RedNaxela
Assuming direct control

In the morning, when I had the opportunity to fall back asleep, I gave a couple of tries at SSILD. Interestingly, I think it did have some effect, in that I believe it helped anchor me a bit - I had some sense of the process of falling asleep both times. However, like MILD techniques (even it a bit more effective), I did lose that connection and fell asleep virtually instantly.

This is very much worth noting, though. It may well be that anchoring is my issue and not timing - or at least to a different extent than I had thought. I will continue to experiment with SSILD for my WBTB attempts for the next week, then consider rotating through other anchoring techniques to see if I cannot get some traction.

It is curious looking back at my two successful WILDs, that one time my partner left for a work event in the morning from my old apartment and up in northern Ontario last fall, as there was no real need for an anchor. I was able to watch the visuals materialize passively until there was a dreamscape that I could interact with. Both times, a fragment of the dreamscape appeared, then expanded into the full world. If there is something I had in common on both occasions, it was having a decent amount of sleep and no particular urgent items for the day following.

I am coming home to a family home with a goup of others. Upon arriving, we discover that two family members have become zombies and are roaming around the rooms at the far end of the property.

We start looking around and get our hands of the only two handguns that are part of the home's massive gun collection and the lot of us proceed into the very large and open basement.

Finally, the zombie familyt members find us and there is some awkward struggle as they try to take us captive, rather than eat us. However, they are over delicate and a few of us struggle against them. This is when I find some wooden dowels that I quickly sharpen and then try to impale one zombie with - it fails and the zombie seems fairly oblivious to my efforts.

Fleeing the scene, we all wind up back upstairs and outside on a landscape that has suddenly become a World War 2 battlefield. The dream becomes increasingly abstract as an 80-something year-old grandmother lobs several grenades perfectly into German positions and we all escape into the nearby woods.

Highlight 1

I have somehow become part of an acrobatics team comprised of a mother, father, and their two children. The parents were acrobats back in the day, but have come out of retirement recently. Though I am not a performer, I am at the table as they discuss their plans for the future. Soon, their agent arrives and there are two heated arguments I step away from - there is a lot of tension around their age and ability to make their act work.

Sometime later, I am with the family when an explosion goes off in a nearby park. No one is injured, but I am made aware that it was a 'sex bomb'.

Later still, I am with the family and arrive at a road-side diner. There are spider and web decorations on the windows. I remark that it is early September and that they must be desperate to start with Halloween decorations so early.

Highlight 2

I am at a party in the hallways at work and the security door has been opened, so reporters are mingling with us. I am supposed to have an important conversation with someone and am waiting for a sign or a specific time, but am soon drunk off of a mere two drinks. By the time I find myself out back, I realize I have missed the opportunity my boss was looking for.