Sadly no =( I'm in the same boat as you right now and I'm trying to overcome that hill. So far my only conclusion is just practice, but if I find any tricks along the way I'll be glad to share them =)
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What I'm trying to practice now for an anchor is strapping my Blackberry to my arm with some tape (I can't find anything else to use :P ). Just started it a few days ago, so I have to keep it up to get some results. But I set an alarm for it to vibrate with no snooze option. So when I wake up after a few hours of sleep, I set the alarm to like 3-5 minutes when I go back to sleep for a WILD after staying up a little bit, and passively become aware of the vibrations on my arm while trying to think about a scenario for me to start in.
The only flaw with me doing that is that I hope that no one is going to call me at 2-3 AM in the morning. But I'll should find an app for my Blackberry to prevent it from receiving calls. (Since the alarm will stop for a while, and then come back like a few minutes later. That isn't a big deal for me, but it does get irritating if someone tries to wake me up)
I tried the pain anchor, and I can sleep with the pain, but I like the vibration anchor BillyBob mentioned. :P
(And sorry if I seemed like I was trying to develop a technique there, just thought I share a trick I'm doing, which is just elaborating a variant of the simplified version of what BillyBob said rather than a technique :P )
You'll find that if you lay down right now and close your eyes, you will see brief patterns, whether they just look like shadows in darkness, or a white light (as long as there's not a huge light glare at you, like the sun or a bright light), I would call that HI.
From my WILD last night, I woke up and just focused on the 'white light' 'behind my eyelids' and went straight into a dream. If you're interested in reading about the dream itself, click here
But to directly answer your question, that's hard to say. I find it hard, but that's not to say it will be hard for you. If you're to think about random pictures, I would still experiment with the WBTB e.g. wake up for 5 minutes, try this series of random pictures method and see how it goes. If you fall asleep, that means you need to either maintain your awareness better, or that you need to make your WBTB longer.
I'm the same way, however I don't know if you're supposed to physically be seeing it in front of you, or be more like a day dream. You know those moments where you're day dreaming and you imagine this crazy world only to come to the sudden realization: "...was I always staring at this wall?". When I daydream I don't actually see the stuff infront of my eyes but supposedly I can see it where the 3rd eye normally is.
I could be wrong though, maybe we are supposed to see some sort of physical imagery where the back of our eyelids are and I'm just failing at it hard.
It's not supposed to come immediately. HI usually sets in when SP sets it, sometimes later, sometimes earlier. Experiment with your SP.
@Firebat : It varies. Sometimes you see the beginning of a dream scene, and it's like you're standing in a totally different place. Just keep at it, guys :P Not everyone gets strong HI like scenes. I know I don't, only when I'm really, really close to entering a dream, and with that said, most of the time I go straight into a dream without seeing that much HI at all.
As I've mentioned before, WILD requires so much dedication to get it right. I'm (hopefully) starting to perfect mine now, as I'm starting to understand what works for me. Hopefully I am, and if I do, i may update my dream journal about what i've found out.
By the way, have you two read Mzzkc's Why You Fail At WILDs? Some great stuff there.
Yes, I did check that out. Picked up a few tricks. Thanks for the advice too =D
OK. Do you have any tips on falling asleep while focusing on the anchor? I find that when I am drifting off and remember my anchor, I get a sudden "shock" into awareness, and this makes me feel very aware. To me, it feels like it can either be one or the other; that is, falling asleep or focusing on my anchor.
Relax. Let SP do it's thing. Just relax further and further and further..
Like i said above, if you fall asleep really easily, make your WBTB time a little longer. If you find you're not falling asleep quickly, but you're falling asleep, you need to put more awareness into your anchor. Ontop of this, you need to find your sleep cycles. This will be for example, if you sleep at midnight and wake up at 6 (assuming your cycle is about 1.5 hours) then set your alarm to about 5:30, or however long you need to prepare yourself for the WILD. The aim of this is to be awake before REM finishes. Keep in mind you also have to WILD into REM.
I have a problem with finding my sleep cycles; I do not know how long it takes me to fall asleep. Sometimes, it takes 30 minutes, 1 hour, or even 1 hour and 30 minutes (or more). As such, I do not know when to let my alarm clock go off (after the 4-6 hours of sleep).
Before you go to sleep, drink a cup of water. Whatever time you wake up at is safe to assume that is after one of your REM periods. For example, i just woke up after 3.5 hours of sleep. So my first REM period is around after 2 hours of sleep and then my next REM period is approx. another 1.5 hours of sleep. If you wake up any time after 4 hours of sleep, you should attempt your WILD then.
Sorry about the loong awaited reply xD
will be trying this tonight (:
Never let this tutorial die out!! :D i've gotten super close by using an anchor this morning, i'll be trying again tonight. I'm sure to have my first WILD
I haven't been on this site in a while, but I got a notification about a reply to this thread. I just wanted to say I love this site, and this thread about WILDing really helped me to learn to be able to induce lucid dreaming, which is amazing! It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but it has happened a few times in the past 6 months. I wake up, and then when I lay back down to go to sleep, I just lay very still with my eyes closed, hoping to achieve that state where I fall asleep - except for my mind. It's so weird because I can actually feel this shift, where I know I've gone into the "sleeping" state, but my mind isn't...it's the most bizarre, but amazingly cool, feeling! When this happens, I end up getting out of bed (I'm ALWAYS afraid I'm going to wake myself up when I do this), but usually I don't. So I get out of bed, do a dream check, and find that I am, indeed, dreaming!
The only thing about this is, in the lucid dream, sometimes I can't see - it's because I'm afraid to open my eyes in the dream, because again, I'm afraid I'll open my eyes in real life and wake myself up. However, I did something the last time this happened that worked. If any of you have ever seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in one scene, Jim Carrey is asleep, getting the memory-erasing procedure done, and he wants to stop it, but he can't wake himself up because he's drugged. He knows he's asleep, in his mind/dream, and he lays down on the ground and physically opens his eyelids to try and wake himself up. Well, even though it seems counter-intuitive, I decided to try this in my last lucid dream to see if I could open my eyes in the lucid dream to actually be able to SEE, because nothing I did would open my eyes in the dream - they were half-closed, and it was pointless to do anything considering I couldn't see! Imagine my delight when this trick worked for me! In the lucid dream, I put my fingers to my eyelids and literally pried my eyes open, and all of a sudden I could see in the dream, and I DIDN'T wake myself up in real life. It was so awesome! :D