Do you like magic tricks? I ask, because you’re about to learn one.
I bet you used to love magic when you were young. You used to think it was real. Now you know the truth: it’s fake – unless you’re inside a lucid dream — but it can still come in very useful.
You might remember one special trick the adults played on you all the time. They would get a coin and press it against your forehead really hard.
They would then take their hand away and tell you the coin was still there. The coin was magically sticking to your head, only it wasn’t even there. The coin was long gone, but it felt like it was sticking to your head.
You could definitely still feel it, right? The coin felt like it was glued to your forehead and if you try the trick out on yourself right now nothing will have changed.
Are you ready for the magic?
Some people find it hard to kill their inner-voice. They find it hard because there is too much chatter going on inside their head. It’s too hard to make it stop.
When you concentrate on the back of your head to kill your inner-voice it’s hard because you don’t really know what you’re concentrating on. Not yet anyway. This is where the coin trick comes in useful, because it will give you something to concentrate on (or focus your awareness on).
Here’s what you should do
Once you lie down in bed you should push a small coin against your forehead with a good amount of pressure. Enough pressure that you really feel it, but not enough to make a hole in your head.
Coins are dirty and you have no idea where they’ve been, so you can also use a finger (a clean finger) if you want. Push with enough pressure that you can really feel it, but not enough that you snap your finger in two.
After 10 seconds you can throw the coin away, or pull your finger away.
Now close your eyes and focus your attention directly onto the indent in your head. The pressure shouldn’t go away and if you focus your awareness onto it you will feel it throbbing.
Just relax, and let yourself experience what the pressure feels like. Enjoy the throbbing sensation and let it overcome you.
Your main goal
Your main goal is to increase the pressure you feel where the coin was sitting. You can do this by focusing more of your awareness onto it. Don’t worry because it won’t hurt in the slightest. It will actually feel pretty relaxing after a while.
So, you want to intensify the throbbing sensation.
The coin is already gone. Your finger isn’t anywhere near your head. The only way you can now intensify the pressure is by doing it internally.
It’s excellent practice for killing your inner-voice because you have a real sensation to focus your awareness on.
Once you master it
You definitely don’t need to press something into your forehead forever. Once you become skilled at killing your inner-voice you can definitely stop using the technique.
Don’t feel like you must be lying in your bed to practice the technique. You can do it multiple times throughout the day when you have 5 minutes to spare. Do it when you feel stressed out because it will help put your mind at ease.
Just make sure you do it if you’re having difficulty killing your inner-voice because once you find it easy you’re in for a treat. A ‘multiple lucid dreams per week’ treat.
Neat idea. You can also do this with a sensation that your body naturally produces – itches.
I tried this last night as an alternative to SSILD: I scanned my body (takes about half a second) for the BIGGEST itch. I kept my focus on the itch but at the same time I kept scanning my body for any itch that became bigger than the original itch. Then I focused on that itch instead. I carried on doing this for about a minute then went to sleep. Recall was impressive and the following dream was impressive. Need to find ways to experiment with that.
Also, I’d like to say I think it’s very important that stick men have well defined biceps 😉
Hey John,
Thanks for dropping by and also for sharing a great tip. That also seems like a great way to use your itches for good instead of letting them annoy you. Big muscles are preparation for stick men to fight dream monsters. 🙂
Hi Jamie
Yeah, I did let myself scratch any that got too annoying, ha ha. My recall was good, though not as good as it has been with SSILD (which sometimes has led to lucidity) though sometimes SSILD leaves me quite wide awake and unable to sleep again, thus I’m trying to analyse why that’s happening. It’s interesting that we don’t know why SSILD works, which, to me, suggests that lots of experimentation may be worthwhile. I’m going to chuck some ideas at cosmic on his blog.
It’s good to see Cosmic has a blog. He said he was too busy the last time I emailed him. Glad to see you have one too. We definitely need more people talking about lucid dreaming and giving our views.
I’m not too sure why it works. It might just be the subconscious mind giving you a little hint. Have you ever lost yourself in a meditation technique without your body falling asleep? You lose your awareness and your mind wanders, but suddenly something tells you to snap out of it so you wake up.
Maybe SSILD is just an extreme version where your body is asleep, so when your subconscious tells you to wake up you’re actually inside a lucid dream. I don’t use SSILD, but I have became lucid this way a few times before when I drifted of but still had a tiny hook on my awareness before something snapped me alert.
I’ll be sure to follow your blog.
Cheers.
Hi Jamie
Yes, LDing fascinates me totally. Also the pursuit of LDs. I want to find a way to make it a regular occurrence for myself, then hopefully find a way to make it a regular occurrence for others. It’s a puzzle, isn’t it?
Yes, I’ve experienced it many times when I’ve “lost” my way in mediation then snapped back. Actually, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately regarding SSILD. Maybe the key to why SSILD works isn’t in the see/hear/feel thing, but in the transition from one step to another and how our awareness fluctuates? I don’t know though. Need to experiment!
Hey Jamie really interesting blog. I kinda like it! Love what you post. I haven’t seen all your stuff yet but do you/would you talk about various interpretations of dreams by subject/omen etc?
I’d like to write about dreams on one of my blogs and link back to yours sometime soon. Check out http://www.gabenies.com
Hey Gabe,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Tbh I don’t really believe in dream interpretations in the traditional sense. I definitely think things in our daily loves manifest in our dreams, but I think it’s more individual and if you’re lucid or have a very vivid dream it’s easy to pick them out.
I wouldn’t say dreaming of a ‘tree = X’ or fast car = Y’ although I would never completely discount it. Just not looked into it very much.
There are some popular ones like dreaming of your teeth falling out if you’re anxious etc, but I don’t know if that’s just because you’re literally grinding your teeth while you sleep and a physical action is manifesting itself in the dream.
Good luck with your blog. The design looks nice + very professional.