Introduction and WILD Side Effects

First off, hello to everybody on the Dreamview forums! I've been reading this up for the past couple days and found it most helpful! Now I'd like to participate myself. However...I also have a little problem that kind of needs to be taken care of first.

First off, a little bit of background. (OK, a lot. If you want to skip it, I've put beginning and end markers for you.) BEGINNING OF BACKGROUND: I've had something for dreams all my life. As far back as I can remember, I was occasionally having precognitive dreams, and as time progresses, I find them to gradually grow in importance. BUT, these dreams (and my dreams in general) always felt very harnessed, like I was being held back by my own mind from something.

Then one day, out of sheer curiosity, I googled for dreams and came across 'lucid dreaming', which was made out by one particular article to be part of Hinduism, and its method of entering a state of lucidity involved a bunch of weird, almost demonic 'rituals'. Being a Christian myself, I figured that was not something for me to get involved with.

Fortunately, I finally discovered a much more accurate description of what lucid dreaming really is and it got me pretty excited :boogie: Unfortunately, this particular place suggested that WILD was a way to get lucid (and in full control) that works 100% of the time for everyone. Not knowing any other method or having further researched WILD, I tried it the moment I got into bed, freaked out when I hit the weightlessness stage, and snapped out of it. I had been pretty skeptical about lucid dreams, but now I was fully convinced of their reality, but that realization came as a shock, and I was a bit scared of entering WILD again, so I spent the next few hours just laying awake. Of course, eventually my mind calmed down a bit and I slipped back asleep...through an accidental WILD.

There was no stopping it this time; I entered the dream and watched as I zipped from place to place, each one being incredibly real. At first I was just like a spectator; there in spirit but not in body. But I was in body pretty soon (and lucid) and very much enjoying it! I couldn't do anything impressive, but I was in full control over myself, and that meant I could pick things up, move them around, etc.

It didn't last long. But when I woke up, I was pleased to find myself alive and unharmed, so I went back to sleep. I do not recall WILDing again, but I had another dream, this time in control of myself, but not aware that I was dreaming (simply because the environment and people were from real life, and it all looked very real). In that dream, I made the mistake of asking someone in it if they knew anything about lucid dreaming. They walked me through the WILD process and that's when I realized I was dreaming and the shock woke me up; sucking me out of the dream like I was being pulled into a vortex.

I found myself paralyzed. The 'vortex' I had felt was still 'spinning' all around me, pinning everything but my head in place. It seemed to start at my toes and make its way up to my head, and I feared what would happen if it made it there, so I shook my head and eyes to force myself awake and the paralysis broke. END OF BACKGROUND.

So on my first night of attempting to lucid dream, I succeeded twice :banana:

Problem is, I'm done with WILDing...or at least, I'd like to be. As I've studied further it seems to be the least successful, and the side effects are less than pleasant. However, until last night, ANY time I'd close my eyes I'd instantly enter WILD. It was extremely annoying. I could let it run its course and reach the weightlessness, but I'd never fall asleep! I'd never even enter lucid dreams, so it was totally useless.

Last night I finally got myself to sleep naturally without WILDing at all, but I'm not confident that I've actually taken control of it for good. Has this happened to anyone else, or anyone know how to take care of it?

Anyway, I'm going to DILD from now on...

Thanks!

"Side effects?" You must mean sleep paralysis. SP is not necessary to enter a dream. Sleep paralysis is a natural part of all dreaming, and happens every night. Also, in true sleep paralysis (as opposed to self-induced/placebo) you only feel the freaky shit (weightlessness, vibrations, minor hallucinations) for no more than a minute or two before entering the dream, and it is never painful or harmful (for me, it's quite enjoyable).

You say that your SP happens instantly, and it lasts for a while. So I'd say it's definitely not true sleep paralysis (which happens after 30 minutes to an hour, and lasts only a minute or two). Stay off of WILD for a while until the idea of sleep paralysis doesn't bother you.

That being said, I endorse DILD. WILD has a lower success rate, and you should definitely know all the principles of DILD if you want to be able to lucid dream long-term. DILDs can help WILDs, too.

By the way, chances are you'll encounter sleep paralysis again, even if you only DILD from now on. You can feel it during scene transitions in a dream, as well as sometimes when the dream ends to early. But at least now you know there's really nothing to fear. ;]

The side effect I'm referring to is entering the weightlessness and stuff instantly and without attempting to. The paralysis only happened once, and I'm really not afraid of it, since it was so easy to break and, like you said, is a natural occurence.

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Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

The side effect I'm referring to is entering the weightlessness and stuff instantly and without attempting to. The paralysis only happened once, and I'm really not afraid of it, since it was so easy to break and, like you said, is a natural occurence.

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Yeah it happens to everyone, every time you sleep, except we are always unconscious when it happens, so we are not used to it in the beginning when we actually make it happen. I really don't know what the problem is, sleeping should NOT be that intense for you.

Ok, good...I'm totally new to this and I was kind of afraid I'd messed up my brain or something. If it happens to everyone though, it must be ok.

I got almost no sleep that first night and I think because of that I kind of overreacted. Past two nights have been fine, though. Thanks for clearing that up

You might find it weird to begin with, but it becomes really relaxing (might get the odd nerve jolt or itch, but if you ignore those you're on your way).

Yeah man the first few times i experienced it, i was terrified, i had no idea wtf was happening. Now that i nkow what it is and why we have it, it isnt scary anymore, and i actually welcome it because it is one of the best ways to get into a dream.

Cool; I've heard several people say stuff like that now. I guess I just have to get over myself and keep trying it until I'm comfortable with it. Thanks!

Well, I know how you feel. Once I felt a full blown earthquake in my bed. And I couldn't help but think when I broke off from SP:

"That's what they call a MINOR hallucination?"

Well, either way, now that I know what it is, I'm not all that afraid of it. I did one WILD (by accident. I was attempting MILD, lol) and I skipped all the hallucinations and every side effect of SP and just blinked into a dream.

I was like 'WTF? I was just awake RIGHT NOW, I swear!"

So it's only when I wake up to SP do the halluciantions start feeling...a little out of hand. Natural Occurance, but still scary as hell.