Thread: Questions from a WILD beginner

EDIT: I just realised I posted this in the wrong section. It regards lucid dreams, not non-lucid ones. So feel free to move it where it belongs.

Hello there. It's my first time posting here, after lurking for a few weeks. I've been reading a lot about lucid dreaming around the web lately, and decided to try it. The method I chose to start with is WILD. I was aware that it may be difficult at first, but according to what I read, it was also the most rewarding method in the long run. Very surprisingly, I managed to get myself into a WILD after the second or so try, less than a week ago. While I consider that strange by itself, some other things about it don't quite add up. So registering here and asking you people felt like the right thing.

First of all, it was the most incredible thing I've ever experienced, even though I was lucid in it for only about 6 seconds or so. After waking up from it, I felt very serene, if not too much. I actually cried tears of joy and couldn't think of anything else for the next few hours. It was probably the most emotionally-loaded moment of my life. Now, at first I thought that was normal. After searching these forums for other people's first WILD experiences though, it seemed like I was pretty much the only one who was so heavily affected by it. What's the deal with that...? What's with all the emotion...?

The other question I have has to do with the way the induction actually happened. I read multiple tutorials, and tried to see which methods work for me. I WBTB'd, layed on my back, entered sleep paralysis, and started counting. It took a whole while, I think more than 30 minutes. It was obviously not working, but I wasn't giving up. I knew that eventually I'd just become too tired and enter a WILD. But I didn't. Instead, I started feeling pain all over my body. As time passed, the pain intensified, up to a point where I couldn't handle it anymore. I felt like I was dying. Now, I knew that was perfectly normal, and completely harmless. But the pain was so severe that I just had to stop. I forced myself out of sleep paralysis, and laid on my side. While most of the tutorials I read suggested laying on your back, I read one that night which said that any comfortable stance works. So I didn't exactly give up, I just tried something different. Strangely, after just a short time of laying on my side, I started transitioning to my WILD, even though I initially thought I was just falling asleep. I later found out that pain relief can help a lot with relaxing, but this still doesn't make much sense. So my question is, how did I enter a WILD without doing anything to keep my mind conscious...? It just seems very strange after reading all these tutorials that said you need a sort of "anchor" to induce a WILD.

The third question regards my inability to WILD again, after attempting it every single night. I tried the exact same method that worked on my first try all the following nights, but to no avail. I realise that counting just doesn't work for me, so I didn't try it again. I tried simply relaxing and freeing my mind, but that just got me asleep and not consciously dreaming. I tried mental anchors, like focusing on my breath, but seeing as I can barely focus on anything for too long even while fully awake, it just got me to regular sleep even faster. I tried inducing slight pain or discomfort, but I was just unable to relax properly like that. I even tried staying up for longer during my WBTB, but that just made it impossible for me to fall asleep at all. So what am I doing wrong...? How can it be so hard now, when I managed my first WILD with little to no effort...?

He man welcome to the forum. Don't worry you weren't the only one, I almost cried after my first lucid dream too, it was so amazing, probably one of the best experiences of my life.
As for your WILD practise here's what I have to say.
Wild is all about falling asleep so you have to be comfortable, don't worry about swallowing problems or lying on your back as long as your comfortable. Next step is just to try retain focus on where you want to go. Don't aim for paralysis or anything just the place you ant to end up at. Keep reminding yourself lightly and let you mind wander. After a while you might get really deep into it. Usually at this point I either wait it out or i try to focus on the images forming on my eyelids. I try to imagine the scene I want to be in and try to open my eyes. If im in a dream I will feel a sensation of getting sucked into the dream as I open my eyes otherwise I just proceed until it works.
Just keep it cool and try not to follow any rules and just let your body fall asleep. Any form of stress or task will keep your mind too awake, just lightly remember where to go and aim for it and opefully you will reach it.
If you have any questions feel free to ask me

*moved thread to attaining lucidity*

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

Wild is all about falling asleep so you have to be comfortable, don't worry about swallowing problems or lying on your back as long as your comfortable. Next step is just to try retain focus on where you want to go. Don't aim for paralysis or anything just the place you ant to end up at. Keep reminding yourself lightly and let you mind wander. After a while you might get really deep into it. Usually at this point I either wait it out or i try to focus on the images forming on my eyelids. I try to imagine the scene I want to be in and try to open my eyes. If im in a dream I will feel a sensation of getting sucked into the dream as I open my eyes otherwise I just proceed until it works.
Just keep it cool and try not to follow any rules and just let your body fall asleep. Any form of stress or task will keep your mind too awake, just lightly remember where to go and aim for it and opefully you will reach it.

I tried freeing my mind, but as I said, it just got me to regular sleep. I didn't try visualizing the scene though, I'll try that out next time. Thanks for the tip...!

Originally Posted by cmind

you might want to check out my favourite WILD guide, which is in my sig. It might help.

I will when I find the time, thanks...!

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

WILD is finding the perfect balance of aware and not aware. That is what anchors are for. I think it can be better stated that you are finding the perfect balance of awake and asleep. Waking up in the middle of the night and going right back to sleep is a good mixture (DEILD) so that makes it easier for a lot of people. Waking up a little more and then going back to sleep is also a good mixture (WBTB). I once had a lucid that excited me so much I couldn't get back to sleep. I stayed up for about an hour trying to sleep. suddenly I started spinning and landed right next to a fence. I was just like "Holy Crap I fell asleep!"

I guess I just haven't found anchors that work for me just yet. Seeing as my first WILD was induced without an anchor, it's hard to tell what would work for me, so it will take a lot ot trial and error.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

I think that some people get lucky with having a vivid first LD.

No offense, but saying "you got lucky" to a beginner is not very encouraging... I know what you mean, and I don't feel disheartened by it or anything, just a tip for dealing with beginners in general.

Originally Posted by faceonmars

I would try adding visualizations into your WILD attempt. We visualize and we dream in the same area of the brain. Instead of counting numbers try visualizing the numbers. Imagine them appearing as if carved out of wood. Anyhoo, good luck to you!

That's exactly what I did, I visualized them as a large book, whose pages had the numbers printed on them, and I even imagined myself flipping the pages as I counted. It doesn't get any more visualized than that. I guess it's just me being terrible at visualizing in general, or maybe I was too focused on it at the time.

Originally Posted by HotRod

EDIT: I just realised I posted this in the wrong section. It regards lucid dreams, not non-lucid ones. So feel free to move it where it belongs.

Hello there. It's my first time posting here, after lurking for a few weeks. I've been reading a lot about lucid dreaming around the web lately, and decided to try it. The method I chose to start with is WILD. I was aware that it may be difficult at first, but according to what I read, it was also the most rewarding method in the long run. Very surprisingly, I managed to get myself into a WILD after the second or so try, less than a week ago. While I consider that strange by itself, some other things about it don't quite add up. So registering here and asking you people felt like the right thing.

First of all, it was the most incredible thing I've ever experienced, even though I was lucid in it for only about 6 seconds or so. After waking up from it, I felt very serene, if not too much. I actually cried tears of joy and couldn't think of anything else for the next few hours. It was probably the most emotionally-loaded moment of my life. Now, at first I thought that was normal. After searching these forums for other people's first WILD experiences though, it seemed like I was pretty much the only one who was so heavily affected by it. What's the deal with that...? What's with all the emotion...?

I get that too. Something about crossing the threshold seems to evoke a massive rush of positive emotions for me as well. I actually have a theory that hypnagogia and REM are actually caused by endocannabinoids, which would explain the euphoria but I have no evidence.

Also, you might want to check out my favourite WILD guide, which is in my sig. It might help.

WILD is finding the perfect balance of aware and not aware. That is what anchors are for. I think it can be better stated that you are finding the perfect balance of awake and asleep. Waking up in the middle of the night and going right back to sleep is a good mixture (DEILD) so that makes it easier for a lot of people. Waking up a little more and then going back to sleep is also a good mixture (WBTB). I once had a lucid that excited me so much I couldn't get back to sleep. I stayed up for about an hour trying to sleep. suddenly I started spinning and landed right next to a fence. I was just like "Holy Crap I fell asleep!"

I think that some people get lucky with having a vivid first LD. Some are less vivid and even though you are excited about it, you don't have the vividness to add more emotion. I had this random LD that was hyper vivid and made me want to LD more than anything. Also made me feel like crying, haha.
Piqued Interest - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
It had a lot of crazyness in it as well because I felt like I was in the dream for weeks before I became lucid. Imagine finding out the last 2 weeks were fake!

I would try adding visualizations into your WILD attempt. We visualize and we dream in the same area of the brain. Instead of counting numbers try visualizing the numbers. Imagine them appearing as if carved out of wood. Anyhoo, good luck to you!

I guess I just haven't found anchors that work for me just yet. Seeing as my first WILD was induced without an anchor, it's hard to tell what would work for me, so it will take a lot of trial and error.

Yeah, a lot of it is trial and error, that is why it is a good idea to write down what time you tried, what you did and what you felt, because that will let you know when you are getting closer. After you have one or two you will think "This is the method!" but it might not be that, it might be how much sleep you got or something like that, so you need to write down as many of the variables as you can.

No offense, but saying "you got lucky" to a beginner is not very encouraging... I know what you mean, and I don't feel disheartened by it or anything, just a tip for dealing with beginners in general.

Sorry! I actually meant that to be encouraging, but it had the opposite effect. I fail. Thanks for the advice, I will keep that in mind when commenting. Some people have really blurry first LDs, and they start thinking things like "what is the big deal with LDing? Just a blurry memory of an imaginary place." When you have an LD like yours, you realize exactly how amazing LDing can be! It can be one of the most memorable experiences!

***Moved to WILD***