Thread: How MILD Really Works

I'm very happy you guys are finding this stuff interesting. =]

Originally Posted by Screen

There is definitely some truth to what you're saying. Speaking of shopping at the grocery store, there was this YouTube video that used association with numbers. That way, I could remember not only the items on my list, but number a specific item was. It was actually quite easy, but you have to make sure your imagination is strange enough.

I've always thought of MILD as nothing more than a simple affirmation before bed. I never thought it had anything to do with the kinds of things I learned about association and strange visualizations. Who knows? You may have just helped pave the way for a more enjoyable way to lucid dream. I'd certainly prefer this over having to constantly perform reality checks. I'm going to work on your example for learning to be more aware during the day. I'll share a rough example.

Every hour that doesn't have the letter "E" in it (every hour except 2, 4, and 6) if I'm not aware, a dark horseman with ten arms will magically come out of a portal from a clock (analog or digital). The portal will be swirling with thunder, and be pitch black and he'll summon me into an eternal abyss.

Stranger the better, right? Either way, thanks for sharing all of this. It's definitely helpful and it won't hurt or be boring to try.

What you saw in the video was probably what's known as a Peg List. Which works on the same basic principle of association as every other method but in this case you are associating with an ordered list of some sort, for example numbers. Because they are in order, when you recall each "peg" (number) your memories will be in order as well. It's a nice easy method for short lists of things that you probably won't need to remember for that long, like a shopping list.

And yes, the stranger the better! Eventually your brain might get used to your story as well and you will have to come up with something new. It's interesting to note that mnemonics will gradually turn into "normal" memories, that is; you will not need the mnemonic after a while. The mnemonic you start with is an "obvious" link to your new memory, eventually there will be many more links that will come up naturally and you won't need a specific one anymore. In other words you won't need the mnemonic as a reminder anymore.

Also the way I see it, reality checks are just a way of keeping you aware during the day, the purpose isn't the reality check itself but in maintaining the idea that you might be dreaming. You could even think of them as a type of mnemonic.

Originally Posted by cptP

Interesting post! I was actually not really interested in MILD before but your post changed my opinion ( at least I wanna give it a try now )

I've got one question though: Is it a problem if the strange part of the visualization gets quite 'long'? I can't come up with something short that seems really weird to me.
(sorry if this thread wasn't meant for questions like that)

It doesn't really matter how long it is as long as you can visualise it. If you look at the first link in my original post you'll see that Joshua used a very long story to memorise the deck of cards. Your brain is creating the story, you're not reading it from somewhere, so your brain can recreate it very easily. Only down side would be the time it takes to repeat it, in the end whatever comes naturally to you is perfectly fine. The more natural the better, for example often when it is difficult to come up with an image for something you want to remember, you just use the first thing that pops into your head, trust your imagination.

You're not forcing your brain to do anything, you're actually using it the way it likes to be used. I think this is a very important idea behind mnemonics; it's not so much about learning a new technique but more about going back to how the brain is actually built to function.