I know what you’re talking about. Your totally focused on your WILD then something kinda clicks and you have to swallow and it brings you back. If you are concentrated enough or distracted enough swallowing becomes, can’t remember the right word for it, tip of my tongue. . . Oh well its like breathing you do it all day without thinking about it but you can concsiously control it. Just dont think about having to swallow and you should go about it automatically without thinking about it.
Lostboy, I get that swallowing thing too! And the worst thing is it only happens when I’m actually getting somewhere in my WILD, I start to feel that tingling and then suddenly I have to swallow. It happens so often that I started to think it was just in my mind, I decided to ignore it one time, it just wouldn’t work. I’m glad to see someone else has the same problem. Well, not glad but … ahem
And Atheist, I tried the WBTB method for almost a whole months with no results at all, all it did was disrupt my dream recall, no lucidity what so ever. Then one time around six PM I was really bored and had nothing better to do, tried a WILD and bam I had my first full blown lucid dream ever. It does work!
I am not new to lucid dreaming, I have pretty much mastered MILD. But I have never tried a WILD, I always thought it would be to difficult as I develop mental blocks/negative thoughts quite easily and may find it hard to fall asleep.
Recently I haven’t been able to do MILD because I fall asleep so easily when I wake up (using an alarm). Then I thought, if I fall asleep so easily maybe I should try WILD after all.
I know different things work for different people, but what is probably the easiest technique to use? I was thinking of trying to count myself to sleep but I’m worried that, whatever I try, I won’t be able to fall asleep. It seems like such as easy idea, but then when I’m about to try it I just cannot see it working and try MILD instead (actually managing to stay awake during WBTB is now rare for me and I don’t like to waste it)
I’m glad other people know what I mean about the swallowing…Thanks for replying. However, I’m Topher28, not Lostboy, but I guess we have the same picture. O well.
Oh, sorry about that Topher, you two just have the same picture and I’ve got it stuck in my head now. I apologize.
Yeah, I had the swallowing problem too for a few nights. I still haven’t gotten WILD, but I’m getting closer.
What I did (and I don’t have the swallowing problem anymore) was I focused on something like breathing or visuals.
It doesn’t work to think about “not-swallowing”- it’s like- “don’t think about a polar bear!” This is a problem for all of us who do meditation. It’s hard to make your thoughts go away, you have to focus on something else, I think.
Ian
just to say that i wasnt making it up… why would i? are you saying that you think it must have been a hypnogogic dream?
i am still a bit confused with it… as this has happend to me before and as i said in my previous post it doesnt seem to be a hynogogic dream to me. is it possible to go strait into REM sleep or maby fast-forwarding theother stages? i dont know 
About the swallowing problem, I think there is a way to make your mouth more dry. I haven’t tried anything because I don’t always have this problem, but maybe breathing through your mouth for a while would help…?
I’ve done a WBTB WILD using the counting method and after it worked I thought I could use this every time, but I was wrong. There is a certain condition in which the counting method has a high chance to work. If after lying down you notice your thoughts wondering, and you notice the occasional HI, that would be a perfect time to start counting, including the phrase I am dreaming every few numbers.
I’ve been practicing WILD a little bit every day during morning naps, and I’d only gotten as far as the point where my eyes start to do their own thing- relax to a certain position and then move around quickly- with strange, vague, hypnagogic images. I haven’t gotten to sleep paralysis yet.
But this morning was my record for getting relaxed and numb feeling, (counting is really helping me) and all of a sudden I was startled out of it when it felt like my senses got quickly turned way down- like I was blacking out almost, and it happened really suddenly.
I realize now I’d been sort of resisting letting myself go like this. This morning I let myself drop, it felt like. Does this happen to anybody? Does it sound like I’m on the right track? I’ll try again in the morning.
Ian
Or maybe do it dentist’s office style 
I actually do know exactly what you mean. I have only gotten to that point in WILD also. I can get to that point where there is a wave through my body and I start to feel like I’m floating, but it never lasts long because I’m still getting distracted by the swallowing. Anyway, I’m in your same boat, and I hope we’re both going to progress soon. 
Yeah man, best of luck. Alright, I’m gonna try again right now.
Ian
update: this afternoon i tried WILD again. i eventually was drifting off into mini-dreams and i woke up when what felt like my “dream body” tried to do something my real body didn’t want to do. i felt like i had two bodies in the same place.
i fell asleep and eventually dreamed about it again- this time i sort of willed my dream body to sit up real slowly, it felt precarious because i was still aware of my real body and was afraid i’d break up the dream- exactly how i’d imagine an OBE. so eventually i got up- i was in a room i sleep in a lot, but not the right one.
i was sort of blind, and started saying “expand field of vision” until it was bigger, not like looking out of a slit- but each time i did it it was a little bit more difficult to handle- a little more exciting. so i stopped doing that, and started interacting with objects in the room, experimenting.
anyways, i was pleased, ian
I finally did it!! I’ve been trying WILD for a few weeks now and it happened this afternoon!
I was lying in bed, and kept getting to a point where I just couldn’t let my mind go anymore… this has been happening a lot. So I rolled over and daydreamed, just trying to sleep. Every once in a while my daydreaming will get cut short cuz i realize i’m dreaming and i’ll wake up.
I was daydreaming when I noticed strange feeling in my body, like vibrating, and it felt like my hands were kind of curling up. I heard this loud (like a modem connecting) sound. And I saw vague visuals in my eyelids, and I wondered what they were- they were like crooked squares. And I eventually saw that they were the dimly lit windows in some strange dark room I’d been sleeping in. I then got out of bed and got lucid.
Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and advice. I’m real psyched.
Ian
Then may I say… CONGRATS! 
You’re well on the path of getting WILD driver license!
damnit, suddenly i have to keep swallowing every 5 seconds and its your fault!
maybe it’s good practice. swallowing is like dreaming- psychosomatic. if you think about swallowing it’ll happen. if you think about not-swallowing, it’ll happen. catch 22 
just try concentrating on breathing or visuals, and don’t worry about it… swallowing doesn’t break your concentration too much. besides, you’d do it unconciously anyway
I had the weirdest thing happen to me last night. I was trying to MILD at 6:15 am and i felt this pulling, like someone stepped on my bed. I at first thought it was just the cat but i remmebered i locked the cat out of my room. This happened all around my body until i felt like i was almost floating. I kept repeating to my self “im dreaming im dreaming” and tried to let go of my consiouness more. After about 30 seconds of this I lost this sensation and fell asleep later.
So i was wondering, what should i have done? Was i dreaming? Should i have visualized something? Is there something i can read about this?
Are you serious? Do you really not kow what that was? I mean, after all, you are posting in the WILD thread. But if you really don’t know what that was, you were basically experiencing the beginnings of WILD. You were starting to lose sensation of your body. If it had kept going, you would have seen and heard strange things and felt vibrations, and then gone into a dream. It seems very strange that you’ve been posting in the Big WILD topic, and yet you don’t seem to know anything about WILD.
all i know about WILD is that you consiously go into a dream, and someone said something earlier in this TOPIC that sounded similar