The MILD Technique for Lucid Dreaming
The Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams or the MILD technique for lucid dreaming is a simple technique created by Dr. Stephen LaBarge who was an American psychophysiologist who specialized in the scientific study of lucid dreaming, he discovered this method while he was completing his academic studies. This is a special type of method that uses your prospective memory to induce lucid dreams.
Prospective memory is our ability to set intentions for the future and carry out our tasks at the scheduled time, this means that when we use our intentions like remembering to switch off the lights of the house before sleeping, we are using this particular memory. So, the MILD technique simply involves you to set a strong intention of getting lucid which your prospective memory will help you to remember when you are actually dreaming and this will easily make you conscious in your dreams.
From my experience, I find that this technique is not as effective as the WILD technique which I consider the most effective lucid dreaming technique but one of the advantages that I have found with the use of this method is that even though lucid dreams induced with the help of the MILD technique are not very frequent, however, they do not cause you the troubles like multiple false awakenings and sleep paralysis, that is why I believe that if you do not have much experience as a lucid dreamer then this method is a very safe tool to induce lucid dreams.
Preparing Yourself
Before you apply this technique, it is of utmost importance that you should follow your lucid dreaming checklist with commitment which means you should make sure that you have performed the reality checks during the daytime as well as when you wake up in the middle of your sleep and most importantly this method requires you to be very consistent with dream journaling. The best time to apply the MILD technique is either during your afternoon naps or you can also combine it with the WBTB method to increase its effectiveness.
Many people find it very successful to combine the MILD and the wake back to bed technique because waking up before your regular time can be highly helpful to provide you with the right conditions to perform this method. The reason why the MILD technique works best during the early morning hours is that you are able to recall your recent dreams very well during that time and writing down your dreams is one of the important parts of this particular method.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams
As we have discussed in the last point, the first and foremost step of performing this method is to recall your previous dream and write it down in your journal. In case you don’t remember your last dream or you are performing this during your afternoon naps, what you can do is choose any recent dream that you have written in your journal and go through that scenario with the help of visualization once again. But when you recall that dream change the dream a little in your imagination by visualizing that you have become lucid at any particular point of the dream by either performing the reality check or seeing any dream sign. Once you have pictured your dream with a slight twist of becoming lucid in it, write that dream in your dream journal again as if you have really had a lucid dream, this not only gives your conscious mind a strong idea of staying aware but it also sends a message to your subconscious mind that you are desiring to have a conscious dream.
Once you have used the visualization method, the next part of this process involves you reminding yourself that you will become lucid whenever you will be dreaming that night. This is done with the help of affirmations like “whenever I dream, I know that I am dreaming”, “I will have a lucid dream tonight”, “the next scenario will be a dream”, etc. Repeat to yourself these affirmations a few times when you are falling asleep and they will act as an intention that will trigger a lucid dream using your prospective memory.
If you are a beginner in the world of lucid dreaming then I would suggest you try “The Lucid Dreaming Bootcamp Program” which is a course for people who are new to the art of conscious dreaming. There you will be trained with the help of many techniques like this one for successfully inducing your first few lucid dreams and they will help you to advance into the next stages of conscious dreaming as well.
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