Simplifying SSILD

The author of the SSILD technique says not to mess with it, but personally I've done a greatly simplified variation of it for the last couple of years and have enjoyed lots of success.

Simplified SSILD

1.Go to bed, and focus on what you're seeing, hearing, or feeling as you're falling asleep. No need to cycle between the senses; just choose one sense and stay focused on it until you fall asleep. If your mind wanders, redirect your focus to a sense.

2.Do your best reality check upon waking up. This is very important! Be diligent!

3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the night is over. No need to stay awake or write down dreams, but you can if you wish.


You can mix this with other techniques as well, as long you maintain all of the steps.

This technique mainly works by creating false awakenings, so whether or not you do a quality reality check upon waking up will often make or break your success. These false awakenings come somewhat randomly so you must be ready for them!

This technique can also cause random DILDs and WILDs.

Happy dreaming!

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Originally Posted by dolphin

The author of the SSILD technique says not to mess with it, but personally I've done a greatly simplified variation of it for the last couple of years and have enjoyed lots of success.

Simplified SSILD

1.Go to bed, and focus on what you're seeing, hearing, or feeling as you're falling asleep. No need to cycle between the senses; just choose one sense and stay focused on it until you fall asleep. If your mind wanders, redirect your focus to a sense.

2.Do your best reality check upon waking up. This is very important! Be diligent!

3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the night is over. No need to stay awake or write down dreams, but you can if you wish.


You can mix this with other techniques as well, as long you maintain all of the steps.

This technique mainly works by creating false awakenings, so whether or not you do a quality reality check upon waking up will often make or break your success. These false awakenings come somewhat randomly so you must be ready for them!

This technique can also cause random DILDs and WILDs.

Happy dreaming!

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You see Dolphin, you are a very helpful and smooth aquatic sea mammal ;-) thanks for posting this as it helps beginner break free from the (sometimes) strict restraints that authors of various techniques put upon their instructions (dont do this, that or the other)

I find that most techniques need to be tweaked, twisted and adjusted to suit individual needs. I have (and am still trying) various variations of SSILD and here are a few other ideas that people could try

As we know, SSILD is made up from short (30 secondish) cycles of seeing, hearing and feeling. During the 'feeling' step focus on your hands, after a few cycles you should feel tingling and a real connection with both hands, at this point you could MILD an affirmation of 'next time i see my hands i reality check' This way you are completing your SSILD cycles with a sneaky MILD thrown in.

If its really late in the morning and REM is all around you then you could simply do your cycles and then as Dolphin suggested, take a step (seeing, hearing or touch) and simply stay with that sense, using it as an anchor until a dream forms. I personally like using the 'hearing' sense as I get humming in my ears in the silence of the night.

Just one other point, and this is mainly to help beginners that are not too familiar with false awakenings At night if you find yourself lying in bed unsure how long you have been 'awake' for, what method would you use to reality check? A lot of newbies dont want to do a physical reality check in case they move their real body and wake themselves up from what could have turned into a great OBE or lucid dream (never understood the difference really). I find that if i am indeed in a false awakening whilst lying on the bed then most anything can be used for a reality check. Try levitation or (as Dolphin has suggested to me in the past) try 'seeing' through closed eyelids by imagining your bedroom. You could also try rotating your body in a physically impossible way and if nothing happens after 30 seconds of these reality checks then simply 'get up' and nose plug.

Remember the mind is powerful. Experiment with SSILD, it contains the best ingredients (in my opinion) for successful DILD's and WILD's. I also use SSILD before sleep (for relaxation) and during the day as a SSILD session is extremely similar to a seated mindful meditation session (and we all know how powerful meditation can be for self awareness)

Please everyone, i urge you to use SSILD as a starting point in LD induction and then adjust it to your liking

Ezzo :wink:

Sounds really easy. I'll be doing this in the next few days as a test.

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Originally Posted by TDHXIII

Sounds really easy. I'll be doing this in the next few days as a test.

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Post the results please TDHXIII !

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Originally Posted by ezzolucid

Post the results please TDHXIII !

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First attempt
At first my WBTB was a mess and i was too awake to be able to sleep. An hour later, i let myself become really sleepy then i tried doing this.
Roughly 5 minutes in and i got a WILD transition in my face. I was expecting a DILD so naturally enough i flipped out and broke it even though it was practically over as the process goes. No lucids, but i should have had one.

Successful method. This is good. I'll keep doing it to see if it's the same result everytime or not.

Hi TDHXIII Thats a great start!!!! What did you do exactly? Did you add an affirmation (MILD) to the SSILD or did you just attempt a WILD using SSILD cycles?

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Originally Posted by ezzolucid

Hi TDHXIII Thats a great start!!!! What did you do exactly? Did you add an affirmation (MILD) to the SSILD or did you just attempt a WILD using SSILD cycles?

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I layed down and focused on my sense of hearing while intending to fall asleep. I did that until the feeling of my body falling asleep kicked my mind awake. I tried to move but i was paralyzed. I was originally intending to fall asleep while focusing on that sense, but instead it kept my mind awake enough to witness my body going to sleep (WILD).

Luckily for me, this Simplified-SSILD can be used to induce easy WILDs.

Short answer: I only did the method above with no additional things. I was expecting to fall asleep into a false awakening but instead i got a WILD.

Is a WBTB necessary for this form of SSILD or no?

I constantly "mess with" SSILD. I do a "relaxing SSILD" where I exhale on every breath, relaxing more and more, and move to the next sense target with each breath. Basically always staying on "quick/short" cycles.

But I like the dolphin approach of focusing on one sense while you fall asleep. Thing is, I have a lot of trouble falling asleep with any focus at all. I usually need a "completely empty" head, absent of all effort in order to fall asleep. But I'll try this, it seems like a good approach.

I think i will try some SSILD sessions again too. i had some good results with it in the past but somehow stoped it and now do just mantras. i think i will play around with it again and see what happens ;)
in the past i did with the original method but i think i will try to focus on just one sense too and maby some mantras in between.
i will post my progress.

I will try this method tonight, but do I need to wake up before REM? or do I need to do it when I go straight to bed

Frying Man, one of the nice things about this technique is that when you have undivided attention on a sense, you're not focusing on any thoughts which keeps you're head completely clear.

zxchoo09, you can do this every time you go to sleep. It doesn't matter when you wake up.

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Originally Posted by dolphin

Frying Man, one of the nice things about this technique is that when you have undivided attention on a sense, you're not focusing on any thoughts which keeps you're head completely clear.

zxchoo09, you can do this every time you go to sleep. It doesn't matter when you wake up.

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Hi Zxchoo09, just to echo what Dolphin said above, SSILD can be used at any time day or night and heres a breakdown of the 'whys'

Do SSILD during the daytime whilst sitting / standing up - WHY? Doing SSILD during the day is NOT for inducing a lucid dream, it is used for a great meditation session and also doubles as a practise session. The SSILD cycles are a type of mindful meditation, you are guiding yourself through the cycles concentrating on your senses, On the 'seeing' step you can open your eyes and take everything in and so the daytime SSILD becomes a hybrid of ADA and a productive mindfulness seated meditation session which builds self awareness along with all the other benefits of meditation.

Do SSILD as you lay to sleep - WHY? Doing SSILD as you lay to sleep is NOT to induce a lucid dream per se. Doing SSILD as you lay to sleep acts as a fantastic relaxation method that gets you to sleep fast and once again is great practise for the night ahead

Do SSILD as a WBTB - WHY? So this is where SSILD will be most effective and why it is used for lucid dreaming. Perform a wbtb, I stay up from between 3 and 10 mins. I then get comfy and perform the cycles, the trick is to fall asleep whilst performing the cycles, You should aim for at least 3-4 cycles before you nod off. If you feel you are falling asleep during the very first cycle then you can put your arm or elbow in the air until you have done 3-4 cycles to keep you awake. Remeber, the magic happens AFTER you fall asleep so theres no need to stay still - you can scratch & swallow etc.............. Why does SSILD work? who knows? Fo me the logic is straight-forward - by cycing through the sense you are increasing your self awareness of these senses so as you sleep, your self awareness is raised allowing oddities to be spotted in dreams.

Do SSILD as a WILD - WHY? During the steps above it is possible if you feel like it to continue doing the steps until REM kicks in. You can cycle the steps or as Dolphin does, focus on one of the steps and use it as an anchor to WILD. My last WILD involved me cycling the steps and when I started getting dreamlets i then focused more time and attention of the 'seeing' step, nest thing i know i am feeling vibrations and got on OBE :-)

So SSILD can by mix matched to suit your needs, experiment with adding in other stuff such as a affirmation during the 'hearing' step or what i do is during the 'touch'step i 'feel' my hands and tell myself to reality check next time i see my hands

SSILD is powerful - a very powerful sedative, it really puts you in a trance and can be used for many applications. When i first started out there were 100 techniques to choose from, 100 daytime meditation techniques, 100 'relax to sleep' methods and it all becomes an overwhelming choice.

So you see, you can use SSILD as a one-size-fits-all meditation, lucid dream induction and relaxation aid. If you have not read the tutorial it can be found by googling 'cosmib.iron ssild'

Post successes here and dont forget to add any alterations that you made to the technique - happy SSILD'ing!

Ezzo

I think there are different types of undivided attentions. If I focus on visual, I stay awake. If I focus on aural, I find it relaxing. I think the attention must be very, very light. So light that it's almost not there. At least, it's that way for me. If I have even the smallest amount of mental activity, even just "focus," I usually do not fall asleep at all.

I tried this last night ("paying attention to the senses for all the night"), and had poor/light sleep with frequent waking/rolling over, including a long insomnia session @ about 5 hours where I just had to get up for a few hours and went back to bed in late morning until early afternoon.

However, I had relatively great early night recall, (before my after-WBTB insomnia), which has been poor lately. I did have a brief LD after the 2nd BTS (late morning) which was interrupted by my wife moving in bed. As is typical for very late back to sleeps that creep into afternoon, the waking recall from that was just "meh."

So all in all, perhaps some promise. LDs I think occur during relatively light/poor sleep. Can't keep that up forever, though, or it leads to total exhaustion.

As always, must find the middle ground.

Maybe it's just a matter of lots more practice. I'll keep it in my bag o' tricks and see how it goes.

This has helped a lot so far. I haven't experienced any lucids yet using SSILD, but the regular technique made it very hard to relax. I don't relax easily, so I kept thinking to myself "You need to switch senses soon!", "You've been doing that one too long!"... it's really hard to pull those thoughts away, and to just relax.

But simplifying it helped me get to sleep last night. I was able to relax. I'm going to keep using this technique. I plan to start doing it during the day as well :) Thanks so much for this

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Originally Posted by RelaxAndDream

i will post my progress.

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so this night i tried it for the first time again. i had no recall before the wbtb that night because it was the second night in a row i was up really late and drinked and so on. i got to bed at 2 am and woke up first time at 7:30 with a small dream. i dreamed that i was in a crowd at a market and thought about: "hey when this is a dream i could lift someone with TK, oh wait thats a bit heavy lets say i can make that piece of textil cloth move with my mind." i tried and something moved but then i was like "ah because of the wind, nevermind"...
however i wrote the dream down and got up to take a piss and back to bed. i did some mantras and then started the cycles. i always start on my back with the fast cylcles and when i am done i turn on my site and do some more long cycles.
after turning on my site i just focused on hearing and seeing in cycles. i had a lot of hypagonia. i did not stop the cycles after some time but did them till i fall asleep. so i think it was nearer to a WILD than a DILD even if it didnt work 100%
i remember different fragments of dreams.
- i am sitting at a computer with my head on my hands. i get up my head and see the monitor and a clock. somehow i cant stabilize the picture. maby it was not ready yet.
- someone is in my room and opens and closes the window. i am concerned that he might crush my plant inbetween the windows. but i dont move becauce guess what i try falling asleep ;)
- i am at a soccerfield next to the goal lying there with my blanket and again trying not to move because i want to fall asleep. i see two ferrets playing right next to me with a ball. one of them hides under the field like it was a carpet i move and roll the ball. the other ferret runns behind the ball exactly like a cat would do. i get lucid but i dont know because i moved so i knew this must be a dream or because of the ferret. problem was that i stood up directly and entagnled with the blanket this made me awake again.

i stopped and just stood up because it was alrdy late. but all in all it worked pretty well. i kind of like falls awakenings because most of the time they are funny at the latest when you wake up and think about it. i had already FA
-where my mom entered and wanted to cook and didnt stoped talking and i was like mum please go i try to lucid dream...
-where a good female friend of mine suddenly layed next to me in bed and did weird stuff and again i was confused but tried not to move because trying to fall asleep :)
-and so on

i think when you get used to the FA its a nice way to get lucid

the only thing i have is that after SSILD is that the lucids are a little unstable. i think that is because if you DILD normaly you are deep in the dream and so you just dont think about your WL body but with SSILD i always get lucid because i still and over again try to fall asleep whilest something is happening around me until i notice AH you are lucid already but somehow my mind is still connected with my WL body. but i think this is just practice too to just focus on grounding and your dreambody and once stable start your thing and not just stand up like i did.


but i like SSILD and like ezzolucid said there are a lot of things to do with and to modify about it. and a good practice for WILD i think. and in comparison with MILD i have the feeling that i can do more about it to become lucid without having problems falling asleep again like i have sometimes with MILD.

all in all i am happy about this thread so it reminded me to try to do it again and get my tweak in it :)

Remember that with SSILD, the cycles have to be done in a very relaxed and 'dumb' manner. You should NOT be searching to see things during the 'seeing step' and your should not try to hear things or feel things either. You need to cultivate a 'free flowing state of mind' where you are drifting in and out of sleep. Do not count how many seconds you have been doing each step for either, keep the whole process very 'light' and almost as something that youre doing in the background as you fall asleep. Yes it does create false awakenings but like ive mentioned before - who cares what vehicle is used to get lucid? not me! FA / OBE/ DILD etc, as long as i can get lucid then its simply a matter of stabilization and deepening, then if youre lucid dream is still in your bedroom or house, simply fly away into dragon mountain ! :-)

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Originally Posted by ezzolucid

Post successes here and dont forget to add any alterations that you made to the technique - happy SSILD'ing!

Ezzo

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You seem to like SSILD as much as I do. :) It continues to produce for me (2.5 years), especially after customizing it to my liking (maybe for the last 2 years I am guessing). I am posting my alteration to SSILD as requested above: I go through the 3 senses in each breath, no longer doing short and long cycles and only separating the senses by a few seconds, basically on the visual sense as I breath in, sound at the top of my breath in, and tactile as I am breathing out. Anyone can likely find their favorite alteration by doing it during the day when you are wide awake (I also like your twist on doing in during the day Ezzo) and then testing it at night.

I still like mixing up different types of induction though so that I am not using SSILD every night that I try to get lucid. If I slack on daytime self awareness work, the quality or length of my lucid dreams seems to be affected.

This morning I woke up at about 3AM. I decided to focus on sight... pretty soon I started hearing things as well, and very faintly seeing a dream.

I ended up falling asleep and nothing really happened, but it was an interesting sensation! Going to try again tonight :)

Thanks for the thread - I too am enjoying SSILD variations - during wbtb and during wild dive and have had success quite a few times now with later Dilds and a few FA. I do like the way you incorperate it into daytime " present moment " practice too - doing it like that does remind me of the basic dream yoga instructions I am working with like building up the awareness of senses and remaining with them with relaxed awareness ... I feel it's all going the right direction now with this stuff :D Thanks,

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Originally Posted by fogelbise

I go through the 3 senses in each breath, no longer doing short and long cycles and only separating the senses by a few seconds, basically on the visual sense as I breath in, sound at the top of my breath in, and tactile as I am breathing out.

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I came across this thread during my deeper research into SSILD today and figured it deserves a nice bump.

SSILD has been my most effect technique but, being in a bit of a slump right now I was looking for improvement tips. I'm glad I did because I will be trying the fogelbise approved SSILD method tonight!

One thing that I realized from this is that I have been experiencing false awakenings when I thought I was experiencing failure. i should have know that flash to suddenly awake was not natural and done a RC. I am SUCH a rookie! :nodyes:

I had some little LDs last night after SSILD! I sometimes have trouble getting to sleep and read that SSILD is also a great insomnia treatment, great for relaxation.

...And it really is, after a few minutes cycling I caught myself drifting off into sleepy thoughts. A couple of times I brought myself back to the cycles and then went into a dream.

Had a couple of DILDs but woke immediately. When I suddenly realise it's a dream, it just fascinates me so much I can't help waking! Although need to focus on expecting a False Awakening - both throughout the SSILD process and also after waking abruptly up from an LD.

Thanks for bumping again lenscaper!

So continuing the bump here.....I read countless positive results from SSILD I kept trying for weeks but would always fall asleep without completing enough cycles and no results. I even found cosmic.irons email and asked him personally how to go about it, but kept falling asleep and nada. This is what I did recently (last 2 nights) and have had great results. I recorded myself going through all the cycles, doing the fast ones first and then 4 regular ones timed at 30 seconds for each sense. Just kind of like a guided meditation. "Focus on your vision.........what do you see.............", ....."now focus on your hearing.......notice new sounds......". Not too much talking on each cycle, but enough to guide me through. So I have done WBTB and when I´m ready to go back to sleep I play the recording while sitting down in bed. The recording helps me stay on top of the cycles and use the right timing, without messing up or worrying. That together with sitting up in bed helps me not to fall asleep. When I finish I just lay down with the goal of falling asleep while using a mantra "mind awake....body asleep". The first night I almost had a WILD, in just a few minutes I felt forcefully thrust out of body and then a dream formed. The second night I had a DILD. Surely liking this so far, never had such good results.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dolphin

The author of the SSILD technique says not to mess with it, but personally I've done a greatly simplified variation of it for the last couple of years and have enjoyed lots of success.

Simplified SSILD

1.Go to bed, and focus on what you're seeing, hearing, or feeling as you're falling asleep. No need to cycle between the senses; just choose one sense and stay focused on it until you fall asleep. If your mind wanders, redirect your focus to a sense.

2.Do your best reality check upon waking up. This is very important! Be diligent!

3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the night is over. No need to stay awake or write down dreams, but you can if you wish.


You can mix this with other techniques as well, as long you maintain all of the steps.

This technique mainly works by creating false awakenings, so whether or not you do a quality reality check upon waking up will often make or break your success. These false awakenings come somewhat randomly so you must be ready for them!

This technique can also cause random DILDs and WILDs.

Happy dreaming!

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What’s your success rate with this? LD’s most nights?

I’ve just read this thread now but in the past when I’ve fell asleep while doing cycles It would often lead to FA’s so I can vouch for this method!

Thanks for sharing!

I have settled into a cycled routine that starts with a slow 40 count and works down by 10's to the 10 count. I am working on other things as well but this is my fall back induction method and it is working almost every time I use it.

I did try the simplified variation but it did not do it for me.