Thread: Important questions, please help!

Hello. I have not LD'd deliberately, although I have them naturally about once every 2 months. (Usually, I enter the dream and know that I am dreaming.) I have no problem with controlling dreams. I just had some important questions that I need answered.

Note: LD is "fun," but I am going to be responsible and careful with it. I am not one who does it because it is "cool." In undertaking this I fully appreciate that I am dealing with my subconscoius and sleep, two very important things.
On that note...

1.Is there any risk of SP with FILD? When my WBTB sounded, I was pondering the risk. I simply can't believe how it is so different from WILD. The whole point is retaining consciousness. (If you haven't inferred, SP is not something I would mentally recover from. Seeing dark shapes, glowing eyes and feeling strangled, then being sucked through the floor at 9 G's is not something I am ready to deal with, or even risk, especially at night.)

2.Probably the most important one. I just need reassurance more than answers. It is very hard not to Ld without freaking out before sleep. It's different during nighttime, I feel more, "cautious" I suppose. FILD seemed like a great idea until I was about to do it, and I freaked. When I feel the heaviness of sleep and the twitching of winding down, my heart beats wildly, and I lose my sleep. This has come to the point that I can't even sleep regularly without staying up for 3 hours listening to Podcasts. I need help on remaining calm.

3.This is probably the reason for the above, (Out of my dream diary, 1st night trying to LD)

In real life: I practiced incubating my dream until I was tired. I was focused on my dream, but I was excited. I was about to fall asleep when I thought I heard my own nasal breathing, and thought I was having a sleep-consciousness experience. Since I was about to fall asleep my vision was “tingling” and my limbs were heavy. I also heard my tinnitus ringing loudly. I was afraid to move, and my heart beat wildly. I tried in vain to walk out of my body briefly before I shakily began to move fingers, arms, and legs. Finally, I turned around and realized the sharp nasal breathing was in fact my neighbor shoveling his driveway. I was greatly relieved, but the experience was etched in my mind.

While this may seem like a trifle, but my mind will not let go of it, I am more than ready to.

3.While I have not intentionally LD'ed, I exert too much power over my lucidity. Simpling thinking about something causes it to happen. Scenes change on the merest whim. I lose characters just thinking about things. Objects switch around, and I may look twice at something and find it completely different. Also, I dont have Real Life vision. While I am seeing first-person, I don't have a frame of vision. I am always looking straight ahead, and It feels slightly 3'rd person. It is hard to think in my dreams. Faces are blurred, but only because I can't look directly at them. I can "feel" their face, though. I cannot look at objects in detail.

NOTE: THIS HAS ONLY HAPPENED IN NATURAL LD's, and I have not tried the "more clarity option" or rubbing my hands together, or visualizing, etc.

Any help, would be greatly, greatly appreciated, and I am more than ready to tackle this. Once i get past a mental barrier, I can handle anything from there. Please be helpful and not corrosive, and I will sleep much easier. Thank you so much!

Originally Posted by Vance

1.Is there any risk of SP with FILD? When my WBTB sounded, I was pondering the risk. I simply can't believe how it is so different from WILD. The whole point is retaining consciousness. (If you haven't inferred, SP is not something I would mentally recover from. Seeing dark shapes, glowing eyes and feeling strangled, then being sucked through the floor at 9 G's is not something I am ready to deal with, or even risk, especially at night.)

Any time you try to enter a dream from a waking state (which essentially is the definition of a WILD; there are just different methods), there's the possibility that you'll enter SP. It may seem frightening from what others have posted about what they've seen and heard, but everyone is different. Where one person may see glowing eyes, others may see neon butterfly wings or a woman's hair or a mustang.

As for feeling strangled (often referred to Old Hag; the feeling that there's someone there choking you), only a minority of people experience it. True, their experiences are less than ideal, but if you look around this site, you'll find more information on people overcoming it and working through it. Also, who's to say that even if you experience it once, it's likely that it won't happen again.

Keep in mind, too, that some of those things that people experience (being wooshed through the floor, etc.) can be quite exhilarating! There are things I've felt in my dreams that I never have in real life - especially flight - and I would trade a whole plate of cookies that I've made for another one of those dreams.

2.Probably the most important one. I just need reassurance more than answers. It is very hard not to Ld without freaking out before sleep. It's different during nighttime, I feel more, "cautious" I suppose. FILD seemed like a great idea until I was about to do it, and I freaked. When I feel the heaviness of sleep and the twitching of winding down, my heart beats wildly, and I lose my sleep. This has come to the point that I can't even sleep regularly without staying up for 3 hours listening to Podcasts. I need help on remaining calm.

When you're still excited about LDing, it's normal to feel anxious. There's an inherent excitement for those of us who don't LD on a regular basis (and even for those who do), and it's just a matter of working through it. You know that nothing is going to harm you, but it's a matter of putting your beliefs in action.

It's a matter of the will and of practice. You have to will yourself to relax, whether it be through visualization, taking calming breaths, progressive relaxation (clenching and relaxing muscles), and so forth. Keep reminding yourself that any fears you might have about dreaming are ungrounded; keep telling yourself what's true: "I'm not going to be harmed" or "I will be able to fall asleep." Once you are able to calm your mind, it will be much easier to calm your body.

If there are specific things that cause you anxiety, I'd suggest making a list of what they are. Then, after each thing, write down what's really true. That way, when those anxieties arise, you'll know what's really happening. When you think, "My body's falling," remind yourself, "I'm in my bed. I haven't physically moved."

3. This is probably the reason for the above, (Out of my dream diary, 1st night trying to LD)

In real life: I practiced incubating my dream until I was tired. I was focused on my dream, but I was excited. I was about to fall asleep when I thought I heard my own nasal breathing, and thought I was having a sleep-consciousness experience. Since I was about to fall asleep my vision was “tingling” and my limbs were heavy. I also heard my tinnitus ringing loudly. I was afraid to move, and my heart beat wildly. I tried in vain to walk out of my body briefly before I shakily began to move fingers, arms, and legs. Finally, I turned around and realized the sharp nasal breathing was in fact my neighbor shoveling his driveway. I was greatly relieved, but the experience was etched in my mind.

While this may seem like a trifle, but my mind will not let go of it, I am more than ready to.

Time and practice. If you keep practicing and just relax, eventually the anxiety will dissipate and LDing will come more easily.

4. While I have not intentionally LD'ed, I exert too much power over my lucidity. Simpling thinking about something causes it to happen. Scenes change on the merest whim. I lose characters just thinking about things. Objects switch around, and I may look twice at something and find it completely different. Also, I dont have Real Life vision. While I am seeing first-person, I don't have a frame of vision. I am always looking straight ahead, and It feels slightly 3'rd person. It is hard to think in my dreams. Faces are blurred, but only because I can't look directly at them. I can "feel" their face, though. I cannot look at objects in detail.

NOTE: THIS HAS ONLY HAPPENED IN NATURAL LD's, and I have not tried the "more clarity option" or rubbing my hands together, or visualizing, etc.

This happens to everyone. I know that when I'm dreaming, just as when I'm awake, my mind can be all over the place. Sure there's some connection between everything, but sometimes random things just pop up. It's difficult to read text, and even more difficult to read the same thing twice, because the dream is moving on. The cure for this: focus. If there's something you really want to see, make it your full intention to see it. Ignore what else is going on and focus on that one task.

As for seeing things in the 3rd person, that happens to me all the time. I'd say about 50% of the time I'm not even me, but rather some "main character." Sometimes I'm just watching what's going on, and sometimes I'm participating. If you're having trouble being a part of your LD, though (not being in your dream body), that's going to take focus as well. You have to focus on your dream body by using your senses, especially your sense of touch. Rubbing your hands together works wonders, it really does. Moving in general will help you; walk around and feel yourself take those steps.

I know this is a lot and is kind of redundant, but I hoped it helped. Just keep practicing and find a way to relax that works for you.

Let me know if I can do anything else Oh, and welcome to DV!

-Amé

Thanks for the post! You typed a lot! I am about to go to bed and FILD, wish me luck!

Ame said everything I would have said.. If you just take her advice, I'm sure your LDing experience will be good.

Originally Posted by Vance

Thanks for the post! You typed a lot! I am about to go to bed and FILD, wish me luck!

Enjoy. And put your fears under pillow. Nice dreams

For when doing FILD I do not go through SP at all. I just do a RC and I'm in a dream.

Yup, everyone above has a good and valid point. My input is this: Fear is something that keeps you from LDing. (One thing, the SP isn't usually the problem with wild, it's the hypnagogia that ususally scared people. If you acknowledge that the only possible hallucinations are a figment of your imagination, then you realize that there is nothing to be afraid of. Also try remembering that all of the SP and hypnagogia already happens naturally, and that you are simply aware of it when wilding.