Thread: What happened? Post Your WILD Attempts, Good or Bad, Here

Originally Posted by KTDM

...I think what I need to do is stick with the one position (on my side) and time (4-5 hours after sleeping) and experiment with the length of the mantra I use to keep myself awake. Pretty sure I had these two this morning by lengthening it a little and making it a little more complicated by adding the name of somebody I want to meet in the dreamworld to the end of each loop, eg. "1, I'm dreaming, [name]... " etc.

Any suggestions to things I could add to the mantra to keep myself concentrating? The main problem seems to be falling asleep a few minutes too early.

You might think less about making your mantra more complicated, and more about making it more interesting. Your mantra can be a simple one-word chant if that one word really means something to you, or truly reflects where you want to go once lucid. I like your idea of adding the name of a person you want to meet in the dream, as that shows you're heading in the direction of my suggestion already -- there may be no need for further complication. (BTW, I often use names (and memories) of people I want to see in dreams, often with interesting results!)

I guess my point here is that it's not the length or complexity of the mantra that holds your attention and keep you awake and focused as your body settles into sleep. No, it's the value of the mantra. Keep it simple, but make it matter...

Hmm, I'll have to think hard about something that would make it "interesting."
There's not really much that's important to me, except for meeting this person. I'll consider changing my mantra to include more about how I'll meet them, and remove the counting and "I'm dreaming" part, because I'll probably realize that it's a dream if I see them, that is if it ends up being a MILD/DILD instead of a WILD. That's how it works, isn't it? When you're not prompted by a reality check or actually stop to think "is this a dream?" after doing the steps for a WILD, but just know you're dreaming, that's also a WILD, right? Sorry if that came out confusing.

^^ You're right, that was confusing! Suffice it to say that a WILD is simply the process of transitioning from waking life to dreaming life without ever losing touch with your waking life self-awareness. How you "know" you're dreaming does not define the process. And for what it's worth: does it matter if your LD results from WILD, DILD, MILD? I don't think so -- lucid is lucid; don't fret about how you got there!

Oh, and excellent thoughts on modifying your mantra; sounds to me like you're on the right path in that department. Maybe you should add a bit to your RC routine that asks what's important to you, right now? There must be something!

Had another DEILD fourth ever!
I caught myself awake and thinking to myself and immediately knew what to do. I had the pressure feeling again but this time i remembered to RC. I looked out my window and it was christmasy outside. But then. A false awakening. A common occurence with me when im LDing. My brother 'woke' me. Anyways Woohoo.

So this morning, I woke up from a long DILD around 7 a.m. I was super excited as my last LD had been a month ago. I didn't have to get up until 8 a.m., so I jotted the LD down, and told myself I'd experiment with the first stages of WILD and see how it goes. I didn't want to be too assertive in my intention setting, because my last few attempts at WILD ended up in an hour of frustrating wakefulness. I briefly stated to myself a few times: "The next thing I'll see will be a dream. I'll realize it, RC, and become lucid." I also replayed the moment of becoming lucid in the DILD earlier this morning in my mind. Instead of repeating a mantra, which I'm pretty sure is what kept me awake in my previous attempts, I simply watched the inside of my closed eyelids, and meditated, focusing on my breathing. Within a few minutes, I felt a sudden sinking, heavy sensation in my body, as if a boulder were lowered onto my chest. In my mind, I smiled to myself, said: "oh, hi there, sleep paralysis!", and went back to watching the darkness and focusing on my breathing. (I don't know for a fact whether it was sleep paralysis or not; I didn't check whether I can move - I didn't feel like moving.) In a few moments, I started noticing HI. I thought of the outdoors, and an image of the street behind my building started forming until it eventually gelled into crystal clarity. When I'm awake, I'm terrible at visualization, so I figured I must be on the verge of sleep. I started floating down the street. At some point I realized I could still hear my boyfriend's soft snoring, and started doubting whether I was asleep or awake. The scene began to fade. Up until that point, I wasn't really paying attention to my dream body beyond noting that my dream eyes were open. I quickly told myself to look at my hands, and focus on them. The scene slowly stabilized, and I continued floating through the streets, following the route I usually take when I go to work. The streets were completely deserted. I was only aware of my eyes and my hands. I suddenly thought I must look like Valdemort sweeping down on Hogwarts. The thought made me laugh, and then worry about my dream body. I must have lost focus, because the scene started fading away. I tried to stabilize it but failed. Next thing I saw was my bedroom. I RC'd to confirm I was awake.

I set my alarm on my laptop last night to wake me up around 3:15 AM and 5:15 AM. I had a buffer speaker, which would make anyone wake up. I managed to be conscious of the 5:15 AM, so I guess I'll attempt it once more. I woke up, but I opened my eyes, so I'll just keep practicing it until I can do a DEILD. At least I woke up, that's a plus.

Long time no post. Life has been a bit crazy since I started Uni (as have my sleep cycles). The upshot is that my recall and lucidity rate have been shot to pieces, let alone any WILD attempts. I've only recently been able to think about adjusting my practice to my new lifestyle. But interestingly I've started to 'see through my eyelids' before and after sleep and I seem to 'see' imagery vividly as I am falling asleep. So I'm interested in whether you've had any experience with straightup visualisation WILDs before, Sageous? (Sorry if this has been asked before).

Welcome back, Ctharlhie!

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

... I've started to 'see through my eyelids' before and after sleep and I seem to 'see' imagery vividly as I am falling asleep. So I'm interested in whether you've had any experience with straightup visualisation WILDs before, Sageous? (Sorry if this has been asked before).

Not really, unfortunately. My waking-life visualization skills are pretty much non-existent, so dream forming for me is more an intellectual exercise (I guess I don't/can't practice everything I preach).

That said, I do have a tendency to "hang on" to the visuals of my previous dreams during DEILD, so I think I understand what you're saying and seeing. Also, if you can do straight up visualization WILDs without losing self-awareness, I think that would be an excellent tool indeed!

If I misunderstood, please elaborate, as this hasn't been discussed much here.

Nope, that pretty much covers it

Well, I guess it can only be a positive thing, I'll work on it and report back here.

I wish there was some proper scale/units/measurement for awakeness. I believe I may have found the perfect amount for me, but it's difficult to find it again using only memories of a feeling.

^^ There probably are scales in psychologyland, from a testing alertness standpoint, but why concern yourself with awakeness? If you are in full possession of your awareness, and can recognize when you are dreaming, won't it be obvious at that point that you are no longer awake?

Keeping track of awakeness, to me, is about the same as keeping track of the "noise." It really isn't necessary, and committing portions of your awareness to tracking it might prove more of a distraction than it is worth.

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ There probably are scales in psychologyland, from a testing alertness standpoint, but why concern yourself with awakeness? If you are in full possession of your awareness, and can recognize when you are dreaming, won't it be obvious at that point that you are no longer awake?

Keeping track of awakeness, to me, is about the same as keeping track of the "noise." It really isn't necessary, and committing portions of your awareness to tracking it might prove more of a distraction than it is worth.

This is something of a revelation to me. And I'm more confused than ever.

Ah, no, I don't mean at the point where I'm lying down trying to WILD, I mean when my alarm goes off and how tired I feel when I wake up at my WBTB. It's hard getting to the right point at which I'll probably be able to WILD when I go back to bed.
Stupid body, tricking me with "Ah, but it's so cold, just lie back down!" what a jerk.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

This is something of a revelation to me. And I'm more confused than ever.

How so? Though I misunderstood the question (sorry, KTDM!), what I posted seemed pretty straightforward ... To me, anyway!

Originally Posted by KTDM

Ah, no, I don't mean at the point where I'm lying down trying to WILD, I mean when my alarm goes off and how tired I feel when I wake up at my WBTB. It's hard getting to the right point at which I'll probably be able to WILD when I go back to bed.
Stupid body, tricking me with "Ah, but it's so cold, just lie back down!" what a jerk.

Oh.

Well, unfortunately there's not much to be done about that than persistence. Keep at your WBTB routine, maintain decent intentions from the night before, and in time your mind will become acclimated to staving off lazy sleep in the name of doing dreamy things like WILD.

... I hope that made more sense, even if it wasn't much help.

I give up on this method. The only times I can ever get to the right amount of awareness (without falling asleep or locking myself into insomnia) are when I force myself back to sleep after already 8-9 hours of sleep. I don't have the time for that kind of oversleep and it gives me a headache every damn time.
Guess I'll try my luck with visualization WILD again, despite my almost complete lack of any HH/HI. Maybe a staircase or ladder.

Originally Posted by KTDM

I give up on this method. The only times I can ever get to the right amount of awareness (without falling asleep or locking myself into insomnia) are when I force myself back to sleep after already 8-9 hours of sleep. I don't have the time for that kind of oversleep and it gives me a headache every damn time.
Guess I'll try my luck with visualization WILD again, despite my almost complete lack of any HH/HI. Maybe a staircase or ladder.

Serious question here, how much time and effort have you put into raising your self-awareness? Because that's probably the issue. Keep doing reverse reality checks, or ADA, or meditation. The only real way to be aware of falling asleep is to do a lot of legwork in your waking awareness.

Very little, save for these last two days where reality checks and MILD have actually been working for me, so I've been directing more attention into that. Perhaps I'll try WILD again in a few months when I've (hopefully) gotten these parts completely down.

So I was doing a method at bedtime hoping it would trigger a DILD later in the night. I ended up WILDing by accident. I don't fully understand it so I may be wrong, but I had what I believe to be a nREM lucid. After the usual noise I found myself stuck in a pure white void and was unable to create any imagery. I DEILD chained a bit and each time I found myself back in the same world of white nothingness. It's not something I hope to repeat but it was interesting to say the least.

^^ Sounds like you had a bit of an NREM adventure to me ... very cool!

If this should happen again, I have a suggestion: Hold still, mentally and spiritually. Instead of trying to leave that void, give it a chance to envelop you. Just pay attention; keep your mind as open as possible. Do so and you might have a very interesting experience!

Oh well. I did do that at first because I knew what I had been told about REM at the beginning of the night. I sort of just waited with no emotions or forced thought. Something strange DID happen.

I find myself in a pure white void. I hear in my mind but almost spoken to me at the same time, "Ancient Indian spiritual wisdom." I feel like I am a different person. I am lucid but I don't think of myself as I am in real life or this life. I think I am a tribal shaman.

^^ Well then there you go ... Never mind!

Well now I wonder what the possibilities are in nREM. I thought it was a waste at first. hhhmm.

I think I accidentally WILDed this morning while doing something MILDish. I was just lying there, looking at the back of my eyelids (which has felt a lot more comfortable since starting meditating. It's like I'm actually detached and behind the eyelids rather than just lying there staring at flesh) and suddenly I had HI that I was playing some retro 8bit platformer. Over about 5 seconds, the graphics got more and more twisted and distorted and I felt myself sucked in to a dream.
From there I tried DEILD almost straight away because
1. I wanted to test that it still worked for me and
2. The dream world I was in was this boring, dull, monochrome world (save for an orange octopus in a cage, and another one not in a cage)
The first DEILD worked easily, but it took me back to the same place. Tried it again and it didn't work for some reason. By DEILD I mean once I was in the dream I prepared myself to stay still and closed my eyes to wake up.