Internet Abuzz: FILD of Dreams.

Perhaps you know of lucid dreaming. If you're a close friend of mine then you're no doubt aware of my fascination with concepts such as lucid dreaming, collective consciousness, and other psychological phenomenon. Lucid dreaming is heavily referenced in Waking Life, a cell-shaded movie with philosophical diatribes and lucid dream sequences. It would come as no surprise that this is one of my favorite movies.

Lucid dreaming is essentially when you are fully aware that you are, in fact, dreaming. With this realization in place, you are free to act autonomously within your dream. As you can imagine, this can lead to a unique situation in which you have full command of your dreams. For me, this has happened a handful of times in my life, but never with any repeatable frequency. I tried in vain to think about dreaming just prior to going to sleep, which worked with a minimal amount of success.

A technique which is rapidly gaining prevalence on the internet is FILD technique. That is, finger induced lucid dreaming. In the event that you are allergic to clicking on links, I will post the steps here. It's very simple.

The idea is to first place yourself in a situation where you are very tired. So in order to ensure you are very tired, you should sleep for 3-6 hours. 

Step 1: Sleep for 3-6 hours. So, set your alarm to wake you up after 3-6 hours of sleep. 3-4 is likely ideal.

Step 2: Upon waking, silence the alarm and begin the FILD technique. This is simple. Using the index and middle fingers of one hand (dominant hand works best), slightly raise your middle finger, and then lower it. Then raise your index finger, and lower it. This should mimic a "piano playing" motion and the range of motion should be very narrow. Only raise and lower your fingers enough to know that you are, in fact, moving your fingers. Raise middle, lower middle. Raise index, lower index. Repeat. Practice now if you'd like.

Step 3: As you are already tired and doing the FILD technique, continue moving your fingers for anywhere from 30-60 seconds. Really, this part is the hardest part. You should slip into a dream state while maintaining full awareness. What I mean is: you will still be moving your fingers even though you are dreaming and will feel very much like you are still awake! This leads to step 4.

Step 4: Because it may be hard to differentiate between being asleep or being awake, it is necessary to perform a reality check (RC). The most highly recommended RC is to pinch your nose until you occlude your nostrils. If awake, you won't be able to breathe and you will feel it. If you can still breathe and can't feel it, you are lucid dreaming. 

Step 5: There is no step 5. The work is done. It's time to do as you please within your dream.

Let it be known that I have yet to try this. I only discovered this an hour ago and will attempt tonight. If you are skeptical, well, I was too. However, Reddit users are having great success with it, and furthermore: Reddit is literally exploding in the wake of this.

If lucid dreaming is a concept that appeals to you, I suggest you give it a try. And let me know how it goes. I'll report back after tonight.