Some WILD Questions: How to Deal w/ HI? How to "Enter"?

Hey guys,

So lately I've been taking more notice of HI, the little pictures and such that I get before a full-fledged dream occurs. As I've practiced this as a sort of awareness exercise, I've managed to become momentarily lucid during these tiny little dreamlets, momentarily meaning I wake up immediately. Sometimes, however, a dream begins to occur and I catch myself then, but I still wake up. I hope to be able to achieve a WILD sometime, but when I continue to get alarmed by these quick dreams it makes it pretty hard to try and slide in.

These were my main questions. Should I continue to try and remain aware of HI, or is that counterproductive? Is becoming lucid during HI a normal way to have a complete LD? And finally, how is one supposed to really "slide into" a WILD? I have a hard time understanding this concept. Some explain it with "dream bodies" and "real bodies" which I just don't comprehend, and then some say it's a bumpy ride with HI everywhere, begging you for attention. Can someone put the single step of entering a WILD into a nutshell?

Thank you,
Jelly

Hey there,

I'll try.

For me, 'sliding in' as you call it is a matter of paying attention to those little dreamlets and trying to stop paying attention to everything else (which is considerably easier said then done :)).

Imagine yourself looking at a really good movie, and a certain scene enthralls you so much that you become totally focused on it, completely shutting out everything else. Its basically like that.

At the start I'd lie in my bed. I'll be aware of my body, certain sensations (warmth, the touch of the blankets, the position of my limbs, my breathing, etc). At this point my awareness is still fully centered in 'waking'. As I lay there, I'll start getting the little dreamlets like you describe. In this 'phase', I'll be aware of both: my body and the dreamlets. Now if I start paying more attention to the dreamlets, they become more vivid and real. I'll slowly start 'forgetting' about my body at all, until my focus is fully on the dreamlets.

At this point I'll find that the dreamlets have gotten so vivid I can no longer just see them, but touch them as well (even if the sensation will just be vague at first). That's my cue that the transition has happened. The dream will still be very flimsy (and usually dark), like a lucid dream that's ending. But if I immerse myself in it at this point, it'll stabilize and become a fully fledged lucid dream.

That said, WILD'ing is not easy, so most of the time, I'll slide back to wakefulness just like you. Also, if I don't wake myself up, I'll often lose consciousness and enter a normal dream. But everyone once in a while it goes just right, and I'll be WILD'ing.

Also note that from my experience, there's a difference between the dreamlets (hypnagogia) and the sensation of your body falling asleep (vibrations, numbness, ringing in your ears, strange feelings). They usually happen at the same time, but focusing on the first will cultivate the dream, while focusing on the second just pulls you back to wakefulness (because your shifting your attention back to your body).

Hope that helps!

-Redrivertears-

Thank you, Redrivertears.

So essentially your largest piece of advice is to focus on the dreamlets intensely, and the rest happens almost automatically? Sounds nice :D

Everything sounds a lot like what I'm going through! So just some more practice and it should just happen on its own? I think the hardest part for me is the waking up and falling asleep.

By WILDing in this way, it sounds like you've basically got to personally thread the needle between conscious and dreaming.

Thanks again,
Jelly

Here are some ways of entering a WILD http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...into-wild.html

WILD is a balancing act. If you focus too intensely, you won't fall asleep. If you don't use enough awareness, you won't remain lucid. I'm not sure when you are trying to do this, but I would usually err on the side of more loose rather than too tight--I would rather be asleep and dreaming as opposed to awake and not. It's all a process of learning how you fall asleep and how your mind works.

Everyone is going to have a different experience of WILD. For some people, the schema of dream bodies and such is well-ingrained, so (and this is my thinking on it), most of that separation happens while they are already asleep and dreaming. For me, transition is usually instantaneous--maybe a little falling, or flying around, but for the most part, very smooth and right in. I think it also helps to be doing it in the late morning when there is a better chance for instant REM activity.

Having an anchor is important (some reference point for your awareness to remain on as you transition). I've been practicing with breathing into different areas of my body (but you can do whatever you like--several good guides on this site). If you are too tight with the anchor, or have been holding it for a long time (more than fifteen or twenty minutes) you might try relaxing or even dropping it completely and see what happens. Giving up can sometimes result in a DILD. Ctharlhie mentioned this in his workbook, but each WILD is it's own experience and I've found that WILD normally just takes me for the ride (so I haven't really mastered it at all in the sense of actively willing a WILD. I'm a bit more opportunistic with the whole thing.

Some ideas specifically for hynagogic imagery, with the idea of becoming immersed:

Become aware of your peripheral vision. Focus on the scene as it develops in the center of your vision, but also try to spread the imagery out to the edges. Use the cues in your peripheral vision to give the scene a three-dimensional presence. Even if it is just black, you might wonder: are those just shadows? Just as you would in a dark room, relax your eyes and let them adjust. A little patience and then the detail will start to appear.

Look for light, space and time cues. Look carefully at the imagery and try to pick up cues that would help you judge the environment around you. From which direction is the light coming from? Is it sunlight? A lamp? And can you sense what kind of space you are in? Outdoors? Indoors? A home? An office building? Can you guess if it is day or night? Morning or noon? Is it cloudy or clear?

Communicate telepathically. Without moving or straining, try to interact with people or objects in the scene through pure will. Ask them to come closer. Or say hello. Look for some action or acknowledgement that you have become a part of the scene rather than just an observer.

Look around and interact. This builds on all of the above. If you can get a sense of being in a three-dimensional space, direct your curiosity left, right, up and down. Again, without moving your real body. You are instead asking the scene to show you what's around, like controlling a remote camera. Once you can move the view around at will or bring something close enough to touch, then you can be more confident you have transitioned into the dream.