Sorry for the length of this, but as background, I’ve used lucid techniques to have about thirteen DILDs over the last few months, and I’m really interested in WILD. I’ve tried it every night now for about a month without success, but I think I’m getting a little closer each time, and I know how important it is to be in a REM cycle, so a lot of these attempts have taken place in what seems to be my REM sweet spot.
Here is what is working: I am able to relax and begin incubating lucid intent. I usually start using tactile imaging on my throat area, I guess because I read early on about the association in the old Tibetan practices, and I noticed that I got a really strong sensation there that could act as an anchor. I also realize now, after falling asleep unaware several times, that my anchor has to vary depending on how tired I am. So if I am dead tired, I’ll use reverse counting as a more active anchor to hang on to awareness.

Once these preliminary things are set, I’ll begin focusing on feeling a dropping sensation with every exhale, and within about five or ten minutes, I lose the feeling in my arms and sense a pseudo-sleep paralysis sensation starting. Now is when I usually start hearing random auditory fragments. I try to let all this happen passively without engaging, and it often begins changing to brief images, and then fuller scene imagery. I experience a lot of back and forth here, engaging too much in the imagery, losing it, then relaxing and returning.

While this dance between active and passive awareness is happening, I settle on the most inactive possible anchor I think I can use without falling asleep and losing lucidity. Today, I borrowed the FILD idea and just imagined my index fingers alternatively moving in my mind, because I was afraid counting would be too active. This is where I get stuck.

Today, I went farther than I’ve ever been, seeing an actual dream scene, and even interacting with it. I saw a computer screen to my right, appeared to touch it, heard a beep, and saw a bunch of words come up. But as soon as this happened, I was no longer active in the scene, and when I pictured it again, I knew it was just visualization, not active participation in a forming dream. I never felt any physical sensation of interacting with the scene, it was all auditory and visual.

I guess my question is: what should I do when I get this far but feel stuck? Despite how far I got this time, I couldn’t just “walk into the dream,” and I was still totally aware of my physical body. I even tried using intent to say “I will be in the dream,” but nothing changed. I keep waiting for some magical explosion to happen, to feel that rush of lucidity, and for the scene to suddenly crystalize into a first-person perspective. The closest I’ve come to that happening was hearing a loud cash register sound once and seeing incredibly vivid decorative numbers scroll down my vision. It was an amazing three-second experience, but resulted in be pulling back and being stuck again. Maybe there is some trick I’m missing regarding where my attention should be, no idea. Very frustrating coming so close to just lose it after 45 minutes of effort.