Hello guys, I want to tell you of my experiences as of late regarding my attempts to gain lucidity in the dream state.
I have always felt that the WILD technique is most suited to me even though most tell me that it is the hardest way to attain lucidity. However I have been one to embrace meditation in my life for a good number of years and so this process of staying conscious and focusing on one point, i.e. my breathing, seems quite natural for me. As this is my chosen technique I am going to stick with it for a good long while and see where I can take it.
I have been trying to enter the dream state through the WILD technique in the last few days and nights which has proven it's self to not be too successful. Let me explain what I have done while trying this technique:
First off, I have tried to WILD during afternoon naps, first thing when I go to bed at night and also after waking up in the middle of the night after 5 hours of sleep. Surprisingly I have found that I get much further during afternoon naps and when I first go to bed at night. as appose to when I wake after 5 hours sleep, in this instance I tend to not be able to concentrate and loose consciousness very easily.
During those afternoon naps and when I first went to bed of an evening I tried to use the technique outlined by BillyBob in his wonderful tutorial. I followed all the steps and indeed I did feel something happening. The most noticeable thing being my whole body feeling numb and very relaxed. At times I have felt my body rocking side to side and I have indeed seen vague moving lights behind my eyes but those experiences have not lasted very long and once they have faded away they tend not to come back. Also my concentration would not always stay focused and half the time I would fall unconscious.
That was as far as I got while employing that particular technique. However I was looking around the site and I found the VILD technique (I think that was the one anyway) I lay down on my side as though I were going to sleep as any other normal night. I think chose a scenario in which I am standing in a room with a door, two of my friends come running up to me saying "hey we are having a reality check game, hold your nose and breath in" I imagine my self doing this and when finding that I can in fact breath I say "wow, I am dreaming" then move towards the door. Then I start imaging the whole thing over again exactly the same. I did this last night and I found that this particular technique got me closer to getting into a dream than any other. After a while my whole body went very very numb and I got various waves and pulses wash over my body. At one point a sudden pulse hit me and I heard that high pitched sound ringing in my ears that you can generally hear when you meditate and focus on the sound inside your head. I felt like I was flowing right into my dream scenario but by the end it didn't come, I felt it wasn't going to happen right then so I turned over and went unconscious.
This was an amazing experience for me and indeed the furthest I have got with the WILD style technique. I wanted to share this with you, if anyone has any advice or anything feel free to let me know.
Peace