WILDing with phosphenes

Quest for Lucidity
1

What are phosphenes ? In another post, Xetrov found this great definition :

I found in a book another technique, which is not so far from Xetrov’s.

You have to choose a small detail in the visual chaos (by “visual chaos”, I mean the whole set of phosphenes in your visual field) and focus on it until it disappears. Then, start again with another one. According to the author, the results begin after about ten minutes, and the first times they are rather weak.

What are the results: at the beginning, a vague luminosity appears around the phosphene. The phosphene seems to take a sort of volume, like a small cloud. If you continue, it becomes 3D-like, then geometrical shapes and patterns appear, followed by coherent images. You should not look back at the visual chaos as a whole, otherwise the effect disappears.

When the images emerge, you have to “move” into them and do not stop moving. The more you move in this environment, the more it densifies and stabilizes, in short, the more it becomes a lucid dream.

I noticed that hypnagogic imagery appears from a small subset of the visual chaos, and if you look back at the chaos in its whole, you loose the imagery. This observation is coherent with what I’ve read somewhere, that you could zoom in on phosphenes, when they begin to appear more luminous, and it speeds the process up… but I can no more find this page. :sad:

2

interesting post Basilus west!
The “when you see images, you must try to ‘enter’ them” is something I’ve heard before, but the rest is new to me.

Now i know what to do :cool: I never get images (at least, not on purpose / when still fully conscious), and I only get the ‘phosphenes’,… because the only thing i always hear is “just look at the HI”

i’ll keep this in mind and i’ll try this next time im WILDing :smile:

3

Tell us your results ! As I’m definately not a WILD pro, I would be very interested to know what are your progress ! :smile:

Did some WILD “pros” here try something like the techniques I described above ?

4

Thanks for the great post, I actually printed it out and put it in my DJ and am going to read it every night before bed to remind me of my focus.

I tried doing the phosphene thing last night and as I was lying there with my eyes closed trying to concentrate on patterns behind my eyelids, my left eyelid started twitching so much that I had to smoosh it into the pillow to get it to stop so I could totally concentrate on the HI. I didn’t get too far before I fell asleep “normally” but before I fell asleep I thought something was about to happen because it seemed like my whole head was getting super relaxed and in tune with what I was trying to see behind my eyelids and/or in my mind’s eye.

I always get frustrated when I fall asleep so quickly before I have a chance to do much with HI, WILD, MILD, or any techniques, but I do feel like I succeeded at lasting longer last night before my mind and body succumbed to exhaustion. I am definitely going to try again tonight and will post my results if they improve. :dream:

5

can someone explain to me what Basilus meant when he said “move” into it? I want to try it tonight

6

Generally speaking, HI is located in front of your eyes. Thus when you see, say, a landscape, you’re not surrounded by it.
You have to feel your “dream body” going into this landscape, so you’re surrounded by the landscape.
At this point, you’re really on the verge of LD’ing, but the landscape is likely to be evanescent, not solid at all. To make it more solid, you have to move, walk, feel your feet on the ground, etc. Acting in the lanscape solidifies the dream.

My explanations are certainly vague, as I never experienced this state. Someone experienced in this technique (like Siiw, I believe) could explain it far better than I can. :shy:

7

Okay, thanks.

8

last time i meditated, instead of paying attention to my breathing or my mantra (“ohm”), i tried to shift my focus to my visual only, trying to forget my breathing.

I noticed i’m more relaxed and I get more to the “random thoughts with images” state, although I didn’t reach it…

it’s kinda strange, don’t you think? When you’re really tired and just want to sleep, you can just lie down and without any effort you’ll see images with the random thoughts,… but when you’re not so tired and you want to reach this state on purpose, then it’s very difficult!

I think letting the body go (don’t focus on it) and relaxing it is very important (when you’re tired, it relaxes very fast and letting focus drift away from your body is easy)

9

I’ve noticed this as well and it frustrates me. There have been times when I’m so exhausted I’ll be awake yet asleep simultaneously and I’ll actually say things that make no sense whatsoever. I think that is a true hypnagogic situation and I wish it were easy to get that way whenever I want instead of only when I’m super-tired. My boyfriend does it quite a bit; the things he says when he’s half asleep make no sense either and are quite comical. He’s not into lucid dreaming but I bet he could do it quite easily if he tried. I’ve told him all about it and he agrees that it would probably be easy for him to achieve but he’s just not interested. What a shame. He said today at work it was like he was dreaming while he was awake and I’ve had that feeling before too, very strange and surreal.

10

I get phosphenes almost every night and I usually get HI after focusing on the phosphenes for a while. When I WILD with HI I sort of zoom into it or I’m being dragged into it. I don’t really know how I do it, it just works somehow :bored: But lately I’ve noticed a problem with getting HI, I’ve started getting random and visual thoughts instead and they seem to put me to sleep very fast :cry: If it’s morning I might be able to realise how stupid they are and try again, but not always. Maybe I should try working on keeping an empty mind since that usually helps me to not fall asleep.

11

I realized that the dream “screen” (that is the visual area where dream images appear) is based upon a small part of the whole phosphenes field. And, you’re right, you’re more likely to be dragged into it, i.e. the zoom function seems to be autopiloted.

Xetrov and I have exchanged our points of views on this issue in this post:
[url]My view on induction techniques]
It’s very hard not to fall asleep when these random thoughts begin to appear. The easiest should be to loose consciousness and reach lucidity again just after that. I know that some dreamers can make a RC in these conditions. But, as I have never reached this state, you certainly know far better than me what is possible to do or not! :grin: