One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

This was last Thursday while I was out of town. This was my first successful WILD using the common sleep paralysis technique. I've had DEILDs and I think an accidental WILD once. But this was the first using this technique. Some interesting notes:

- I've been attempting WILD on and off for about 3 months. Probably about 20-25 attempts.
- I was out of town in a hotel room instead of my normal bed. It's the first time I've slept in a different bed in quite some time.
- This was the night of Thanksgiving holiday, so I had a very large meal for dinner, but no alcohol.
- I went to bed early, compared to my normal schedule.
- The WILD happened after about 7 hours of sleep.
- I had other dreams before in the same night, but I didn't have my dream journal with me so I couldn't write them down or recall them.

The Hot Tub
Method WILD, DEILD
Lucidity C
Vividness C
Control C
Awoke naturally after a dream around 7am, decided to try to WILD. I lay still on my back for about 10 minutes and felt some sleep paralysis. Changed position to my side and let my mind wander. After a few minutes, I felt sleep paralysis again and then a strange feeling in my head. It's like when you are really really tired and you feel a swell of tiredness in your head that makes you close your eyes and droop your head suddenly. This was my cue to start visualizing. I had a scene in mind, one that I've been trying to incubate for a long time.

This is real memory from when I was about 15 years old. I'm at a party with a bunch of high school friends in a girl's backyard. They have a pool and a hot tub. I visualize standing a few feet from the hot tub, looking down into the blueness of the water. There are two girls in the pool wearing bikinis. Mostly, I am trying to focus on the blue blob of the water and the dark silhouettes of the two people sitting in it. I start to see the blueness in the hypnagogic hallucination.

I transition into the scene as if through a tunnel with a blue light at the end. I am in the scene and I know I am dreaming. The scene is a bit wrong. It's my own backyard instead of the girl's. And the girls are sitting in reversed positions as compared to how I visualized it. But it's pretty much what I was trying to incubate. I can't move though and I still feel my physical body. I wait patiently and the dream gets a bit clearer. I look at the two girls, now on either side of me. I am excited that I've gotten this far. But now the two girls start arguing with each other. Something about getting your own job instead of working for your father. I'm surprised. I don't know where this dialogue came from. The dream fades.

Now awake, but I can DEILD. I try to visualize the blue water again for a few moments. Then I am reminded that I am laying in bed, so my hallucinations change. I am in a bed with white sheets with the two girls instead of in the hot tub. It's pleasant but I try to concentrate back on the blueness of the water. I re-enter the hot tub scene and wait for it to solidify. I am calmer now. I am able to look around and appreciate the scene. It's bright daylight. I look at one girl and feel her skin. I look at the texture of her brown hair. I am aware that I am sitting in the water, but I don't quite "feel" the wetness. I try to focus on my body to feel the water. The dream fades again.