So, I recently had a few WILDs and perhaps DEILDs (you can read them here) and I noticed something peculiar about WILD.
From what I understand, the reason why most people say WILD is difficult or why new people shouldn’t try WILD is because it is difficult to maintain awareness. For a while I thought this was the case as well until I had the dreams linked above. It led me to the following idea:
Perhaps maintaining awareness is not the problem. The problem is realizing you have begun dreaming.
Think about it. Dreams are built off of memories and thoughts, right? Past experiences and current beliefs. Well, as you are laying going to sleep there is one persistent belief / understanding / experience / thought : that you are in your bed, in your room, laying down, going to sleep. (Some peoples’ situation may be different; chair, couch, etc. We sleep wherever we want, eh? 
)
Now lets take a slight detour, here. Lucid dreams (and sometimes dreams in general) form around our expectations. We think X so we get X, you know? So if you are thinking that you’re laying in bed, or at least marginally aware of it, then it’s quite possible that the dream you slip into is of you laying in bed! In your room! (Or on the couch. 
)
Also, look at VILD. You visually create a dream from your thoughts! You create a dreamworld by imagining how it would like. In affect you take your attention away from your soon-to-be-sleeping self and put it into a world that is within your imagination. Your thoughts are then occupied by this vision and this becomes the basis for your dream.
This leads to my hypothesis: It is not maintaining awareness that is the primary difficulty in WILD, but realizing that one has actually transitioned into a lucid dream.
So what? Just do a reality check, right?
Obviously this leads to some major predicaments. When one WILDs one attempts to slip off to sleep, maintain awareness, and enter a dream. Movement tends to be counter intuitive. But movement is required for reality checks, which are required to realize one is dreaming! (Usually.) If the problem is realization and we can’t move to reality check (or we risk disrupting the WILD process should we not be asleep yet) how can we overcome this!
Movement-less Reality Checks
Easier said than done, eh? I did a quick search of the forum, and, without sifting through the BIG Reality check topic, I didn’t find anything pertaining to ones that can be done without moving.
One does come to mind, though. I call it the “Spoon” reality check. Basically, you take a spoon with you to bed (or something metal) and have it resting in your hand with your thumb on the bowl of the spoon. Every now and then you give it a little push with your thumb.
If the spoon bends, you’re dreaming. If your finger goes through the spoon, you’re dreaming. The result is a reality check that doesn’t require movement, though it does require tensing a few muscles to exert some pressure, but because the spoon is hard (obviously and made of metal) if you’re awake you don’t move, but if you’re asleep the spoon gives way quite easily.
Here’s a link to a post on the Lucidology website that talks about some movement free reality checks. (And is obviously where I came across the Spoon reality check, before. ) It has a few movement free reality checks on it, but they can sort of fall into the trap of your expectations.
I can attest to this claim by using the first movement free RC check listed there as an example: the blindfold test.
When I sleep, I usually sleep with a pillow over my eyes (because I don’t have an eye mask ) . Well, the same was true for these WILDs, and I can say that that lack of sight made its way into those dreams as I recall no visual images until I realized I was dreaming.
So the question is does anyone know any really good movement free RCs? I’d like to get a list together so I could test them out and see if I can get more WILDs. I’d also like to hear what everyone else thinks.
I just feel that eventually I’ll stumble on to that “feeling” you get and I’ll be able to WILD whenever I want then because I’ll know exactly how to do so.