The BIG WILD Topic - Part XIII

Quest for Lucidity
3

I haven’t really had any success WILDing on purpose, but i have had a lot of times, especially in the morning, when i wake up and then slowly drift back into a dream by accident. Like if I wake up hearing someone knock on my door or something, I will start to drift back to sleep and imagine myself opening the door and walking around in the hallway or something. But before I’m fully in the ‘dream’ or whatever it is, i’ll realize that it isn’t really happening and just snap out of it, without trying to keep it going. Bah!

I have this problem all the time - is this just me not knowing how to “step into” the dreamworld? Why do i have such a hard time trying to stay in the dream instead of thinking “oops, this isnt real, wake up…” ahhhhh, frustrating!

4

Hey Lethal_Laddie,

Try to tell yourself that the next time you suspect that you are dreaming (and you find out it’s “not real”), you will do a RC. Since the problem lies in the “trying”, you have to convince yourself to try. So the problem isn’t stepping into the dreamworld, it’s staying in it.

5

I’m interested in using WILD to induce lucid dreams, but thus far my experiments have been excruciating!

There was a point when I was younger when I became quite adept at telling when I was dreaming, though I would usually forget about it and carry on dreaming anyway. This has persisted, to an extent, into adult life, and I’ve always had lucid dreams every so often. I thought it was quite normal, and I never actually thought about the potential of lucid dreaming, aside from being able to wake myself up from nightmares. (I was very good at that!) I always guessed that it was normal to realise that you’re dreaming every so often, and that I couldn’t really affect my dreams or use them for anything. I mean, it was my subconscious; I’m bound to realise it doesn’t make sense, but I don’t suppose I could force it to change.

Well, recently I discovered that I can manipulate my dreams. It’s incredible! It changes an awful lot of things, to realise that I could use this to do something interesting. At the very least, it would be a cool hobby. And now I find that maybe getting a lucid dream every so often isn’t enough to experiment properly – for one thing, I don’t always remember that I meant to try something out. So I wanted to try WILD; I want to be able to induce lucid dreams without relying on chance.

For starters, my ‘dream recall’ has always been pretty good. I can always remember my dreams in the morning, and if I’m asked, I can remember them in the day. Heck, I could usually remember what I dreamed a week ago, which I gather is quite lucky.

For the past two nights, I’ve been trying this ‘WILD’ thing and it hasn’t really worked. It takes me so long to get to SP, it seems! I’m just lying there for about twenty minutes trying to forget! And I’ve found that even when I reach SP I’m fully conscious and awake, it’s just that I’m not dreaming.

I’ve tried several things. I tried staring at the lights in my eyes. I tried thinking about random stuff. I tried the ‘going down the stairs counting’ trick. It seems I can get quite carried away, but I never quite manage to get into a dream state.

I felt like I was starting to succeed with an odd visualisation strategy – imagining my ‘dream body’ being ripped away from my physical body. I could feel something happening, but in the end it was exhausting.

So really, I’d like to know how long it takes to learn to induce lucid dreams with WILD? Days, weeks? Months even? How long before your first LD?

I’m also wondering about this: even though I’m sure I was in SP, I could still hear the boiler in my room perfectly clearly, and I was still able to feel it fine when I coughed. It felt like my chest was heavy, but sometimes I felt like it was going out of SP while the rest of me was still paralysed! Is this normal?

Thanks in advance if anyone can provide me with some answers! :smile:

  • Jordan
6

Hi Jordan,

Welcome to the forum. First of, succesrates with WILD vary a lot between different people. Some never get it done, some are naturals. For me, I have not been able to do it from going to bed in the evening, but I had a lot of succes when I tried it at night when I woke briefly. Perhaps this is something you can try, since this way you are already close to sleep and REM. And about the sounds you hear in SP, that’s prefectly natural. External stimuli and the feeling of your physical body can stay well into the dreamworld sometimes.

And by the way, you say you want a tecnique to induce LD’s without relying on chance. If you master WILD perfectly then this would be the case, but the other induction methods can come close to a very high succesrate too when you continue to practise them. So if WILD doesnt seem like your thing, try some other techniques. Good luck with it!

7

Hey I’ve read through most of these WILD topics and have found them very useful (even utilising some of the techniques people have mentioned and stuff), but I’d like a personal response and some advice. Thanks.

Okay, well I’ve tried WILD a few times, either combine it with WBTB or simply doing it when I am tired or going to bed later than usual.

I have managed to get HA three times, but that was it until last night. I was doing my usual tactic, which is a combination of lying in my most comfortable position and keeping my body as relaxed as possible (and concentrating on my breathing) until getting HA. My HA last night really freaked me out, it sounded like people shouting and screaming, but like it was skipping constantly like a CD. I wasn’t really sure where to go with it so I tried rolling over (“into” my dream, like someone mentioned earlier) but I couldn’t, I had SP. I realised that I had never got this far and didn’t know what to do, and my HA started freaking me out so much that I deliberately “woke” myself up.

What should I have done instead? Any suggestions?
Thankyou.

8

You’re not supposed to roll your real body, but your dream one. Read this post it might clarify what is meant:

https://community.ld4all.com/t/a-wild-variation/12100

If you try this let me know if it works, good luck!

9

My experience with WILD has been somewhat consistent with each attempt. I’m able to relax easily. I focus on the counting technique until hypnagogic images begin. The images become VERY realistic and detailed, but then after about 10 or 15 minutes of this the imagery always stops and I slowly awaken. All together (relaxation + imagery) I’m usually laying there for about an hour. Any idea what I can do to change this? Should I be interacting more with the imagery once it becomes realistic?

10

I have found that I have more success with the counting technique, and focus on drawing the numbers in the sand (as detailed in Stephen Laberge’s ‘Lucid Dreaming’). This technique leads me to hypnagogic images reliably, but concentrating just on counting doesn’t have the same results. This leads me to suspect that the visualisation of a relaxing scene (ie sitting on the beach, in the wet sand and letting the waves roll over you) is key to success. Well… for me at least.

11

When I attempt WILD, I get my body numb in less than 10 mins, then a very very light HI starts and at some point (30 mins) a part of my body (it could be anyone) moves by itself when I feel I am close, and obviously I loose concentration and all that…

Is it normal? Is there a way to aboid it? :help:

12

Little body movements like leg or arm jerks are just parts of some peoples relaxation process. The ironic thing is you probably go through them every night but only feel them when their most distracting. The best way I’ve found to avoid them is to use a progressive relaxation technique. I‘m sure you can find a guide to progressive relaxation along with material on WILD around here somewhere. You might still have the movements, but they won’t be distracting anymore.

13

I had a very scary WILD experience last night…

I’m no where near a good WILDer, but I can almost get into a dream. Last night it was all working out well, and I seeing HI. Usually I can see like vague pictures of things in my HI (like a dog or a smiley face or something small like that). It was all going well.

Then, suddenly I was getting a clearer vision of me laying in a bed with a man stabbing me in the back over and over and over. It wasn’t like before where bits and pieces of things randomly popped up, I could see a vivid and horrifying picture of me dying. I don’t know if I was dreaming yet, but I don’t think I was. Then the freakiest part happened: I began hearing a weird noise. I hear noises every once and a while so it didn’t bother me… but if you listen carefully to the noise it almost sounded vaguely like “wake up or die”.

I like almost instantaneously woke up after that, but when I woke up, I couldn’t move. I was on my back and I tried to scream for my mom, but all I could do was like murmur. It was like a very heavy weight was on my chest preventing me from doing anything. Then, for a few seconds, it felt like something bad was in the room with me (It’s hard to explain it, but there wasn’t a good presence in the room).

Then, it was like the weight was lifted off of me and I could breathe again. I immediately turned on the light and looked around, nothing was in my room.

…
Does anyone know what happened to me? Is that normal? I’m kinda afraid to WILD tonight, as I don’t want to be stuck in a situation where I can’t move again. :bored:

14

Hey char99bok.

Your experience is perhaps not typical but also not uncommon. During WILD your body shuts down its external senses during which all kinds of weird stuff can happen. Being 1/2 asleep as it were, you already can have pretty vivid dream images, hear all kinds of weird sounds and even feel “evil presences”. When you woke up it seems like you were in SP, which can be freightening if you are in a bad mood (for example because of the nasty visions/sounds). If this all causes you to be afraid to WILD, then it probably will happen again next time. However, if you realize that anything that happens is actually all in your head and that it isn’t in any way gonne hurt you, the experience will become a lot more pleasant. Keep that in mind next time you WILD, and good luck with it! :smile:

15

I have been trying to WILD but it hasn’t ever worked. Today I tried it again after I woke up in the morning and had been awake for about 10 minutes. I started seeing strange colours and lights, but then my muscles started strainin (I’m not sure if thats the right word) and I stopped seeing colours. Is this normal and what should I do?

16

It is hard to say for sure by your description but, if I had to guess, I would say that you were too conscious. I found that the more you learn to let go of your consciousness the better your chances of success. To crossover into the dream world you only need to be slightly alert. It is a balance. Too much consciousness and you will get stuck into the hypnogia. Too little consciousness and you will fall unconsciously asleep.

What I do is:

  1. put myself into a trance.( I have discussed how to do this throughout this thread and in the meditation thread)
  2. from their I create a falling sensation and imagine that I am letting go of my consciousness as I fall.
  3. Then I just let things happen. If I am seeing lots of HI I will just let myself get pulled into the dream. If I am experiencing body sensations then I will eventually feel my body being pulled in some direction and I just go with it. Either way the end result is with me in a dream fully lucid.

I think your problem might be with relaxation. It is very important that you learn how to put yourself into a state of alert relaxation. From there you just let go more and drop down into a trance.

You could also try meditation for at least 20minutes during the day. It is not a requirement but, it does help.

17

Hey, I coludn´t find any topic about entering Trance state, probably there is one, but I am terrible with search engines; so, could anyone explain me how to enter trance?

Thanks…

18

Hey Pez_Soluble,

If you just relax you’re already entering a light to medium trance stage, if you relax deeply the trance will become deeper and deeper. Its something we all do each night when we fall asleep for example.

19

Um, I can’t find it either and it was my post. It must be further back in this topic than I thought. It is a lot to type up but if I can’t find it I will retype it tomorrow.

In the mean time:

Basically, all you have to do is put yourself into a state of alert relaxation by tensing and relaxing all your major muscle groups. Then, imagine waves of energy moving up your body starting at your feet and exiting through the top of your head. Once you are relaxed your body should feel heavy and you may even feel a tingling sensation through your body. You may even feel a little numb. Once relaxed, imagine yourself falling. As you fall, tell yourself that you are going deeper as you fall.Eventually, that will bring you down into a deep trance. Remember to block out other thoughts and focus only on the falling. If other thoughts enter your mind simply push them away and return to your falling.

20

ive never had a LD, but i have had one interesting experience that was sorta WILD-related. i was camping with a mate, and was asleep dreaming (ND). i then woke up, and all i could see was solid blue. (the wall of the tent)
i kind of half-knew i was awake, but i thought “this is dull, im goin back to my dream”. and i did.
this happened once more, and the third time i woke up. any comments/views?

21

It sounds to me like you just woke up into a half sleep state then, went back to sleep and dreaming.

22

A great way to learn to WILD is just to spend time studying and becoming familliar with your hypnogogoic imagery, without any of the pressure of trying to enter a dream. It’s this pressure that makes the technique so difficult for many people. If you spend and hour or more each night just using this observing technique you may find (as I did) that WILDS begin to happen naturally without you even trying to consciously enter a dream.
It’s trying to force the crossover point which is the biggest cause of failure, so just take the pressure off and observe.
It may take days or weeks, but you should find that WILDS come naturally.