WILD - Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream

The following is a very difficult technique to master that should be practiced when you’re good and ready.
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Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream (WILD)
Created by: The Lucidity Institute

This technique is more difficult than MILD and may take some time and patience. The goal of this is to stay conscious while your body falls asleep.

1. Fall asleep for 5-6 hours before attempting. You should then stay up for about 30-60 minutes. This is known as a wake back to bed (WBTB). Find a comfortable place and relax.

2. Now close your eyes and think to yourself, "I will lucid dream. I will move from waking to lucidity." Concentrate on your breathing. Try not to let your mind wonder from this point on, but too much obsession towards success may prove cumbersome.

3. What you might see is random flashing and streaks of color. Look carefully at this blackness. This is all the beginning of the your brain's imagery (hypnagogic imagery). You need to watch this imagery, but do not focus hard for your vision needs to be relaxed. Your eyelids should gently be closed and not forced shut. Some objects and scenes should appear.

4. If your thoughts become to abstract you're at risk of loosing concentration. Think logically. A way to keep the mind active is to imagine doing something that involves visual, audio and tactile sensations (such as riding a bike). Allow yourself to sense everything such as the feel of the handlebars, the blowing of the wind and the sound of birds, etc.

5. With time may you notice mild vibrations signaling the threshold of sleep paralysis. At this point there will no longer have any issues with concentration. Everything becomes clear. stop focusing on your breathing and just be aware of your surroundings. Some time later will you begin to experience “second vibrations.” If you begin to loose consciousness, start paying attention to any light in your vision or any internal sound.

6. This stage either happens or it doesn’t. Dream images will start to form. You can go with these images and enter into a lucid state. This takes a lot of practice but, given the extraordinary vividness of the lucid world on entering through this technique, is well worth the effort.

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Troubles with WILD

The problem with attempting a WILD is remaining conscious until the dream starts. The goal is to be awake enough to enter a WILD while not being too awake to relax. Performing the WBTB technique is the most helpful for this. For some, small doses of caffeine may help a successful WILD if falling asleep prematurely is a problem. You may wish to experiment to find out how well this works for you. I personally found a chocolate bar and/or a coke a hour or so before worked nicely

Be sure your mind is locked on to the dream world and don’t let it wonder. If it dose, just return to your original thoughts. Be sure to check out LaBerge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" and the other great WILD resources here at Dreamviews.

Good Luck And Have Fun!

Small WILD FAQ -

Q: I have an itch but I’m just getting into it! Should I scratch it?
A: Scratch away. Just don’t think about it and return where you left off. You will be back in business in no time. Just pay no mind to it and you’ll do fine.

Q: How long do you lay in place on average?
A: The time completely depends upon the person. It would often take me a good half hour or so. Don’t get discouraged. If you can’t get deeper into it this may simply mean you’re too awake to initiate the later stages of WILD, or have a distracted mind.

Q: How do I best slip into the dream? (Stages 5-6)
A: There are many ways of doing this and it is without a doubt one of the most delicate stages of attempting a WILD. Once you become paralyzed it is important to stay focused and have a clear logical mind but not to get excited. Relax and be wherever you are such as seeing colors instead of images. Be where the colors are. The goal is to “step into the dream.” As I said there is no one way of doing this. You need to experiment from just what I’ve told you and formulate the best method possible. It’s all about patience.

Q: Once close or inside the dream it doesn’t look that vivid. How can I make it more realistic?
A: while normally WILDs should be some of the most intense dreams, simply spinning or concentrating on an object should fix things up.

Don’t give up. The reward for a successful WILD is well worth all the time invested. " class="inlineimg" />

-GestaltAlteration.