heey everyone!
Has anyone ever used the WILD method and if so, did it work?
How can you “train” this method?
xx
Being a novice myself, I can only say a little. I have had one LD, and it was with the WILD method together with WBTB.
The WILD method, as I understand it, is about keeping your awareness while your body is falling asleep. Normally, the mind relaxes with the body into sleep, but with the WILD method, your mind and body can go separate ways. Therefore, it’s supposed to be easier to do if you’re exhausted bodily but not mentally. This is why it could work well together with the WBTB method, so that your body fall asleep quite quickly. If you manage to keep relaxed, but still aware of what is happening, you’ll have two ways into a LD: 1) You observe the dream forming before your mind, until you can step into it. 2) You observe your body falling into SP, then you “separate” from your body by an act of will - then when you “open” your eyes (you only think you do, because your body will be paralysed at this stage), you’ll be in a LD.
The one time I had a LD, it was with option 2 above. I had read enough about WILD to know what to expect and what to do. When I “opened” my eyes, I were in my bedroom and could get out of bed. It was clearly not my real room, but my dreaming representation of it. Still, I could walk around in my apartment. Also, I were not perfectly awake, and my mental capabilities (rationality, memory) were reduced. During my LD, I falsely woke up 2 times, just to find myself back in the LD. Then I started to worry about how to get out of this situation. A beep from my mobile phone woke me up for real.
WILD is not recommended for novices, as it can be hard to do, and observing your body fall into PS can be scary. I’ve tried this method several times after my first LD, but with no success. Usually, I can’t keep calm through the transition into SP, before I get too relaxed and fall asleep normally. It seems like I have to strike a very fine balance between relaxation and being awake.
Read more about WILD here. Good luck!