Transition Tips for WILD?

Ok, I've been working really hard this week on WILDing. I've put in some work trying to do Astral Projection several years ago when I had reconstructive facial surgery (face was fatigued all the time, so I did alot of laying down with eyes closed), but I always seemed to lose it at the very end.

Same thing is happening this week. I get very close. Staying still is no problem. I swallow reflexively some, but I don't worry about it. I feel my body getting very warm as SP starts to set in, and I see light imagery on my eyelids. I can even move my dream arms a little bit, but they are still heavy and I don't trust trying to open my eyelids. I am aware that my mind is shifting between conscious and subconscious, so at that time I try doing the "1. I am dreaming 2. I am dreaming" to keep conscious as I transition, but I always seem to end up asleep or in a non-lucid.

Basically, from what I have read, I can tell that I am getting right to the cusp, but losing it at the very end. Any of you have some tips other than the "1. I am dreaming.." method to anchor my mind? I have even gotten so close that I actually was seeing my room through my "dream eyes," but I only realized that it was not my real eyes after I lapsed into a non-lucid and subsequently woke up. It's that realization that "DAMN I was right there but I thought I was still awake!"

I'm sure this is a common point to be stuck at, just wondering if you guys had some tips.. thanks!

You should understand that there are two categories of Anchors, Mental Anchors and Environmental Anchors.

Environmental Anchors as the name suggests work by focusing on something in your environment, this can range from the temperature in the room, sounds and humidity.

Mental Anchors can range from things such as counting, breathing, using a mantra (normally this is done in unison with counting), maths to games in your head for instance a series of paired pictures and words.

To be honest it seems your transition process is fine to me, you don't seem to be focusing on your body or doing anything else that would make me concerned, so far it seems your anchor (the thing that keeps that shred of consciousness) may be too involved, which is making it hard for you to fully immerse yourself in the dream as you're too alert. Try experimenting with a range of mental and environmental anchors, try combining them and see what works best, use a cycle of different ones and analysis how you feel when using them, when you find that right one you should be able to feel yourself falling deeper and deeper into sleep as opposed to merely drowsing off due to the monotony of the whole process.

For me I used to perform a continual count from 1. to infinity, I'm not sure if that's what you're doing but trust me don't do it, if you're using a count remember to limit it, for instance count from 1-10 and back again, this allows your brain to automate the process of your anchor, which is very much needed when you're about to enter a dream because it allows you to have a clear and empty mind. Repetition is always useful as an anchor, most people utilize it with a mantra but funnily enough not with their counting method. I've also combined the counting with breathing (Mental Anchors seem to work more effectively then Environmental ones for me), in that I inhale with each progressive count, this keeps the focus on your head and works for people such as me who often let their mind wander and start becoming too aware of their bodily sensations.

Hold on there though mate ;) you're seriously close to a successful WILD, just keep experimenting a little with your anchors and periods of sleep, if worse comes to worst (which I highly doubt) you can always dabble in some of the other methods of performing a WILD, such as the CAN-WILD, DEILD, FF-WILD, VILD Methods.

@DraxQuin,

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the info on anchors. Your post definitely clarified some things for me as well as giving me some ideas for experimentation. I have only been trying in earnest to WILD for about a week or so now, so I am far from giving up :)

I agree with your assessment that my anchor probably had me too focused. I felt as much at different points during my efforts. When I tried to remedy this problem, I think I simply overcompensated and let go too much to stay conscious during the transition. Basically, I have not found the proper balance of relaxation and focus... YET! I will definitely take your advice and work on mixing and matching anchor techniques.

Also, I read the CAN-WILD guide yesterday and was very interested. I plan to give that a try as soon as I find a good android app for the alarm. I am somewhat of a natural LDer, but my frequency is only about once a month or so when I am not making an effort at it. Thanks to my recent refocus on LDing (and a good memory), my dream recall is as good as it has ever been (it is not unusual for me to wake in the morning and vividly recall ~5 dreams in great detail), so I expect my LD rate to increase in the coming weeks. This can only help my confidence and expectation, which in turn should help my chances of WILDing. At least, this is my hope :)

I am loving the DreamViews community for sure. There are so many experienced LDers to learn from, and everyone seems so willing to help. Hopefully I'll be able to lend advice of my own as I progress.

Thanks again!:shadewink:

You seem like a cool guy so it seems you're another positive addition to the community, hopefully you'll stick around, glad you're enjoying this forum aswell :D

Also I'm amazed at your progress in a week, I've been at it for months although most of those attempts were stupid because I didn't use WBTB, but you're definitely right on the edge, literally because you actually experienced being inside the dream.

Anchors can be irritating to experiment with, I think I had the same problem you refer to where when I started WILDing (while I didn't get as far as you) I kept wondering if my anchor was working 10 minutes into my WILD attempt, which is futile because it essentially ruins the WILD because my mind isn't clear or empty. I started cycling mine and discovered one that felt right almost instantly.

I would also like to recommend you try a relaxation technique, clearly you have to be relaxed to get as far as you did, but with your current progress I can't imagine that throwing in a relaxation technique wouldn't benefit you even further as it'll aid you in having a completely empty mind. Check out the 61-point relaxation technique, its very in-depth but it'll bring you to a state where you're extremely relaxed, I started using is recently and it has shown me just how alert I've been and I thought I was relaxed and empty minded, the technique let me experience just how relaxed I could actually be.

Also I'm glad you're trying out the CAN-WILD method its essentially a guaranteed WILD, wish I could :( sadly I don't have an iPod and my computer wouldn't work because my brother recently moved in, trying to explain an alarming blaring loudly through two giant speakers won't go down well :lol:

Well in the interest of full disclosure, while I have only been trying to WILD for a week, I do have extensive practice with body-awareness meditation, which is an incredible relaxation technique.

Several years ago, I broke my orbital bone playing "touch" football, and spent alot of time after the surgery just laying down with my eyes closed. I soon found out that the more I focused my awareness on a certain part of my body, the more it relaxed. I started experimenting with moving my awareness around tense areas, pretending that hands (or some other object) were directly massaging the tension. I got really good at it, and found that as tension released in the areas on which I was focusing, other parts of my body would jerk and relax (much like what happens to people when they fall asleep quickly). Anyway, long story short, I did some research and determined that what I was doing was body-awareness relaxation (or meditation), and I got really good at it.

So you can see that with this technique, I can get very close to WILD rather easily, because it not only relaxes my body, but clears my mind because I am focusing all my mental energy on different parts of my body. I even tried "Astral Projection" and got massive vibrations on several occasions, but was never fully successful. I gave up on that after a month or so, but I have been doing the body-awareness technique to relax ever since (4+ years). I only this past week discovered what WILD was, and that WILD was really what I wanted to do even back then.. hence the focus on WILDing!

So I am not as much of a newbie as I let on.. probably explains my progress :)

Thanks for the link too.. I checked it out and can see that what is described in the 61pt technique is pretty much exactly what I do, except that I don't use a specific sequence as I move through my body. I just go where there seems to be the most tension. :shadewink:

Heh thats awesome you were performing that technique from the beginning :lol:

I hope you're feeling better now by the way, I've heard damage to the orbital bone is extremely painful, a close friend of mine broke his snowboarding.

Its curious how by chance people stumble upon lucid dreaming, I myself only learnt of lucidity when by rare chance I awoke normally but completely in sleep paralysis, I was incredibly scared because obviously the experience was such a new sensation I felt as if something terribly wrong had happened to my body :roll:, if only I'd known now that could have been in a WILD dammit.

Like DraxQuin said, I use the 1-10 method. To keep yourself aware, you must start counting down again. If you start to lose consciousness, you will probably start counting 11, 12, etc until you space out and fall asleep.

Thx Draq, I had excellent surgeons and good meds, so the pain was actually not too bad. The reason for all my relaxation was just that my face felt fatigued all the time (which was tough since it happened during finals and I needed to study), but pain wasn't a big issue for me. Now, you can't even tell anything is different unless I'm in the sun (the eye muscles that squint are not as strong around that eye after the surgery, so it stays a good bit more open than the other lol).

It's definitely interesting to hear how people find out about lucid dreaming. I often talk to people who have no clue what a lucid dream is until I explain it and they say "oh yea, that has happened to me before!" Waking up in SP is definitely one of the scarier ways to find out though!

Thx Texture, I'm definitely close to making it happen, but the other night I started counting too soon and got bored with it. I thought- "I need to wait until I'm closer to sleep.." and then I waited too long.. found myself in a non-lucid.. d'oh!

Oh well, still had a pretty awesome DILD this morning where I flew around on a zebra for the first time. I've flown lots, but I only recently thought about using a vehicle or animal to fly.. so that was cool :)