Where are my WILD attempts going awry?

Well I must say, I wasn't sure where to post this. Sorry to any mods/admins if I should have posted this in the WILD discussion under the DV academy--but since I'm not taking any classes, I didn't think it would be appropriate for me to post in those threads. Let me know if I'm wrong on that :)

So my question is pretty basic. Any experienced WILDers out there, I would like you to take a look at my experiences and see if I'm doing everything right and just getting unlucky--or if I'm making a mistake. I will detail my last two wild attempts--last evenings when I took a nap, and this evenings, likewise at naptime.

LAST Afternoon's ATTEMPT

For this attempt I decided to try without any binaural sounds/music/etc. Just plain concentration. Anyway, I got ready, comfortable, and started my relaxation technique. I have been experimenting with meditation for a while now, so I just tried to use deep breathing to let my thoughts float away. After spending 15-20 minutes purely trying to relax myself, I started trying to visualize myself in a dream I wanted to have--in this case, walking through a forest, shape-shifting into a dragon, and taking to the skies.

Anyway, I kept trying, kept visualizing, but nothing ever happened. I focused on my attempted visualization, trying to ignore the sensations of my body such as the tingling sensations and the scratchiness of my blanket on my hands, and the heaviness of my limbs. In short, I tried to forget my body even exists, placing myself purely in the moment with my mind, on the dream I wanted to have. The thing is, I never got *anywhere.* Usually when I attempt the WILD, I get at least a few hallucinations, feel floaty, get small snippets of hypnagogic images, usually in the form of speckles or string-like things floating around. That never happened this time. I spent over 2 hrs and never even fell asleep or drifted off, nor did I get the true "visualization" where I can literally see/hear/feel (actually, I have never experienced visualization at that level before). After the two hours, I just got up since absolutely nothing was happening.


THIS AFTERNOON'S ATTEMPT

This time I decided to try using nature sounds. I did much better, but still didn't ever get "there" ya know? No lucid dreams or anything. I tried to visualize the forest as the sounds were forest/rain. Of course I did the relaxation stuff first, got that out of the way. Then I tried to visualize the forest, adding images to the sounds I was listening too. I tried that for about an hour or so, but nothing came of it. I blanked out a couple times, only to jerk myself back to full awareness when this happened. Again, I got feeling super relaxed, but never forgot about my body as I read will happen with the WILD. I still felt the bed, the dog lying against my legs, the blankets, etc.

So, I decided to change tracks and go with a binaural mp3 I downloaded. When I tried this, I had some extremely strange sensations. My body started tingling after a while, and twice I started hallucinating that I was telling my mother about the WILD I was attempting right now :o

I also kept going in and out of awareness, jumping from being alert to blanking out, to hallucinations, to being alert again. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into this attempt, I had to get up. I wonder where I would've gotten though had I been able to keep that going at least half an hour or hour...


So my question is this. Am I doing something wrong in my WILD attempts? Should I be trying to relax longer than 15-20 mins? Why is it I seem to either black out entirely only to jerk myself back to awareness OR have hallucinations only to be jerked back to full consciousness when it happens? And and am I doing something wrong with my visualization? It never seems to lucid dream. A common problem I have is losing awareness entirely, starting a WILD only to wake up the next morning or after my nap, depending on when I make the attempt.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks lucid dreamers!!

~SilverWolf~

I can't give you a lot of advice on WILD because I have no real experience with it. I do know that it's a lot about experimentation, to find what suits you best. Check out Sageous' Class, there is a lot of good information in there.

*Moved to WILD

Hi Silverwolf, sorry, I'm not an experienced WILDer either, but I have been trying to WILD for a while now. You've said very little about your preparation, but one thing that stands out is that I thought WILDing during the day when napping was even harder than WILDing during the night / early morning at the "best" time, when you are near to REM. The brain chemistry needs to be just right I thought?

My problem is that I've been getting the imagery and sensations, but just can't seem to stop going back to sleep (I've been doing WBTB).

I read Sageous' class, and tried to incorporate as much of that into my WILD attempts as I can. One thing I find confusing however..Both you and Sageous have said that naps aren't a good time to try to WILD--but I've read other places that it is one of the better times to do so, because you supposedly have less delta sleep and more REM sleep. The various sources I've read has stated that during naps your brain tries to make up for any "lost" REM sleep, and so you get to that part of the cycle fairly quickly.

True or not, idk--I think maybe I have to do some more research, but that's what I've read before.

I have the same problem you do with falling asleep. I seems I either am too aware to slip into dreaming, or I flat black out, waking up at 'wake time.' I've been playing around with different nature sounds/meditations/binaurals to try and help with that. Have you tried any of those Goldenspark?

~SilverWolf~

For the first, I believe you simply got the timing wrong. There may have been no rem to make up (I may have that wrong, however). For the second, it seemed like you were doing everything right and would have succeeded, given a few more minutes. I'd advise you to take all this with a grain of salt, as I personally use WILD after 6 hours of normal sleep.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheSilverWolf

I've been playing around with different nature sounds/meditations/binaurals to try and help with that. Have you tried any of those Goldenspark?

~SilverWolf~

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I've tried binaural beats, but can't say I've had any success with them.
I've also tried a subliminal video that flashes up "I'm Dreaming and stuff, also playing binaurals and meassages in one ear, and backward messages in another. It looks very impressive but didn't work for me.

I think maybe I need to wake up a bit more during the WBTB. I tend to just wake, go to the toilet and go straight back to trying to WILD.
I suspect the other problem is that I wake naturally at the end of each REM cycle, so that makes a WILD difficult if the next REM cycle is over an hour away!

I've tried DEILD, but I suspect the same problem is happening (end of REM), and added to which, I just don't seem to be able to keep still!

I also have an app combination that is able to wake me at te beginning of REM, but It just doesn't seem to work - quite. I've come close a few times.
Maybe I need to try really hard to stay still and keep my eyes closed for a proper DEILD attempt?

My 5 very brief LDs have been DILDs, pure chance.

Hey, maybe this will help--it did for me. For the first time I decided to try waking up a few hours after going to sleep--and then 90 minutes after that, and another 90 minutes after that, repeating the cycle until wake-time. Well, I had a lucid dream last night, PLUS I remembered my dream extremely vividly. I think that helped. I'm going to try that again tonight--it was really awesome to wake up and realize I'd been lucid!

~SilverWolf~