Lucid Help (WILD technique)
Hey there, sorry about the vague topic, but I wasn't sure what else to call it.
I'm new to lucid dreaming, and after reading up on it a bit I decided I'd give it a try. I managed to get my roommate to try also, and so far we've given it about three real attempts. Not a lot I know, but I've made some progress and ran into a few questions which I wasn't sure how to find the answers for with the search utility.
The way I usually put myself to sleep, is to just let my mind wander through whatever it wants, often imagining a good deal, until I lose consciousness and sleep takes over. Up until recently I've never had to care about when exactly I lose consciousness and start to really "see" images, and when it's all still vague "thought" images. I find when I try to WILD (I use an .mp3 on lucid dreaming that helps), I've managed to get my body to start to fall asleep (tingly, start to feel like I'm weightless, etc), and I've even got a flickering of images that I didn't MEAN to create.
My first problem though, is that I can't manage to trick my mind into thinking up the same relaxed imagery that I normally have before I fall asleep, because it KNOWS that I'm trying to WILD, and so it sits in anticipation of what it's supposed to already be doing. How can I trick myself into following the same routine while still staying conscious through it? I've read that you should try to follow the Hypnagogic Imagery that begins when you start to see patterns that resemble what it looks like when you press your finger against your eye. The trouble is, I don't see any patterns, and in fact I don't even see patterns when I press my finger against my eye.
I also have a problem with putting my body to sleep while still being relaxed. Sure, my body is relaxed, but I have a tendency to roll and shift positon a lot when trying to fall asleep, and my mind is somehow uncomfortable with just lying there unmoving. So basically I end up having a restless mind and a somewhat fast heartbeat, inside the "cocoon" of a rested body.
Finally, I actually did manage to get lucid intentionally this morning, although it wasn't quite a WILD. I woke up after 5 hours of sleep (my roommate doesn't want to do this again, not surprisingly), then played the mp3 and tried to WILD. After about an hour of trying, I gave up, changed position and tried to just go to sleep comfortably, staying awake if at all possible but not trying too hard. After who knows what amount of time, I "awake" to find myself inside a dream, except I'm not lucid yet. The dream is pretty abstract and undetailed, I'm guessing because it hasn't needed to have any form, seeing as how up until recently I haven't cared about the content of my dreams, much less remembered them (usually).
So it's a plain grey background in all directions, some kind of big weird flying boat, and a little boat attached with a cartoon cat as a captain. Don't ask, I don't know either. The little boat starts to fall, I get the sensation of falling and hoist myself over the side of the big boat just in time. This is about the time I remember what I was "just" trying to do, and here I am inside of a dream. The second I realize this, everything goes black and if I remember right I got a little peek of my real body, but I wasn't quite awake yet, so I'm guessing my eyes opened. I tried to call the dream back, but nothing was happening, so I tried to move my arms and legs and it FELT like I was moving them, but I was aware (through the crack in my eyelid, which I was only subconsciously aware of) that my real arms weren't moving, so I figured it worked and I'm in the dreamworld. Unfortunately, I was soon totally awake, so I opened my eyes and that's it.
My last long round-about question is, once you are in the dream and lucid, how do you "step into" the dream? I think the reasons my real eyes opened, was because I still felt like my eyes were closed, and wanted to open them to "see" the world around me naturally. Are you always consciously aware of holding your eyes closed in these things? If it always feels that way, I'm afraid my dream will never really be anything close to real for me, although I would think this was just a first attempt and a very low level lucid dream.
Sorry for making this into an essay. I just wanted to get some real-time help and expressing my situation ended up being longer than I thought.
