Thread: Scared to attempt WILD. Any suggestions?

So I am really desperate to have my first LD. I am currently working on my dream recall with journals and doing routine reality checks. But I still only clearly remember 1 dream every 2 weeks or so and I am getting very inpatient. It seems WILD is the only way to go. However, after hearing what it is like, I am extremely terrified to go through SP. Just the thought of hearing/seeing demons, old ladies, demons, animals, ghosts and aliens convinces me to back out every time I want to attempt it. Almost EVERY story of SP says there was some kind of terrifying hallucination and sound so I'm pretty sure it will happen to me. I dont really know if it is worth it to have a LD if it means going through something that will most likely scare me for a long time. If I even saw a shadow in my closet I don't think I would change my clothes for a week.

Any suggestions or tips? Are the hallucinations really as common as people say they are?

Also if I close my eyes will I not see the hallucinations?

I do LD at the moment only via WILDs. When I go into SP, my muscles are not really paralyzed. When I started practicing, my muscles would hurt, when I would move them during deep relaxation/SP, but now I can always move them easily.
I was puzzling about those experiences of people in SP and my current theory is that it is a kind of false awakening actually. I only had the feeling of such immobility, when I had false awakenings and that can be also without realizing one had fallen asleep for a moment. Once, when I had a false awakening it did feel, like someone did have a grip on my legs and was pulling them up somehow - as I assumed I was dreaming, I just observed with interest.

So, seeing demons and such during WILD practice is most likely just a type of nightmare. To avoid nightmares you should be in happy/good mood when attempting to WILD. It might be best to first practicing moving from a SP, so you realize you can just move and loose the fear of being paralyzed. As when you are afraid, you will attract thought patterns of scary stuff. Then you can also practice how to wake up from a dream - that way you can always wake yourself up, if you do not like the dream.
For the SP it helps to take some deep breaths first, then I never got any muscle ache.

I personally also do practice only in environments with good energy, so I first clear the place in my mind sending light to every corner and blessing the room for protection. But that is maybe rather discussed in the "beyond dreaming".

You will have some sort of hallucination every time you go into SP. Not always visual or auditory, but some form of hallucination. In my experience, 90% of the time nothing really scary happens. Most of the time people get scared and force themselves out of SP from the "dread" hallucination which is fairly common. What I'm referring to is hallucinating a sense of fear/dread/impeding doom. You may feel afraid for no particular reason and this one is very easy to overcome. Just remind yourself that it is just a hallucination and you can't be harmed. Once you get used to SP, it isn't scary at all.

I would recommend performing nap WILDs during the day. I have yet to have a frightening WILD experience during a day time nap.

i my self only experienced those scary episodes when i was a kid and didn't know about LD, i'v wilded something like 7-10 times successfuly without anything scary at all
all that did happen was a loud noise and a vibration in my body as i passed into the dream
so i don't think you should be scared at all

Originally Posted by floydrose543

So I am really desperate to have my first LD. I am currently working on my dream recall with journals and doing routine reality checks. But I still only clearly remember 1 dream every 2 weeks or so and I am getting very inpatient. It seems WILD is the only way to go. However, after hearing what it is like, I am extremely terrified to go through SP. Just the thought of hearing/seeing demons, old ladies, demons, animals, ghosts and aliens convinces me to back out every time I want to attempt it. Almost EVERY story of SP says there was some kind of terrifying hallucination and sound so I'm pretty sure it will happen to me. I dont really know if it is worth it to have a LD if it means going through something that will most likely scare me for a long time. If I even saw a shadow in my closet I don't think I would change my clothes for a week.

I have WILDed many times now, but never experienced any of those things. If you are not afraid, then there is nothing to be afraid of.
Most likely those scary things things happen to people when they are anxious or uncertain about what's happening.

Originally Posted by insideout

I have WILDed many times now, but never experienced any of those things. If you are not afraid, then there is nothing to be afraid of.
Most likely those scary things things happen to people when they are anxious or uncertain about what's happening.

Thanks for the comments on how if im anxious or nervous that I will see this stuff
I'm frightened quite easily 3:
And I don't get over these kinds of things very quickly.. but should I try it anywas? Is it that worth it?

Originally Posted by H202

Thanks for the comments on how if im anxious or nervous that I will see this stuff
I'm frightened quite easily 3:
And I don't get over these kinds of things very quickly.. but should I try it anywas? Is it that worth it?

Haha at least I know I'm not alone. I have actually attempted twice since I posted the thread but I was unsuccessful. I had to literally force myself to do it because I was worried of what I would see. In the end I am kinda glad I was unsuccessful, yet I desperately want to LD. I'm thinking of just sticking to the MILD method until I get one to see if it is worth it.

I have fears of that to. Just remember after having many a night mare you will become used to it an dnot be scared.

sources: many night terrors.

Once SP sets in, just remind/tell yourself, "This is all just a hallucination. It is all fake and I cannot be harmed." Say this whenever you start to feel fear and just ignore whatever is going on. Act as if nothing strange is happening. Really, once you power through SP once or twice, it won't be so scary anymore. Remember guys, your body goes into SP every night. It is a natural occurrence. Now, you are just attempting to enter it while conscious.

You likely always hear stories about SP in bad scenarios because those are the interesting ones. You're likely scared of sharks too, because you may hear of someone who got killed by a shark; but you don't hear the about 10000000 times people who just see sharks and swim by (better chance of winning the lottery than being killed by a shark). Many times for many people nothing frightening happens. For awhile I was hooked up on "evil mirrors" and the theory that if you look in a mirror in a dream it will be really scary. Its a dream/hallucination though, it's not real and you have control over it. If I go into SP or a lucid dream thinking "Oh shit shit shit shit, I'm gonna look in a mirror and my face will melt off" it will probably happen. If I go in thinking "If I look into a mirror a bunny will fly out and punch me in the face with a unicorn" it will probably happen. Just remember, there is nothing to fear, it's not real. What I do is jauntily or cockily tell it to fuck off. Hope I helped .

there are two primaries:

knowing the opportunity of experiencing unfamiliar consciousness
wanting the exploration because you realize the positive value in doing so

the experience of fear can be tremendous while entering an unfamiliar ground that beholds the unknown.
though it will only be present if you are dishonest to truly acknowledging the two primaries and holding it as a torch which will produce light in the darkness and allow you to move through and enter that.

good luck

Originally Posted by floydrose543

Almost EVERY story of SP says there was some kind of terrifying hallucination and sound so I'm pretty sure it will happen to me. I dont really know if it is worth it to have a LD if it means going through something that will most likely scare me for a long time. If I even saw a shadow in my closet I don't think I would change my clothes for a week.

Any suggestions or tips? Are the hallucinations really as common as people say they are?

Also if I close my eyes will I not see the hallucinations?

As someone who has experienced this on and off since I was a teenager I can say unequivocally yes the hallucinations are very real and very frightening. I know some people might be tough and say they don't scare them and they can rationalize them but I have found I can NOT no matter how hard I try. They are so real and so lucid that no matter how I try to convince myself they are hallucinations, they scare me and I become irrationally scared. Every single time I feel a sense of urgency to wake up because of the fear someone is in my house, in my room, hovering over me, ready to rape or smother me, etc. This afternoon I attempted to block out the fear and instead withdraw into myself and hope to turn my hallucinations into a lucid dream. All that ended up happening was I then visually hallucinated a very weird ceiling above me and was in a room I didn't recognize-and yet fully alert and fully immobilized, helpless, defenseless, etc.

You know how if you go to bed thinking of scary things you can have a nightmare much easier? If you go into SP with that mindset you will likely have bad hallucinations. Just go into SP not really caring, or with a good mindset, and it won't bother you nearly as much... I went into a WILD a while ago thinking about some of the scary hallucinations people see, and, of course, I heard and saw some things I didn't want to see. You can still see some pretty freaky things even with a good mindset though but just ignore it and it won't be as bad.

I have a feeling like I've already experienced the worst of SP as a little kid (fever induced SP, there were neon spiders crawling all over me and into my mouth, I was 6), and even a particularly frightening episode relatively recently, that I don't really have anything to fear from conscious, deliberately induced SP. xD I'm also trying to have my first WILD and I'm going in with a positive outlook as I can, so far nothing too bad has happened, be optimistic! That's the best way to ensure you don't have a bad experience.