First steps to WILD part II (for basic WILD Q&A)

[MoinsQ]

I still must try WILD. I’ve already had wake induced normal dreams, but I scared awake in the middle of the procces. But they were nice.

[GreenDragon]

@ umbrus

1. Is this technique to my benefit? Or could I be hindering myself by not focusing on one technique/technique combination?

It is hard to say if a technique is to someones benefit or not… a technique that might get one person lucid every night might never work for somebody else… I think this is something where you have to make your own judgment. If you are progressing then it is helpful if you aren’t and are getting frustrated with your technique maybe you should try changing it or taking a break. I have never heard any evidence why you can’t do multiple techniques.

2. How much time does this process generally take? Is it normal to feel for a very long time that nothing is happening(half an hour-ish)?

Erm… Really unsure at the moment I have this too… but I believe after talking to others that once you find the technique that works for you and become experienced with using it that this will be less likely.

3. I usually find that when I lay down, my hands go numb almost immediately and everything else is slow to follow(I usually only get up to having a slight feeling in my legs. No other parts of my body have gone numb as of yet). I have trouble focusing on any one thing through the whole session though. For instance, I’ll focus on the numb sensation, but after a while it becomes less notable and I notice vague dots or images. After a while, those too fade and I hear the tintus in my ears and focus on that. Sometimes my breathing plays a role too when I involuntarily change breathing patterns and start snoring. Basically, I find that if I try to focus on any particular sensation too long, it starts to fade. Is it ok to switch attention every now and then?

I believe others who focus on a part of the body have said that switching focus can be good as it stimulates the thought patterns… but I don’t use this technique so I’m unsure.

4. Swallowing always throws me out of whack. I never really get an involuntary reaction to swallow, but after a while I get the strong sensation that I should swallow, especially as my mouth starts to fill with saliva. How should I manage this?

Yes swallowing can be a problem for me too… I try not to focus on it I think it is similar to itches It’s the sort of thing you just have to ignore; this is easier to say than it is to do however

@ Halcyon Ragnarok

What you are describing sounds like SP to me. This is quite a normal feeling to experiance whilst attempting to WILD.

[fablexruler]

when i try WILD i see the hypnagogic images once or twice i felt like i was spinning but i never here anything but i can visualize something it will appear im relaxed its just i dont kno what to do i count and stuff but i never start to dream

[MoinsQ]

Try to relax and lie in a comfortable position. Lose feeling sense of your body by just doing nothing, with exeption of that you must stay aware by doing something like counting. Try to let te images come to you, ore make them yourself. But stay patient.
These are the basis principles of WILD. Is there anything of this you don’t do?

[kTFox]

When doing WILD try doing it with WBTB and when you get the feeling your floating do FILD and hopefully that would speed up the process.

[GreenDragon]

I agree with Moinsquerien, relaxing is very important with WILD. I have found clearing my mind of thoughts helps to move towards dreaming. Although it can be tricky sometimes as I tend to go to far and fall asleep.

I agree that WBTB will help you to reach this state too as you will be tired and closer to falling asleep. FILD is a technique for maintaining awareness and may not work for everyone though. It is definitely worth trying but if you find you can’t get to sleep using it then it may be better to try a different technique.

[Dream1 (Dream)]

i get it…ok ill try that

[Ionflux]

@umbrus:

1. Is this technique to my benefit? Or could I be hindering myself by not focusing on one technique/technique combination?

LD techniques are, ultimately, a personal thing. Do whatever works best for you. From my experience, combining MILD/WBTB/WILD works great, there should be no problem at all.

2. How much time does this process generally take? Is it normal to feel for a very long time that nothing is happening(half an hour-ish)?

A successful WILD usually happens quite fast for me, it does not take much more than 10-20 minutes if I am tired enough. There is little use in trying to force it. If nothing happens for a long time, I just do MILD and try to go to sleep normally, or try WBTB/WILD a few hours later.

3. I usually find that when I lay down, my hands go numb almost immediately and everything else is slow to follow(I usually only get up to having a slight feeling in my legs. No other parts of my body have gone numb as of yet). I have trouble focusing on any one thing through the whole session though. For instance, I’ll focus on the numb sensation, but after a while it becomes less notable and I notice vague dots or images. After a while, those too fade and I hear the tintus in my ears and focus on that. Sometimes my breathing plays a role too when I involuntarily change breathing patterns and start snoring. Basically, I find that if I try to focus on any particular sensation too long, it starts to fade. Is it ok to switch attention every now and then?

Focusing on my body does not work well for me. I mainly try to focus on something in my mind. It has the added benefit of being boring enough so I can still fall asleep.

4. Swallowing always throws me out of whack. I never really get an involuntary reaction to swallow, but after a while I get the strong sensation that I should swallow, especially as my mouth starts to fill with saliva. How should I manage this?

Ideally, you should lose all awareness of your real body. This is more difficult the less tired you are. However, if you think you have to swallow, do it. Otherwise you might end up thinking so much about it that you cannot get any further in your WILD attempt.

Here is a small list of bad signs when doing WILD (from my experience):

• Heart starting to race/pound
• Suffocating feeling
• Urge to swallow
• Feeling an itch somehwere
• Being aware of individual body parts
• Urge to open the eyes
• Extremely relaxed feeling in which you think you could stay for hours, but still being fully awake
• Nothing happens for longer than 30 mins
• Being startled awake by some HH effect

This mainly means that you are not falling asleep, which you have to do in order to WILD!

And here is my list of good WILD signs:

• You know are lying in bed, but don’t really care.
• No awareness of individual body parts, or no awareness of a body at all
• Mind seems “contracted to a single point”
• Floating feeling
• Gravity seems to shift around in unpredictable ways
• HI starts to form actual scenes which seem very real (compared to just swirling colors, etc.).
• Hearing loud, swooshing sounds
• Being unable to move, even if trying (SP)
• Giving up, getting up and noticing something really strange about your bedroom.

If this happens, you should be just a step away from a lucid dream!

[219346656783921]

I’m dedicating the next week or so to practicing WILD. I haven’t been successful with it yet. I’m having much of the same difficulties as umbrus.

I tried an experiment. Knowing that I would likely lose awareness after relaxing, I set my watch alarm to go off an hour after I lie down. When I went to sleep that night, I couldn’t recall hearing the alarm. Last night, I set it for half an hour. Same thing. Tonight I’ll try 15 or 20, my plan is to hear it and stay aware, without moving a muscle.

I would usually slightly panic whenever my pulse and breathing sped up, because I felt like I was suffocating. I also haven’t seen or heard any HH.

[Mirado]

i learned about lucid dreaming like 3 days ago, ive had pretty good dream recall (relative to the amount of time that ive tried to improve my dream recall, which as of now, ive just started a dream journal), usually 1 dream every other night, sometimes every night. Since ive learned about LD’s ive been trying the WILD method. more specifically counting to 100 as im lying down. i havent tried the WBTB method yet, but im going to try that tonight. the first night i had trouble getting to 100, i kept on getting sidetracked with other thoughts, but somewhere around 78 (had to restart a few times, from losing count) i had the feeling of falling through my bed… but because it was a falling sensation, it got my heart rate up and adrenalin flowing… the second night, i counted to 100 and did an RC, nothing, so i counted to 100 again, and around 52 i started to get SP, i had the feeling of vibrations going through my body, and a loud ringing in my ears… and this is hard for me to explain, but it felt like my consciousness shifted from my whole body, to just my head… the rest of my body went numb, i couldn’t even feel the texture of my sheets. i dont have any sort of question… just posting my experiences so far.

[Bonaparte1812]

Alright well i have a problem which is begining to get very annoying.
Well, i stay up for like 1 hour and still, no WILD so i usually give up on that. My alarm clock wakes me up 5 1/2 hours later and im usually too tired to remember what i wanted to do so… annoyed. And finally, when its the morning (which i had heard is the best time to WILD &LD) i can’t seem to get it to work because the mini dreams i have aren’t Clear to begin so when i move my “dream hands” i move my real hands.

Any tips??

[MovieMe]

Don’t move? Try to simply observe your surroundings until you actually feel that you have a solid body.

[NapoleonDynamite55]

Hey, I’ve been having trouble with WILD. When I can actually get it to work, it works very nicely, but I almost always fall asleep before I can go through into the dream. What should I do? I don’t want to be too awake, because then I won’t go back to sleep. Can anyone offer any advice as to what the perfect balance of sleepiness and alertness is?

[MovieMe]

@NapoleonDynamite55

Hey, I’ve been having trouble with WILD. When I can actually get it to work, it works very nicely, but I almost always fall asleep before I can go through into the dream. What should I do? I don’t want to be too awake, because then I won’t go back to sleep. Can anyone offer any advice as to what the perfect balance of sleepiness and alertness is?

A nap in the middle of the day? Then you’re often pretty aware but yet stressed out (bored) enough to fall asleep easy.

[dreamhigh]

yea you dont want to move during a WILD. It breaks the sleep paralysis. What I do is try to telepathically “will” myself to levitate over my bed. If it works, voila! i’m dreaming. Most likely, Your ‘mini dreams’ are actually hypnagogic imagery. So you aren’t technically dreaming yet. But seeing those hypnagogic images means you are close. Don’t lose your awareness and don’t move until you are sure you are dreaming.
Plus, the WILD isn’t something lucid dreamers just ‘give up’ on. They don’t give up…they just fall asleep or into a nonlucid stupor. Be patient and wait for the sleep paralysis.
Also, I doubt your frustration is being very helpful. Just be patient and know that it will happen…if not today, then another day (autosuggestion). Good luck!

[Patarak]

My problems are:

. My limbs feel the need to tense
. I cant be stuffed counting

[219346656783921]

Just counting becomes pretty boring after a short time. What else do you guys do when WILDing?

[Patarak]

When doing WILD, are you supposed to do the counting in your head, or actually speak it? Cause when I count aloud it just starts getting all mumbly…

[Mirado]

well, i havent had a LD yet, but when i count, i do it in my head… ive gone into SP though by doing that . I am no expert, but i think that speaking out loud would prevent you from going lucid because speech requires more brain activity than thought, and might be enough to keep you awake.

[MovieMe]

You count in your head…