Anchoring Trials

[DreamChaser]

Hi,
Since anchoring is a recent nouveau word for a technique to help become lucid, I thought I would start a thread on different types and results.
Anyone can add or respond.
I say this as I had a Lucid last night after long dry patch, while using this anchor:
You know the rubber stretchy wrist bands you get with charity donations and the same ones with a place printed on them like "New York".
Well, I stretched it across my palm area of my hand so it was tighter obviously than around my wrist.
It didn't hurt, but was noticeable to me.
I tried WILDing as we do for almost an hour at 4am after a brief awakening, only to give up an hour later.
In one of the dreams to follow though for no reason (except the hand band in real life), I looked at my hand in dream, and when I do that I normally go Lucid, and I did. Voila!

So there you go...External Anchoring triggering an RC and then Lucidity.

Next....

[ZmillA]

Interesting, im guessing a rubber band would also work. I dont have any of those charity bands, I guess im just a cheap bastard :(

[allensig3654]

My room is normally very dark. I left the curtain open just a peep and when I was dreaming I say a bright white light in the sky. I immediately knew that it was light coming in from my room. Unfortunately, I immediately woke up

[Ellipsis]

Hrm this sounds like a good idea. When I read BillyBob's technique for pain induced WILDs, I was skeptical and confused about what sort of minor pain I could cause myself without any lasting damage! I'll give this a try.

[DreamChaser]

ADD:

Success!

BillyBob, you helped me to focus on something I couldn't define, the Anchor.
This was the last piece of advice I needed and tonight I had my FIRST complete WILD.

These days I was trying to fully undestand what my different incomplete experiences had in common and reading this thread everything made instantly sense.

For three months I practiced my routine every single time I went to sleep.
Yesterday I re-read your old WILD tutorial (http://www.dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=30783) followed by the new one. Due to my schedule I slept at 2am and had to wake up at 6:30, but after 8:30 I could come back to bed for an hour -- a "forced" WBTB.

After a brief dream I woke up and felt calm, clear and ready to try my usual routine except this time I knew what was important and what was unnecessary. It all went so smoothly in less than a minute.

Suddenly I felt the most intense and realistic spinning sensation -- I had to actually make sure that I wasn't really moving, then I felt a wave of powerful electric vibrations and pop! I was standing in my mother's room fully aware of my dreaming condition. The LD is OT here but it was the most long and vivid I ever had. I even remembered to try a lucidity test I devised some weeks ago.

I understood on a whole new level that the counting or the visualizing, the awareness of breath or pain are merely tools to achieve a simple goal: they must keep awake only a tiny part of the mind, an anchor to reality lodged in the waking mind. I gave too much importance to those tools, they were too central, I was putting an exaggerated energy in my concentration exercises.

Well, I mightly suck at concentrating, I have trouble remaining focused on something for more than twenty seconds, so belive me, If I WILDed, anyone can do it.

Again, thanks for your great work BillyBob and sorry if my english is a bit rusty.

[ZmillA]

hmm now I am interested in this :)

[jamesplague]

Try tying your hands together with a rubberband :)