Hey RB,

I haven't personally heard it phrased like that "WILDing is in a raw form entering REM." I'm wondering if what they were saying was, maybe you don't wake up completely 100% between cycles, prior to a WILD, even though you may be aware that you're lying down, and in bed, and trying to go back to sleep and dream. I can see that being a possibility, because 99% of the time when I WILD, it starts out in my bed, and I'm in the same position I was just in when going through my usual WILD transitions (I get the buzzing vibrations thing). Even pillows and blankets are the same, maybe a few odd differences that help me know the dream has for sure started (like suddenly my comforter is the wrong color, or the doors and windows are in the wrong place). Anyway, the point I'm making is, maybe I'm not even fully awake when I'm lying in bed, thinking I have awoken, and am trying to transition into the WILD. That would be really hard to say for sure, unless I did some major RC which could disrupt the transitions altogether. Would be an interesting experiment sometime for sure!

And if those thoughts aren't weird enough, CanisLucidus just had an experience, hope he doesn't mind, where he thought he had awoken, had a convo with his wife, then proceeded to go back to sleep and transition into a WILD. Come to find out, he never actually woke up and spoke to his wife. He had a false awakening (FA), then proceeded to WILD. In essence: inducing a WILD while in a nonlucid dream hah! Crazy.

So maybe it doesn't really matter if you're truly awake or not, as long as you're AWARE, and can go through the steps of entering the lucid dream without losing awareness. Which is what a WILD is. Whether the "W" in WILD stands for "Wake" or "Well, I thought I was awake," doesn't matter if it leads to a lucid dream anyway.

Not sure if that answered your question, but it really did get me thinking. I'd be interested in CL chiming in on this one as well.