The Alphabet Soup of Lucid Dreaming Acronyms
We all have been there. You're scrolling through an online forum, eager to delve into the fascinating realms of lucid dreaming. Suddenly, you're bombarded with an alphabet soup of acronyms - WBTB, MILD, WILD, SSILD, to name a few (and crikey, there are a LOT of them!).
The mysterious 'gurus' of lucid dreaming carry on conversations that feel more like a secret code than meaningful discourse.
You scratch your head, wondering, "Am I exploring the wonders of the subconscious or deciphering a cryptographer's nightmare?"
Decoding the Acronyms: WBTB, MILD, WILD, and SSILD Explained
Let's face it - this jargon bombardment is not just unnecessary but often serves as a smoke-and-mirrors trick, a pseudo-intellectual masquerade that adds an artificial layer of complexity over the simple beauty of lucid dreaming.
Take WBTB, for instance. It stands for "Wake Back To Bed," which translates to "getting up in the night."
That's it.
No magical formula, no secret handshake, no ancient ritual.
Just getting up, maybe having a glass of water and using the bathroom, and then heading back to the land of dreams.
Then there’s MILD, the “Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams.” What does this mean in plain English? Well, "mnemonic" (the "m" is silent) just means memory, it's using your memory to remember to recognise that you're dreaming.
And let’s not forget WILD, the “Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream,” which means – wait for it – going from being awake directly into a dream.
As for SSILD, it stands for "Senses Initiated Lucid Dreaming" and involves focusing on your senses while falling asleep. Essentially, it's a slightly more involved version of "counting sheep." There are hundreds more of these kinds of terms, and while they may work as useful shorthand when discussing ideas, don't mistake the acronyms, or those using them, as implicated with authority, authenticity, or complexity.
Remember 90% of lucid dreaming techniques were just speculative ideas shared by members of the public in forums, they're rarely the result of expert research.
The Illusion of Complexity: Why Jargon Isn't Indicative of Expertise
So why the jargon? Why the veiling of straightforward concepts behind convoluted terms?
Well, it's an old trick used across various fields to make simple ideas seem more complicated—and the explainer more knowledgeable—than they truly are.
In the lucid dreaming world, it creates an artificial hierarchy, with so-called experts lording their acronyms over newcomers. Nowhere is this worse than in the online lucid dream communities of Discord, Reddit, and their ilk. There's something about these social spaces that entices certain attention hungry individuals to puff-up their feathers and weasel their way to the top of the food chain.
Pseudo-experts abound in these spaces, dripping with jargon and unwavering confidence in their own importance, so don't fall for it - real experts really don't have the time to spend all their free time looking for social clout in obscure online forums - they tend to have better things to be doing (when was the last time you saw Stephen LaBerge or Keith Hearne sharing memes on Discord?). So, don't let the smoke and mirrors fool you. Once you get past the jargon, you'll realize that most concepts regarding lucid dreaming are quite simple, requiring more practice and patience than esoteric knowledge.
The Art of Simple Explanation: The True Mark of Understanding
The best teachers are those who can take a complex idea and distil it into its simplest form, not those who take a simple idea and make it unnecessarily complicated.
So, the next time someone tries to impress you with their jargon-laden explanation of lucid dreaming, remember the wise words of Albert Einstein:
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein
Returning to Simplicity: The Accessible Adventure of Lucid Dreaming
So let's peel back the layers of obfuscation, strip away the unnecessary jargon, and return lucid dreaming to what it should be - a straightforward exploration of our consciousness and dreaming mind, an adventure in the dream world that's open to all, no decoder ring required.
Yes, terminology can be handy for the quick sharing of ideas, but when it becomes a smoke-screen, a barrier to entry, or a badge of honour, then it's worth remembering that these terms are tools not trophies.
If there is one acronym that is genuinely useful for lucid dreaming, it's KISS:
Keep It Simple, Stupid.