Thread: WILD - Wake Initiated Lucid Dream

Wake Initiated Lucid Dream - WILD

Basic tutorial for Beginners

WILD stands for “Wake Initiated Lucid Dream.” The goal is to pass directly from a waking state, to a state of lucid dreaming, without ever losing consciousness. Where DILD is passively reliant on memory and habit to increase the dreamer’s chances of becoming lucid, WILD is a meditative process in which the dreamer actively witnesses the onset of sleep. WILD is often seen as the most direct path to lucid dreaming, but also one of the most elusive.

Preparation

Chose a good night for your WILD ahead of time, and make it an event. Think about it during the day, and set your intention to succeed. You will need a peaceful environment, free from distractions. If you share a bed, you may want to consider moving to a guest room, or the sofa for your WILD. Comfortable ear plugs and a sleep mask are helpful to block outside distractions.

Proper timing is critical for a successful WILD. Most lucid dreams happen during REM sleep, when brain activity is high. Time your WILD so you will be falling asleep as you enter a long period of REM sleep.

At night, the best time for WILD is normally in the later hours of your sleep, when REM cycles are close together and last the longest. You can easily chart your REM sleep by noting the time when you wake to record a dream journal entry. People have a natural brief awakening after every REM cycle throughout the night. Your natural mid-night awakenings will fall at the end of your REM cycles. Begin your WILD approximately 20 minutes before your next REM cycle. For example, If I knew I normally had vivid dreams between about 4:30am to 5:00am, I would begin my WILD at about 4:00am or 4:15am.

Afternoon naps are also a good time to make an attempt, since most people have a REM cycle in the late afternoon or early evening. When you nap, pay attention to the time when your best dreams occur. This time of day is your target.

Attempting to WILD when you first go to sleep at night is not recommended. You can do everything right, but there will be no dream available for you to enter (or at most, a brief and unsatisfying dream).

Relaxation

Begin by closing your eyes and lying in a comfortable position. Your goal is to become so relaxed, you lose track of your body altogether. You are going to coax yourself into a deep trance-like state that will, effectively, let your body fall asleep while you maintain some awareness. If you have experience with meditation, use your favorite relaxation method.

If your thoughts are racing, calm your mind. Let each thought pass through your mind, recognize it, and then let it go. When your mind is settled, tell yourself firmly that the next thing you see will be a dream. The next thing you experience will be a dream.

Bring your attention to your breath. Breathe slowly, comfortably, and evenly, counting each breath on the exhale. Imitate the breathing of someone who is sleeping. Move your attention to your feet. Feel them relaxing and gently sinking into the bed under their own weight. Now move your attention to your head and face. Feel the muscles in your face relaxing. Relax your neck, and let your head sink gently into the pillow under its own weight. Do this for any part of your body that feels tense or uncomfortable.

When you feel loose and comfortable, start to imagine your body swaying side to side, or rocking back and forth. Imagine you are swaying loosely to the rhythm of your breath and your counting. If you feel any annoying itches or twitches, scratch them, then go right back to what you were doing.

Falling Asleep - Mind

When you feel relaxed, and your thoughts are beginning to wander, it is time to fall asleep. Roll into your normal sleeping position, if you are not already there. It is time to divert attention away from your body. It is relaxed, comfortable, and ready for sleep. You don’t need it anymore. It is time to move into the space of your mind. The goal, now, is to forget about your body altogether.

Continue to count, but instead of focusing on your breath, imagine each number, visually. Try to see what it looks like in your mind’s eye. If you like, imagine the numbers on a clock, or drawn on a chalk board, or something similar. Try to see them changing. If you lose count, just start at the last number you remember. Losing count is a good sign that you are starting to fall asleep.

If you are not fond of counting, you can use a mantra to keep your mind aware. Mantra is a short phrase that you repeat. It can be something simple like "I'm dreaming".

Your thoughts will start to stray. You will catch yourself thinking of strange things, or witnessing unbidden snippets of dreams. If you get lost in these images and let them play out, you will fall asleep. You need to remain aware, with your intention set while this happens. Remind yourself that this is a dream. Picture yourself performing your favorite reality check over and over again.

If no dreamlets are forming, you can induce them yourself. Imagine a recent memory that comes to mind easily. Chose something familiar and tactile. You want to engage your sense of touch and movement in the memory. For example, you might Imagine walking through your house, running your hands along the rough walls, grasping the cold door handles to open each door. Try to make it feel as real as possible.

Stay patient and confident. You are trying to hold yourself on the edge of sleep until your next REM cycle begins. Hopefully you timed things correctly, and you won’t have long to wait. Keep picturing yourself performing reality checks, and reminding yourself that the next thing you see is a dream.

Transitioning

When your REM kicks in, you may experience some hypnagogia. You may see visual hallucinations, such as faces, geometry, or lights. Some people hear sounds such as voices, loud bangs, or buzzing. Sometimes the hallucinations will be more physical. You may feel pressure on your body, powerful electric vibrations, or the feeling of motion and speed. These hallucinations can be convincing and startling. You are witnessing yourself falling asleep. If something startles you awake, just calmly return to what you were doing. It is part of the process, and will not ruin your attempt. You will quickly return to your trance-like state of mind.

Entering the Dream. When you fully enter REM sleep, a dream will begin. One of your induced visualizations may suddenly feel completely convincing. One of the dreamlets or images in your mind may expand into a full dream. For the first few seconds, remain calm, and engage with the dream. Become a participant in the scene, so it becomes your new reality. Touch whatever is closest to you. Investigate your immediate surroundings. Look down at your hands, or rub them together. You want to become physically present in the dream. Stomp your feet, touch a nearby wall, or kneel down to touch the floor. If characters are present, talk to them.

If you do pop out of the dream, don’t give up. Just close your eyes, imagine the scene you just left, and it will return. Sometimes it is a clean transition, other times you might bounce in and out of the dream a few times.

Often times your dream starts in your room. This is called False Awakening - FA. Learn to do Reality checks each time you get up from your bed to catch these FAs.

Common Mistakes

Trouble Swallowing
If you have problems swallowing, try a different sleeping position. If you are on your back, try propping your head up with additional pillows, or tucking your chin down towards your chest. You could also try lying on your side in a fetal position.

If that doesn't help, take care of what's bothering you. Scratch, adjust position, swallow. If you do it without getting upset over it, without paying any attention to it, just as you do when falling asleep when not WILDing, it will not ruin your attempt. It may set you back a few minutes, but just keep going and you will be back on track.

Twitching Eyes
Some people notice their eyes moving or trying to open as they enter REM. If this is a problem, try wearing a sleep mask. The light pressure on your eyes can help keep them closed. You could also try sleeping on your side.

Unable to Focus
Sometimes stress can distract you. It is hard to focus if you are worrying about everything you have to do the following morning, or the next day at work. Write down any distracting obligations in your dream journal so you can stop worrying about them and focus on your intention to lucid dream. If your mind is racing, try a meditative exercise to calm it. For example, you could imagine placing each bothersome thought into a large box, and closing the heavy lid.

If you having hard time calming down and falling asleep because you are excited about WILDing, start falling asleep normally and continue with WILDing when relaxed and closer to falling asleep.


This guide describes only one way to achieve WILD. There are countless mental exercises that can help coax you to the proper state of mind. Everyone is different, and no two WILD attempts will be the same.

Detailed WILD tutorial by Sageous

*This tutorial is a collective effort of Dream Views Team from 2008, edits by DV Team 2012, 2013

WILD is often seen as the most direct path to lucid dreaming, but also one of the most elusive.

It makes me sad that we're still telling newbies that WILD is hard...Come on! WILD is not as hard as everyone says it is.

Please discuss this Dreamviews recommended WILD tutorial here in this thread. Please do not start new threads.

Nah, WILD isn't hard persay, it just doesn't always happen without trying, like DILDs do. WILDs are a different experience from person to person in regards to all the transitions, and feelings and nuances. This makes WILD hard to teach. And that makes it elusive on a forum that strives to educate folks on how to lucid dream.

Sorry if it sounded like we're saying WILDs are hard. They're not hard y'all! We promise

Even though there are already threads debunking the role of sleep paralysis in WILD, I don't think it can be said enough that SP is not the goal in WILD. It's still the basic assumption of most literature out there (not to mention Newport's damaging lucidology videos) and new members still ask why they aren't transitioning when they think their numb hands mean they are in REM atonia. It would be nice to see a few words in the common mistakes section on it.

We want to keep tutorial and SP talk separate. That's why we have a tutorial without any mention of SP and we have an article that explaines SP. If we keep mentioning them in the same article, they will never be taken as two separate issues.

Hopefully after people spend some time on Dreamviews, they will shed old preconception and reorient to WILD without need for SP.

The best way to extinguish the popularity of a concept is by stop mentioning it at every corner. WILD is WILD, sleep paralysis is nothing related, so it has no reason to be there. We don't need constant awareness on it provided we clear the doubts regarding it's misconceptions. And for that, we already have the specific thread and we always make sure to keep an eye on possible threads mentioning it it's great to know that many people also help desmistifying sp as well!

Originally Posted by Zoth

The best way to extinguish the popularity of a concept is by stop mentioning it at every corner. WILD is WILD, sleep paralysis is nothing related, so it has no reason to be there.

Exactly! I was really hoping not to have this WILD thread tainted with SP talk. We have talked about SP for so long, I really wish we could stop talking about it now. If someone asks about it, we will answer, of course, but I don't want to be doing "pre-emptive strikes". Die, SP, die.

Brilliant!!! Great work. Great logic on the fore mentioned topic (see, I just avoid needlessly refering to 'it')

Very nice tutorial!

I think it does a good job capturing the definition, spirit, and process of WILD in a way that's readable, makes some real sense, and makes WILD seem just plain doable (which it is, of course). There'll be questions and concerns raised, you can be sure, but who cares if the core is sound and the support staff sincere?

I think it'll work.

And yeah, it truly can and should be done without mentioning "SP" in any context. Maybe if an authority like DV takes this tack, others will follow, and the SP myth will die the ignominious death it deserves.

From what I understand; the WILD tutorial describes the normal process of going to sleep; the difference is that one must be aware of all the stages of going to sleep. I mean you said to relax and clear the mind, get in a comfortable position, that's everything one does when going to sleep. The "trick" is to recognize the entering to a dream state and not just get sucked by it.

Originally Posted by gmork13

From what I understand; the WILD tutorial describes the normal process of going to sleep; the difference is that one must be aware of all the stages of going to sleep. I mean you said to relax and clear the mind, get in a comfortable position, that's everything one does when going to sleep. The "trick" is to recognize the entering to a dream state and not just get sucked by it.

Yes, WILDing is basically just going to sleep. The difference is, that normally, your body and mind fall asleep pretty much at the same time. With WILDing, you watch your body fall asleep.

In order to keep your mind awake until it's time, you repeat some kind of a mantra. It will serve as an anchor to the waking world. It will keep reminding you what you doing and hopefully will entertain your brain so it doesn't fall asleep too soon. Eventually, you let your mind fall asleep too. But not before some dreams are ready for you.

It's a well balanced game. May take a few tries to master, but it's well worth it.

Sorry to bring it up again, but what is with the hate of sleep paralysis, I have experienced it before each and every one of my ~20 successful WILDs and without it, I (personally) cannot "POP" out of my body. Is it that people think that numbness/tingles are the same thing as SP, and that's the idea we are trying to get rid of? Sleep paralysis is a real thing, and a great way to enter a lucid state, If I have gone off track somewhere please let me know, but everything that you guys have been saying about SP in this thread goes against my personal experience with WILDs and lucid dreaming.

Edit: on reading your guide, what you have written under "transitioning" is the definition of sleep paralysis as I know it, so it seems to be the term is just disliked?

Hi Ksero, check out this link, http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...explained.html

It will explain the whole issue, without distracting from the new tutorial.

Originally Posted by sivason

Hi Ksero, check out this link, http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...explained.html

It will explain the whole issue, without distracting from the new tutorial.

Thanks, It seems I'm just part of the population who actually does experience Sleep Paralysis frequently, and it seems to be something I go through in all my attempts to wild, the anxiety was bad at first, but after realizing I was basically one step away from a lucid dream I'm completely over it now, I have seen "demons" screaming at me from an inch away from my face, while in a calm state of mind. Again, thanks for clearing up the confusion with the terms.

Originally Posted by Ksero

I have seen "demons" screaming at me from an inch away from my face, while in a calm state of mind.

LOL I have so been there too man! Creepy stuff..

I'm one of those folks who get vibrations usually just before a WILD, but not usually SP. Though the few times I did encounter SP, it usually accompanied scary presences. Anyway, sorry if we made it out like we hate SP. SP itself is not the culprit, just like the vibrations. We were just trying to get folks to not give up on WILDing just because they might not reach SP, or vibrations. Since everyone's transitions vary from one another, we were hoping to shed light on the fact that you *might* go through this, or that, but it's ok if you don't. That plus not to be scared of those transitions if you DO have them. When I was a kid, those vibrations scared the piss out of me lol. But yeah, sivason already cleared that up with the link. I sincerely hope this section helps members WILD easier and without fear or misconceptions.

^^ Nicely said, OpheliaBlue, but is there a non sequitur here?

Aren't the DV dream guides currently trying to say that SP is an actual medical condition suffered by a very small segment of the population, and the "SP" that WILDer's (erroneously) try to "get to" is not SP at all, but simply their witnessing of REM Atonia or just a bit more hypnagogia?

Normally I wouldn't ask, what with this place pretty much being your show and all, but the contradiction could potentially confuse, I think, and your authority as a god of DV only compounds the confusion.

I won't mind if you delete this post because I went to far, BTW; I'm not proud.

Solid tut.

Would read again.

^^^ Good man, Sageous. When you do mis-speak, you make sure to set it right.

Ophelia, two great post on this thread! Some fine work.

Hello, sorry if I'm being a bit of a newbie here. But, I tried doing this and I sort of felt my body go to sleep (It was a quick process) but I'm too scared to open my eyes because someone mentioned hallucinating monsters and stuff. In order to see if you are dreaming, do you have to open your eyes? Or do you just enter a dream without having to physically open them.

Also, do you usually have to get out of bed in your dream?

Also, I could no longer hear the binaural beats that I had on, I was asleep?

And again, also, my eyes were going completely mental!

Originally Posted by FlyRazor

Hello, sorry if I'm being a bit of a newbie here. But, I tried doing this and I sort of felt my body go to sleep (It was a quick process) but I'm too scared to open my eyes because someone mentioned hallucinating monsters and stuff. In order to see if you are dreaming, do you have to open your eyes? Or do you just enter a dream without having to physically open them.

Also, do you usually have to get out of bed in your dream?

Also, I could no longer hear the binaural beats that I had on, I was asleep?

And again, also, my eyes were going completely mental!

I think it is easy to get the wrong idea. If you let your body fall asleep and you are still somewhat aware you have no need to do anything with your eyes or body. Just settle in and relax more and more. If you are in a deep enough state you will likely see something eventually. It may be H.I. which is just imagery of any kind that is short of truly dream like (colors, mist swirling and such). It may be 'dreamlets' which are detailed flashes of visual stuff that do not hold together when observed closely (seeing a short scene that fades if you pay attention), or an actual truly dream like experience.

I recommend never opening your eyes at all. It is too risky and unnecessary. I either wait until truly dream like images happen (suddenly in a new setting) or I become very unsure if I am now dreaming about being in my bed. I then will not move in any way that is natural. I may attempt to move my hand just by having it float up a few inches above the bed. If I feel any resistance from gravity I stop before any real muscles have contracted.

Not every one will agree, but I say you must be experienced before you attempt to exit your body, and then it should be with methods that can not be real. The rope climbing thing is a good one. It is used in some WILD styles and does not need to lead to OBE (which many say is just a form of lucid dream). However, float your hands up rather than reach for the rope (I like a rope ladder myself). If you reach you may actually move your arms. If your arms float up and you pretend to be climbing you sometimes find you actually have started to dream of climbing and you can start your LD.

WILDs as they are more commonly known, are the holy grail of lucid dreamers.

Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams, are arguably the most discussed type of lucid dream among oneironauts and for good reason.

I have a question about WILD. I have been practicing this method for as long as I can remember but to no avail. I haven't given up though. Last night, I was more determined than ever to remain conscious and complete a WILD.

I had been lying in my bed for TWO STRAIGHT HOURS. I had no moved at all (aside form the occasional swallow) and my entire body went numb and felt disconnected. However, nothing ever happened! What am I supposed to do from here? Do I simply need to practice this more often? Thanks!

~Brad

Originally Posted by bwink97

I have a question about WILD. I have been practicing this method for as long as I can remember but to no avail. I haven't given up though. Last night, I was more determined than ever to remain conscious and complete a WILD.

I had been lying in my bed for TWO STRAIGHT HOURS. I had no moved at all (aside form the occasional swallow) and my entire body went numb and felt disconnected. However, nothing ever happened! What am I supposed to do from here? Do I simply need to practice this more often? Thanks!

~Brad

Think of wild as shooting a bow and arrow. You need to have the right vertical (awareness) and the right horizontal (timing) to hit it correctly. If you are just laying in bed from waking trying to keep your awareness as high as you can, it is like sitting on a merry go round blindfolded and someone is spinning you around in circles and you trying to hit the target, your answer to the fact that you don't know where you are aiming is to aim as high as you can (Keep awareness up).

You need to work on timing, and awareness level. Because too much awareness will just lead to insomnia. Laying in bed for 2 hours is never the answer. Check out these threads:
Why You Fail at WILDs - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Mzzkcs Comprehensive WILD Guide - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I post them a lot, but that is because they are very good.