Thread: How would you explain How to WILD to a Beginner?

What you described is a hypnic jerk. Its when your muscles relax, and your brain correlates that with the falling sensation and kind of simulates the feeling. I don't think it has much correlation to the WILD method, but i might be wrong :p

How I would describe WILD to a beginner: it's basically falling asleep without loosing consciousness, and remaining aware of whether or not one is waking or asleep.

Well first I would tell them that it's a wake induced lucid dream, it's pretty self explanatory, but when I am asked to explain it I tend to describe sleep paralysis, and being continually aware that your dreaming

Originally Posted by Marbig

Well first I would tell them that it's a wake induced lucid dream, it's pretty self explanatory, but when I am asked to explain it I tend to describe sleep paralysis, and being continually aware that your dreaming

I find it interesting how many other people associate WILD with sleep paralysis, I do not. The two are separate phenomena, and while they could occur together they definitely do not have to. SP is actually fairly rare: it occurs when the paralysis natural protective response of our body is mistimed, so that instead of just occurring while we are dreaming and protecting us from enacting the dream in reality, in SP it occurs when the dreamer is on the edge between waking an sleeping life. Even though WILD is obviously about paying close attention to that edge on when waking turns into sleep, but most of the time SP will not be there - it only occurs when the process is not timed right.

My one successful WILD experience thus far had no hint of SP in it.

My three experiences of what I think was SP did not occur during a WILD or attempt to do so.

I wonder how many people actually do experience WILD and SP together, and I bet it is fewer than the number of people who fear WILD due to mistakenly associating these two phenomena.

Originally Posted by JoannaB

I find it interesting how many other people associate WILD with sleep paralysis, I do not. The two are separate phenomena, and while they could occur together they definitely do not have to. SP is actually fairly rare: it occurs when the paralysis natural protective response of our body is mistimed, so that instead of just occurring while we are dreaming and protecting us from enacting the dream in reality, in SP it occurs when the dreamer is on the edge between waking an sleeping life. Even though WILD is obviously about paying close attention to that edge on when waking turns into sleep, but most of the time SP will not be there - it only occurs when the process is not timed right.

My one successful WILD experience thus far had no hint of SP in it.

My three experiences of what I think was SP did not occur during a WILD or attempt to do so.

I wonder how many people actually do experience WILD and SP together, and I bet it is fewer than the number of people who fear WILD due to mistakenly associating these two phenomena.

For normal dreamers this would be the case, infact it can happen as rarely as once or twice in a life time but we lucid dreamers go out of out was to observes phenomenon such as sp, there are many online articals that accociate wild with sp, and this is because for alot of people they happen in conjunction, your mind thinks the body's asleep and therefore locks it up so you can dream without hurting yourself, people woild argue that it happens every night. your observation about it only occurring when You time it wrong has a point, usually we observe sp, because out minds wake up accidentally after a dream while we are still in sleep paralysis.

I mentioned that I would decribe sleep paralysis to a beginner when discussing wild, because that is how I first learnt about wild, and it helped me understand dreamin a little better, because it made it a little similar to understand. But you are right you don't neasacerly have to be in sp to have a wild well from my experience anyway
.

Interesting, I did not realize that sp is more likely for lucid dreamers. One learns something new every day. thank you! I still think though that introducing sp from the beginning may scare beginners off too early, I guess because there are several members of this forum who to me seem too worried about sp and scared of WILD as a result. I was thinking about why I never WILDed when I used to be fairly proficient at DILD years ago (first time I was into this hobby) and I think it was because I had not realized that trying to WILD in the first sleep cycle of the night would most likely not succeed, and so my early attempts at it failed and I lost interest in this technique back then due to an incomplete understanding. So when attempting to explain it to beginners, I would definitely mention up front that it is most likely to succeed in the morning or during naptime. Now I have more interest in WILD then I used to because I was successful at it once, and so I am hooked and want to do it again.

SP is more likely for LDers. I never had it until the last 8 months I have had it twice. I had it after waking from a DILD though. So I would describe this to anyone trying to LD. Not WILD. This is how I would describe WILD:

Originally Posted by JoannaB

How I would describe WILD to a beginner: it's basically falling asleep without loosing consciousness, and remaining aware of whether or not one is waking or asleep.

Originally Posted by JoannaB

I wonder how many people actually do experience WILD and SP together,

I'm one of them. I learned how to WILD by waking up in sleep paralysis and then relaxing myself fully and just riding the sensations into a dream. I did a bit of arguing with other people who claimed sleep paralysis was not a part of WILD but eventually came to realize that I was in the minority and accepted that my way was probably not the typical way. Not long after that I had my first WILD that did not involve sleep paralysis. I was just playing around with HI and just imagined myself reaching into the image to touch something and before I knew it I was completely immersed in the dream. I was amazed at how quick and simple that kind of transition was compared to a sleep paralysis induced transition.

I'll also point out that I did not experience sleep paralysis on a regular basis until I started trying to WILD. Now it's once a week/two weeks. I could go to a doctor and explain my symptoms and and easily be classified as a sufferer of sleep paralysis. The only difference is I don't "suffer" at all with it. It's just a routine experience that doesn't effect my quality of sleep at all and isn't the least bit scary.

Originally Posted by dms111

I'm one of them. I learned how to WILD by waking up in sleep paralysis and then relaxing myself fully and just riding the sensations into a dream. I did a bit of arguing with other people who claimed sleep paralysis was not a part of WILD but eventually came to realize that I was in the minority and accepted that my way was probably not the typical way. Not long after that I had my first WILD that did not involve sleep paralysis. I was just playing around with HI and just imagined myself reaching into the image to touch something and before I knew it I was completely immersed in the dream. I was amazed at how quick and simple that kind of transition was compared to a sleep paralysis induced transition.

I'll also point out that I did not experience sleep paralysis on a regular basis until I started trying to WILD. Now it's once a week/two weeks. I could go to a doctor and explain my symptoms and and easily be classified as a sufferer of sleep paralysis. The only difference is I don't "suffer" at all with it. It's just a routine experience that doesn't effect my quality of sleep at all and isn't the least bit scary.

Yeah. SP can be used as a way to WILD, and if you can get yourself into SP it is really simple. But for the average person it is easier to not worry about SP.

Yea, pretty much only the ones with ISP can reliably use SP to enter WILD.

Originally Posted by Marbig

there are many online articals that accociate wild with sp, and this is because for alot of people they happen in conjunction

What i personally thing is: since alot of people think about it before WILDing, they might end up having false awakening dream about being paralyzed, i had a few of those when i was starting out and was not knowing the truth about SP. Though i can be wrong, but it's just my theory.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

This is how I would describe WILD:

Originally Posted by JoannaB

How I would describe WILD to a beginner: it's basically falling asleep without loosing consciousness, and remaining aware of whether or not one is waking or asleep.

Agreed.

Im not saying explain what WILD is to a beginner, I am trying to say how would you explain how to WILD to someone who has no idea on how to lucid dream. If you told someone off the street, you just have to fall asleep consciously. They would probably look at you like your crazy and walk away. Try to use examples above to explain. Most people i know have experienced Hypnic Jerks so they can understand the process better.

Why not to explain lucid dreaming itself first though?

Originally Posted by xpin2winx

They would probably look at you like your crazy and walk away.

Welcome to the waking life where most of people are too used to 'usual' life to accept or understand anything that is unusual for them.

I would say that it is like you are laying in bed and then you might start seeing things, feeling things, or hearing things and then wham! You are transported to being conscious in a dream.

I don't really understand why you are asking. Personally I would rather explain DILD.

Imagine realizing right now that this is a dream. Nothing around you is real and nothing since you can remember is real. You are laying in bed. That is DILD.