finally WILD through to LD

I got pretty drunk last night and woke up with a slight hangover early this morning and thought it might be a good time to catch up on some REM. I stayed up for about thirty minutes chugging water and peeing, and then went back to bed. Being still a bit hungover it was hard to fall asleep, so I struggled to get comfortable for a while and eventually started just trying to incubate hypnagogic imagery........

idea number 1--while I was involved with the hypnagogic imagery a thought came to me: every time I would lose focus on an image it would dissolve immediately. The only way I could hold an image was to quiet my mind completely and concentrate (without concentrating) on that one image. Maybe this is a good way to practice meditation?

.......Soon I noticed that the still images were becoming moving scenes, and then finally that I was being involved in the scenes.............

I had never before really noticed how much like a dream hypnagogic imagery is..When I reached the point of actually being involved, it was like an all-consuming day-dream...But I'm sure it was not an actual dream, because if I lost my focus it would all disappear completely.


...............Suddenly I felt the tell-tale signs of sleep paralysis--a warm humming, ticklish vibration in all of my body, and the sound of some kind of feedback in my ears. There was no terror involved this time and I had no problem surrendering to it completely. As I relaxed my mind, I felt my body floating upwards, and it confused me. I tried to move my dream body, but instead I felt the resistance of my normal body. I stopped immediately and relaxed, and again felt that I was floating upwards. I didn't fight it, and maybe 15 seconds passed of just a strange, airy feeling. Then, somehow, I willed part of me to get up, and it felt like I got out of bed in real life. I was very skeptical because I didn't remember any kind of transition from the floating to the getting up, so I did a quick reality check and determined that I was in fact dreaming. My vision was very strange at first--I tried to open my eyes, but it felt like they were still controlling my real eyes, and not my dream eyes, so I shut them and focused on feeling the wall next to me. I took a few steps and when I opened my eyes, everything was clear.

This is definitely my favorite way to become lucid....Provided I can repeat the experience.

Nice. Inspirational.... Last night I tried to WILD. I got all the way to the Sleep Paralasys, but I got "The Fear" with it. My bedroom door was banging like someone was holding onto the handle and shaking it back and forth. I knew it was just the SP but my curiosity got the best of me and I had to wake up and investigate it. I tried a RC but I was really awake.

So, next time just ride it out? When is the appropriate time to "will yourself to stand up"?

Before having this success, I had two consecutive failed WILDs immediately before--in the first I felt all the vibrations and sound and thought to myself "I'm going to get up in my dream body", so I tried to stand up, fought against the sleep paralysis and stood up, but in my waking body. The second time I decided to ride it out, and again after a while tried to get up, with the same result. I think the reason for my success the third time was not trying to get out of bed at all...Like with the hypnagogic imagery, I had to let myself become immersed in it, while maintaining my wits to some degree. After I succumbed to the floating feeling for 15 seconds, I lost all contact with my paralyzed body, and stopped hearing the noise and didn't feel the vibration, and just stood up. Heh, it's hard to describe, because it's not *really* willpower, it's more like riding on a wave and determining only the angle of your forward motion. This probably was not altogether too helpful, but if you take one thing away from it, it should be to "ride it out", like you said, and see what happens--you'll probably find yourself suddenly in a dreamscape.


(note: I think the idea of getting out of bed is simply manufactured by us to make it seem as if though we are separating two bodies during the WILD process--in reality I think it's probably easier to find yourself not getting out of bed, but in any dreamscape you can imagine...Getting out of bed, in my opinion, has too many problems associated with accidentally moving your real body, and not your dream body.)

I was thinking the same thing. The only problem is that I have only had 1 successful Lucid Dream, so I really don't know how to create a dreamscape yet. But it is worth a shot, since it was my fear of moving my real body that ended my only Lucid Dream.

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The only way I could hold an image was to quiet my mind completely and concentrate (without concentrating) on that one image. Maybe this is a good way to practice meditation? [/b]

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ah, you've realized the paradox needed to WILD- concentration without concentrating :wink: its pretty well impossible to explain, and the key to WILDing IMO.
and this can be a good way to practice mediation...only one way to find out for yourself though...

some buddhist practioners find they essentially WILD (have their consciousness leave their body) while meditating, although this isn't their aim. personally i have never had it happen while meditating, but find a similar type of concentration similar to that used in WILDing leads to higher states of consciousness. or pehaps 'different' would be a more appropriate term than 'higher'. i dislike speaking of meditation as acheivement.

oh, and it sounds like you've discovered this mongrel, but i thought i'd clarify it for carl..

i have experimented with WILDIng almost more than any other technique. dozens of times. i have reached the SP/HI stage many of these times. EVERY time i try to force myself out of body i fail, and simply move my physical body.

think of SP as a wave. don't try to swim against the current. don't try to 'escape' the SP and enter a lucid. you must ride it out like a wave, with passive concentration.

i've had some successful WILDs, and every time i waited instead of trying to force anything. eventually i either feel myself 'pop' out of my physical body (what a cool feeling :D ), rise and set down some distance away, or eventually i could 'will' myself out. willing oneself out is tricky though, and its easy to misinterpet that phrase until you've experienced it.

a couple other times i've simply waited until the hypnogogic imagery formed a stable scene, and i realized i was already in a dream, and theb started to explore.

the key is to wait. whether you are allowing HI to form a scene, or SP to separate your 'dream body' from your physical, or a combination, rushing things has always been unsuccessful, dozens of times over. each and every time i wait and be patient, i am successful.
whether i find myself in a fully formed dream scene, or have my dream body separate.

heh, and i've had the exact same audio hallucination before carl. i've come to the point i never break a WILD to see if a sound/sensation is real or not. if someone from the real world needs me, they'll have to shake me like a rag doll to convince me they're not a figment of my imagination :wink:

good luck carl, you've only got one more stage to go and you'll WILD successfully. don't rush it, its the most important.
and congrats mongrel. i prefer WILD over the other methods too, and find it gives me clearer, more stable lucids generally...

I cant seem to wild correctly, its very frustrating- I feel like, by staying conciousness I cant fall asleep, the three times I've tried this, I've gotten completely comfortable- and just layed there for 90 minutes without much of anything happening...bah humbug!