Thanks guys!
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Thanks guys!
So, I just want to post my attempt last night because I'm a little confused as to what happened.
I stayed up for 20 mins in WBTB like usual (read my dream journal this time). I layed back down in a comfortable position, and relaxed my body a bit. Then I immediately began focusing on my mantra and, instead of the fan noise, focused on a sound close to my right ear, which could have been the blood rushing in my ears (or the wind from the fan blowing around my ears, who knows).
I focused directly on that. I tried not to think about my physical body. (I'm sort of proud of myself, because my foot began to ache after a while, and, I didn't move it, I just focused more on the mantra/sound. :D) Sometimes my mind would wander for a couple seconds, but then I would gently bring it back to focusing on my mantra and sound beside my ear. At different times, I would imagine myself becoming lucid - remembering the emotions - and thinking up the goals I wanted to achieve and I would "act it out". I did this several times.
Getting further and further into the WILD, my mind-wanderings started to become more dreamy-like, illogical.
And suddenly, it was like I was never aware in the first place. At some point I totally lost consciousness. It was like; I was aware, and then I wasn't.
Do you think I could have lost focus and just didn't remember it?
P.S.: Yes I would definitely buy the book too!! ^^
First of all I want to say that my main gate in wild to the dream is SP(REM ATONIA) and I know that is wrong, but now this is the only thing that works for me, or lets say this is the easiest way to wtbt)wild for me.
So always when I try . I wander with my thoughts , always with enough lucidity to get back into full lucid state after hypnagogic imagery.
It comes very quickly , in 5-10 minutes. Then the noise(the paralysis) come , it only can be heard for a moment, then again it comes now for a longer moment , and then it just stop. And it doesnt come again. Now after this the next things happen.
I have pains in my leg ,sensations that I got to turn to the other side, my hands start to have pain also, and I start to itch on random points on my body . And all becomes very uncomfortable ,my time sense drops and a minute seems to be like 10 minute.
At this point I give up...
What did I done wrong and how to relax to bring back the REM atonia?
I had like 2 WILDs a couple nights ago, maybe more, but they where short becausssseeee:
It was a stormy night (Zina storm came by), and my balcony door kept bumping loudly at the frame cuz of the wind.
The point is, I did a long 1 hour wbtb, which was perfect, and timed quite perfectly too (I'm so proud ;w; ), and then I was visualizing. I got a few WILDs but the noise either woke me up soon after the LD started or right before the dive ends.
A moment I thought was quite nice and profound was when I was visualizing having a romantic moment with a girl, having nice kisses and stuff, and here's the profound part: I was saying "yeah just a few more moments, just a few more seconds and I'll start feeling her soft lips on mine, her sweet tongue, hear her gentle moans (auditory tends to come before I actually enter the dream, but in this case it didn't), amnd feel her soft breasts under my hands (lol this is getting exciting ). BUT, guess what..yup, the slamming woke me up.
The profound thing is that I got to say "a few more seconds and I'll be able to FULLY EXPERIENCE what I'm visualizing!". Get to experience it so fully and so easily! I mean, can you go to someone and tell him "what would your life be like if you can fully experience anything you can imagine?" He would respond "That's like a plot from a magic fairy tail! I would be the happiest Man alive!"(sure he would go then and say "but it's too good to be true" then no hope in convincing him about the potentials of LDing YnY).
A nice reminder for me how great life is with this potential to live anything I want almost daily for up to an hour!(maybe not now but surely after more years of training ÒvÓ )
^^ Thanks for sharing, Louai; interesting stuff! It is an amazing thing to understand the potentials for LD'ing -- and remember, in no time at all you'll be chaining DEILD's so the experience of anything you can imagine might go on for far more than an hour, right?
Sydney:
Nice work, Sydney! Yes, you probably just lost focus and fell asleep, which can and will happen to the best of us (more regularly than we admit, BTW). I would record this one as a minor success, because you did everything right and had your head in the right place, but this just wasn't the dive.
WILD tends to be a gradual climb, and, by being patient and not paying too much attention to the noise, you have climbed one more step. Keep at it; you're nearing the top!
GDreamer:
Though I obviously do not agree with focusing on the noise, I can respect your use of it if it works for you. However, it seems to me that your dive may have been interrupted by yet more possibly avoidable noise... Two things come to mind about this:
The first thing was that your body was simply having a reaction to some physical event. I couldn't imagine what caused the pain and itching -- it could have been anything, really -- but when something physical like this happens to the point where your body wakes you up fully and pulls you out of your WILD, it is very likely time to abandon that attempt. I would probably have gotten up, maybe done some stretching (and scratching ;)), had some water (dehydration can cause leg cramps and itching), strolled around a bit, and then tried again. Who knows? it could have been a temporary issue (perhaps just a rollover urge gone wrong), and your next attempt might happen without incident.
But then I had another thought. If you were truly in REM Atonia, then you were also, by definition, asleep. You should not have been able to feel the pain or itch; at least not significantly, anyway, unless it was something serious. So, there is a chance that this stuff was more HI supplied to you by a very unhelpful unconscious. This is probably not the case (you more likely simply woke up and then felt the physical sensations), but if it happens again you might try to do your best to continue forming your dream for a few minutes as if the pain or itch were not there. Then, if it was just HI, it will pass and you'll be back among the more familiar sensations that guide you to your dream.
tl;dr: Your body likely doomed this attempt with its physical activity, but just in case it's HI, you might try continuing your dive giving the sensations as little mind as possible. If/when it becomes obvious the sensations are real, it might just be a matter of getting up for a few minutes to shake off the pain and itch, and get back to work.
Thanks for sharing, guys; good luck with your next dives! :sageous:
Failed WILD attempt today... I got asleep, and I nor remember what I've dreamed :/ I just had issues keeping focus
This post came to mind again, after a particularly dry December, and I started to get down in the dumps at my lack of results for such a long time (my last "TOTM-worthy" LD was in November [meaning at least some elements of self-awareness and at least a sliver of waking memory [goals]]).Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
Also comes to mind your telling me that you think that I could probably have an LD any time I *really* wanted to have one. I've been wrapping my head around that on and off over the last 6 months. I think doing these things constitute the "really wanting," and phrased another way, the lack of them means I don't "want it enough." Can't do anything about "solo bed" though right now, so I've resolved that all bed-partner sounds/movements all "flll me with dream power" and happiness and help me to fall asleep.
Anyway, with a return to noticing night-time wakings and quick journaling during the night, a fresh resolve to embrace WBTB, I've had 2 LDs in 3 nights, including one TOTM success, which is really exciting.
Successful WILD from WBTB, even if the dream wasn't very eventful:
Spoiler for WILD:
My previous successes since joining this class have all been DEILDs, so I was happy that the WILD transition was so smooth. There was very little noise and the lapse in consciousness seemed short-lived. It felt easy to relax and fall asleep because I waited until I was already feeling sleepy before ending my WBTB.
Unsuccessful DEILD attempt after a DILD (later in the morning.)
Spoiler for DEILD attempt:
I am going to try to work on recognising these FAs with AnotherDreamer, since I've woken into these from quite a few LDs lately.
Full DJ entry
^^ Nice work, Dreamer; something is always better than nothing!
So I think I was close. It was an unsuccessful WILD, but it has been the closest it has ever been.
I woke up at the of a dream, naturally and so when I wake up, I use that opportunity to attempt a WILD, why not right? At least I know when I fall asleep I can dream. So after about 20 minutes, I can feel my body start to run cold, through my arms, down my spine and down through my legs. I try not to focus on this, and just let it happen until I can't feel arms or legs. At this point, my muscles lock up to rigid positions, it's fine for another 20 minutes, but if I don't fall asleep in those 20 minutes then I have to change position. But again, I don't think this during the attempt, I always try to tell myself, "everythings fine, be calm" in my head.
During this stage, I get HH/HI? I don't know which is which. It starts off with like spinning circles of lights, or some lights flying passed in a straight line. Once that stage is over, there is like a grey fog just in the middle of all this. I try my best not to focus on this, because when I try to look at it, it's like eye floaters, it moves with your vision until it's gone, and so when this grey fog appears, its a constant cycle of me moving my eyes backwards and forwards trying to look at it. I can't help focusing on it. It does however get to a stage where the fog becomes laughing faces, talking faces, kissing faces. Still looks like fog, but also kkinda resembles faces. At one point this imagery was like scrolling text and at one point it looked like a cinema screen with people constantly walking in front of it, bearing in mind this is still made from HH/HI, as in the white lights behind the eyelids. This screen got smaller and bigger randomly and was changing angles.
I think there were times where I had dream fragments, when I tried to not focus on anything at all, I had lapses in concentration where everything felt dreamy and I thought I saw something, but didn't kind of thing. Example being the sound of my radiator, the water flowing had disappeared and by the time I had realised it had came back.
The only thing I try to focus on is my mantra "realize". Short and sweet, and will allow me to focus and still question things if I reach it to the dream stage kinda lucid. However, it's not as easy as that, the HH/HI images are hard not to pay attention to.
I still think I was close though, so any advice would be appreciated because I think I can build on this experience. I am not going to go back to bed after writing this though, because i'm hungry, I can't sleep when I'm hungry.
^^ Welcome, Greg, and thanks for sharing!
You seem to have made a good attempt, and you were indeed close. About the only advice I can offer are these two things:
First, it is not always a great idea to just randomly decide to do a WILD upon waking. I think it is better to plan your WILD ahead of time so that it is foremost in your mind when you go to sleep the night before, thus providing some extra expectation/intention, and maybe help have your head in just the right place when you do wake up for WBTB.
Also, I suggest that you try harder to ignore all that noise. It sounds like you were making some effort, but when almost your entire post was about the assorted sensations and HI you encountered, I'm guessing that the noise is still a bit of a priority for you.
So that's it: consider planning to WILD rather than doing them spontaneously, and try to focus more on the dream than the noise...but keep doing the rest of what you're doing, and you'll make it to the dream soon enough!
Thank you for your reply and pointing me in the right direction, I had not seen that thread about noise. However, you are right, noise is still a big thing for me. As for planning, I already know that naturally I will wake up at the end of a rem cycle, so when I got to bed initially, I always look forward to when I do wake up so I can attempt my wild. Maybe staying awake for a little bit longer during that wbtb would help?
Thanks again though.
^^ Yes that noise thread is part of the WILD class to which this thread is attached; you might want to check out the other sessions as well!
20 minutes can be a long enough time for WBTB, though you could certainly go longer (I wouldn't recommend exceeding an hour, though). You didn't mention it, but I assume that you are actually getting up during your WBTB; if not, you might consider doing so, as it seems to help gather more of the wakefulness you need for your WILD.
Thanks I had a read through everything earlier today.
I feel like i'm there, almost, like very close. Trying to relax and not focus on anything other than my anchor, everything else was passive observation. I'm sure through the HI I saw a small (as in like size, not duration) dream, I saw myself walking, and a house. I don't know if that is just HI or if that was me about to get there, but it looked so different, and I felt different somehow, but when I got to that stage, internally I got excited and it instantly disappeared. Then only an after image of what i saw flashed a few times randomly, and I was trying too hard to bring it back that I realised I messed up, so I've gotten myself up and will try again next time.
I tried WILD during an afternoon nap today, at about 4:50, my first proper attempt. Almost immediately after I laid down, I experienced spinning sensations, on multiple axis. These persisted for a few minutes then died down, and I felt disconnected from my body, to some degree. I then felt a weird sensation in my hands, as if someone was gripping my ring finger and pinky, it actually became a bit uncomfortable. I tried visualising a dream scene, which set off some dreamlets, but I was interrupted and stopped. Next time I want to keep at for longer, and also try WBTB.
Well, damn.
Spent the whole day yesterday looking forward to my next WILD attempt. Set my alarm for 5:45 hours into sleep, got up, wrote notes in my DJ for me to come back to later, was up for 25 mins. Oh I forgot to say, I work nightshift, so this was about 6:10pm. This is not a good time to do a wbtb, neighbours dog throwing it against a door whilst my neighbor holds it shut talking to someone else. My flatmate, who, when he goes upstairs and starts walking about in his room, makes the whole house shake, include making my door rattle, and talks on the phone like hes trying to talk to someone across the street.
Funnily enough, wen I initially woke up, like 5:35pm, it's was dead silent, and dark too because it's winter. Will have to try again by going to be a little earlier.
I have noticed that a lot of threads on the forum all like to restate this quote that to do wild you must "fall asleep". That is all well and good but when you say for asleep I end up falling asleep with no sense of awareness. I have tried multiple anchors but they all seem to have the same problem. I can be thinking of the anchor then all of I sudden I will loose awareness and fall asleep or I will then snap back into awareness which cause me to feel more awake then ever. Even if I try this when I am very tired with out loosing the awareness I cant fall asleep for some reason. If you have any tips you could give me that would be great.
for me rapidly reciting my chosen mantra works best, as even if I do lose conciousness it somehow carries over and usually gets me lucid in a dream even if I did not stay awake to see the dream form. And it helped me through the noise in all my successful WILD attempts.
The best tip here, unfortunately, is another cliché we hear a lot around here: keep at it.
Yes, the real paradox of WILD, one that is often repeated here because it is both true and very important, is that you must stay awake while your body falls asleep (just as the paradox of LD'ing is that you are effectively awake while you are asleep), so you need to spend some time not only refining your WILD-diving skills, but teaching yourself to become accustomed to holding onto your waking-life self-awareness while you are falling asleep. This is a very unnatural thing to do, and at first (and second, and third, probably) your body and your unconscious will not be on board with your efforts... so, when you try to stay awake while falling asleep, your body and mind will tend to say, "Yeah, right," and go to sleep without you.
But with time and much practice, your unconscious will come on board and you will learn to fully ignore your bodily functions as you fall asleep (i.e., you will learn not to "snap back into awareness" after brief losses of awareness, but rather will say, "Oops, lost it there for a second," and move on), and you will all get along nicely as you progress through your WILD dive.
A successful WILD dive is very much a unification process: you must be comfortable with parts of your self to which you are usually not consciously exposed, like your sleeping body and your still-spooling dreaming mind (source of all that HI and dreamlets), and that comfort comes not with some specific technique or skill but with practice. Repetition, sometimes a lot of it, will eventually breed a mutual familiarity between all your "You" bits -- body, conscious mind, and dreaming mind/unconscious -- that will make the brief journey through the normally foreign territory of falling asleep just another paradox-free step on the way to your dream.
tl;dr: Yes, you must learn to fall asleep while staying awake, and this is done one way: practice, practice, practice! This might be said often because, well, it probably can't be said enough.
I'm becoming disheartened and frustrated with each dive attempt. Which I think is putting a block to stop me from doing it.
^^ It would.
Try as hard as you can to stay positive, and start each dive with the confident assumption that this time you're going to succeed.
If you can't manage this, it's not a bad idea to take a break, maybe just try DILDs for a while.
Made an attempt at a WILD in what seems like forever, was going really well, I could feel the transition starting to occur when my limbs just jerked, pretty much ruining the progress I had made, anyone experienced similar before?
My main problem is the actual transitioning part. Getting into the dream, it doesn't happen and sometimes i've lay there in limbo between being awake and sleeping for upto 90mins- to 2 hours. All kinds of crazy stuff happens, HI, SP, dream fragments. However, actually falling into a lucid dream, just does not happen. This is why I am getting frustrated. Last night in a wbtb, I woke up 6 hours and 15 mins into sleep, I've been experimenting with different times. Somehow I am missing when I fall unconscious into a non lucid dream, and keeping awake during it. Within the space of about 3 mins I went from limbo, to asleep unconcious, to a non lucid dream, to waking back up and thinking. How? Did I just miss the timing, did I give up too early, or is there something to what im doing during the transition that I am doing incorrectly.
The thing is, I haven't had a successful WILD, so I don't have a point of reference. I don't have a memory to think "okay, this is what worked for me before, i can work around this" with the intention of fine tuning the dive suited to what works for me best overall. Because of that, these attempts are blind, which is what frustrates me when I cannot do them.
:(
^^ Other than the standard "Be patient, be positive, and keep at it," which is valid here but likely something you do not wish to hear, here are some suggestions, in no particular order, that might be worth considering:
* Keep experimenting with your WBTB times. 6+ hrs of sleep falls well into complete sleep cycle range, so attempting to go back to sleep and dream might run afoul of your body's interest in wrapping up the sleep cycle and starting your day.
* You might want to incorporate MILD techniques into your practice, so that if you fall back to non-lucid sleep, you will be prepared to induce a DILD, which is just as good as a WILD if it means you got lucid.
* It can take a matter of a few seconds to drop into sleep -- and to wake from sleep -- so that 3-minute time frame is not a surprise. I would suggest that you did indeed give up too early in this case: if you have a quick snooze during a WILD, I think it is better to look at it as a confirmation that you are indeed going to fall asleep eventually (because you just did), and use that confirmation to return to your WILD with a bit more confidence in falling asleep and getting started with your dream.
* You might want to consider a stronger mantra, one that holds your focus not only through all that noise but also through those moments of sudden drowse. A mantra that has something specific to your dream goals would probably help; for instance, if you expect to be on a beach during your LD, something like "Awake on the beach" might be in order. This sort of mantra might also make it easier to form the dream as well:
* Don't forget to form your dream. When all that crazy stuff starts to happen, that means it is time to start visualizing your dream, or at least thinking about nothing but what you will be doing once there (without losing your mantra, BTW). Just witnessing all the noise and continuing to wait fro something to happen to you -- without your input -- is almost a guarantee that you will indeed just fall asleep or fully wake up.
* Use this class or perhaps other tutorials (like DV's official WILD tutorial, by Gab) as surrogates for your experience until you finally find what works best for you until you finally succeed with your first WILD. We will never know exactly what you need, but we can come close. Until you are experienced, be confident in your knowledge (it does help).
* Make sure you are working on the fundamentals. The steps in this WILD class (and the tutorials, and, well, any technique) are secondary to having your head in the right place. If you are not doing day-work to build your self-awareness and memory (i.e. RRC's, keeping a dream journal, RC's), building expectation by confidently and specifically anticipating your upcoming LD, or setting and holding your intention when you go to bed at night (as well as when you lay down to WILD), then you might never succeed in your WILD. Yes, WILD's do happen without the fundamentals in place, but those are accidents, and not something you can assume will happen every time, just because you are doing a technique.
* I think I said this in my previous post, but remember that there is no shame in DILD. WILD is not a better way to transition, just a different one, based more on convenience or timing than quality. If you are having trouble with WILD, spend some time focusing on DILD. Ultimately is is important to be able to do both, so that you can choose which route according to your schedule or mood, so practicing DILD has to be done eventually.
* And yes, above all, be patient, be positive, and keep at it. The best things in life never come easily, and LD'ing is definitely one of those best things. Give your work as much time as it needs, and try not to establish a limit to the number of tries you make.
That's what I got; hopefully something up there will be of use to you!