Pitch Black

[calh]

I've been trying to do WILDs for months, even HILDs. I've tried to follow the steps from the tutorial: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2048 When I come to this step, everything goes wrong: 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 brains imagery, (Hypnologic imagery). You need to watch this imagery but do not focus hard, your vision needs to be relaxed, your eyelids should gently be closed not forced shut. Some solid objects and scenes should appear.[/b] Now I've noticed on everyone else with problems on WILD, they always seem to pass this point. My problem is, I can't get any images/streaks of color/objects up, nothing, pitch black all the time. It's actually so black that if i stare at this blackness for long my eyes starts to hurt. I've though about maybe it's because I try to look through my eyelids, but thats not the case. The only way to get something else than pitch blackness is by letting my mind go about random stuff like I always do when I'm suppose to sleep, which in the end turns me into real sleep.

[DuB]

I'm no expert at WILD (I've never successfully completed one), but I have at least gotten to the hynpagogic imagery stage. I've found that unless I'm really tired, I won't experience any HI, and will just be staring at the backs of my eyelids literally for hours. Are you using the wake-back-to-bed (WBTB) method when you try to WILD? This is supposed to help immensely.

[Serkat]

Sleeping is a process that is a bit different for everyone. As long as you're not conscious of what's happening while you're sleeping, then that's no problem and you probably won't notice. But if you're going into lucid dreaming and WILDs you will have to consider that you need to find out information about your sleep. Sleep onset, sleep and dreaming are all very subjective things that are far from the same for everybody. In short: If you don't get any HI then you should try something else than this specific method that focuses on HI. The key to success in lucid dreaming and especially WILDing is experimenting! You need to find out which methods work for you, what appeals to you and what doesn't work for you although it works for loads of others. Maybe you can develop a personal combination of methods that gives you the best result. The outcome can be that you can lucid dream at will and without having to spend buttloads of time lying in bed, doing nothing. There are numerous other ways to WILD. Some people don't get many halluscinations, others can see whole movies as sleep onset imagery. I don't think this matters as long as you're getting what you want - a nice LD. So what I advise you is to experiment with different techniques and see how you react. Build experience and adjust things. In order for this to work, of course you should be attentive of yourself, your body and your mind. I, for example, didn't get any HI as well when I tried my first WILDs. So instead of trying to focus on something that isn't there I just blanked my mind and thought of nothing. Sleep paralysis was then very near after only a couple of minutes. Now, after some experience (I'm not at all a good WILDer though) I found out for me how I can see HI and I do see it and can focus on it. Still it's not very realistic for me and I'm still trying out other methods. Maybe you will see HI too, at some point, but you shouldn't fix your mind on this single phenomenon of sleep onset if it's just not there. Also about the 'staring into the blackness'. As it is for me (and I don't think it will be much different for most) you shouldn't stare into the blackness with your real eyes as if you were watching the real world. When I see HI, I see it 'behind my eyelids'. It is a clear visual impression, not just an imagery thought, but at the same time I don't see it within the blackness processed by my eyes but rather within the blackness inside my mind's visuals.

[calh]

Thanks for the effort spent in typing a reply. However, let me see if I got this right - The main process of WILD is for your head to be awake and alert while your body is sleeping. You have to initiate a basic dream, then step into it. Yes I've tried the WBTB method, but since I find it very hard to get up early, I've only tried it like three times.

[Serkat]

Basically - yes. But no - you don't have to do anything. Really, all those tutorials, be it on MILD, WILD or reality checking are just rough guidelines on how to start things. The main experimentation and work lies within yourself. All you need to do (I must stress this) is to be attentive of yourself, your body and your mind. Are you relaxed, are you feeling good, are you comfortable, is your head free of everyday problems, can you concentrate, are you sleepy, do you have problems with certain steps of the method... could i exchange that step, do i notice anything different, could i intensify it and see what happens... the list is endless. I swear, this is more effective than reading a method and doing step after step as if it was some holy writing never to be changed. So no, you don't "have to" intiate a basic dream. Only speaking for myself, initiating dreams per my mind's eye doesn't work good for me at all. When I experience sleep paralysis I try to imagine my dream body rolling out of bed. This seems far more practical to ME than imagining a scene and going all into it without really being there. But this might be completely different for you. Initiating a basic dream is only one way to go about WILDing. Of course there are many variations and different tutorials to WILDing. But all those tutorials originate from people experimenting and trying out new stuff which eventually made them find something that works very well for them. Then they publish it and it works for some others too - but for others it might be total crap. About the WBTB - I really advise you to use WILD with WBTB. Doing it at the beginning of the night is really a bitch. You'll lie there for a much longer time and your dream will probably be less stable and shorter (the first dream-phase is just short and not very good). You should really get up after 4-6 hours and do your WILD thing. You will be tired as fuck - but this is good! Your body will fall asleep much faster. The only thing left is that you need your mind to stay active. When I say WBTB, I only mean waking up. Not leaving bed and just writing down a dream or so is enough to get me a bit awake. Running around for 30 minutes is really not needed in my experience. However, if you don't feel awake enough and just feel that you want to sleep without doing anything you should consider waking up and then getting out of bed for some time. By the way, getting enough sleep is also of primary interest for WILDing. If you have to compensate for hours of sleep loss in previous nights (possibly failed WILD attempts) losing even more time is just contra-productive. Try to sleep as much as you feel is healthy for you so you can regularly experiment with lucid dreaming.

[calh]

Allright, Just wanted to let you know that the new thread I just made ("Mission for you..") was just made because I need something to do, and you don't need to drag it into this thread about me not working out my own problems. I'll take your advice and keep alter my current WILD to success. The 'pitch black' problem could be a tiny block in my head easily removed with a trick, since normally everyone gets some kind of HI. If I do pass this little issue, it could open the big gates if you know what I mean.