Thread: Best Starting Method?

Sorry that I can't really help you, as I'm not very expierienced in the ways of lucid dreaming, but I'm just wondering, how long does it take you to reach each of the following states;

- Sleep paralysis
- Visual/Audio hypnagogic hallucinations

Just so I can make note.. Thanks.

Mild sleep paralysis begins to set in for me usually around 16 minutes. Its not full paralysis, its kinda weak and mostly just in my arms and legs.

As of now I have never experienced hypnogogic sound, and I have only seen the beginning of hypnogogic imagery, which is supposedly swirls of color you can see when your eyes are closed. The swirls for me occur usually around the time of the sleep paralysis.

Perhaps your best option right now is to focus mostly on keeping your journal and performing reality checks during the day.

At night before bed every night, practice MILD or HILD
Maybe practice WILD a couple of nights a week or on the weekend?

WILD can be difficult and fickled method but is rewarding when you get it to work

Kinda new to the board heh but my advice is proly still good. No matter what induction teqnique you use when you start its good to do reality checking and DILD also because that will always help your other methods and once in a while you will get lucky and get a free lucid dream when you weren't even trying possibly for the rest of your life.

I tried WILD again just last night.. I held it for a while, I get those feelings of a paralysis thing, like numbness, although I can still move my body.. Just a odd feeling around the feet/arm/hands/legs.

I saw swirling colors, but at one point, my body just had this massive jolt (i.e. "the falling dream"), except it felt like I was launched 10m directly above my bed. My heart was just racing afterwards.

Hey Xeroer, I'm just past what your at (hearing sounds (a bit) seeing imagery).
The main problem I find is that I started thinking about how far I was getting into the WILD which pushed up my brain activity which isnt a good thing. Also this takes your concentration off your counting and/ or focus.

Just try to relax more and let your mind wander when it wants to because that can help push you further in the WILD.

Dunno if that helps.

When I relax, after I get into it a little, and I think of nothing, my brain suddenly makes something real random -- even if I've never had any thought of that subject for the past year, if not ever.
I hope this is a good thing.

What I do is just try to ignore it and blank my mind again - should I keep forcing my mind to go blank again, should I just let my mind think of the randomness, or should I go with it all and actually think about what is related to the subject which my mind thinks up?

Sorry if it sounds confusing.. I'm just really keen to obtain a lucid state.

Random thoughts like that happen to me all the time when I'm WILD'in. I usually recognize what I'm doing and focus myself again. I believe that these are what Seeker's tutorial refers to as "dream fragments", their like strong and vivid daydreams. I find that they help me relax at first, but if you get too deeply into them you will be lulled into sleep. Be wary of those tricky little buggers.