Hey 
I was wondering: How do I know what I’m seeing is HI and not just crazy imagination? Cause when I’m almost sleeping, I do get some crazy imagination, but I THINK it, I don’t SEE it. People say in WILD you kinda “walk” into the dream by the HI, but I’ve never had it the way they describe. Not even the two times I was lucid.
When I first saw this topic title, I thought it meant HI as in hello. 
Maybe you should change it to “Hypnagogic Imagery??”
I had the same exact question at one point - but I never got around to asking it here. Sometimes, as I wait for HI, instead of experiencing it vividly, I witnessed some things that seemed to be in between having thoughts and HI, but I didn’t know whether it was HI or not, neither did I really think it was. I’m guessing this is what you mean. The only time when I experience vivid HI is when I’m tired and going to sleep. That bothers me when I practice WILD.
Quite simply, with HI you do physically see it. It’s pretty much a hallucination (although your eyes are closed). The HI could be just a single object floating in the darkness, or it could be an entire scene (it’s almost always the latter for me).
Does this also apply with sounds? If I am not tired and HI takes longer to develope, sounds generally begin to develope first.
Yup.
My bad >_> fixed…
Hmmm I suppose I never experienced it, in that case. I guess the nearest I’ve got to is flashing lights, sometimes with a sound to match.
I’m still wondering if what I frequently experience is truly HI. Most nights, I experience some visual and auditory hallucinations, but these are never as vivid as most people describe HI to be. I know throughout the experience that it’s not real (although sometimes I’ll involuntarily react to part of it in real life). Perhaps this is the opening stage of HI, but I go unconscious before it develops into true HI…?
If your experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, that is most likely HI, just not vivid. I’m guessing there doesn’t have to be a strict definition of what HI is. For some people, it is very vivid, for others, it’s not. For me, it changes. Every once in a while I experience very vivid HI, but not very often. Normally it’s less vivid, but it still might be HI.
I hope this helps in any way.
Or if I’m on to something. 
Thanks. That’s what others have told me, too. I guess my HI just isn’t terribly vivid…or all the vivid stuff happens after I drop out of consciousness.
Does the vividness of the HI affect the vividness of the following LD? I’ve had varying levels of HI, and I didn’t notice any varying vivdness or prolonging of LD’s… Then again, I’m not as experienced as many of you are.
I get that that too, but it’s not HI unless you see something. Sometimes i see HI in the morning when I stay in bed after I wake up, I never get HI in the evening, only this crazy imagination you described.
Thats only in WILD because you see HI before sleeping, if you use other techniques you’re already sleeping by the time you get lucid.
No, afaik the vividness of HI and the vividness of LDs aren’t related. I’ve had very vivid lucid dreams but only one time I had vivid HI.
Last night I had a different experience with HI. I got the “crazy imagination” I said, except that another voice other than my own mind’s spoke as well. But it was still all inside my head. I didn’t “hear” it.
I agree that vividness of HI isn’t necessarily correlated to the vividness of LDs. I’ve had very vivid LDs but no vivid HI whatsoever.