Questions about my two different WILD experiences

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. But I am very confused with the events of last night and would like some of the more advanced WILDers to help me reconcile the confusion.

I have been practicing WILD every night for about 1 week now and have experienced what I thought was pre-paralysis sensations. Based on what I have learned from this site, I used either a variety of the counting method, the reverse eye blinking method, false eye rem method.
I would at some point feel vibrations that gets stronger and stronger, itches that come and go, and increasing heaviness of body that eventually fades away. I also hear voices from nowhere. This is however, always interrupted by my shortness of breath which causes me to restart the process over and over again. (I would spend 4 hours or 5 hours trying to get full body paralysis to no avail.)

Well, I finally decided that WILD was not going to work for me at this point and to retry it at a later time. So, instead of following the methods listed above, I allowed my thoughts to move freely while lying in bed. Though I wasn't going to re-attempt WILD again, for some reason I had it in the back of my head to not fall asleep. What happened next was a totally different experience. (I'm aware that this is also another WILD method on this website, but did not think it would work)
my thoughts moving from one idea to another, images started flickering in my mind, the images would float around and faces would appear and change in my mind's eye. I still have a very, very light peripheral link to my physical body and could only feel it slightly, unlike the method above, where I could feel the physical sensations a bit more strongly.

I find myself viewing an visual and audio sequence where two people that looks like the adams family sitting in front of the fireplace. They are talking to someone, and they said that there were no ghosts. Then they turn to the fireplace, which is between my view and them, and they say "okay, you can come out now."

I see a mirror-like portal opening in the fireplace and then I hear a voice:
I'm here now...

At exactly this moment, I start to feel the strangest sensations come over my physical body. I feel a wave of pure energy flow throughout my body. I feel a strong sense of paralysis lock my body down and I feel my mind immersed in a energy whirlpool. My sense of self is twisting into different shapes, like I was made of putty and I could feel my sense of self stretching to some kind of horizon event. It lasted for what seemed like 1or 2 minutes then I find myself in bed. I get up with a strange sense of heaviness in my mind, and hit my alarm clock. My alarm clock is the type that when you hit the button, the time is projected on the wall. I thought that would be an excellent RC since I read that turning on the lights would not work in dreams. So using an alarm clock that projects the time on the ceiling would similarly not work since it turns a light on to project the time on the wall. to my dissappointment, I could see the light on the ceiling. I hear my wife awake, and she is talking to me saying that she is not feeling well...
I lose concentration for a second, trying to divide my attention between the clock and my wife, then suddenly find myself awake again in bed. This time, my wife is sound asleep. I check the alarm clock and this time the time is projected clearly on the ceiling. In the first one, the image on the ceiling was a bit blurry.

The physical sensations that I felt was huge energy flowing through my body, a strong sense of paralysis, and a my mind twisting to reaching an event horizon. I heard voices constantly but felt absolutely no vibrations, no itches, and I most importantly, did not feel the breathing difficulties I had with the earlier methods. However, the fireplace sequence sounds like a dream sequence and not the normal precursors one would associate with pre-SP events. After I heard the voice " I'm here now", then the sensations and events seems to mirror full sleep paralysis onset, the full paralysis that I could feel, and the energy flowing through my body and the twisting of my mind to the event horizon. I've also read that false awakenings are associated with WILDs.

so why is my latest experience so markedly different from my previous attempts? Which one is the right path to WILD? Or is the latest experience not WILD, but a dream sequence only?

Thank you for any advice.

That was a WILD alright. It only lasted long enough to turn on your clock and listen to your wife say she was sick, but it was a WILD.

The true path to WILD is whatever works for you. Some techniques are better suited to certain people. If letting your thoughts wander worked, go with that. That's how it is for me too. I can never get counting to work either. It's so monotonous, I just end up falling asleep. Thinking about remaining awake, coupled with remaining completely still is what I do. When I see some HI that I like, or that's particularly vivid, I try to concentrate on it and immerse myself in the scene. Eventually, it takes over, I stop thinking about my body, and am in the dream.

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Originally Posted by unseen wombat

That was a WILD alright. It only lasted long enough to turn on your clock and listen to your wife say she was sick, but it was a WILD.

The true path to WILD is whatever works for you. Some techniques are better suited to certain people. If letting your thoughts wander worked, go with that. That's how it is for me too. I can never get counting to work either. It's so monotonous, I just end up falling asleep. Thinking about remaining awake, coupled with remaining completely still is what I do. When I see some HI that I like, or that's particularly vivid, I try to concentrate on it and immerse myself in the scene. Eventually, it takes over, I stop thinking about my body, and am in the dream.

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Thanks for your response wombat. but the fireplace scene prior to the sleep paralysis, is that supposed to happen? It felt like more of a dream sequence than the normal HI that occurs prior to SP.

Usually HI is something that seems like a visualization in my mind. There's no doubt that it's just me imagining what I see, but that's happened to me a couple times before. It's rare, but I'll be looking at something that I know is not real. Once there was a giant PSP on my bedroom wall, and even though I was still aware of my physical body, I could see it as though I were looking at it with my real eyes. I was actually unsure if my real eyes were open or closed, because it seemed so real. I also felt like I was sitting up, even though I knew I was laying down.

I consider these episodes just extraordinarily vivid HI. Or a SP event. Or perhaps you did drift off for a moment, and did have a short REM phase that you woke up from. Maybe it was even a false awakening. It's hard to say without an EEG hooked up to your head.