9/30/05 /// 09:10 - 09:40 am
Technique: Modifiied WILD based on Taoist "Quiet SItting" (QSILD).
Step 1: Lie comfortably on bed (on one side if prone to apnea), and completely relax.
Step 2: COMPLETELY eliminate all conscious thought (Conscious, or left-hemisphere thought, is a representation of any aural sensory output common in daily life, like: Speech; "talking to yourself", Hearing; "songs that you can't get out of your head" or any random ruminations or fragments of sentences thereof. You'll find that you are still "consciously alert", but "thinking" holistically now... you no longer have "thoughts", but are perceptually aware of whole concepts, easily identifiable in their entirety (more like 'feelings", or "knowing"). This isn't easy, but a practiced adept can attain the next step much more easily with it.
Step 3: Allow hypnagogics to guide you into a semi-conscious state similar to "dozing off". Build up on this state's HI elements to begin "weaving a dream to step into".
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DREAM:
I entered a non-lucid dreamscape comprised of a simple rowboat. I was in the rowboat in a local inlet I've often boated in. I wanted to go in the water, and did, with the aid of a fishing rod, whose line eyelets I used as a sort of grapple to keep me near the boat. This became unneccessary after a bit, as I wanted to float further out. I was on some sort of floatation device, similar to an inflatable seat, and lolled in the water serenely. At one point, while some distance from the boat, I noticed myself losing buoyancy, and slowly sinking. It did not disturb me at all, since I knew I could swim, and began doing so as I turned back to the boat. It was when my head was at the usual height above water for a swimmer, that I realized that the water was an intense shade of green (I'd noticed before, but now it was beginning to stick out in my mind. I was just about to make the connection, and began whatever process it is that induces lucidity... a hare's breath from the realization that I WAS LUCID, when the thought of it roused me awake. When barely awake, my lower body was still quite "buoyant", and I used it to try to re-enter the dream without success... marvelous feeling though, to be awake and still feeling that!
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I think I've stumbled on to two major advancements. First, that I can tailor the WILD technique to better suit my personal style, and secondly, that some dreams can be heavily ensconsed with metaphor.
The boat was in a setting familiar to me, alleviating fear. The fishing rod served as both a tether to that comfort, and a metaphor for "fishing" for answers. The water itself represented Lucid Dreaming, and my "sinking" into it, my desire to LD. The water's surface represented the line of demarcation from wakefulness to dreaming (lucidly or otherwise).
I believe I've also discovered something else. WILD works best when tired. WBTB early morning naps are based on the same theory. If shortened sleep means faster entry into REM, perhaps it IS best to only attempt this while tired, so as to re-inforce the experience as positive to the subconscious mind, "going out on a high note", as it were.
Trying to reproduce this about an hour later only resulted in a vivid, non-lucid dream, but with similar effects (non-lucidity probably due to the "delayed" REM entry). When coming out of that dream, the last dreamscene was my ankles locked together while somehow wedged on some stairs. I awoke with my legs crossed, and ankles in that same position (which I fell asleep in , so SP obviously occurred).
I think that just as I "shaved off" the beginning of the semi-lucid dream, I dd the same with the end of the following, non-lucid one... essentially bracketing what should be an entirely unconscious (dreaming) state with invading consciousness!
