the big WILD topic [Part VI]

Quest for Lucidity
1


Part VI <-- you are here
Part V
Part IV
Part III
Part II
Part I

I haven’t read through all of parts 1-4, so pardon me if my question is basic or redundant, but when you WILD, do you jump straight into an LD from an awake/alert state? Or do you end up falling asleep for a bit?

Ideally, it would be nice to be able to go directly into an LD. If you can go directly into lucidity, that would eliminate the need to do reality checks etc in order to trigger LD’s. I guess I’m still very inexperienced because when I wake up, I realize that I overlooked some obvious signs that I was dreaming. Well, practice makes perfect. Too bad you only get one shot a night.

Anyways, would someone mind explaining what entering lucidity from WILD is like? Also, would it be safe to assume that MILD is like a backup for WILD? (As in, if you end up falling asleep and failing WILD, you can still trigger an LD when you’re asleep, making it a successful MILD because you had been reinforcing your desire for an LD before you fell asleep). Sorry, but I just wanted some further clarification on the techniques. Need to make every opportunity count. :wink:

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You’re absolutely right, mellowman. WILD is the name given to the technique of entering a dream directly from the waking state, without needing to first endure a loss of consciousness for any length of time. Due to the nature of the technique and how it relates to your natural sleeping cycles, it’s usually advised that you sleep around 6 hours before attempting the technique.

Anyway, failing an attempt at WILD, there is of course still a chance that you may become lucid later on, so I wouldn’t recommend discarding RCs altogether. I know it’s a lot of reading, but there really is some good tips and recounts of personal experiences in the earlier sections of this thread.

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Athiest, do you do anything else to keep your mind occupied, like counting or breathing or anything like that?

Also, you don’t even get up to go to the toilet? You just switch your alarm off and then go straight into trying to have a WILD?

So how do you stay concious whilst focussing on this image? Is it okay to use just a fantasy image, or an image of a nice place you’ve been to in real life and imagine that you’re there?

:smile:
Ed.

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mellowman76, you can have more than one shot a night if you set your alarm to wake you up at various times in the early morning. And yes, MILD can be a backup for WILD.

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mellowman76 ,Here’s how it works for me.

BTW:I’m sure someone else will provide some better info as most people use the WBTB method for WILDS.

I’ll start of by saying that i only ever attempt WILD’s when going to sleep at night, Ive never really attempted to WBTB method (the thought of setting my alarm clock for 5am frightens the hell out of me :cool_laugh: )

When i’m successfull it can take me anything from 0-10mins to work out if im asleep or not, as i dont get the vibrations anymore. Once im pretty sure im alseep, it then can take another 5-10mins before i enter a dream.

Those last 5-10mins can be very strange but also highly enjoyable, sometimes it’s just blackness and it then starts to lighten very slowley till i can make out a scene, and then with a bit of concentration i can stabalise the enviroment. Other times it feels like im on a RollerCoaster in the dark, i can feel movement in all directions and can see images fly quickly past me, then all of a sudden one of those images will just hit me and i’ll find myself stood in a dream scene.

I personally prefer the RollerCoaster, because as im waiting in this sort of limbo state i get excited about whats going to happen next (u just dont know where you’ll end up)

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You can use any image you want. The trick is actually concentrating on it and not letting yourself fall asleep. :wink:

Recently, by suggestion of someone on these forums, I tried a technique involving concentrating on the image of a book. There was no background, just this floating book open to a page. As I concentrated on it, I noticed random words appearing on the page where I looked. This is the hypnagogics kicking in, and indicates that I’m falling asleep. I pretend that I’m reading the page, and as my eyes move across it, words appear in the place that I was looking. It didn’t make sense, but I kept concentrating on it, taking notice of the words that appeared, and generally giving myself something to do instead of falling asleep.

That whole time I hadn’t been paying attention to the real world. I was still numb from waking up and not actually moving around at all, and it was completely silent. In almost no time at all (I’d say I was awake for about a minute or two) I was in the dream. The book I was examining turned into a plank of wood and began to decend down on me. I reached up to stop it, and as my hands touched it the board turned into my bed covers, and I threw them aside. At that point, I was only moving my dream arm, and the WILD had been successful.

To be honest, I think it’s actually a great deal harder to perform WILD than a lot of people will tell you. Firstly, REM sleep only takes up a small part of each 90 minute cycle. If you don’t wake up from a dream, it doesn’t make sense to me that you could enter one upon returning to sleep. WILD works on the basis that your mind wakes up in REM sleep, then goes almost directly back asleep hopefully before you’ve woken enough to require passing through the first 2 cycles again.

It’s like this monitor I’m using right here. If I turn it off, and immediately turn it back on, the picture comes up almost instantly. But, if I turn it off and leave it a few minutes, when I turn it back on the picture will take significantly longer to come back up. If you stay awake too long, you will not be able to enter a dream directly from the waking state. If you go for a walk after waking up, you may still be able to perform WILD, but it could increase the time it takes you to get back to sleep due to your body no longer being relaxed.

Counting is actually a very good technique to induce WILD, and I’m glad you brought it up. In Stephen LaBerge’s first book (along with the source of everything I’ve been saying so far) he mentions a technique for inducing WILDs that involves counting in a fashion similar to this:

One, I’m dreaming. Two, I’m dreaming. Three, I’m dreaming.

This keeps your mind active, and distracted from the real world. Accompany this with an image or entire scene, and see how you go. :smile:

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Thank you very much Atheist, that’s actually a lot of help.

That counting “One, I’m dreaming…” whilst holding an image, is actually a technique I tried before, but previously, I had stayed awake for about 20 minutes or so reading. Maybe this was the one thing i was doing wrong?

Anyway, thanks again. I will try your suggestion some time in the next few days.

:smile:
Ed.

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My question is, How Do You “Slip” Into Lucidity Once the WILD Kicks In? And How Can You Prevent “Panic”?

This morning, I was on my way to a successful WILD. I woke up after about 5 hours. I remained alert and said to myself, “One I’m dreaming, Two I’m dreaming.” Also I focused on my third eye. I have previous experience with meditation and so I felt like I was meditating more than I was thinking about a lucid dream. Soon enough, I got the vibrations. I compare the feeling to a rollercoaster in my mind. The problem is, when I get that feeling, I get a sense of panic. So it basically woke me back up. But today, I was determined to succeed. I had a couple more unsuccessful attempts. THen finally, I had a very strong WILD experience, but I couldn’t “break into” lucidity. This time, I felt very intense vibrations, and I felt the rollercoaster feeling. I kept telling myself, “Don’t be scared, you’re only dreaming…” And I could hear my heart beating so hard in my head. I sustained this feeling for quite sometime, hoping that I would eventually burst into another state if not a lucid dream. But after waiting so long, it just kind of wore off. I opened my eyes and did a reality check, but I was awake.

So has anyone else experienced this “rollercoaster” feeling? Does anyone have any advice in regard to this “panic” that I feel? It’s not so much a mental panic. It’s more like I almost feel myself flying and I hear my heart beating fast and I just can’t seem to know what to do to break through. It’s as if getting up to that point feels very “natural” and I can just go with it, but when I get to that point, I’m kind of lost.

Like I said, I have felt this feeling before when I meditated before, but that feeling I talked about was always an obstacle I couldn’t overcome. And it wasn’t very easy to even build up to that point. I’d like any kind of advice so that I’d be better equipped to deal with it should it happen again.

Thanks.

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That’s an interesting question, mellowman. My first thoughts were that if you find yourself at a certian point during WILD where you’re ‘waiting’ for the dream to take over, then you must already be doing it wrong. For WILD to work, you really can’t be focusing on the fact that you’re laying in bed trying to enter a dream. You have to concentrate all of your attention to the image that you’re maintaining in your imagination, and ‘forget’ that you’re actually still in the real world.

This is another reason why I find it much easier after I’ve just woken up. It seems to be comparitively easy to ‘put yourself into your imagination’ when you’re tired and only semi-conscious.

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Hi Mellowman, I know what you are going through, I’ve been having difficulty sleeping bc of the fear of what happens after the vibrations. You simply have to let go. I have been fighting SP for three months, untill I finally figured out how lucky I was. I am a strong Catholic (Christian) and this helps above all, bc we all know how powerful this ability is. Without comfort in your soul, you can really freak yourself out. Remember you are simply falling asleep and are aware of it. Most people go to sleep, and are simply not there when they actually cross in to rem. Its acutally good to have that experience, that way you know you have crossed. Otherwise, life would be really confusing trying to decide what state your in. I don’t know I am still very new at this. but there are those who just get that vibration and some people who are really trying hard to achieve that state.

:smile: :cool: :smile:

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Last night, spurred on by reading this topic and returning to that “A Course on Consciousness” that I had once looked into, I thought I’d try WILD again as I was going to bed. I know that it’s not impossible late at night (if you concentrate), and, since I am a VERY deep sleeper (heh, I’ve definitely slept through some of DC’s worst thunderstorms, and I’m talking LOUD thunder) who rarely awakens in the middle of the night, I decided to give WILD a go. MILD has always worked with limited success for me, and I find myself too lazy to use a dream journal (naughty naughty) for dreamsigns. Thus, WILD appealed again after my initial failures with it.

What happened was quite possibly the most vivid experience I’ve had yet. As I drifted off to sleep, I remembered to focus on an image (I hadn’t done this before), this time getting into my car. What was amazing was that I could visualize and recall the feeling of the steering wheel if I tried, something that I hadn’t thought of before. Rather quickly, I felt the vibes coming on. Concentrating on the car helped me TREMENDOUSLY in ignoring the vibes’ distracting capabilities.

But what came next was…well…a first. I felt the familiar sleep-inducing feeling of pressure in my head, but rather than wake up this time I held on. Suddenly my eyes got very dark, as if I was entering a void (hint hint). The hypnagogia and behind-the-eye dimness which I usually see traces of behind my eyelids was actually drained away.

While the vibrations usually coincide with the feeling of blood being drained from my legs and tightening muscles, this time I could feel my body stiffening. I think I was literally entering Sleep Paralysis, something I’ve never felt before. Had I been able to hold on just a little more (usually these novel experiences take some adjustment before I can effectively move ahead in learning to WILD), I think I would have jumped straight into a WILD or into the familiar “black void” that precedes dreams.

Sorry if this was asked before, but after SP kicks in, what happens? I’m guessing the void seems rather short, but am I wrong on this one? Has anyone experienced the between-WILD void? This part of the WILD experience boggles me.

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yes i know what you mean, last night i was listening to the laberge interview while going to sleep, and by chance, i caught myself falling asleep, i felt very light and knew that i was falling alseep, this brang on feelings of excitement and panic, and my heart started beating very loud. the feelings eventually faded away and i cursed myself again for ruining a potential WILD.

13

like atheist said, it is soo much easier doing it when you have just woken up, i have only had one fully successful WILD, and that was when i was very tired in the morning, i didn’t get any of these panic/excitement feelings.

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add me to the list of people who agree with atheist :grin:! I myself, have only had one successful WILD experience. I did exactly what Atheist suggested, get up, turn off your alarm, and WILD. When I layed back down after turning the alarm off, I tried to picture something, and as it got clearer and clearer, BANG! I was in a dream. It wasn’t too great of an LD, but nontheless, it worked.

When I did this I had hardly any difficulty at all, but I may have been lucky. It also didn’t take hardly any time at all, I’d have to say about 2-3 minutes max. I haven’t attempted it again since then (Have no idea why :eh:…) but I will get on it. I’ll let you know how things are going and provide you with anything I find that could be helpful. Good luck to everyone, happy WILDing! :smile:

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This may be a bit off the main topic, but I was just wondering which method people have found to give them their most vivid/long LDs. WILD or DILD or MILD or what? Or have you found that they’re all about the same? :eh:

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I’ve been trying WILD and I still haven’t had luck breaking through to lucidity. I’ve come close, but I can’t quite get it yet. Everyone’s posts have been very helpful, particularly Athiest’s. But anyway, by getting close, I mean I get to the vibrations and I keep on losing it. I compare WILD to “consciously falling asleep” or “falling asleep while your mind is awake.” But I don’t know if I’m on track here because I’ve never had a successful WILD yet. Like I’ve said, I get the vibrations so I know I’m onto something, but I just can’t break through. I’ve tried creating an image to focus on, but when I get too alert or excited, I start to lose the vibrations, so then I try to zone out until I regain the vibrations. I have trouble coming picturing a vivid image that I can hold onto. Images usually lead to ideas and my mind goes off on tangents and I become too alert. I keep doing this over and over until I finally get tired of doing this and then I end up purposely not staying alert so that I don’t lose it. The problem is that I end up falling asleep.

Can anyone relate to what I’m talking about? Am I on the right track? I know it’s all about what works for you and the approach you take. Also, maybe the problem is that I’ve been trying after <5 hours of sleep. I think I should do this exactly at 6 hours.

17

Does it help to be very sleepy when attempting to have a WILD? I mean, right after the alarm goes off should I fall right back to sleep trying this or should I stay awake for awhile and then go back to sleep?

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well yeah i tried and this is what happened: i closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing and for a while nothing happened, i almost drifted to sleep a few times, catchign myself while that happened and trying to stay awake with it but i just kept waking up more. a little while later, i started feeling kinda vibratory…like slow vibrating like someone tapping you actually. like two or three taps per second…and then it got slower from there once i concentrated on it. eventually, my body got numb…in a sense. like i couldn’t feel my hands or legs or arms anymore…i just felt like a blob. at one point i questioned where they were there or not lol. then i noticed a tingling at my hand/wrist. i started concentrating on it, and i tried to move it up my arm, and it slowly moved up it. i got it from my hands to my chest/neck and then my brother knocked on my door and i was out of it. i dunno if that means it started working or not. tell me what you think.

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hello, forgive me if this has been suggested before. i havn’t the patience to read through all 5(6?) topics. but while researching astral projection i stumbled across a way to enter into the hypnagogic state. the web page is here, crystalinks.com/astral.html, and the method is under “monroe”. heres a summary, hold your forearm up while keeping your upper arm on the bed. kinda like an L. monroe says that your arm will start to fall when you start to fall asleep, and it will wake you up. im going to try it tonight, im not sure how much awake it will make me.

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Austizmo, I have tried that technique several times, and whenever I have tried it, my arm simply falls gradually rather than suddenly. I don’t know whether I did it right or not, but it never quite worked for me. I might check out your link and try it again sometime…

Ed.