Bah I hate WILDS

[Alric]

I think its time for me to quit trying to do WILDs. Its just not working. I had it work twice but I am pretty sure they where just a fluke. I don't know why its so hard but I just can't do it. I have tried everything but it just wont work. I really wish it did too because the two times it worked, was really great. I am tired of wasting all that time. Can lay there for 2 hours stright without getting any where near falling asleep. Its like, if I plan to do a WILD something just clicks in my head and I will never fall asleep. I have tried laying in the exact same position and thought of the same stuff, but not plan on doing a WILD, and I fall asleep fine. But then I just think "Ok I will try a WILD" and it wont work. Anyone else have that problem? You just horribly suck at WILDs? Same goes for MILDs, except I am even worse at that.

[will.i.am]

I'm sorry to hear your misfortune. WILDs aren't for everyone but I'm glad to hear that you've put some real time and effort into it.

[Seeker]

Alric, you cannot give up until you've put at least three months efort into it

[Alric]

I went and checked, I posted my first WILD I did about 2 and a half months ago. I am pretty sure I didn't WILD my first week or two trying so I would say it has been 3 months already. Though I will admit, I thought it was even longer than that. Seems a lot longer when your not going any where.

[Umbrasquall]

Maybe it is time for you to move on to another technique. WILD isn't for everyone, and there are plenty of other ways to get lucid. I wish you luck.

[LucidOne]

Suggestions: Try to not try so hard. Relax. Your disappointment reflects your strong desire for results. Stop expecting results. Focus more on the curiousity for the unknown. Focus more on the sheer adventure the possibility of lucid dreaming brings. You may also want to look deep within to see where your desires are coming from. Why do you want to lucid dream? What do you want to do in your lucid dreams? What is your motivation? Try not to judge yourself. Just look with objectivity at your motivations. Know thyself. Meditation is great for this. Let me know if you would like some techniques for meditation. ~LucidOne

[clarkkent]

I have had some successes with WILD since last September, but not a lot. But I won't give up!

[Felix]

I had no success with WILDs. No great success with MILDs either except for 2 lucid dreams over 2 months. In his book Stephen LaBerge writes that MILDs occur more often, but I think if someone can master WILD it's a lot better than MILD, because you don't have to do all that RC crap. You just manage to do it whenever you want. So Alric I think it's quite normal that one can't learn it so easily, because in the long term it's much better. That's life.

[Alric]

I feel like I am meditating already from trying to do a WILD. And you have to expect results some time. I mean you can only go for so long if your getting nothing at all from it. Its like the WILD itself, you can only lay there so long. 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours and if your still laying there no where closer to dreaming than when you started have to get up and go do something else. Then when it happens every time for months it can get frustrating.

[Alric]

What also sucks is you do it instead of an hour of sleep or so and since you layed there for an hour you don't really feel tired even though you should get that hour of sleep. So you didn't get enough sleep but you can't fall asleep and it messes you up.

[LucidOne]

If you are relaxed and tired your body should fall asleep. Some additional suggestions: -Rid your life of caffiene. -Rarely eat refined sugar (i.e. candies, desserts, etc). -Exercise regularly, especially cardiovascular exercises. -Sleep fairly regularly -Do not try and lucid dream nightly. Make it a special occassion, maybe three times a week to start. Have some sort of "ritual" to key your subconscious in on the fact that it's a lucid dreaming night. Again, these are only suggestions. When you lay down at night for sleep, try to stay conscious. It's not easy, and most of the time you will just black out into nothingness as the fog of sleep moves in. On occassion, though, if you are healthy and keep up with some of the suggestions above, you will stay conscious all the way into dreaming. Once you have learned to lucid dream on a regular basis, then you can move on to the ultimate. Consciousness between dreams, in the depths of sleep. The sleep of clear light. ~LucidOne

[Alric]

I am not so sure about that. If I try to stay conscious or I think about anything I just can't fall asleep. I don't think its because I am unhealthy or anything, just can't fall asleep while thinking. When I try and WILD, I feel more relaxed than when I normally fall asleep. So I don't think thats a problem. If I fell asleep while doing a WILD and I would consider that atleast something, but laying there for an hour and getting no where really bugs me.

[LucidOne]

I did not mean to imply that you were unhealthy in any way. :-) Are you a light sleeper? Do you have trouble falling asleep on days you aren't trying technique? Have you tried napping as a technique for inducing lucid dreams? ~LucidOne

[Alric]

Yea I am a light sleeper. Some times I have trouble falling a sleep if I am thinking about other stuff. Normally it isn't that bad though. I do take naps some times. If I just try to take a nap I normally fall asleep fine, but if I try to do a WILD at the same time then wont fall asleep.

[LucidOne]

I would suggest not doing the WILD technique in your case. If concentrating is keeping you from falling asleep, then you aren't going to get anywhere. At least not yet. I would suggest a combination of regular reality checks with waking up at intervals during the night, usually in the later part of your sleep period. Do you remember a lot of your dreams nightly? If not, I would also suggest keeping a pad next to your bed and writing down a few keywords about the dream you just woke out of when using the waking intervals technique. I use my alarm clock to do the waking, and usually set it ahead two or three hours, sleep, wake, reset the alarm for another two hours, go back to sleep, wake, set the alarm for the time I want to get up, sleep the rest of the night. Everyone is different, but just as a measure, most people have six or seven REM periods a night. I can usually remember four to seven dreams a night. ~LucidOne

[Alric]

I always wake up after each dream. I don't always remeber them but I always wake up. Some times I get lazy then my recall suffers for a few days but I normally remeber them pretty good.

[Felix]

If you wake up after every dream that really means you are a light sleeper. But you could use that to your advantage, because the road from wakefulness into the dream state is shorter for you than for deep sleepers (at least I think). Perhaps you shouldn't think about anything, because it keeps your mind to busy. You need to shut down your brain, but remain aware, like being in standby-mode. Then, when you get into it, go with the flow. Okay I know that is hard, I also never succeeded in a WILD but I think it would work best for you if you used that "object-technique", where you keep the image of an object in your mind and observe what happens around it. In "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" LaBerge suggests the flame-lotus technique. The lotus flower with a flame inside it would be the object (this particular one seems to be most recommendable because the Tibetan dream yogis see the lotus flower as a symbol for the dream state, perhaps it helps your subconscious to remember why you are doing this exercise). You could try that, perhaps you were just too concentrated.

[Seeker]

Make you a deal, I won't give up if you won't! (suicide pact?) I've been pursuring WILD for 3.5 months now, every night! I've had 3 so far, and those have just been in the last few weeks.

[Alric]

The two I had where a long time ago. I don't know how or why but I get worse and worse at WILDs the more I try. First few times I tried WILDs I could get to the point where I felt or heard stuff, never felt any of that stuff since then. Also used to be a lot easier to lay down for a lot longer too.

[Felix]

Seems like you have developed a mental block. Happens often. Perhaps just let go for a while and try again when you are re-motivated.

[clarkkent]

Originally posted by Felix In \"Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming\" LaBerge suggests the flame-lotus technique. The lotus flower with a flame inside it would be the object (this particular one seems to be most recommendable because the Tibetan dream yogis see the lotus flower as a symbol for the dream state, perhaps it helps your subconscious to remember why you are doing this exercise). You could try that, perhaps you were just too concentrated. I used a triangle and managed to get a brief WILD a couple of days ago... It was interesting...

[YULAW]

Yup be very wary of the techniques you use also. Always remember what may work well for one may or may not work as well for another. So just to keep that in mind. And always remember to just relax. Chill out Dude and have Margarita.