newbie help needed re: WILD

[regetsref]

Hihi all, THis is my first post, I've been browsing these forums for awhile now picking up lots of good info. However I have some specific questions. I have know about LD for 2 months now, The first night I read about them I had a very short moment of lucidity in a dream before I woke up, since then I havent gotten lucid again. Every night I try to stay concious until I enter a dream, I have questions about Hypnagogic Imagery and Sleep paralysis. After I lay down, I begin seeing what I though was HI(hypnagogic Imagery), swirls of colors(very muted colors) and shapes in the blackness. After awhile I have trouble holding my eyes closed and they seem to open automatically, the darkness of my room disappears as the swirls of dark color and shapes take place of what I really see. A few times, the colors got intense and lighter as my body started to tingle. At this point I have crazy body buzzes and the images get more intense. And a few times a ringing in my ears started, I've never gotten past this point though. I'm wondering how far into the WILD I am getting, The images never get focused or take on real forms other than what I imagine them to be, Is this really HI I'm seeing or just a precursor to it. How vivid or realistic does the HI become before you are actually dreaming? I think I'm on the right track but can never seem to stay focused or concious past this point. I always fall asleep within an hour and a half. Can someone please describe the process for them as they induce WILDs, I want to know if I'm getting close to Lucid Dreaming. Thanks

[Awaken]

First of all, welcome to the forum Sounds like a mighty fine experience you had. Sounds strikingly similar to Astral Projection (AP). If you do a little research you will find that people who do AP report having the same effects as what you described - tingling/buzzing in the body and buzzing/ringing in the ears. If you don't know what AP is, it's a projection of your consciousness outside your body, like an OBE (Out-of-body experience). You could let it be a WILD if you wish, just by paying attention to the HI, but it sounds like you've gotten to the point where you can choose to exit your body and explore the real world. Wow, I've been trying to do this for a while now http://www.crystalinks.com/astral.html

[nina]

Often, what I have found that helps alot is to go ahead and go through all those stages, sounds like you are definitely on the right track, and let yourself fall asleep if you have trouble staying conscious. Then either set an alarm for when you know you will be dreaming, like an hour (as it usually is for me), it wakes you up but then I find that when I lay back down I immediately begin to have WILD sensations (vibrations, ringing in the ears, etc.) and its alot easier to go into a lucid dream b/c you are more aware of what is going on.

[wheelie309]

hi there and welcome. As my experience goes wth WILDS, im a bit odd i guess. I dont feel all the vibrations and stuff like that. what i do is start out day dreaming with my eyes closed . sometimes its almost like i can see through my eye lids after a few minutes . as the daydream becomes more and more vivid it strikes me that i have suddenly WILD'd becuz i can usually still hear the tv (when i leave it on) and i have to concentrate on not letting the sound of it pull me out of the WILD. i can also still feel myself lieing down although i can also choose to ignore that and feel the objects in the dream. the last time that i did this, i let the sound of the tv get the best of me and i woke up but suffered from sleep paralisis for a few seconds which seemed to have lasted more like minutes ... that really sucks. but anyway u really sound like ur gaining ground with your experiences. good luck and ask lots of questions.

[regetsref]

Thanks for the replies, Yeah I thought about that too, trying WILD doing what I am but wake up after short sleep. Whenever I try WILD after sleeping for awhile the images and tingling is way stronger but I always lose conciousness, I guess it just takes more practice. Astral Projection seems too crazy for me right now, Being in the real world out of body would blow my mind ^^ Anyways, Im sure Ill be posting more questions soon.

[Damascus]

hey there! ive just started to try WILDs (bloody 5 and a half hours of sleep lastnight, damn coffee!) and theyre quite easy to have. My personal method is to catch myself just after waking up from a dream, or just lightly bob out of sleep for a moment and gain enoguh conciousness to enter the dream aware. Well it sounds easy but then its so hard to keep yourself in HI long enough to get into a dream, and without getting tangled in a false awakening. so annoying! Anyway, my HI usually starts with the loud ringing in my ears. Anything you experience before the headrush (your head will get lighter and you may feel ver slightly dizzy or disorientated) such as colourful patterns etc, is not really HI, just peripheral vision which if you close your eyes long enough and concentrate on seeing somehing will always come. So dont try this the first time you try to fall asleep, wake up in the night and try it then, just get caught up in some thoughts until you think you are sufficiently tired. It should require a small amount of will to make yourself conciouss enough to remember what you are doing. If you find that it requires no will to remember your goal, then you are not tired enough. HI is usually not too realistic. if you imagine an object in front of you while experiencing HI, you may drift into a dreamscape still looking at this object, so theres a tip for ya too. Hope i could help, any extra questions just PM me or post here.

[regetsref]

Hey thanks for the info, I'll try that technique. For me though, I only seem to remember my last dream of the night, I always have trouble recalling dreams during the night. So the HI i thought I was seeing is probably just (i read this somewhere) neural discharges, and not really 'getting there'? Ok I used to notice this a lot before I learnt about sleep and LD and stuff, but when you get dizzy or disoriented, for me it feels like I'm sleeping on the ceiling or something, sometimes, that is a sign you're entering deeper sleep right and you can use that sensation to kinda push yourself more into sleep? I notice too the harder I concentrate on the feelings like lightness or tingling I can make them stronger. This is what I should be doing right??

[regetsref]

OK I have another question. In some of the tutorials they mention WILD symptoms, or reentry thru WILD can be frightening. I've noticed this when trying them, at some points, for me once I start to lose my senses and get really lost in darkness (sortof). It gets scary, Ive woken myself out of it before because I get scared, As soon as I wake though Im mad because I know that being scared is dumb. Anyways, does this go away?? And everytime you LD by using WILD do you feel the effects of sleep paralysis like the numbness and scariness, or can you sometimes go right into a dream from a more lightened state??

[Damascus]

yeah, the HI is not really 'scary' so much as shocking and freaky, it causes your heart to beat faster which will wake you up (because you are excited) and sometimes, like me, you may forget to concentrate on your breathing, which may become irregular causing you to take a deep breath pulling you outta HI. Yes, after the first couple of times of this happening you should feel ok. When you first enter HI you may feel dizzy. it is, to put it simply, like going on a one-drop rollercoaster. (we have a vertical drop rollercoaster here, oblivion) you feel scared when you enter HI, dizzy when going into it and when you come out of it you feel normal. ok that was a bad way to explain it... but you get the meaning right?

[regetsref]

OK, I get it, just need to more practice to get there I guess. You kinda answered this before but, how realistic is HI? For me images never get much brighter than the darkness of having my eyes closed. sometimes there are flashes of brightness but its usually all like 80% dark. It's kinda of like seeing images in clouds, they only look like what I think they do ya know. Anyway does HI get more vivid than this, are there complete scenes or figures ever or anything??

[Howie]

Hynogogic images and the method itself can lead you straight into a Lucid dream. So yes. To your question. They can become as real as in waking life, The tricky part is to be able to sustain a concious state of mind while progressing into the subconcious. Or to put it another way, maintaining awareness while entering into a dream.

[wheelie309]

When you are in a HIGHly lucid state, the dream will be so real that it is like you are actually there. People tend to be very amazed at the fact that they are dreaming and will walk around feeling things like the texture of the walls or something like that. You will definately KNOW when you have a highly lucid state.

[regetsref]

Yeah, I really hope I can have a LD soon, Ive been trying every night, I dont have to get up early so Im able to try every night unless Im drunk or something, but still no actual LD. When you say they are as real as waking life, are they really that real. Man, I'm psyched to start experiencing this. Also, once you start having them are you able to have them often, like every night or is it still hit or miss?

[Howie]

Originally posted by fersteger Yeah, I really hope I can have a LD soon, Ive been trying every night, I dont have to get up early so Im able to try every night unless Im drunk or something, but still no actual LD. When you say they are as real as waking life, are they really that real. Man, I'm psyched to start experiencing this. Also, once you start having them are you able to have them often, like every night or is it still hit or miss? I am afraid that it is somthing that does not come easily for most of us. It takes preserverance and dedication to become Lucid on a regular basis. Also. Keep in mind that I have witnessed that most of the beginner's problems arise from being over zellis. So keep a cool head and practice some of the thechniques that are described in the Tutorials. Don't be afraid to PM the staff for any specific questions you have. Good Luck.

[regetsref]

OK I have another question. How clearly do you remember your lucid dreams? Do you remember them better than regular dreams

[Damascus]

put simply, yes. Since your LDs take place in a consciouss state, you remember it as well as some big event that happened yesterday in your waking life.

[Howie]

Originally posted by fersteger OK I have another question. How clearly do you remember your lucid dreams? Do you remember them better than regular dreams That is actually a very good question. For in fact I do really not know how others Lucid dream recall compares to their ordinary dream recall ..... But I would like to know. (RESEACH TEAM ). For myself however, my Lucid dreams do seem more clear and prodominent opon waking more than does a regular dream. My theorey to this is because you are more concoiusly active during a Lucid dream than a regular dream. This is just an unpresidented opioin. As a result, you would be able to recall more activley your LD's.

[regetsref]

More Questions Is it possible, thru lucid dreaming, to bring characters from previous normal dreams into any dream you are having. I have many dreams with characters I really enjoy being with but is it possible to pull them into new dreams if you are lucid?? Man I hope so, I always have people show up in my dreams that I feel like I know or something but would need to spend more time with them to figure out who they are. Hope this makes sense. Aslo, is it possible to have characters in your dreams that you don't remember in real life, ex: an old friend who you can't remember exactly what they look like, is it possible to see them clearly in dreams or will it be a made up image and just feel like it is that person. and finally, I don't know if this info is on this site but are there any polls or statistics to look at to compare oneself to all other dreamers here. I'd like to see how everyone else remembers dreams, how clear they are, how often they dream, and all kinds of stuff. I know how it is for me trying to recall dreams and stuff but I'm wondering what the experience is like for everyone else. Hope this all makes sense too. btw this forum is cool

[Howie]

Really there is not much out of the realm of possibilities when you are in control of your Lucid dreams. Originally posted by fersteger Aslo, is it possible to have characters in your dreams that you don't remember in real life, ex: an old friend who you can't remember exactly what they look like, is it possible to see them clearly in dreams or will it be a made up image and just feel like it is that person. There is little dought that your subconcious has a vivid image stored back there in your brain somewhere and you can summons a dream character just as you remembered them. *** This Forum has a search method located at the top of the Forum Index Screen. You type in Key words and an author if you know one, and if there is a specific subject it is a good way to locate the many topics that are likley to answer your many questions.