WILD query - how to not freak out

[subwayone]

I have tried to WILD once and had the most amazing experience of my life. I was lying still and conscious of the dream i had previously had. I could 'notice' my thoughts were all over the place and i was starting to have flashing imagery like changing channels on a TV. Then i felt i could 'latch on' to the old dream i was having and i started to fly toward it. (this is a very poor description, but the best one i can use) As I started to connect to the dream, it felt as though my head was inside a bucket that was spinning around with neon colours flashing through. like my head was in a zoetrope with flashing rainbow colours through the slits. Then I started hearing a really loud noise like an when an aeroplane is landing or taking off. I have since read about wormholes being the connectors between dream scenes, and that is the best description anyone could have. I was travelling through a wormhole away from this reality ("waking life") and going to another place ("dream state") and they were so distinctly different from each other. It was the only time i have truly felt there are 2 seperate places and there is not any way to explain how they are connected, because they exist in completely different functional terms. (again a poor description there, but it is extremely difficult to put into words) I freaked out a bit and instead of fully transitioning to the WILD, i woke up and was amazed at what I had experienced. I thought I will just go back to sleep and try it again some time. Here is my problem. I can't get close to it again. I really feel like I am "waiting" for it to happen, or I will feel some hypnogogic imagery then start thinking to myself "is this it? is it about to happen again" and I will get distracted by a noise in the room, or outside my house (i live next to a metro train line). I came closest again last week and here is my dilemma. I could feel the imagery and dream state coming up. My eyes were twitching like crazy, I wasn't paralysed but i definatly felt like i couldn't move my body unless i consciously broke the relaxation. Then as i was getting close to entering a dream state, My heart rate went up really high. Hard beating and Fast beating. It was very loud and distracting. It freaked me out quite a bit, because my heart was just pounding in my chest getting faster adn harder, so i had to consciously stop the WILD attempt and get out of bed and walk around a bit to relax back to a normal heart rate. I really felt like i was too scared to let my heart rate continue to get racier, it was just going up and up. There was none of the fantastic colours or wormhole experience, just as the dream imagery started coming through, i kept thinking "here it comes, can i hear my partners breathing, dont focus so much, let the dream happen etc..." and i was pretty distracted and couldn't just let it happen, then the heart pounding threw me right off. I have 2 questions. 1. Any general advise for what i can do to try to not be so distracted by conscious thoughts when trying to slip away into the dream? 2 Anyone else experience this insane paced heartbeat that is so scary you think you better abandon the attempt? I appreciate anyones words. If there are threads covering these things, just let me know and i will search for them. I have had a look around without much luck.

[Zelzahim]

1 Im sorry, no idea 2 Thats a common WILD reaction. Your getting nearer!

[gab]

Try saying your mantra, like "I'm lucid dreaming" or anything like that. For me, mantra pushes all other thoughts away. But I still get excited at this stage and my heart races. It never lasts long, so I just go with it. I think it happens everytime we dream, so it shouldn't be a big deal. ( I always know when my cats are dreaming, because their breathing gets much faster.) The more you try, the calmer you'll get, as you know what to expect. Good luck

[Hunterkiss]

1. adraw brought this to my attention.. but he basically says to visualize a scene and pretend to feel something. I like to imagine standing on a beach and sinking my toes into the sand. adraw says that if you cant actually feel then its okay, try harder. It shifts your attention from your real body to your dream body where your focus should be, it also gets rid of that waiting feeling. So just imagine what you like and keep doing it and try harder. 2. I had the pounding heartrate once but I had read about it before so it wasnt so surprising but it threw me off focus and ruined the WILD attempt. Idk why it does that. Maybe approaching the dream world?

[MissLucy]

When I hit SP and the Hallucinations kick in, I just say to myself "I'm transitioning into a Lucid Dream." by the time I finish that sentence in my thoughts, I'm in.

[subwayone]

Thanks everyone so much for the replies. They are all helping a lot. I am less stressed about the heartbeat and I have some techniques to try. Hunerkiss's Method 1 seems good, now i need to NOT fall asleep. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to reply. If anyone else reading has any other information, please add. Thanks!

[adraw]

Maybe one thing. I sensed you exactly described, that the expectations ruined your next attempt. So just say to yourself everytime.. This was the last time i was having this experience. No more. Its over. Next attempt, next experience. In my experience. No attempt was the same and if i was trying to reproduce the same setup second time, it simply did not work as expected. It really seems that one should be really elastic when approaching wilds. It is no wonder, because everytime we approach wild we are in different mindset, awareness and expectation levels.