Thread: Explain us the Key of WILDing

This subject has been discussed over and over again, but those successfull at WILD never quite got me to Understand how exactly they maintain their awareness as they are falling asleep.

I particulairly wish but fail to understand what it is succesfull WILDers do to keep awareness from dozing off while falling asleep.
Some speak of a "Passive Awareness", some speak of "being detatched from one's thoughts while observing them, some speak of focussing on Breathing...etc etc et.

What I want to know is the key element to all these methods. A more graspable explanation of the MindState nececairy for WILD and any specific methods to induce and maintain such a MindState.
Recently I heard someone speak of WILDing "as though falling asleep with the TV on. You're not constantly focussing on the Sounds of the TV, but you do notice it."

That sounds already a bit more graspable. Could any succesfull WILDers from round here elaborate on this Mindstate, how to induce it and how to maintain it untill one enters a Dream?

I have a Zazen meditation guide PDF I think may come in handy for learning to focus and stay aware during WILDS. It describes many states and practices of awareness that to me seem similair to what Lucid Dreamers do when WILDing.

It's here but you'll need to be a member to view(it's just a forum like this one):
http://www.shroomery.org/attachments...azen_guide.pdf

PS: This isn't bad either. Exploring the World Of Lucid Dreaming:
http://www.shroomery.org/attachments...t,English).pdf

Anywayz, if you can't read the Zazen guide or can't be bothered to subsribe...
There's a part in it that mentions certain kinds of meditation in which "Koans" are used; Paradoxal questions, usually without answer or a very irational asnwer, who's purpose is to bring the one asked this question, traditionally a zen student, into a meditative state of realisation.
An example of such a Koan is:

Test yourself with this koan: “ A monk asked Joshu: ‘What is the meaning of
Bodhidharma coming to China?’ Joshu replied: ‘The oak tree in the
garden.’”

The point is not at all that the person who was posed the Koan-question can answer this question. Instead the intent of Koans are to induce the Mindstate induced by such a Paradox question, and to maintain that mindstate, keeping one's attention focussed on the paradoxal question while seeking no answer to it. It is a way to focus awareness so strong that distractive thoughts have a hard time comming through.

I tried this and found it very effective at entrancing me, almost hypnotic.
Made me think: Perhaps one could go into a WILD with such a Koan? This eample of a Koan could be usefull. Let's say you posed yourself this impossible question from the Koan above and you
think "The oak tree in the garden". In makes no sense at all in relation to the question. Don't seek the answer, don't picture an oak tree in a garden. Just maintain suspended in that state of paradox aslong as possible. If you are distracted repeat the Koan. If spontanious thoughts or visions of an oak tree in a garden Do occur, then good because they may form into a dream, but don't focus on it. Only focus on "The oak tree in the garden" and the paradox-state it induces.

Does that by any chance sound familiar to the mindstate succesfull WILDers here use to stay aware while falling asleep?

I have successfully wilded only once (or twice, depending on what you call a WILD), my method at the time was first to breath in whilst thinking 1,2,3 and so on and thinking "I'm dreaming" when breathing out (you have to wake up at night btw), then when the counting got increasingly impossible due to loss of focus I proceeded to "watch the party of thoughts in my mind"- as in totally random/useless thoughts, but enjoyable somehow, after a while of doing that got hypnogogics (NOT some numbness- true hallucinations), and was then plunged into a very awesome and detailed dream- totally worth the trouble. Another hint I can give is when your body feels very tired and wants to "just give up" you should laugh at it and say "hehe, must be getting close now". Hope that was of some help!

Originally Posted by yuriythebest

I have successfully wilded only once (or twice, depending on what you call a WILD), my method at the time was first to breath in whilst thinking 1,2,3 and so on and thinking "I'm dreaming" when breathing out (you have to wake up at night btw), then when the counting got increasingly impossible due to loss of focus I proceeded to "watch the party of thoughts in my mind"- as in totally random/useless thoughts, but enjoyable somehow, after a while of doing that got hypnogogics (NOT some numbness- true hallucinations), and was then plunged into a very awesome and detailed dream- totally worth the trouble. Another hint I can give is when your body feels very tired and wants to "just give up" you should laugh at it and say "hehe, must be getting close now". Hope that was of some help!

^ beautifully answered

Okay... have you ever been lying in bed going to sleep when suddenly you notice you are thinking about something totally random and weird and you wonder where the thought came from and how you got to be thinking about that? Well, that is pretty much the first thing that happens when you body starts going to sleep. So... I suggest you do all your WILD prep and when you are lying on your back ready to begin try and clear your mind using yurithebest's technique above. What you are trying to do is "notice" these weird random thoughts. By having a clear mind you are more likely to notice the contrast when suddenly you are thinking a weird random thought. When you notice the thought (a sign you are making good progress) don't think too hard about it, just have the awareness of it being "weird" and try to keep your mind blank and just allow the thoughts to come and acknowledge them without getting caught up in them. After a while doing this you will hopefully experience some HI. Try not to get excited, just look at the imagery, or feel the vibrations or SP or whatever HI you are getting and let it happen. Be passive and keep a vague notion at the back of your mind of "i'm dreaming". Eventually you should find yourself in a LD or having a FA (which is essentially a LD). Do watch out for the FAs. They are very common when practising WILD and you will kick yourself if you are fooled by one. Do a RC every time you wake up to avoid missing a FA.

One more thing... HI is your friend, even if it is scary eg paralysis or severe vibrations. If you are experiencing HI then you are almost there. As soon as I experience HI I stay calm and just "go with it" and gently tell myself "I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming..."

Let us know how you get on

Well, I guess I better throw my two cents in here.

Originally Posted by WolfeDreamer531

These are the steps to my WILD technique:

1. Get at least 5 to 5 1/2 hours (or more) of sleep (when using the Wake-Back-To-Bed technique).

2. Remember your goal (where you want to go, what you want to do, etc).

3. Dismiss any other thoughts and focus only on taking slow, deep breaths.

4. Remain COMPLETELY still, no matter what.

5. Try to steer clear of straying/abstract thoughts when entering SP (random/abstract thoughts means that the logical part of your brain is falling asleep, dont let it!).
(they can also cause you to enter a non-Lucid Dream which would make all this work was for nothing!)

6. Dont fight or resist SP in any way / stay relaxed and calm when it begins to happen.

7. Continue to focus only on your (slow, deep) breathing as vibrations, Hypnagogic Imagery, and auditory hallucinations become more intense from SP.

(you can focus on and/or visualize your goal once you think you've got the breathing part down packed).

8. Continue step 7 until you feel that sudden rush of falling through your bed or through the ceiling (in my case); this should mean that SP is complete, and hence you are ready to dream.

9. If you are not already in a dream scene, then spin around or rub your hands together (or both) in order to conjure up one. Doing this can also stabilize a fading/blurry dream scene.

There you have it, those are pretty much all the steps I take when Im attempting a WILD. And if it doesnt work the first time, remember that it takes time so dont give up! I know it seems like a lot, but once you've been through it many times, you will become better and better at it.

Ive emboldened step 5 for you because it seems to pertain most to your problem. The key, like DreamQueen said above, is to acknowledge these random, abstract thoughts but to not let them take hold of you completely. You have to try not to become too absorbed into them; although this has happened to me many times and is actually what makes us better at WILDing. If or when you fail a WILD, don't fail in vain; make sure that you learn from all of your mistakes whenever you fail an attempt at WILDing so that you'll know what to do in your future attempts at WILDing.

You can read every last piece of information in the world about WILDing but when it comes to actually WILDing, its practice that proves to be the most reliable source of information. Besides, everybody is different. You have to practice WILDing so that you'll become more and more familiar with how it feels when entering SP (Sleep Paralysis, the precursor to entering a dream when done with a WBTB). You're going to have to know what SP is, how it feels, how it affects you, and most importantly, how to react to it in the future.

Wow! WolfeDreamer531, your post is the best post I've ever read on this entire forum. It should be in the tutorial section. It's an absolutely perfect description of how to WILD.

Sorry, just had to say that

Originally Posted by WolfeDreamer531

Well, I guess I better throw my two cents in here.


Ive emboldened step 5 for you because it seems to pertain most to your problem. The key, like DreamQueen said above, is to acknowledge these random, abstract thoughts but to not let them take hold of you completely. You have to try not to become too absorbed into them; although this has happened to me many times and is actually what makes us better at WILDing. If or when you fail a WILD, don't fail in vain; make sure that you learn from all of your mistakes whenever you fail an attempt at WILDing so that you'll know what to do in your future attempts at WILDing.

You can read every last piece of information in the world about WILDing but when it comes to actually WILDing, its practice that proves to be the most reliable source of information. Besides, everybody is different. You have to practice WILDing so that you'll become more and more familiar with how it feels when entering SP (Sleep Paralysis, the precursor to entering a dream when done with a WBTB). You're going to have to know what SP is, how it feels, how it affects you, and most importantly, how to react to it in the future.

Just after I read that yesterday I happened to have had a WILD just last night. Although I dont think it was a real one as it felt more like I was trying to WILD within a dream, hard to tell but I swear I was lying in a different position from my bed in my room.

I think the key to successful wilding is that you have to really sleepy, get at least 4 or 5 hours, get up do something but nothing that'll make you alert. Then you may feel yourself getting even more sleepy and then go back to bed. It should be around 4 or 5 in the morning maybe 3 in the morning by the time you get back to bed, i had my first well about a couple days or so ago. I got up around 4 something after about 4 or so hours of sleep, i went online to dreamviews, i didn't dream that night after i got up at 4am or so, but i went back to bed and had several false awakenings on top of a wild.

Originally Posted by topten35

I think the key to successful wilding is that you have to really sleepy, get at least 4 or 5 hours, get up do something but nothing that'll make you alert. Then you may feel yourself getting even more sleepy and then go back to bed. It should be around 4 or 5 in the morning maybe 3 in the morning by the time you get back to bed, i had my first well about a couple days or so ago. I got up around 4 something after about 4 or so hours of sleep, i went online to dreamviews, i didn't dream that night after i got up at 4am or so, but i went back to bed and had several false awakenings on top of a wild.

Did like that tonight! Slept very very late and before that I just laid down.
I feel asleep but I hade some LD's that night!

In which part of the WILDing process do you "loose control"?

Where I am falling asleep and trying to maintainawareness in the meantime.
I just get distracted by thoughts and dose off, Usually without SP. It all just seems to go blank no matter how hard or whatever I've thusfar tried to maintain awareness.

Originally Posted by SKA

Where I am falling asleep and trying to maintainawareness in the meantime.
I just get distracted by thoughts and dose off, Usually without SP. It all just seems to go blank no matter how hard or whatever I've thusfar tried to maintain awareness.

Ive been able to stay aware and let my body fall asleep pretty easliy....

> http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=42271

Im able to stay aware as my bodys trying to fall asleep.

Normaly i can only do this if im on my back. If i lay on my side, i goto sleep.

I found its easiest to stay aware when your trying to sleep in a uncomfortable position.

So if you don't like sleeping on your back. Try laying on your back and waiting for your body to goto sleep.

Keep your mind clear of any thoughts.


Well those are my suggestions to you