WILD Tutorial

Dream Guide Team · 09-28-2008, 01:01 PM

Written by ninja9578 and adraw

WILD

WILD stands for Wake Initiated Lucid Dream because the dreamer manages to enter a dream directly from the waking state without any lapse in consciousness. Most believe that this is possible because when the body is motionless for a long period of time, the brain is tricked into thinking that the dreamer has gone to sleep. When that happens the mind disconnects itself from the body in what's known as sleep paralysis. From there the brain enters REM and dreams start to form, allowing the dreamer to go into it directly.

There are many different strategies to consciously entering a dream. This tutorial focuses on the traditional WILD technique in which the dreamer simply remains motionless and waits for the body to fall asleep. Ways to keeping your mind conscious will also be explained here.
.

Background

The term 'Wake Initiated Lucid Dream' was coined by Dr. Stephen Laberge, however people have been doing it for thousands of years. Famous WILDers included Salvador Dali who spoke of a trance-like state in which he could walk around an imaginary world. Most believe that monks who practice deep mediation occasionally enter dreams this way, some of which may be interpreted as the state of nirvana.

Preparation.

There are two times that you can successfully WILD: In the middle of the night, during a REM cycle, or during the day for a nap.
.

Middle of the Night

You must learn to wake yourself up during or right before a REM cycle. This can be difficult since the common way to wake up is after a REM cycle. During the later parts of sleep the REM cycles are very close to each other, so waking up after one should suffice. It is usually recommended that you get about six hours of sleep first.

The obvious way to wake up will be to use an alarm clock. You'd have to know about when your REM cycles occur to time it correctly, but at best, it would be an estimate.

Another common way to wake up is to drink a large amount of water or juice before bed. You will wake up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom. Your body will not wake you up for that (you could easily hold it all night), however, if you are already up because you just finished a dream, your body will signal you to go to the bathroom. At this time you have just finished a REM cycle. This may also prove inexact because you may wake up too early in the night to be effective.

Stretching is a good idea before a WILD attempt. Your muscles have remained for the most part motionless for several hours and are stiff. Stiff muscles will ache and cause discomfort, which will hinder your WILD attempt.
.

Nap

In order to successfully WILD during a nap, you first need to deeply relax yourself and clear your mind. Meditation is an effective way to do this. If you don't clear your mind completely, it has a harder time detaching itself from the physical world and allowing itself to me immersed in the dream state.

How to WILD.

Attention Switching

The basic principle of the Traditional WILD technique is to switch your focus from external stimuli to internal ones. This portion of the technique does that. Lay down in a comfortable position. This is probably the position that you normally fall asleep in because the mind is used to it. The point of this step is to get your body to think that you've fallen asleep and shut down. This is called sleep paralysis. It happens every time you fall asleep, you are just usually already unconscious when it happens. Don't fret if it feels strange, the feeling of sleep paralysis varies greatly with each experience; some people may feel nothing at all.

During your time in this phase you may also experience hypnagogic hallucinations. These can be of any senses, but most often are associated with sights and sounds. There are several common hallucinations, however they can take many forms.

The memory footprint hypnagogic hallucination is the one that tells you that you are getting close to a lucid dream. It happens when you are hovering between the subconscious and conscious minds, dipping into the subconscious to pick up a part of a dream image, but then coming back out. Because you are in between consciousnesses when seeing memory footprints, it is important not to disrupt yourself because you are very close to slipping into the dream state.

Entry and Attention Switching Flow Chart

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Transition

Once you have successfully switched from external focus to an internal one it is time to enter the dream. This part either happens or it doesn't. Sometimes even while internally focused, a dream fails to form and you will drift asleep. This usually happens because you are not at the right part of your sleep cycle and are not ready to enter another REM cycle.

If you do enter a dream one of two things will happen.

The hypnagogic hallucinations that you've been seeing and hearing for the past few minutes may expand and encapsulate you in a dream. This is how you may choose the WILD that you want. During the transition phase, with practice, you can manipulate and control the hypnagogic imagery, which will allow you to paint your own dream (See Visualization WILD section.)
.
You may also see the hypnagogic hallucinations vanish completely and see the back of your eyelids. This is often where an inexperienced WILDer will fail their WILD as they think they've failed and will begin a non-lucid dream. This is the false awakening scenario. WILDers have reported that most of their WILDs start with a false awakening.

.

Visualization WILD

Often abbreviated V-WILD or VILD, a common variant of the WILD technique is to incorporate a visualization component. As your hypnagogic imagery forms it is possible to manipulate it and use your visualization powers to create a dream. Usually in high levels of consciousness you will not actually see your visualizations, you only get the concept of it. Conceptualization is a better term for this early stage of visualization. As your hypnagogic hallucinations become more detailed you should start to sense your visualizations with your sight and other senses as well. It's important to sense with all of your senses, not just the visual one. Obviously, the visual sense is one of the most important, but so it tactile senses and audio senses. These increase the realism of your visualization.

It is important to not attempt to control every aspect of your dream scene here, you want to both give input to the dream as well as receive output back. For instance if you are visualizing a car, don't try to visualize what the dash looks like, what kind of seats it has and things like that, just the abstract concept of the car. Your dream will create the car as it sees fit. You create the concept, let your dream will fill in the details.

With this variation of the WILD technique you can paint your own dream landscape, however without good visualization skills this can be difficult.

Transition Flow Chart

.

Stabilization

A false awakening (when you "wake up" in your bed within a dream) is already usually a pretty stable dream and requires little further stabilization other than maybe a little bit of looking around.

A dream that's formed around you may require some additional stabilizing. For one, you may still feel your body in your bed (or so it feels.) You may choose to "open your eyes" and accept the false awakening. This is your mind hanging onto the external signals that it just had.

If you really like the scene that you have created, you can work on getting rid of the feeling that you are still laying in bed. You should also be feeling the body that you have dreamed up, this is the one that you need to focus on. Tactile sensations are an effective way to do this, rubbing your hands together or touching everything in sight will allow your brain to forget about the other body. This will allow your consciousness to cement itself into the dreamworld that your mind has created.

Pros.

Logical

Whenever you wake up, the logic center of the brain turns on. This makes any type of technique where you wake up first far more logical and detailed than a DILD. This can be especially true for WILDs that take place during afternoon naps.
.

Recall

Getting up in the middle of the night allows you to remember the dream that you were having previous to that. This can give you memory of a dream that you may have otherwise forgotten.
.

Length

Because of where you should be in you sleep cycle and the fact that you are going directly into a dream and not waiting for a signal, you have an extended REM period, and every bit of it is lucid. The average WILD is usually much longer than the average DILD.

Cons.

Difficult to Learn

Some find that learning to transition from the waking state to the dreaming state is difficult to learn. There are a lot of sensations and hallucinations that you are not used to feeling / seeing. This tends to make you nervous or excited as well as distract you from what you should be doing. This takes time and practice to get right.
.

False Awakenings

With any kind of WILD technique, false awakenings as you enter the dream are very common. Most WILDers report that a good number of their WILDs begin with a false awakening, so be aware of WILD attempts that you think are failures.
.

Loss of Sleep

Because you are waking up in the middle of the night and staying up, you are losing sleep. Because of this it is recommended that you not WILD when you have to wake up early. It makes it difficult for students as well as those with 9-5 jobs.
.

Can be Scary

The onset of sleep paralysis varies from WILD to WILD and from person to person. Sometimes sleep paralysis isn't even felt, but on occasions it can feel very violent and cause a dreamer to want to break off the WILD attempt.

09-28-2008, 01:01 PM	#1
Dream Guide Team Dream Guide Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 59 Thanks: 5	WILD Tutorial Written by ninja9578 and adraw WILD WILD stands for Wake Initiated Lucid Dream because the dreamer manages to enter a dream directly from the waking state without any lapse in consciousness. Most believe that this is possible because when the body is motionless for a long period of time, the brain is tricked into thinking that the dreamer has gone to sleep. When that happens the mind disconnects itself from the body in what's known as sleep paralysis. From there the brain enters REM and dreams start to form, allowing the dreamer to go into it directly. There are many different strategies to consciously entering a dream. This tutorial focuses on the traditional WILD technique in which the dreamer simply remains motionless and waits for the body to fall asleep. Ways to keeping your mind conscious will also be explained here. . Background The term 'Wake Initiated Lucid Dream' was coined by Dr. Stephen Laberge, however people have been doing it for thousands of years. Famous WILDers included Salvador Dali who spoke of a trance-like state in which he could walk around an imaginary world. Most believe that monks who practice deep mediation occasionally enter dreams this way, some of which may be interpreted as the state of nirvana. Preparation. There are two times that you can successfully WILD: In the middle of the night, during a REM cycle, or during the day for a nap. . Middle of the Night You must learn to wake yourself up during or right before a REM cycle. This can be difficult since the common way to wake up is after a REM cycle. During the later parts of sleep the REM cycles are very close to each other, so waking up after one should suffice. It is usually recommended that you get about six hours of sleep first. The obvious way to wake up will be to use an alarm clock. You'd have to know about when your REM cycles occur to time it correctly, but at best, it would be an estimate. Another common way to wake up is to drink a large amount of water or juice before bed. You will wake up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom. Your body will not wake you up for that (you could easily hold it all night), however, if you are already up because you just finished a dream, your body will signal you to go to the bathroom. At this time you have just finished a REM cycle. This may also prove inexact because you may wake up too early in the night to be effective. Stretching is a good idea before a WILD attempt. Your muscles have remained for the most part motionless for several hours and are stiff. Stiff muscles will ache and cause discomfort, which will hinder your WILD attempt. . Nap In order to successfully WILD during a nap, you first need to deeply relax yourself and clear your mind. Meditation is an effective way to do this. If you don't clear your mind completely, it has a harder time detaching itself from the physical world and allowing itself to me immersed in the dream state. How to WILD. Attention Switching The basic principle of the Traditional WILD technique is to switch your focus from external stimuli to internal ones. This portion of the technique does that. Lay down in a comfortable position. This is probably the position that you normally fall asleep in because the mind is used to it. The point of this step is to get your body to think that you've fallen asleep and shut down. This is called sleep paralysis. It happens every time you fall asleep, you are just usually already unconscious when it happens. Don't fret if it feels strange, the feeling of sleep paralysis varies greatly with each experience; some people may feel nothing at all. During your time in this phase you may also experience hypnagogic hallucinations. These can be of any senses, but most often are associated with sights and sounds. There are several common hallucinations, however they can take many forms. The memory footprint hypnagogic hallucination is the one that tells you that you are getting close to a lucid dream. It happens when you are hovering between the subconscious and conscious minds, dipping into the subconscious to pick up a part of a dream image, but then coming back out. Because you are in between consciousnesses when seeing memory footprints, it is important not to disrupt yourself because you are very close to slipping into the dream state. Entry and Attention Switching Flow Chart . Transition Once you have successfully switched from external focus to an internal one it is time to enter the dream. This part either happens or it doesn't. Sometimes even while internally focused, a dream fails to form and you will drift asleep. This usually happens because you are not at the right part of your sleep cycle and are not ready to enter another REM cycle. If you do enter a dream one of two things will happen. The hypnagogic hallucinations that you've been seeing and hearing for the past few minutes may expand and encapsulate you in a dream. This is how you may choose the WILD that you want. During the transition phase, with practice, you can manipulate and control the hypnagogic imagery, which will allow you to paint your own dream (See Visualization WILD section.) . You may also see the hypnagogic hallucinations vanish completely and see the back of your eyelids. This is often where an inexperienced WILDer will fail their WILD as they think they've failed and will begin a non-lucid dream. This is the false awakening scenario. WILDers have reported that most of their WILDs start with a false awakening. . Visualization WILD Often abbreviated V-WILD or VILD, a common variant of the WILD technique is to incorporate a visualization component. As your hypnagogic imagery forms it is possible to manipulate it and use your visualization powers to create a dream. Usually in high levels of consciousness you will not actually see your visualizations, you only get the concept of it. Conceptualization is a better term for this early stage of visualization. As your hypnagogic hallucinations become more detailed you should start to sense your visualizations with your sight and other senses as well. It's important to sense with all of your senses, not just the visual one. Obviously, the visual sense is one of the most important, but so it tactile senses and audio senses. These increase the realism of your visualization. It is important to not attempt to control every aspect of your dream scene here, you want to both give input to the dream as well as receive output back. For instance if you are visualizing a car, don't try to visualize what the dash looks like, what kind of seats it has and things like that, just the abstract concept of the car. Your dream will create the car as it sees fit. You create the concept, let your dream will fill in the details. With this variation of the WILD technique you can paint your own dream landscape, however without good visualization skills this can be difficult. Transition Flow Chart . Stabilization A false awakening (when you "wake up" in your bed within a dream) is already usually a pretty stable dream and requires little further stabilization other than maybe a little bit of looking around. A dream that's formed around you may require some additional stabilizing. For one, you may still feel your body in your bed (or so it feels.) You may choose to "open your eyes" and accept the false awakening. This is your mind hanging onto the external signals that it just had. If you really like the scene that you have created, you can work on getting rid of the feeling that you are still laying in bed. You should also be feeling the body that you have dreamed up, this is the one that you need to focus on. Tactile sensations are an effective way to do this, rubbing your hands together or touching everything in sight will allow your brain to forget about the other body. This will allow your consciousness to cement itself into the dreamworld that your mind has created. Pros. Logical Whenever you wake up, the logic center of the brain turns on. This makes any type of technique where you wake up first far more logical and detailed than a DILD. This can be especially true for WILDs that take place during afternoon naps. . Recall Getting up in the middle of the night allows you to remember the dream that you were having previous to that. This can give you memory of a dream that you may have otherwise forgotten. . Length Because of where you should be in you sleep cycle and the fact that you are going directly into a dream and not waiting for a signal, you have an extended REM period, and every bit of it is lucid. The average WILD is usually much longer than the average DILD. Cons. Difficult to Learn Some find that learning to transition from the waking state to the dreaming state is difficult to learn. There are a lot of sensations and hallucinations that you are not used to feeling / seeing. This tends to make you nervous or excited as well as distract you from what you should be doing. This takes time and practice to get right. . False Awakenings With any kind of WILD technique, false awakenings as you enter the dream are very common. Most WILDers report that a good number of their WILDs begin with a false awakening, so be aware of WILD attempts that you think are failures. . Loss of Sleep Because you are waking up in the middle of the night and staying up, you are losing sleep. Because of this it is recommended that you not WILD when you have to wake up early. It makes it difficult for students as well as those with 9-5 jobs. . Can be Scary The onset of sleep paralysis varies from WILD to WILD and from person to person. Sometimes sleep paralysis isn't even felt, but on occasions it can feel very violent and cause a dreamer to want to break off the WILD attempt. Other Useful Links. ◦WILD - Clairity's WILD Technique - Clairity ◦WILD - The Guide To End All Guides - Billybob ◦WILD - How To Fail A Wild - AllInYourHead ◦WILD - The Five Phases Of WILD - Seeker ◦WILD - Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream - GestaltAlteration Adam's WILD Technique! - Adam Adam's Guide to Attaining Lucidity - Adam Adraw's generic WILD - adraw How to VILD effectively - arby Last edited by Dream Guide Team : 03-15-2009 at 01:52 PM.

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