Thread: How to WILD

Thank you for the guide. I have a couple of thoughts in regards to some of the examples you gave.

First off I am not sure the analogy of the "pre-historic" human is accurate. I didn't learn enough about them in my research to come right out and say you are wrong but I don't recall ever hearing about this before. At this point in human evolution that you are describing we were more like ape than man. I don't even think we had the ability to use logic or learn from our past experiences to the degree it would take to lie waiting for prey.

In fact we didn't get enough protein in our diet for our brains to grow large enough to do complex actions like you describe until we got meat in our diets to begin with. It wasn't until our brains grew larger from protein that we could build weapons and properly hunt for prey to begin with. A group of ape like men lying in wait with sticks in their hands coordinating an attack on a large animal... I just don't think that it happened like that.

It is thought that our brains didn't even properly develop the ability to have an imagination until we attained fire. We were always on the look out for being attacked by other animals at night so we never really rested properly. But with fire, other animals stayed away and we began to relax, sleep and dream properly. Our imaginations and creativity grew out of this.

So to put it simply, I don't believe humans ever got deep sleep until we had fire. We were always aware of other animals attacking us at all times.

Once we had fire other animals kept away and we finally were able to get "deep sleep".

I don't mean to try to take away from your guide and I have not read through all the replies so I am sorry if someone else already brought this up... I just think it is starting it off on the wrong foot.

Will try tonight, cheers

This has really helped me and I'm sure it will help countless others too.

I have never used WILD before..

So.. When i do all the steps, and get back in bed.. i should concentrate on the breathing now and then, only to realize i am in a dream ? OR, if i keep paying attention to breathing, i will get into hypnogogic imagery state.. and then let the dream create in front of me ?

Thanks. :]

Everybody is different. You go into one or the other. Be sure to not pay too much attention on your breathing or else you won't be able to fall asleep.

What exactly is an anchor, and can breathing be one?

An anchor is something (that is usually constant) your mind can passively keep track of, so you can keep your level of awareness to a certain degree without falling asleep straight away.

Originally Posted by fOrceez

An anchor is something (that is usually constant) your mind can passively keep track of, so you can keep your level of awareness to a certain degree without falling asleep straight away.

So, should I constantly focus on this "anchor", or should I let my mind drift off, then use the anchor to get a sudden "shock" of awareness, similar to what is experienced if drifting off to sleep and someone in the same room speaks loudly, and I lose that "drifting off" and become conscious, almost feeling like a "shock"? I hope I am making sense

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

So, should I constantly focus on this "anchor", or should I let my mind drift off, then use the anchor to get a sudden "shock" of awareness, similar to what is experienced if drifting off to sleep and someone in the same room speaks loudly, and I lose that "drifting off" and become conscious, almost feeling like a "shock"? I hope I am making sense

Your focus should be constant, but like I said, it is a passive thing. The most important thing is that you are relaxed enough to fall asleep.

Originally Posted by fOrceez

Your focus should be constant, but like I said, it is a passive thing. The most important thing is that you are relaxed enough to fall asleep.

I am still not getting your point. Should I put all my focus on the anchor? When I do this, I find that I can't fall asleep.

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

I am still not getting your point. Should I put all my focus on the anchor? When I do this, I find that I can't fall asleep.

Basically (if I understand this correctly) the anchor should be something that will be at the back of your brain; you know it's there but you're not immensely focused on it. The goal should be to daydream, let your mind wander like it does every night but don't lose thought of the anchor. To be more specific using an example: You're on the computer focused on whatever it is you're doing (maybe you're posting here or watching youtube ) and you can hear the T.V. in the background (for this sake, it's in the same room). You don't actually know what's being broadcasted right now, you can't make out any dialog, but you can hear it. In fact for those of you who have a TV in your room, try putting the volume to a low setting, I do that a lot when I go for power naps - that inevitably turn into outright sleep sessions.

So the goal here is to keep the prefrontal cortex just barely functioning as you drift into the dream state. The pain idea is a great one and I'm certainly going to try it, but there are others too. Some of my family members snore and because our house has paper thin walls, I can hear them from across the hall. The problem I find is when I get to that drifting state, my hearing tends to shut off or I zone out completely (can't really tell which it is) And I find myself having a mini jolt back to a more conscious state or I'll pass out like a brick.

Just remember: "a light touch"; don't focus too hard, but just enough that you know it's there.....

Okay, here's how I personally do it. Over half of my lucids are WILDs, but saying that, I still haven't had that many lucids. I lay (however) relaxing my body. This is the key thing, relaxation. When you feel relaxed enough, put your attention into HI. And as FireBat said above, know your breathing (or whatever your anchor is) is there.
Attention - HI
Passive knowledge - your anchor (in my case, it's my breathing)

Originally Posted by Firebat11

And I find myself having a mini jolt back to a more conscious state or I'll pass out like a brick.

Is this "mini jolt" good, or should I not be drifting off too deeply as to get this "jolt"?

Originally Posted by fOrceez

Okay, here's how I personally do it. Over half of my lucids are WILDs, but saying that, I still haven't had that many lucids. I lay (however) relaxing my body. This is the key thing, relaxation. When you feel relaxed enough, put your attention into HI. And as FireBat said above, know your breathing (or whatever your anchor is) is there.
Attention - HI
Passive knowledge - your anchor (in my case, it's my breathing)

But if I put my attention into HI, would't that keep my mind too awake?

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

Is this "mini jolt" good, or should I not be drifting off too deeply as to get this "jolt"?

Personally I don't like it because then i have to get back to that sleepy state. It's not something that makes your body twitch, but more like a sudden realization of everything around you. Basically it just means you go backwards instead of forwards. I find it's very hard to keep the balance of staying just barely conscious.

Originally Posted by Firebat11

Personally I don't like it because then i have to get back to that sleepy state. It's not something that makes your body twitch, but more like a sudden realization of everything around you. Basically it just means you go backwards instead of forwards. I find it's very hard to keep the balance of staying just barely conscious.

Do you have any tips on maintaining this sleepy state while holding on to to thin line of awareness?

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

Do you have any tips on maintaining this sleepy state while holding on to to thin line of awareness?

Sadly no =( I'm in the same boat as you right now and I'm trying to overcome that hill. So far my only conclusion is just practice, but if I find any tricks along the way I'll be glad to share them =)

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

But if I put my attention into HI, would't that keep my mind too awake?

The thing is, you have to work it out for yourself. It varies from person to person. As it's not something i can explain exactly how much awareness you put into it, you have to experiment with it. As they say, practice makes perfect ^__^

Originally Posted by fOrceez

The thing is, you have to work it out for yourself. It varies from person to person. As it's not something i can explain exactly how much awareness you put into it, you have to experiment with it. As they say, practice makes perfect ^__^

OK.
I was reading about how you can think about random pictures (or illogical thoughts), and the brain would take over and start creating images [HI] (or illogical thoughts).
Can this easily be done? Do I have to be very sleepy?

Originally Posted by Chevaughn

OK.
I was reading about how you can think about random pictures (or illogical thoughts), and the brain would take over and start creating images [HI] (or illogical thoughts).
Can this easily be done? Do I have to be very sleepy?

You'll find that if you lay down right now and close your eyes, you will see brief patterns, whether they just look like shadows in darkness, or a white light (as long as there's not a huge light glare at you, like the sun or a bright light), I would call that HI.
From my WILD last night, I woke up and just focused on the 'white light' 'behind my eyelids' and went straight into a dream. If you're interested in reading about the dream itself, click here
But to directly answer your question, that's hard to say. I find it hard, but that's not to say it will be hard for you. If you're to think about random pictures, I would still experiment with the WBTB e.g. wake up for 5 minutes, try this series of random pictures method and see how it goes. If you fall asleep, that means you need to either maintain your awareness better, or that you need to make your WBTB longer.

What I'm trying to practice now for an anchor is strapping my Blackberry to my arm with some tape (I can't find anything else to use ). Just started it a few days ago, so I have to keep it up to get some results. But I set an alarm for it to vibrate with no snooze option. So when I wake up after a few hours of sleep, I set the alarm to like 3-5 minutes when I go back to sleep for a WILD after staying up a little bit, and passively become aware of the vibrations on my arm while trying to think about a scenario for me to start in.

The only flaw with me doing that is that I hope that no one is going to call me at 2-3 AM in the morning. But I'll should find an app for my Blackberry to prevent it from receiving calls. (Since the alarm will stop for a while, and then come back like a few minutes later. That isn't a big deal for me, but it does get irritating if someone tries to wake me up)

I tried the pain anchor, and I can sleep with the pain, but I like the vibration anchor BillyBob mentioned.

(And sorry if I seemed like I was trying to develop a technique there, just thought I share a trick I'm doing, which is just elaborating a variant of the simplified version of what BillyBob said rather than a technique )

Yes, I did check that out. Picked up a few tricks. Thanks for the advice too =D

Never let this tutorial die out!! i've gotten super close by using an anchor this morning, i'll be trying again tonight. I'm sure to have my first WILD

I haven't been on this site in a while, but I got a notification about a reply to this thread. I just wanted to say I love this site, and this thread about WILDing really helped me to learn to be able to induce lucid dreaming, which is amazing! It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but it has happened a few times in the past 6 months. I wake up, and then when I lay back down to go to sleep, I just lay very still with my eyes closed, hoping to achieve that state where I fall asleep - except for my mind. It's so weird because I can actually feel this shift, where I know I've gone into the "sleeping" state, but my mind isn't...it's the most bizarre, but amazingly cool, feeling! When this happens, I end up getting out of bed (I'm ALWAYS afraid I'm going to wake myself up when I do this), but usually I don't. So I get out of bed, do a dream check, and find that I am, indeed, dreaming!

The only thing about this is, in the lucid dream, sometimes I can't see - it's because I'm afraid to open my eyes in the dream, because again, I'm afraid I'll open my eyes in real life and wake myself up. However, I did something the last time this happened that worked. If any of you have ever seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in one scene, Jim Carrey is asleep, getting the memory-erasing procedure done, and he wants to stop it, but he can't wake himself up because he's drugged. He knows he's asleep, in his mind/dream, and he lays down on the ground and physically opens his eyelids to try and wake himself up. Well, even though it seems counter-intuitive, I decided to try this in my last lucid dream to see if I could open my eyes in the lucid dream to actually be able to SEE, because nothing I did would open my eyes in the dream - they were half-closed, and it was pointless to do anything considering I couldn't see! Imagine my delight when this trick worked for me! In the lucid dream, I put my fingers to my eyelids and literally pried my eyes open, and all of a sudden I could see in the dream, and I DIDN'T wake myself up in real life. It was so awesome!