Okay, hello all. I'm a beginner, grand total of zero lucid dreams and abysmal dream recall, and have been mainly focussing on improving my dream recall over the past week, and that's coming along nicely.

I KNOW this post is long, and this is the second time in bout a week I've, as a newbie, pestered for help on a technique I really shouldn't be trying until I'm a bit more experienced, but I REALLY feel as though I'm on the brink of doing a WILD, so... yeah... I would LOVE it if more experienced people could read through my "experiences", tell me what I'm doing wrong or right, what should be happening, and how close I am.

But I've also had five attepmpts at doing a WILD, and I feel as if, on all five, I've come really close, but every time the same thing seems to be going wrong, so I'm a-wonderin' if any of you can help me... (I apologise profusely for this being one of the oh-so-many "please-help-newbie-do-a-WILD" threads... I know there's a lot of them...

Anyway. I've mainly been trying to do wilds either mid-afternoon or in the night using WBTB. Both seem to be good times, afternoon is perhaps the best.

Relaxing is no problem. Using the 61-point relaxation technique and breathing techniques linked to in Seeker's EXCELLENT tutorial http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12621 I've been able to "go through" this phase easily every time, getting numbness, warmness, tingles, and vibrations, and basically the whole sleep paralysis thing. The "light patterns" usually come as well.

The thing is, I'm not getting the hypnogogic imagery (which I know not all people get). Also, EVERY single time,I keep thinking towards the end of my attempt that I've succeeded, cos I start to feel my dream-hands (which feel all tingly) "seperate" from my real hands. So I move my dream-arms, etc... only to find that I HAVENT been moving my dream arms, but have been moving my REAL arms... They felt all tingly and stuff, but something obviously wasn't working...

Should I stop trying to move my "dream arms" and hands?

As for the whoe visual thing, I'm not getting any hypnogogic imagery. So, the question I'd like to ask is, exactly how much do I need to concentrate with my eyes, and how to focus, and also how "closed" do I need my eyes to be?

I WAS having a problem that my eyelids would be "relaxing" too much, and every time I "looked" down, they would open... I tried putting an eyemask on, but that didn't work cos my eyelashes (they're long for a guy) kept fluttering against the eyemask and being annoying. ALSO when my eyes started to move rapidly, they made an even bigger noise.so instead, I sellotaped my eyelids shut and also sellotaped tin foil over 'em, and that seemed to work REALLY well... (I know it sounds mad, but... well... I am, really...)

One thing I AM getting is some VAGUE hypnogogic imagery. The first try, I had a star. I pretended I was rushing towards it... but that didn't work. The third and fourth times, I had what looked vaguely like an elevator shaft or the inside of a building, so I pretended I was falling down it "into" my dream. That didn't work either. (These appear to me as VERY vague black-and-white fuzzy light patterns, and I pretend they're these things...)

This most recent time (an hour ago), I saw a spiral/vortex. When I watched it, I noticed my eyes twirling round and round as they followed it under my eyelids. This seemed to be working really well, and I felt like my body was going all cold and my WILD attempt was finally working... but then I got the tingling in my hands and started to move them, thinkingt they were my "dream hands".... but they weren't, and I was moving my real hands. BUMMER! What am I doing wrong here?

Also, I'm not seeing any discernable hypnogogic imagery, and I'm not hearing much (if any) imaginary sound... (but I AM wearing earplugs, this maybe why???)

The one time I was starting to get physical sensations was on my first try, where I felt a massive gravity pulling me down and to the right. That faded... should I have done something?



Anyway, for those of you who have bothered to read my admittedly overlength-rant, I would LOVE to hear any opinions or help you could give me?

For the moment, Im gonna continue to improve my dream recall, and try to WILD every couple of days, as it leaves me feeling quite pleasant, like I've been meditating (which is essentially what it is I suppose) and plus, on the offchance I might get a WILD to work....

So... comments? help? please? *does best begging puppy-dog face*