336.msg133853.html#msg133853

I even mentioned at the time that I had some encouraging experiences:

http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,5336.msg136207.html#msg136207

Specifically, it allowed me to recall HI, which had never happened to me before. Had forgotten about that.

Definitely going to do further experiments with this method.

Moonbeam, you also mentioned trying it back then:

http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,6016.msg153951.html#msg153951

[Sunshine]

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[Samten]

  I go to sleep every night and some WBTBs using  similar techniques of either mindfully listening or gazing at HI or  rotation of bodily awareness combined with visualizations  and although it is a great way to relax and get to sleep I almost always fail to get lucid. However I agree with johnb that maybe it is the nature of moving from the senses in cycles that keeps the mind engaged. This technique is not dissimilar from some yoga nidra practices

[johnb]

  I go to sleep every night and some WBTBs using  similar techniques of either mindfully listening or gazing at HI or  rotation of bodily awareness combined with visualizations  and although it is a great way to relax and get to sleep I almost always fail to get lucid. However I agree with johnb that maybe it is the nature of moving from the senses in cycles that keeps the mind engaged. This technique is not dissimilar from some yoga nidra practices

May have to practice it for awhile to get it to work. Might also be good to practice during the day from time to time, rather than just at night.

[johnb]

Yes, thank you for pointing out that out, johnb.      Well anyway, I brought it back to attention, so maybe it reminded people.  At least it reminded me again.

I'm really glad you brought it up again. I'd forgotten about it, too, until I saw this thread.

How do you like rank senses into "superficial" and "profound"?  What does that mean?  Is that from like some meditation thing?

Good question. I was just kind of brainstorming at that point. Thinking out loud. But it's something I've heard various people talk about. Different senses affect different parts of the brain and have different mental effects. For example, why does music (something we hear) often affect us so much emotionally? Things we see don't normally have that strong an effect:

http://www.ted.com/conversations/3796/why_does_music_touch_us_emot.html

So the sense of hearing seems more "profound" than seeing. But combining hearing and seeing is even more profound. That's why a great movie with great background music can be so powerful. "Profound" is probably the wrong word. Hearing seems to me to have more emotional content than seeing. And so does touching. Also, the sense of smell. I think the memory for smells lasts longer than memory for any other sense. Anyway, my main point is that by concentrating on different senses during the "cycle", more parts of the brain may be put into higher states of awareness than concentrating on just one sense, because different senses affect the brain differently. Maybe all 5 senses should be included in the cycle, instead of just 3. (But that might be too complicated.) Or we could eventually simultaneously try to be aware of all 5 senses, without cycling through them. But that might be too difficult. And unnecessary.

I guess you can't see much when your eyes are closed, so it's not a very complex sense at that time.

Though it could get complex if you start seeing HI or other imagery generated by your mind.

I tried it this morning, but got a stabbing pain in my foot which got me out of bed.  I hate those stupid random pains that are for no reason.  It's not like I don't have a lot of things that should be hurting, yet some non-injured body part just starts hurting out of nowhere. 

Wonder what caused that? Hope you're OK!

[Sunshine]

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[johnb]

I tried last night, but fell asleep.  I'd like to try every time I wake up at night.

Good plan.

I understand.  I was thinking about smell too.

Yes. Could try adding smell to the Cycle. Probably not at first, though.

Though it could get complex if you start seeing HI or other imagery generated by your mind.

Hopefully that will happen!

Yes.

Oh, I often have annoying random things like that to mess up my dreams.  I should have got up and taken an Excedrin, for the aspirin and caffeine, but often when I do that, unless I'm really tired and caffeine-deprived, I'm awake. 

I thought everybody had those weird random pains.    I've always had them.  Growing pains, they used to tell me.  You think they would stop by the time you are 49.

Guess it's nothing serious, if you've always had them.

Is aspirin useful as an LDS?

[johnb]

I edited the SSILD instructions to make them briefer. Click on the attached PDF document. The first page is the most important, but further details are provided on pages 2 and 3.

[Sunshine]

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[Shellidfl]

I tried it last night, got very relaxed quite quickly, but then fell asleep...  Would muchly prefer this to supps, but I'll take anything right now!

Thanks for the summary sheet, johnb!

[mentalenforcer]

I tried this last night.  It was more tiring than I expected.  Fell asleep quickly.

If focusing on the waking senses can be helpful, I wonder about the extra dreaming senses.

[johnb]

I don't know about aspirin, but ibuprofen has been reported to affect dreams.  I wouldn't take it just for that, however.

Right. Ibuprofen can be hard on the kidneys if you take too much of it too often. At least I think that's the case.

But if one needs to take a large dose of it for some other reason, might be good to combine it with SSILD, or other induction methods.