LDing for Idiots -- Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (SSILD)

[faxman]

5 attempts and yet no exit. I'll continue anyway

[cosmic.iron]

5 attempts and yet no exit. I'll continue anyway

I'm sorry to hear that.  Maybe if you post more detailed description of your exercise then I can help you diagnose. 

[Contenteo]

I have tried this 4 times with no exit yet either. Haven't given it a serious early morning attempt drowsy attempt yet though. I am sure it will work though. All the standard disconnection milestones are hit with this method. Under drowsy circumstances I can see it's brilliance in action. I like how you made it idiot proof in this way.

I feel deep down, that OBE's aren't something to achieve quickly. Fast food is rarely healthy.

Cheers,
Contenteo

[Anonymouse]

Well, with this method I have managed to have some sort of lucid dreaming, right after the cycles. It wasn't lucid dreaming, since I didn't know I was dreaming. I simply dreamed about covering my self with a blanket, in my bed. And woke up 2 mintues later, realizing I wasn't covered.

I'll keep you updated, see how it goes. One thing though, it's when I wake up after 4/5 hours of sleep, I'm madly sleepy. I can only do a couple of cycles (sometimes not eaven one) before my mind starts wondering, and getting into the dreaming state. I notice it, and try to cycle again, but again, my mind starts dreaming pretty pretty quickly :p. Which I find it quite fun though, it is a little battle taking place.

As I said, I'll keep you updated.

[cosmic.iron]

Well, with this method I have managed to have some sort of lucid dreaming, right after the cycles. It wasn't lucid dreaming, since I didn't know I was dreaming. I simply dreamed about covering my self with a blanket, in my bed. And woke up 2 mintues later, realizing I wasn't covered.

I'll keep you updated, see how it goes. One thing though, it's when I wake up after 4/5 hours of sleep, I'm madly sleepy. I can only do a couple of cycles (sometimes not eaven one) before my mind starts wondering, and getting into the dreaming state. I notice it, and try to cycle again, but again, my mind starts dreaming pretty pretty quickly :p. Which I find it quite fun though, it is a little battle taking place.

As I said, I'll keep you updated.

If your feel very sleepy then it is an indication that you have not had sufficient amount of sleep.  Chance for  success under such condition might be minimal.  Therefore I suggest going to bed an hour early than usual, then wait till you wake up naturally.  Get out of bed and stay awake for 5 minutes before returning to bed to begin the exercise.  You shouldn't feel too difficult about getting up, and if you do, that means you need more sleep.  In which case you might as well continue to sleep until you can get up more comfortably next time.

[AstralManiac]

i tried this last night, on my 1st go my whole body went numb and just felt weird, nothing else happened tho.. probably cos i didnt go to bed til 4am :p

also my arms and legs were like moving randomly..  is all this a good sign? i have never got this to happen before.. i have been trying for a whole year then i looked at this thread and those things happened on my 1st go

[Xanth]

My apologies for jumping into this thread so late!  Just had time today to give it a good read.

That's a great technique cosmic.iron!  It's actually very close, if not exactly to what we teach here called "Phasing" using the "Noticing Exercise".

I'll provide a quick link to it:
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/09/06/what-is-phasing-and-noticing/
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/02/01/phasing-with-noticing-a-more-detailed-explanation/

It's nice to see that different groups researching the same thing are coming to the same conclusions! 

[miralb36]

Hi, Guys i am new to this form(as a member) but in fact, many times before i already try to find information i need for OBE on this site. I have enough material to induce OBE but as you know you can not achieve the state without practice. i also try to practice by waking in the morning usually after enough sleep but fond that after awaking my mind becomes active and even can not feel like sleeping. even when i was reading about LD i think i already experience it before but not sure

so what happens today while taking nap afternoon.....

well i was laid down myself and watching speech on youtube like an hour long, while watching the clip i felt drowsy but i also want to finish the clip and during this fight i had experience of LD and i think i also had OBE i think i am awake but in trance and with my close i heard some wired sound i had really fun time and noticed this is very first time i ever experienced such LD.

Well as soon as i awake up i did some search and found this page and i could not stop to write this.

i have found something which is important to me and may be for others, that every time i was trying to do OBE i could not able to shut down my conscience mind which is analyzing every thing and every time i was expecting something to happen and that keep the conscience mind awake. 
i found some valuable points here

Most important, need to shutdown analytical mind (may be u can do some meditation for while it will you)

Do not expect anything ahead(will keep the analytical mind active even you do not notice)

If possible learn relaxation

as been mentioned by Cosimic.iron follow his instructions will really help you

thanks.

[Volgerle]

My apologies for jumping into this thread so late!  Just had time today to give it a good read.

That's a great technique cosmic.iron!  It's actually very close, if not exactly to what we teach here called "Phasing" using the "Noticing Exercise".

I'll provide a quick link to it:
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/09/06/what-is-phasing-and-noticing/
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/02/01/phasing-with-noticing-a-more-detailed-explanation/

It's nice to see that different groups researching the same thing are coming to the same conclusions! 

I can't agree. I don't think it is the same at all. It is about preparing to do AP from sleep or to get lucid in a dream. Therefore it's an indirect method. Isn't Noticing a direct method? Only in one bullet (5 under "what's going to happen") there's mentioning of a possibilty of a direct phasing /AP to occur while you do the preparation cycles.

[keyangen]

Today I had a short astral experience, which may have been induced by the technique described in the original post. I have outlined the experience itself in a different thread: http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_out_of_body_experiences/false_awakening_to_astral_projection-t37767.0.html;msg310136#msg310136

I did the exercise (5 cycles) in the morning hours, fell asleep and after an hour or so I was having a very long and vivid dream (non-lucid). This dream then led to a false awakening, which in turn led to an OOBE. This is about the third time trying this technique, the first two times did not yield any results. It's difficult to say if today's experience was directly caused by this exercise or not (I do a lot of other types of meditation as well), but it well may have been.

[Xanth]

I can't agree. I don't think it is the same at all. It is about preparing to do AP from sleep or to get lucid in a dream. Therefore it's an indirect method. Isn't Noticing a direct method? Only in one bullet (5 under "what's going to happen") there's mentioning of a possibilty of a direct phasing /AP to occur while you do the preparation cycles.

2a) With your eyes closed, stare at the darkness behind your eyelids for 15-20 seconds.  Try to pick up any colors, lights, or images, but do not strain your eye muscle.  If you see nothing but darkness, that's fine.  Again, we are not striving to induce dreams from the waked state, so do NOT force it.  It is perfectly fine to not feel anything.   

2b) Listen to the noises in your ears for 15-20 seconds.  Chances are you will hear some light humming and buzzing sound.  See if you can hear it more clearly.  If you don't hear anything that's okay. 

2c) Notice any strange body sensations such as heaviness, tingling, and movements.  Pay attention particularly to the head, hands, fingers, abdomen, feet, and toes.  Again, it is perfectly fine if you don't feel anything strange.   

The above steps should be performed in a relaxed manner, slowly, lazily, and without any rational thoughts.  The 15-20 seconds duration is for your reference only, so do NOT count in your head!  Chances are, after a couple of repetitions you will begin to feel sleepy, to the point your mind may drift away and forget to continue the exercise.  Congratulations, this is exactly the effect we are after!  When this happens just pull your mind back a bit and resume from where you drifted away.  If you lost count of the repetitions then simply do a new set.  It won't hurt.

That's noticing.  What the difference here is... is that you're actively ALLOWING yourself to fall asleep afterwards in an effort to try to catch your awareness when you enter the dream. 

If you don't do the falling asleep part and don't let your mind 'drift away', you'll eventually Phase consciously.  It's a natural progression from keeping your mind active while doing the noticing exercise.

The difference is with one you smoothly shift into the non-physical... the other (which this is describing) might give you a break in conscious awareness as you shift.

In the end, the "HOW" you get into the non-physical fully aware doesn't matter.  The point is that you DO IT. 

[cosmic.iron]

2a) With your eyes closed, stare at the darkness behind your eyelids for 15-20 seconds.  Try to pick up any colors, lights, or images, but do not strain your eye muscle.  If you see nothing but darkness, that's fine.  Again, we are not striving to induce dreams from the waked state, so do NOT force it.  It is perfectly fine to not feel anything.   

2b) Listen to the noises in your ears for 15-20 seconds.  Chances are you will hear some light humming and buzzing sound.  See if you can hear it more clearly.  If you don't hear anything that's okay. 

2c) Notice any strange body sensations such as heaviness, tingling, and movements.  Pay attention particularly to the head, hands, fingers, abdomen, feet, and toes.  Again, it is perfectly fine if you don't feel anything strange.   

The above steps should be performed in a relaxed manner, slowly, lazily, and without any rational thoughts.  The 15-20 seconds duration is for your reference only, so do NOT count in your head!  Chances are, after a couple of repetitions you will begin to feel sleepy, to the point your mind may drift away and forget to continue the exercise.  Congratulations, this is exactly the effect we are after!  When this happens just pull your mind back a bit and resume from where you drifted away.  If you lost count of the repetitions then simply do a new set.  It won't hurt.

That's noticing.  What the difference here is... is that you're actively ALLOWING yourself to fall asleep afterwards in an effort to try to catch your awareness when you enter the dream. 

If you don't do the falling asleep part and don't let your mind 'drift away', you'll eventually Phase consciously.  It's a natural progression from keeping your mind active while doing the noticing exercise.

The difference is with one you smoothly shift into the non-physical... the other (which this is describing) might give you a break in conscious awareness as you shift.

In the end, the "HOW" you get into the non-physical fully aware doesn't matter.  The point is that you DO IT. 

Xanth,

That's well put. Below is a reply I gave on another forum. The person I was replying to suggested that SSILD works by "delayed intentions", which I did not agree. Your analysis, on the other hand, is a lot closer to what I suspected to be the cause.

=====Quoted Reply=====
Jeff, I am the author of this technique and I just stumbled upon this thread here through googling. What you said abou setting intention is very true with many other techniques, but it actually does not apply to SSILD based on our real world observations. In the original article I claimed that I was not entirely sure why the technique works, and we too suspected it had something to do with intentions and even self-hypnosis. However, I now feel differently about this subject based on my own direct experiences as well as many other people's.

It seems that cycling through the senses in a trance-like state serves as a conditioning tool. It conditions the mind/body to enter a phase more easily. When conditioned well, spontaneous phase-entrance such as FAs, DILDs, and OBEs occur frequently after the exercise. This was essentially the result we sought after when we first developed the technique. Lately, however, we noticed a very interesting phenomenon -- direct phase entrance becomes extremely easy after performing the exercise! Even when spontaneous phase entrance fail to occur after doing the exercise, upon subsequent awakenings (not FAs but real awakenings) one can quickly enter a phase via direct techniques with very little effort. Moreover, many experienced users don't even need any techniques to enter the phase other than a little bit of mental focus. And, no, I'm not talking about DEILDs or Mr. Raduga's indirect techniques. During these real awakenings you do not have to first remain still. It works even after you have moved and the effect seems to last quite a while. In fact, if one increases the number of cycles during the exercise, she can proceed directly to attempt phase entrance without first falling into sleep and wait for the next awakening (this is a little harder but is still more than manageable). By exploiting this newly discovered characteristic of SSILD we can now use it as a very effective direct phase entrance technique. Hope this is useful information for those who are trying SSILD.
====================

One interesting thing to note is that each cycle brings the user "deeper" toward the "inner" sensations. During the first couple of cycles one usually does not "notice" anything except the more "physical" ones such as the environment noise, light, and other physical touches. But as the user performs more cycles she begins to feel "immersed" -- the "outside world" begins to fade away, while the "inside world" becomes more apparent. At this stage, "noticing" becomes a lot easier. It seems the more cycles she performs the further her consciousness shifts away from the physical.  At this point, if she falls asleep she will have a very high chance to phase spontaneously. Or, as said above, she can consciously Phase with very little effort. This observation correspond to what you have said extremely well!

[Xanth]

That reminds me that a lot of the time after I do an exercise like noticing,  and the I actually make the effort to simply fall asleep,  there is a much higher chance for a spontaneous lucid/astral awareness experience to happen.

I'll post more here tonight when I'm not typing on my phone.   LoL

[Volgerle]

The difference is with one you smoothly shift into the non-physical... the other (which this is describing) might give you a break in conscious awareness as you shift.

Ok, fine, so Noticing can be used for both, direct and indirect, strategies. The point I wanted to make is another one, actually.

It exactly this difference which is vastly imporant for people who cannot 'shift consciously'. That's why falling asleep after doing the 'noticing' (next to other preparations) is an important indirect method for people like me. Obe4all and others also stresses the imporance for newbies to try indirect methods first. Buhlman in his first book almost exclusively writes about this strategy.

The reason for my being so adamant about pointing out this difference this is: I have read posts from very frustrated forum users (here and elsewhere) who simply couldn't do it consciously / directly. They never were given the idea that you can do the techniques (such as Noticing) as preparations and then fall asleep again with some success probabilty for later (=indirect stragegy).

My point is that I often miss this in discussions and advice here (also with noobs) and hence I am keen on pointing out this possibilty ('to project from sleep') as a means to have a 'first time' at all.

Yes, I agree with you. Direct exit is the state of the art to be aspired to. So being a projector, of course, does not exclude the need that one should try to learn direct methods as there are many advantages as to this (full control from the start, to say the least).

I'm trying this, to do direct methods, to this very day but failed so far, except maybe for 1-2 times of which I am not even sure of (I might have been 'asleep' after all at some point).

So this is just a point I always like to make in order to really HELP the newbies who get frustrated as never anyone tells them that it might worth trying to choose the indirect method first. Some more talented and experienced (direct) projectors, like you and others here, might not see the necessity in this.

But if there would not be the possibilty of indirect projection I would not even be here, to be honest, because I would never have 'made it'. So this is not about an argument at all. It is just that I want to point out that it is highly imporatant that we give this advice to newbies, too.

My impression is that it is often overlooked here as many experienced projectors and advice-givers do not deem it necessary to point it out. I find it important cuz we might 'loose' many interested persons who want to discover NPMR due to frustrations with failures.

Actually I consider myself still a noob (most of all since I am still not capable of a direct method, unfortunatly) and I am still happy that the indirect method is available. SSILD can be used for both, agreed, but it is a highly imporatant method / technique / strategy for the indirect method (next to a few others that might apply to both direct and indirect strategies, such as affirmations, Wb2b, journals, etc.)

[cosmic.iron]

The reason for my being so adamant about pointing out this difference this is: I have read posts from very frustrated forum users (here and elsewhere) who simply couldn't do it consciously / directly. They never were given the idea that you can do the techniques (such as Noticing) as preparations and then fall asleep again with some success probabilty for later (=indirect stragegy).

That was good, Volgerie. I'm with you totally on this one. This is the reason why I suggested that the technique should be treated as a DILD technique instead of WILD.  I highly recommand you use this as a preparation and try to Phase directly upon first awakening after the exercise.  You will find it very easy to enter a phase this way.  Once mastered you will be able to Phase at will.

[Xanth]

The frustration that people experience is entirely due to these individuals attempting to build their house before building a solid foundation first.
Just as one can't immediately play Beethoven or Bach without LOTS of practice first... you also can't just do a conscious exit projection without first mastering your mind.  Yes, I said "mastering" your mind.  This means that one must spend a long time (time may vary) spending time with their own consciousness via meditation before you'll have any success.

THIS is the source of the frustration of just about every single person who has ever tried to do this and failed.  I can be 100% guaranteed.

Everyone wants to do astral projection with as little work as possible to get the fastest results possible.  <-- That's a model for FAILURE
Especially if they prescribe to the idea that that's the ONLY way to project.

So now, here we have what Raduga calls "indirect" methods.  I honestly forget all the acrynoms people use for these... LoL
WBTB?  MILD?  DEILD?  These are all "indirect" methods for projecting... and they're every bit as valid as a conscious exit for projecting.

Techniques for this kind of stuff are everywhere.  The problem is that I think it's rare for people to acknowledge the validity of such a projection right upon first learning this stuff.  Why?  Because people get indoctrinated into the "it's *only* a lucid dream, it's not a REAL astral projection" mindset, then they read about conscious exits and believe those to be REAL astral projections.  So they ignore everything else.  Then when they finally fail and become frustrated that they can't do it... they quit altogether saying it doesn't exist.

And I should say now that I *LOVE* indirect methods.  They account for perhaps 80 - 90% of my projections.  This method that cosmic shares in this thread is SOLID.  It's noticing with falling asleep.    It doesn't get much easier than that.  I have, on many occasions said to try stuff like this.

Personally, I'd like to see people eventually take the proper time to learn to master their mind... learn to meditate... learn to focus their minds, then learn to hold that focus for extended periods of time.  The only reason people fail is because they're impatient. 

I like Tom Campbell's opinion here: Take the long view, in 15 - 20 years, you'll be really good at it.

I'm glad this thread has been stickied.  If it wasn't, I'd do it right now.  Let's get more indirect methods up here.  Let's make it a point to tell people, "If you want to project with minimal effort, give these techniques a try"... but also to point out that if you want to make this a part of your "life", not just a fad, then you're going to have to take the long view, as Tom suggests.  Otherwise you won't get anything out of this.

[Contenteo]

^Yes^

So so yes^^^^^^

I second that like 20 million times. I'd Like it and tweet it and, hell, even share it on myspace if I could and if myspace was a respectable medium.


Cheers,
Contenteo

[astralee]

yes at last my first controled exit using this method. i layed down said im dreaming 5 times  looked for hipnogogic. astral phazed.whent to sleep waken up did it all again.whent to sleep waken up in sleep paralarasis. a dream scene was generated  i heard a noise say get back in. then i enterd the dream. 

[eskimoswim]

i've tried the method given by the original poster for the past two days prior to afternoon naps. nothing seems to be happening. sometimes i'll see small blotches of things when looking at my eyelids, and parts of my body will go numb. but that's about it. when i start to shift into a dream, my body immediately twitches and prevents me from falling asleep. it's almost as if i'm too aware or something. basically, i end up laying there for 90 minutes with closed eyes and an empty mind.

any tips?

[Lionheart]

 Just passively observe it all with an air of curiosity. You could also try to create visual scenarios just to get the "ball rolling"! 

[cosmic.iron]

i've tried the method given by the original poster for the past two days prior to afternoon naps. nothing seems to be happening. sometimes i'll see small blotches of things when looking at my eyelids, and parts of my body will go numb. but that's about it. when i start to shift into a dream, my body immediately twitches and prevents me from falling asleep. it's almost as if i'm too aware or something. basically, i end up laying there for 90 minutes with closed eyes and an empty mind.

any tips?

You are doing it entirely wrong. Please read the original post again very carefully. You should not attempt to use this as a WILD method! Just do the cycles in the most relaxed, comfortable fashion. Don't expect anything to happen while doing it. If you can't feel anything so be it. Allow your mind to drift away. Don't focus! The only thing you should focus on is to lose focus, LOL. Once you are done just roll over and fall asleep as quickly as possible, and miracle will happen afterward. Good luck!

[Simo]

It seems to be quite effective - 3 days in a row I get some experience few lucid dreams and last night i was cycling only to find out that I was not in my bed but in my grandmas house!Cycling while I dream!Or maybe cycling in false awakening!Imagine that lol!

[sheriff_rango]

 I tried this a few times a while back. It worked the first time. However, it took over an hour for me to get back to sleep but yeah, I had a strong LD. After this, each time I tried it I found I couldn't get back to sleep and no, they weren't false awakenings -I was certainly wide awake and no more LDs. So I don't think its for me.

But... I'll probably try again for the next few nights as I'm going through a bit of a dry patch and I'm out of ideas!

[Rob29]

Hi,
I was wondering, how long do you spend on focusing on the eyes before shifting onto hearing?

Thank you!

[vince]

I love this exercise, i just had the weirdest night sleep ever, i am sure i had two FA. Problem, lying in bed dreaming i am lying in bed lol. lucky i was waiting for the toilet both times but in reality it was 4 in the morning pmsl
I work on this as my cycles go out the window after first long one then i realise start again but im bloody dreaming keep you updated
Thanks