WILD - Wake Initiated Lucid Dream

**gab** · 05-15-2013 05:15 PM

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

**gab** · 05-15-2013 07:07 PM

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

**PostScript99** · 05-15-2013 11:48 PM

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.

**OpheliaBlue** · 05-16-2013 12:27 AM

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

**Ctharlhie** · 05-16-2013 07:08 PM

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.

**gab** · 05-16-2013 08:26 PM

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.

**Zoth** · 05-16-2013 08:39 PM

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!

**gab** · 05-16-2013 08:45 PM

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.

**Sivason** · 05-16-2013 09:36 PM

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

**Sageous** · 05-19-2013 05:03 AM

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.

**gmork13** · 05-23-2013 11:25 PM

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.

**gab** · 05-23-2013 11:57 PM

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.

**Ksero** · 05-26-2013 04:41 AM

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?

**Sivason** · 05-26-2013 05:07 AM

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.

**Ksero** · 05-26-2013 05:58 AM

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.

**OpheliaBlue** · 05-26-2013 11:53 PM

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.

**Sageous** · 05-27-2013 12:40 AM

^^ 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.

**Sivason** · 05-27-2013 01:00 AM

If a person does have SP as a condition, then it is suppossed that they can possably use that condition to transition in WILD. The conclusion I came to after all our research was that SP can be involved in 'their' WILDs, but most of us will not ever have the issue come up.

**Ksero** · 05-27-2013 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by sivason

If a person does have SP as a condition, then it is suppossed that they can possably use that condition to transition in WILD. The conclusion I came to after all our research was that SP can be involved in 'their' WILDs, but most of us will not ever have the issue come up.

Being one of those people, and having plenty of experience going from SP to lucid dream, would it be a good idea for me to write a guide specifically on that aspect of it? something that can be kept separate from the WILD guide?

**Sivason** · 05-27-2013 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by Ksero

Being one of those people, and having plenty of experience going from SP to lucid dream, would it be a good idea for me to write a guide specifically on that aspect of it? something that can be kept separate from the WILD guide?

I am sure others have attempted guides like that, but making threads is fun. You can go to the 'Attaining Lucidty' section and start your own thread. Why not? have fun, and if you make a thread I will read it.

**Mzzkc** · 05-27-2013 04:34 AM

Solid tut.

Would read again.

**gab** · 05-27-2013 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by Ksero

Being one of those people, and having plenty of experience going from SP to lucid dream, would it be a good idea for me to write a guide specifically on that aspect of it? something that can be kept separate from the WILD guide?

It's up to you, but there already are tutorials with SP. The SP is not the problem. Problem is, however, when a tutorial claims that a dreamer has to induce and experience SP in order to WILD. We know, that is not true.

So, there are tutorials with SP, our tutorial without SP and SP explained article to bridge it all.

To clarify, we are talking about Sleep paralysis, not vibrations and other HH, that are normal signs of falling asleep.

**OpheliaBlue** · 05-27-2013 06:46 AM

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ Nicely said, OpheliaBlue, bit 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.

You know Sageous, if it weren't for your teachings, through RareCola's recommendations, I might still be stumbling through those transitions, forever eluded by the subtleties that could have and would have guided me to WILDs. Because of you, I learned to "open my dream eyes" once I felt the vibrations reach their peak, and once I saw something form. A valuable lesson for me and I can't thank you enough for it!

That said, I'm not sure I understand the issue with SP the way you present it. Or perhaps I don't understand the issue in regards to how my team is presenting it. From MY perspective, it's the same as the vibrations phase: You might feel it, you might not, it's nothing to be scared of, but it's also not necessary to aim for. You haven't failed at progressing towards WILD if you didn't get to SP or vibrations. Everyone is so different. Which makes WILDs hard to teach here I know, I KNOW.

So, I'm honestly not sure if/when a dreamer is experiencing SP, or vibrations, or REM atonia, or HH just by reading their posts alone. I only know what I experience, and I hit it against other dreamers' experiences, hoping to find similarities that we can relate to to further increase the chance of LDs, but at the same time, not flooding their minds with scary, or elusive concepts that'll just cock block their attempts at lucid dreaming. It's a tricky balance, but it's something we can strive for together, and I promise to listen to what y'all have to say and put the best information out there before anything else.

**Sageous** · 05-27-2013 07:52 AM

^^ Thanks for the kind words, OpheliaBlue; they are appreciated!

Yeah, you're right; I got it wrong.

I think my fundamental problem with communicating about SP* is that I don't give a crap about it. I never did. No one should, I think. That, and it seems that any mention of SP, positive or negative, seems to serve to further solidify its fictitious import. So, when one of the DV Admins mentioned it, I thought a little noise on my part wouldn't hurt. And, because my communication about SP is hampered by not caring, I got that noise wrong.

Your clarification above proves there's no non sequitur after all; I should've known, I suppose. I guess my only lingering concern is that virtually any mention of SP seems to turn the conversation away from WILD, and LD'ing in general, and towards the apparently more exciting subject of SP -- it's like some sort of bizarre psyche-magnet. So, without reading your post closely enough, I decided that you seemed to be allowing the magnet to charge up again -- even after your people had done such a great job sapping energy from it. My bad.

On rereading that post, I humbly take back my words. Sorry!

* That is, of course, the popular version of SP as a step toward WILD, and not the actual medical affliction.