Thread: *~* V-WILD : The foundations *~*

V-WILD : The foundations

Intro:

The V-WILD (Visual WILD) is a classification of techniques that use some sort of visualization in order to induce a lucid dream from the waking state. This is attainable by everyone, even those who think they don't have good visualization ability.

To provide a brief overview, the V-WILD usually consists of 3 main stages.

1. The Spark
The spark is what you use to begin the induction. You visualize yourself inside a dreamscape of some sort. To do so, you often use visualization aids and innate visualization ability as discussed below.

2. The stabilization
In the stabilization stage, you explore and interact with your visualized dream world letting it become concrete around you.

3. Transition to lucidity
The final stage consists of you recognizing that the dream world has stabilized (you no longer have to assist in it's continued existence). This is often signified by the existence of things in the dream world that you did not anticipate (ie. like a normal dream, they did not pass through your consciousness on their way to existence as opposed to in the visualization where most things do *but not all*)

I will not be concentrating on the progression of these stages or a rigorous step-by-step technique for V-WILD in this thread. Instead, I will be describing the necessary things to complete the stages as a whole. If you want a more rigorous, sequential model, there are many V-WILD and VILD techs in the forum. You will be able to apply the concepts discussed in this thread to any of those techniques to obtain good results.

Let us begin then...

Teaching someone (namely, at the moment, you) how to V-WILD is akin to teaching them how to wiggle their ears. Everyone has the muscles to wiggle them, the only roadblock is figuring out how. This can be harder then (at first) expected.... How do you explain to somebody how to move the muscles in their ears? Hell, how do you explain to yourself how you move the muscles in your ears (or move any other muscle, for that matter)? The best you can do is wiggle your ears and say “Well, I sorta just do it like this”.

To be fair, it's not a perfect metaphor. To be a good metaphor, you would have to say that you are wiggling ears that you cannot touch, see or feel and that you have no other real connection to apart from the fact that you know the muscles exist. Everything having to do with a lucid dream is, by definition, intangible.

Learning visualization:

Now that I've totally freaked you out with a pretty bleak picture it's time for the good news. There is hope. The rest of this thread is dedicated to talking about how this roadblock can be overcome. And if you succeed, visualization and the associated lucid inducing properties of it can become almost as innate as wiggling your ears. The risk? A bit of wasted time and experience gained is the worst case scenario. I'd really recommend you give this at least a thought and consideration.

Let me start with a definition so that I don't have to refer to wiggling ears every time I talk about it.

Conceptual: I use the term conceptual to describe anything to which we have a solid connection (“understanding”, even) but we cannot describe it in any of the classic ways (visually, orally ... etc). In other words, it is almost as if it is intangible to our mind. To help you understand, here are some examples: Moving your muscles is conceptual. You can use it and you have the mental connection to it, but it escapes analysis or description. Another good example is when you are trying to think of a word you want but it escapes you. You know what you mean even though you cannot describe it fully.

Visualization is conceptual. We cannot describe how we do it to others, or even to ourselves but it is still a strong part of us and we have a strong mental connection to it. It happens every time we sleep, every time we dream. Should conscious awareness cause part of our skill set to suddenly not exist? NO! We only don't quite know how to use it while awake. Returning to the previous metaphor, we could wiggle our ears in our sleep, but still never be able to wiggle them while awake. We can all visualize very well, the only question is how to invoke is consciously.

So, where does one start to try and get visualization ability? Well, thankfully we all have ways to get some sort of image in your head. This includes (but is not limited to) day dreaming, recalling visual memories, imagining a scene in your head, etc... Take a second and do one of these methods now. Not to a hardcore degree, just try and see something in your head, even if it is just a visual memory.

Done? Good. By doing the above, you have just wiggled your metaphorical ears. It's not quite in the way that you wanted, and doesn't quite mean you can do it the way you want on command, but it should show you how very possible conscious control over visualization is for you.

The "gut":

One thing is still unanswered; How does one complete the gap to control? What mechanism inside your head could you possibly use to issue conceptual commands to something you can't (currently) issue commands to? It turns out that there is something that fits the bill almost perfectly! You, if asked to describe it, would probably call it your gut or your whim. Think about the insanity of the gut under normal circumstances. It is that little itching in the back of your head that often tells you to do something you can't quite exactly describe for reasons you can't quite describe. These both fit the bill of being conceptual constructs. The only problem being, the gut sometimes seems to be an entity unto itself. We don't really control the gut, it often seems to just want to do it's own thing. The result of this? Any visualizations springing from it will have a tendency to be be unpredictable, weird, and not really controlled. A small price to pay, however. And perhaps even a blessing. New and unique ideas always seem to be more limited then you would like them to be when you are trying to think of a dream scene.

Has anyone ever told you to just “Go with the flow of the WILD”? It is a very prominent and common piece of advice, especially in relation to visualization. They are essentially imploring you to use your gut to help generate your visualizations. Of course, this is often mis-interpreted and therefore not used to it's full potential. Therefore, I say this to you now; Go with your gut and let it lead you through the hoops of visualization. It will do essentially all the work for you.

How do you go with your gut? This is the part where I stop holding your hand and essentially implore you to do some exploring on your own. The gut is, by nature, a conceptual construct in our mind. Therefore, it escapes description and definite analysis. The best I can do is help you recognize when to “use the gut”. (I use that wording sparingly, you don't really “use” it in the normal sense of the word). You have an innate relation to your gut, however, so it should not give you too much grief as long as you use a healthy dose of introspection.

So, what are the situations that the gut comes into play? Let me illustrate some examples. Imagine you are visualizing yourself standing outside your house on the road. Suddenly you wonder “Wait, I'm on the road... there might be a car coming!” If you turn around anticipating a car, it will be there. It will even be the exact make, model and color of car that you were afraid of and it will be one of the most vivid cars you ever saw. Let me decompose the situation. At the moment that you thought/worried you might get hit, your visualization center was primed with the concept of a car (it's look, shape and associated features). By allowing that thought into the dream and shifting your consciousness to it, you fed off the vivid image that was provided by what we can best describe as “the gut”. The worst thing that you could do in that situation is think “This is my dream, I don't care about cars coming to hit me...” then discard the thought.

Continuing that example, your next thoughts will probably be along the lines of “Holy shit, there's a car coming towards me, what do I do?”. Your gut will probably have answers for that too. Just do what comes to mind first. Some example actions would be diving out of the way, pounding down on the hood of the car and stopping it in a superhero-esqe fashion or even just standing there like a deer in the headlights and getting hit. Whatever comes to your head from your “gut” is what you will be primed to do and primed to see. This is what you should attempt to go with, even if it is the third option. Often your options will be sub-optimal (an under exaggeration, I know. Getting hit is less then sub-optimal). You should go along with what you are primed to do anyway.

After time, you should learn to prime yourself to do the actions that you want to do and thus be able to control the visualization in the way that you want it to go. Note that you shouldn't sit around *trying* to do so. It should come instinctively when it does. The above example takes place in the order of split seconds, not seconds.

Putting it all together:

So, how does it all wrap together then? First you should imagine yourself in some sort of scene. You have a few options with this one. You can imagine yourself in a familiar location or you can call your gut to duty straight from the start and simply go with what jumps to mind when I say the word “scene”. Then, you should look around and explore. Take your instincts when you get them. If you wonder what is over in the distance, go and try to find out! Avoid taking the “I have no direction/need for direction” stance (but don't by hyperactive, either). If you see people, say hi. Figure out what oddities are happening in this dream world. Let it take shape and construct itself as you learn more about it. If taken straight from your mental schema through your gut, it will be a strong world indeed. After a while you will have a choice. Stick straight to the dream and the plot that is inevitably forming and probably fall down to a semi-lucid or even non-lucid state or break free from the dream plot and do the lucid hijinks you had in mind. Note that if you never make the choice to stop exploring, learning and absorbing the dream world, you are almost guaranteed to lose at least a little lucidity. (Although, these dreams can be VERY enjoyable and VERY vivid all the same)

Final notes:

Please note that this thread does not really hope to boast a true, full technique for V-WILD. It is more of a complement to all the existing techs and your tech. Yes, that is right.... YOUR technique for V-WILD. Almost everyone who I have met has had a different method of V-WILD. Some find it is best to keep moving and never stop, others find that they should find a beautiful place then take their time and explore it, others say that they visualize best in familiar places such as their home. Once you start to try and V-WILD you will learn what is best for you. Trust your own intuition above what anyone else says, even what I say because it's more likely that you interpreted me wrong or even that I wasn't quite correct then what your experience is telling you and what seems to work for you is wrong.

Pull from other resources! I cannot stress this enough! WILDing is fully modular. This means you can mix and match strong points from most existing techs into something that works great. For example, DEILD time dream induction and dream re-entry work amazingly well with the V-WILD. This site has techs for relaxation, dream supplements, when to attempt induction, how to enter favorable body states, ways to distract your awareness, ways to concentrate your awareness... and the list goes on. As flattered as I would be if you used this as the end-all know all guide, please don't. It's silly to get all your info from one source. Learn, find out all the info you can get then experiment and find what works for you. Very VERY few people who LD on a normal basis do so by following another person's tech (or even their own) word for word.

If you fail at first, don't look at it as a sign that you can't do it. Think of it as a stepping stone to success. When you get it wrong, learn from it and then don't get it wrong the same way next time around. Eventually, you will get it right, even if by accident. If you feel like you aren't making any progress, just go to bed (or wake up, depending on when you are trying it)

Comments and criticisms always welcome.