is there a single method to success? (lucid dreaming/gaining lucidity)

Bare with me folks, this is my first posting about lucid dreaming.

I've been attempting to LD using the WILD technique I have been doing this for the past 4 weeks every time i get to the part where i start seeing blobs of light swirling around behind my eyes and then start hearing or seening sounds/visions of people saying my name -- I get stuck. I either give up or fall asleep.

Also, sometimes I encounter this surge of enery that I'll call anti-energy for it makes me think i'm about to fall asleep. Should I just go with the flow and follow it or should I resist it?

when I was a child, 3 years of age, I had my first lucid dream and then again when I was 7. I don't know how I did it and would very much appreciate it if some one could help me out here I'm struggling figure this out.

Each technique can lead you to lucidity you just need to work on it. Although dream journaling and reality checking are good to do with any technique.

Definitely go with the flow of that energy. Let the process ride you into the dream state all on its own. Once you start getting hallucinations, just relax and let the process do the work for you. Don't forget that the key to successfully WILDing "is" falling asleep. If you don't fall asleep, you can't dream. The idea is to stay conscious as you are falling asleep. Basically, you are watching/witnessing/observing yourself falling asleep.

@ king , sorry if my newbie is showing. but could you expand on "Don't forget that the key to successfully WILDing "is" falling asleep. If you don't fall asleep, you can't dream. The idea is to stay conscious as you are falling asleep. Basically, you are watching/witnessing/observing yourself falling asleep. " . the past few weeks i have been trying different methods of atainind lucidity. WILD AND WBTB and i havebeen having some success with WILD but still end up falling asleep and not having a lucid dream. thanks

@ dynotap , didn't mean to hijack your thread but maybe you have some of the same questions i do

You will need to find a good anchor that works well for you. An anchor is used to keep your mind active enough to where you won't lose consciousness and fall asleep normally. At the same time, you don't want to be too active and not be able to fall asleep. There are many WILDing anchors out there, counting, counting breaths, focusing on breathing, using an outside source (fan noise, music, t.v., etc), visualizing a dream scene, feeling your bed beneath you, sleeping on a small object, etc. I like to simply observe the darkness of my closed eyes. I relax my entire body and work towards sleep while keeping a "casual" eye on the darkness. Once SP sets in and HI/HH begins to occur, I switch my anchor to the hallucinations themselves. I just casually observe the hallucinations and continue to relax as they intensify. Stay calm during this time and just allow yourself to be immersed within the hallucinations.

:goodjob2: good job on your close encounters with WILD! Thats a very difficult method to do.

Go with the energy and let yourself fall asleep, like yoshi said you must fall asleep in order to WILD. (not the exact quote).

I just figured out what the best way to get to sleep paralysis is, (that is I figured out the best way for me personally). I found that I achieved almost 80% sleep paralysis within 10 minutes by lying flat on my stomach without a pillow and by propping my head up with my arms. The unfortunate downside to this is that after that ten minutes I my arms start paining incredibly. I achieved partial SP ( close to 80% sleep paralysis) even though I had 2 lattes!! 18 ounces of coffee grind for each cup, so unfortunately I'm suffering from the inability to sleep right now. How can I better this? should I just try to ignore the pain? I've done so before when lying on my wrist... though I had to stop that time as well (due to the incredible pain -- I had been lying on my wrist for 2 hours).

Hmm, once you get to where SP is first starting to set in, you could slowly roll/move to a comfortable position. This will break your SP, but it should be really easy to get it back at this point. You will now be in a comfortable position when SP returns and you can carry on with the WILDing process.