My First MILD Experience

After strictly following the instructions on Stephen LaBerge's MILD technique for about two weeks, I was rewarded with this extensive lucid dream on 2008-10-05. The preliminary training consisted of intensive reality checking at predefined situations throughout the day, doing a number of reality checks like following back the trail of events, repeatedly reading texts, trying to push a finger through my palm and to breathe while holding my nose. Each day, I made up a new set of three different common situations to watch out for and perform reality checks. This greatly increased my overall awareness. Furthermore, in addition to identifying my individual dream signs using a dream journal, I affirmated my intention by repeating the sentence "The next time that I dream, I will realize that I'm dreaming and perform a reality check." while visualizing a dream sign encounter until falling asleep.

»I get up to go to the bathroom. Standing in front of the toilet, I perform a reality check: Trying to breathe while holding my nose. The result is undetermined. Somehow my nose feels blocked, but not completely. I try again a few times, still uncertain about the outcome, then I recall something I read about the "spinning technique": Someone was told by a dream character that he was spinning in the wrong direction. I repeat the reality check using my left hand this time and to my surprise I can breathe perfectly now, no matter how firmly I pinch. Suddenly everything seems different. I have awakened to a whole new universe of possibilities and feel excited and adventurous. Knowing that I am dreaming, I try to push a finger through my palm, but to no avail, no matter how much effort I put into it. I decide for the future that holding my nose with the left hand is my optimal individual reality check - and indeed, it proved its worth many times.
 
I am back in bed, probably due to a false awakening, but still fully lucid. Little did I know then, that false awakenings are rather typical occurrences in lucid dreams. Next to the bed kneels a silver-white haired man, observing me. He looks worried and tells me to behave. I greet him and promise that I will. He seems pleased about it. Strangely, the whole situation feels completely natural, but why not - after all, dreaming is not a new experience per se. I get up and walk down the stairs of my sleeping gallery. A woman sits on one of the wooden stairs and I politely ask for her name. She looks at me, hesitates and says "Miko"*. I realize that I had thought of that name at the exact moment she hesitated, because it somehow seemed suitable. She must have read my thoughts, I concluded. To test my assumption I laugh and reply "That was rather shallow." She laughs, too, with an expression of being caught.
 
Suddenly I am in the house of my parents, not knowing how I got there. It is a school day and I am supposed to get ready, but actually I'm out of school for many years and quite aware of it. I meet my father and reveal to him that I am lucid. He replies, in that case I should go downstairs to the living room and take a look at something he has left there for me. I should be able to tell him its color. I do as he says, but have no idea what he could mean. Downstairs I meet my mother and my sister. (In between I wake up several times, but those are false awakenings. When I let myself slip back into sleep - still dreaming, I am able to continue with the ongoing course of action. Unfortunately I forget to perform a reality check after waking up or I might have been able to explore another setting, but on the other hand, I would have missed the rest of the story. Nevertheless, the experience is disrupted and I'm missing a part.)
 
I'm going further downstairs to the basement and end up at a party with many different people, some of who I seem to know. The room is a basement vault that has been elaboratedly decorated in a modern goth style. I receive a strange kind of attention, but not by everyone. There seem to be fore- and background characters. Frankly, I would have liked to try out lucid dream sex there, but I promised to behave and abide by that. A man shows me around and introduces me to people until we arrive at a table where a former school comrade is supposed to wait for me. It turns out to be an attempt of deception, a mock-up. For some reason, my companion starts to act jealously in an aggressive way. I have the impression he led me there in order to engage me in a conflict, but I don't play along and ignore him. Why does he do this? Is it about emotional energy?
 
I get tired of the pary and want to explore something different, so I leave going upstairs, passing the hallway and exiting through the front-door, finding myself on a suburban street at night. A car with party guests is about to depart and I motion to them to take me along, but I'm too late, they can't see me anymore. I'm out there in the middle of the night and don't know how to get away, so I just start walking. A few meters onward, a bus appears, heading for the opposite direction. I wave to the driver trying to make him notice me, but the bus drives by without delay. Further on I see the bus stop and run towards it, but it is too far away. A second bus is coming and the game repeats. I can't make it to the stop in time and resume walking.
 
From the direction I'm heading to, a sand storm comes up. I think "Whatever, it's a dream." and move on, right into the storm, but soon I realize that I can't get past it. No matter how hard I try, I'm stuck and finally I decide to wake up, this time for real as a quick reality check shows.«
 
For a lucid dream experience, I was rather powerless. Also it wasn't as phantastic as I expected - no strange creatures and places at all, but regarding the application of the MILD technique it was a breakthrough. Things couldn't have been more "real", which gave me a lot to think about.
 
* Rewriting this report, I looked up the name "Miko" and surprisingly discovered that it means "shaman woman" or "spirit medium" in Japanese. I had no idea.