I really want to be able to lucid dream, but recently i’ve been hearing a lot about the “old hag” experience, and how in certain states, hearing distorted voices and whispering is common. That just creeps me out a LOT, and i keep on telling myself its just my dreams, my imagination but I’m losing my want to lucid dream because of my fear. I really want to get over this, but I have no idea how b/c telling myself its just a dream doesnt help because i am a loser. =P i’m becoming so worried about hallucinations that i dont want to lucid dream but i really do! i have cold feet now.
You don’t need to get LD’s by using the WILD method, try the WBTB.
You are more likely to experience Old Hag and SP if using WILD otherwise the risk is the same as if you aren’t LDing.
So you could use MILD WBTB and reality checks instead 
okay thats good thats its only in WILDs but im really interested in doing a WILD 
well once you have experienced some LDs … you will know the reward of a LD is worth experiencing a little SP 
and so you could practice WILD then.
haha, yeah i should probably get the hang of LDing before I make up my mind, thanks!
This may not be easy to accept… but those voices, whispers, thumps, shakes, presences, and floating you get while hallucinating when falling asleep will become secondhand nature after going through it for your whole life 
I used to be terrified of these hallucinations, but only since I was introduced to the lucid dreaming world and having entered SP several times, did they become nothing more than a key to lucid dreaming 
Meaning, I enjoy SP and these hallucinations- they help me into a dream, which to me is something to be excited about.
These hallucinations are only in your head; and unlike something that actually happened, it is much easier to accept what just happened and to avoid being startled from what just happened.
When I was younger, I’d be lying in bed and all of a sudden some “presence” would whisper my name in my ear and make me jump up from my bed. I’d see blurs and shadows move around in my room, and I’d start trembling in fear. I’d be so shocked by the voice, that I wouldn’t go to sleep until 5 hours later.
Now, when I have an hallucination that my house has just fell through the earth at a thousand miles an hour, I open my eyes in real life and just laugh at the hallucinations. There is no startled shock I become fully aware of these hallucinations, and nothing scares me.
BTW: The Old Hag really only happens when you panic during SP. You have more dreams than nightmares, and when you enter SP, it’s just like a harmless dream stuck in reality. There is a very rare chance that you will have a nightmare during SP, this nightmare being the Old Hag.
… And we all know that dreams occur more than nightmares, right? 
im so easily spooked though, i dont think ill ever get used to something like that! jeez, i would be so messed up if i had experiences like that as a kid, id be afraid of going to sleep in my house. i panic easily, very easily, i crumble. buuut, ill have to get used to it if i want to LD. during the day i always feel like i would be able to face a hallucination but once i get in bed i get so terror-stricken i lose any want to LD. well, im reading laberge;s book now, so we’ll see.
Don’t worry about it. I’ve managed to learn to lucid dream without using any of the methods that involve sleep paralysis, and have never experienced the old hag. If anything, it has the opposite effect; I used to occasionally have horrible nightmares where I was paralyzed and something was approaching me, but I was able to get rid of those with lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming can actually help with that in my experience. Once you realize you’re dreaming you can change the dream if anything spooky happens. But it is pretty fun to go with the flow and face your fears!
PS- hi all. First post. I love the site.
I got that as well! Try doing it when your taking a nap in the afternoon and it wont be as scary then the second time it won’t be as scary.
oh yeah, the afternoon WOULD be a great idea, i completely forgot about that!! haha, just have to be tired enough in the afternoon…and thanks to everyone who answered!
You can have all the powers of a god if you take a 1/20 chance of an old hag. IF you do the WILD. Or you can NOT do the wild and get the powers anyway.