Insert creative WILD-Tutorial name here

Hello everyone!

I really hope that what I'm about to say helps some of you still struggling with WILD :)

Introduction

It's been quite some years now since I first joined DV. Many years and still barely anything has changed regarding how to achieve lucidity.
I've witnessed countless tutorials on how to achieve the mythical, yet so easy-to-do, technique called WILD.
Many claimed so far that they found the holy grail, the missing puzzle piece, yet it only ever worked for some people.
I rarely was one of those people, and if I was, it only worked once or twice.

The past years I've been desperately trying to figure out why I was unable to achieve lucidity on command. I've read through hundreds of articles, talked personally with many members here and it all just didn't make sense. No matter what I did, I just could not WILD. Back then, when everybody still thought that you just had to stay still and wait until you transision into the dreamworld, I spent 10 hours wide awake in my bed, not moving at all, without ever hitting sp.
Other times, when I didn't even plan on doing WILD, it barely took me a minute from laying down to entering a dream.
And I just couldn't figure out why. Was it my mindset? Did I do anything wrong? Why does it work best when you don't even 'try' it at all?

After lots of researching, reading books, watching tutorials, listening to binaural beats/meditation music while laying in bed and much more, I gave up on WILD.
I started focusing on developing the mindset of a natural, by using means of reprogramming my mind through self-hypnosis and meditation.
That's when I started having many random DILDs, but it just wasn't the same.
None of my DILDs came close to the vividness and realness of the few WILDs I ever had in my life.

At this time, after reading Eckhart Tolle's book "The power of now", I got the impression that maybe it was all related to my ego. Maybe I was just expecting too much, maybe I was getting excited too much. Maybe if I just calmed down my mind and stopped thinking, I'd succeed. I have to admit, this book changed my life. But it didn't change my relationship with WILDing :P
A while later I had a chat with Mylynes on the IRC (In case you don't know him, he claimed that he's lucid in all of his dreams and that he never loses awareness not even while falling asleep), just a few days before he left DV on his magical quest to leave the real world behind and enter an eternal dream.
I just couldn't understand it. How could he be aware of the entire process of falling asleep, why didn't this cause him to stay awake just like it did for me when I was awake 10 hours straight?

The answer to that question hit me months later, after reading some very interesting books about meditation (The most interesting one was "Living in the Heart - Drunvalo Melchizedek").
It was at this point, when it all started to make sense to me.
All those countless tutorials, all those stories, they all shared something in common. They all shared some principles, which when applied the right way, can make anyone achieve a WILD.
And it's really ironic, many of the members back when I first came to DV already talked about those principles, but apparently only a few really understood them.
Maybe back then I was just too stubborn to see it, but I hope with what I'm writing here I can help other people to prevent them from having to research three years just to find out the simple truth.

The Principles

I won't say this is a technique. For me, a technique is something that is repeatable by just following a step-by-step guide, no matter the circumstances.
But WILDing isn't just this. To successfully WILD, you need to be aware of your circumstances. You need to be aware of how you feel and then act accordingly.
There is no sure-fire way on how to WILD on command no matter what.
What I realized is that there are just principles. And once you understand them, you can create your own WILD 'method' easily.

Before I start, let me clear up (as if it hasn't been done enough already) some things. If you are a newbie, please take time to understand them.

Not moving is optional
Sleeping beforehand is optional
The position in which you attempt the WILD is up to you (Seriously, my friend Windhover@ has WILDed while sitting cross-legged during her meditation session several times)

To be honest, everything is pretty much optional. What most people don't realize is that it is your own body you are living in. You need to know what applies to you and what doesn't.
If you think you need sleep beforehand, do it. If not, then don't. But be honest with yourself. Don't just pretend that you don't have to move so you can brag to others about it.

Anyway, I've talked too much already. Here are the three simple principles of WILD. You'll probably be surprised at how easy it is once you understand them :)

Relaxation

This is the single most important thing ever. I never realized it would be, but it is. In almost all tutorials so far nobody really explained the importance of relaxation.
Seriously, you could be in the best mindset ever, as long as you are not relaxed, you won't leave your body.
I can't even count the hundreds of attempts where I just skipped relaxing myself and failed. Funny enough, ever since I started properly doing it, I WILDed about 100% of the time.
Forget everything about WILD, just learn how to relax yourself. Properly. And by properly I mean properly enough so that you can fall asleep anywhere in any position at any time.
Many people don't realize that relaxation is less about the body than it is about the mind. You need to calm your mind so you are able to let go of the body.

And believe me, this is as easy as you make it. I had to learn it the hard way since I have a very active mind, especially at night. It's all about your mindset. Can you relax right now? Can you just shut down your thoughts and go into 'sleep mode'? If you can, congratulations. If not, welcome to my world :P
To learn how to do this you need to be creative. I've read a lot of relaxation and meditation tutorials, but they didn't help that much.
What I'd suggest is observing yourself while falling asleep at night. What does your mind do while it goes into sleep mode? Once you have the answer, do this during your attempt.

To figure out the right state of mind to be in, wake up in the middle of the night and observe your mind. It's probably sleepy, right? This 'sleepy' state is the best state to be in, since it saves you so much time.
I'll be honest here: Sleeping beforehand makes things easy. I'd suggest you doing this, especially when you're a beginner. Don't even bother calculating your REM stages. Just sleep however long it takes you to be sleepy when you wake up :)

What works the best for me was to actually have the intent to fall asleep. When I WILD, I actually want to fall asleep and that's all I care about.

But again, it should happen naturally. Don't force it. Your mind grips even tighter the more you actively try to relax. Accept it instead. Accept the fact that your mind grips onto consciousness. Accept who you are and just wait. Sometimes you just have to wait and let it happen. And sometimes it's better to let go and try it some other time (later in the night or the next day).
Don't waste your time desperately holding on to your attempt. Don't be an idiot. Be yourself and do what feels right for you.

The Anchor

Ahh yes, the anchor. It's been explained so many times, there are countless variations of this principle out there. And yet, it's so simple and helpful...and way too few people actually have the right one for themselves.
What is the anchor? The anchor is something you can keep your mind passively focused on. And I'm saying passively, since actively focusing on anchors most of the time make it even harder to relax.
The anchor could be anything, really. It could be your breathing, it could be an external sound that's always in your presence (like a fan). Anything which you can focus your mind on.
Sometimes I just start to daydream and be lucid in the daydream until I actually immerse my senses into it and it turns into a dream.
But as simple as it sounds, as tricky it can be. What happens when you relax yourself and your mind goes into sleep mode? You lose consciousness.
So you need an anchor which is strong enough to keep you aware of it. There have been so many times in which I just drifted off into sleep because my anchor wasn't good enough.

I remember back when I first came to DV there was a tutorial that talked in-depth about anchors. The author of the thread (which I sadly don't remember) said that he used slight pain as an anchor. The pain of being in an uncomfortable position for example. Back then I was like "I don't need no anchor! I can stay aware just like this". And boy, was I wrong haha
Funny enough, this uncomfortableness is the best anchor I have encountered so far.
What I'm doing lately is to simply remove the pillow under my head and lay on my back. You will feel a slight pressure on the back of your head, and it will probably be a bit uncomfortable.
Just keep your focus on this spot, while falling asleep naturally. This uncomfortableness will always take you back in case you lose focus.
Or just do it while sitting cross legged...which would be the hardcore version since once you get relaxed, your head sinks down and it hurts your neck like hell :P

The only tricky thing is to learn how to relax/fall asleep even though you're focusing on something/being in an uncomfortable position. But once you get used to it, it's easy!

You need to find out what works for you. But please don't go overboard. Try it one anchor at a time. I remember myself choosing 4 anchors and switching between them all within one attempt. You can guess the result <.<

Enjoy

The last principle. This might sound stupid, but enjoying everything you do is as important as the other two principles. Don't view the attempt as a chore. It's fun!
Enjoy the process. Enjoy observing your mind and learning about yourself. Just sit back and relax while time does the rest.
If you are a beginner, don't expect this to work within seconds. But no matter how long it takes, it's worth it.
WILDing is one of the most magical experiences in this world (at least for me).
The goal is to become a natural WILDer. With enough practice, I hope that you can get to the stage where you don't even need to think anymore. You just 'do' it.

One more thing: Don't give up. Don't ever give up. You can do this. If I can do this, so can you!

Cheers :D

Thanks for this!

Quote:

---

Can you just shut down your thoughts and go into 'sleep mode'? If you can, congratulations. If not, welcome to my world :P

---

I am SO much in your world. Very early into my LD journey, I discovered insomnia. My mind, once it passed some very small threshold of activity in the middle of the night (sometimes just recalling and quickly voice recording dreams, and ALWAYS after trying MILD/SSILD visualization), would kick into full activity, and getting back to sleep could be almost impossible, for however long the rest of the night may be. 2, 3, 4 hours. Or until I was too exhausted to keep "trying to sleep."

After much ranting and raving and screaming to the powers of the universe about the unfairness of it all (I WANT TO SLEEP SO I CAN DREAM!), I decided I had to fix it. No way was I going to quit, or accept only here & there LDs when conditions just happened to be right. I very soon realized that whining and calling for help was useless. I had to fix it myself, that was the only way.

And so I worked and researched and read and read and read and tried different things. And finally I discovered several places I was holding physical tension that I was unaware of (jaw is the obvious one for everybody, but you must be wary as the tension has a way of sneaking back in slowly) -- I found I was holding tension in my *eyes* of all places, and so I worked on becoming aware of this and letting it go.

So, long story short, I have improved dramatically. In many occasions where before I would be awake and missing dreaming, I now can get back to sleep. Yay! Yet, I am nowhere near "falling asleep on command." I still encounter insomnia, but I generally know now what it takes to beat it. It takes will and discipline to hold the relaxation for long enough in order for the mind to quiet and to fall asleep.

But there's the thing: what I have to do, is continually "let go" of everything: thought, tension, etc. Once I successfully start a loop of releasing all tension, stopping all effort (including "trying to sleep", which is a guarantee of insomnia), completely emptying my mind, then I can generally fall asleep quickly.

But there's a problem with that! When I say "completely," I mean *completely*. If I try to hold even the tiniest anchor, I can't fall asleep in the worst cases of insomnia.

So what to do? I so desperately wish to get good at WILD, yet it seems the only approach I've found to get to sleep is to let go of *everything*. Yet WILD requires holding on to at least something.

I suppose it's more of the same: I must keep trying, and experiment with even lighter anchors, and keep oscillating between falling asleep and staying awake until I can discover the ideal amount. Bleh. Nobody said it'd be easy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FryingMan

So what to do? I so desperately wish to get good at WILD, yet it seems the only approach I've found to get to sleep is to let go of *everything*. Yet WILD requires holding on to at least something.

---

I know how you feel, insomnia can be pretty tough. But from reading your post, it seems to me that you're trying too hard. Seriously. Let go.
Let go of the desperate need to get good at WILD.
Have you ever tried just normally going to bed to get a good night's rest?
If you're somewhat like me, you've probably spent almost all nights at least thinking about becoming lucid. Stop it. Lucidity is not something you can 'get'. It's a natural state of mind.
Struggling with falling asleep means you're trying to hold on to reality, consciously or subconsciously, at least that's what I experienced so far.
The best way is to take a break.

And by the way, you already know the answer. You know what you have to do deep within your heart. You just have to listen to yourself instead of being influenced by external information ;)

Well, in fact I have "let go" (of WILD). I just stopped trying to WILD at all. And unfortunately, WILDs did not start falling out of the sky magically. With WILDs, you at least have to wake up and decide to try. I got so tired of being awake at night that I don't even WBTB now.

However, I have not let go of desiring LDs, or recalling dreams. I do set intention every night to LD. Very very rarely will I "take a night off." I suppose I have a fear that if I don't try, I won't achieve them.

The good news is for me that my recall stays fairly strong, and in fact vividness and presence in non-lucids seems to stay on the increase gradually over time with my daytime mindfulness efforts. I think that with this increase, I "should" be lucid (DILD) a lot more….yet I'm not.

Maybe I am trying too hard in general. This is something I have not fully examined yet. It will of course be the height of irony if this is the answer to my wracking my brains asking "what am I missing? What more should I be doing?" Maybe the answer is I need to do "more" of "less." :).

Something that does lend credence to this "do less" is that my biggest calendar month of LDing was last summer when I was having a really great time just enjoying life. I also had an extremely regular sleep schedule. Now, bedtime can vary by 2-3 hours every night. That's probably not helping me.

Quote:

---

And by the way, you already know the answer. You know what you have to do deep within your heart. You just have to listen to yourself instead of being influenced by external information

---

Hmm. Maybe. I'm trying so many different things, I'm not sure what my heart is telling me.
A couple of things I'm pretty sure it's telling me are: meditate daily, get to a very regular sleep schedule, and develop confidence. I tend to be a bit negative at times regarding personal progress, can be very driven and intense in the things that interest me. Pulling confidence out of the air is not easy for me. But I'll keep at it. Any other advice greatly appreciated :).

Haha, you're like my past self.

But honestly, the best advice I can give you right now is the following: Stop trying so hard. If you don't try, you won't achieve them? Totally wrong point of view.

After years of failing, I finally realized that the best way to become lucid is to simply have trust in yourself. You probably won't understand it until you actually experience it, but all you need is to know that you can do it without effort. This community teaches newbies that LDing is something hard, something they have to learn. But after all this learning, it was when I decided to completely forget everything I knew and just do whatever feels right for me when I really started to become a natural.

Everyone can be a natural. Everyone is a natural. But almost everyone is preventing themselves from actually being a natural. Stop searching for validation and advice from others. Lucid dreaming is a personal thing. Learn it the way you feel comfortable with. And I'm actually saying that you should be aware of how you feel. When you don't feel positive and good, don't even attempt.

And yes, WILDing takes effort. Given your circumstances you have two possibilities: Give up or get used to your body and find a way to do it. The first step is always accepting what you can't change. Accept your insomnia. Embrace it. And after that, you can start doing things your own way ;)

Hi,

Quite good tutorial i must say,
It's been a while since somebody wrote such a big and good one :-P

It reminds me kinda one deild thread i readed months ago that i tried to find desperately but with no results
One guy made thread about DEILD and how he learned to lucid dream effectivly i think, which explained that you first needed to learn how you sleep and then mimic yourself sleeping when you wake up from dream, your breathing pattern and such... And applying such method gave guy quite effective DEILD Experience,

Maybe i'il try mixing your technique with that guy's DEILD Tech ;-)

These really are the principles of WILD, excellent stuff. The only principle I would add is timing, this stuff really is easier after 4-6 hrs sleep.

I think we've gone on a very similar trajectory. I likewise started having successes as soon as I realised the importance of relaxation.

It always puzzled me that an IRL friend started having WILDs as soon as I told him about it (and at bedtime to boot!) and he's just a natural at relaxation, that's it.

I do WILD on occasion, and close to always after a WBTB, but the successrate isn't stellar.. I'd say 1 in 5 at best, but I'm not keeping close track. My main issue isn't so much with getting past the initial transistion (vibrations, noises etc.) but rather the period that follows. -

If I don't 'let go' at the anchor for a brief moment I won't transition into a lucid dream. This isn't so bad in and of itself, accept that part of the attraction of a WILD (for me at least) is the option to set the stage. That is, decide where to start out and not blindly accept what ever is served up, which is what happens most of the time.

I'm wondering if the anchor itself could be the problem. To heighten the chances of deciding where it start, I have tended to hold an image in my mind that relates to the dream that (should) follow.. but perhaps that's not a good idea? Would it be better with a neutral anchor in relation to the dream?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RiftMeUp

I'm wondering if the anchor itself could be the problem. To heighten the chances of deciding where it start, I have tended to hold an image in my mind that relates to the dream that (should) follow.. but perhaps that's not a good idea? Would it be better with a neutral anchor in relation to the dream?

---

That really depends on your own mind. I personally know that it is possible to set the stage by incubating, though this requires quite a bit of effort and it's a lot easier to simply change the scene once you're in the dream.
The only way I ever managed to do so was by using what I used to call "Lucid Daydreaming" (There's a good tutorial about this in the WILD section I think).
You simply relax and start to daydream until they become vivid enough, then you lead them into the direction you want to until you actually enter the daydream with your senses ;)

Very interesting! I'll check it out. Thanks!

Love your post, thank you!!It opened my eyes :)