Thread: What happened? Post Your WILD Attempts, Good or Bad, Here

Don't worry haha, it's fine... Really, I should just keep doing it and if it doesn't work then just read up a little

Another (rather unexpected success), I barely focused on process this time and just made it to the dream. However, I didn't have a dream on tap this time and struggled to establish visuals/get of bed until I woke myself. Any advice for such situations other than incubation and developing mental schemata? Next time I'm going to try visualising a new scene.

Spoiler for DJ Entry:

Went to bed at 12, got up at 8 for a lecture, got back and decided to nap, drifted in stage 1-2 for what seemed like quite a while, then all of a sudden started getting vivid dreamlike 'hypnagogic movies' playing, very abruptly I transitioned. However, I had no visuals and could not get out of bed! Twice I woke from the effort of moving my dream body only to transition again, I tried imagining myself moving at high speed through the void and tried to build up the dream scene by touching the wall adjacent to my bed but to no avail.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

Another (rather unexpected success), I barely focused on process this time and just made it to the dream. However, I didn't have a dream on tap this time and struggled to establish visuals/get of bed until I woke myself. Any advice for such situations other than incubation and developing mental schemata? Next time I'm going to try visualising a new scene.

Though incubation and developing schemata are your best bet (that waking-life work is oh-so important; try not to skip it), and visualizing next time is also an excellent choice, there are other options:

* You can simply go with whatever your dreaming mind provides you ... if it provides you nothing at all (ie, still in NREM, perhaps, or you caught your subconscious off-guard), you could just "sit" quietly and enjoy the piece of nothingness -- I often do this on purpose, as it can be more rewarding than an actual dream at times!

* You can spend more waking-life time preparing an extensive list or file in your memory of Things to Do at WILD Onset that includes many plot/activity options, beyond just rolling out of bed or starting up that session's specific dream. If you've spent enough time daydreaming about possible scenarios (and don't we all do that anyway?), you shouldn't have a problem calling one up -- or having it called up for you, at moments like this. Also, this file helps patch up gaps left by impromptu WILD dives done without sufficient mental prep!

* Finally (and perhaps as an addendum to the first suggestion), just relax and wait a bit longer. REM and dreams will come eventually, whether they're what you wanted or not. If you think you've got nothing, don't give up; just hang back a bit and let your dreaming mind fill in the blanks. You do run the risk of losing lucidity with this choice, but at least you'll still be dreaming!

I hope that helped, and sorry it's abbreviated -- my time is short today but I wanted to answer...

I got to hear trains outside but rolled the ball too hard and fell asleep, I cannot find a balance to wild. If anyone wants to be my LD partner so we can inspire each other and disscuss expectations that would be awesome! PM me

Over the last few days, I've tried a few times after WBTB and in naps. I'm always too aware in naps and not aware enough at nights. I've been experimenting with mantras, the freefall technique and visualization. I think I had the most success when I let my thoughts drift until my logic was starting to fall asleep on. Then I started breathing slightly deeper and repeating "Calm and Dreamy," for a mantra. My body started feeling heavy and I felt I was entering a dream. I got overexited and my heart started beating fast. I calmed down and a few minutes later the same thing happened again. I never saw any HI or felt SP though, so I might not have been close anyway.

Seems like a nice effort, Billyboy! A couple of things:

Be advised that letting your thoughts drift is not the best thing to do during WILD, as the process depends on focus.

But also be advised that letting your thoughts drift can still lead to a LD via DILD. So, though you won't be having a WILD, at least you'll still have a LD!

The other thing is that you shouldn't be concerned about noise like HI or SP. Though HI makes a nice roadmarker for your dive, it is more than possible to make it to your dream without ever experiencing it. And, in spite of its fame on these forums, SP matters even less. Don't worry about them.

At any rate, nice work, and good luck on your next dive!

Thanks, Sageous. The attempt I described was in a nap, and I was letting my thoughts drift to relax so I can get into a dream. Last night I was really close to a DEILD. I had a dream that I was running around naked at school, and I realized that it might be a dream and I woke up. When I woke up I stayed perfectly still, but I forgot to visualize the dream I came out of, and a minute later, I decided to move. I don't know why I moved.

After I almost had a DEILD, I decided to try to have a DEILD instead of a normal WILD. I repeated "Wake after dreams," before I went to bed and I woke up still after 3 dreams. The first time, I was really uncomfortable and moved after a few minutes. The other times, I stayed still for 5-10 minutes, thinking about the dream I came out of. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, everyone says that it's easy if you can wake up and stay still.

^^ You weren't doing anything wrong, Billyboy; you might only need to try it a few more times.

I think when "everyone" said DEILD was easy, they should perhaps have said easier instead. Yes, because it works more quickly than classic WILD and avoids most of the "noise," DEILD (to me at least) should require less effort than WILD. But it still requires some effort, and just as much mental prep as any other lucid dive.

Quick tip: it's okay to move a bit during DEILD, if you must. Yes, it's best to keep still, but if you're uncomfortable then go ahead and gently shift positons. The real priority in DEILD is hanging on to your last dream, maintaining intention, and, of course, keeping your body intrested in sleep... all of those together are not always, if ever, easy, no matter what everyone says.

tl;dr: Don't listen to "everyone," and keep doing what you're doing at your own pace.

Hey Sageous, here's an interesting struggle I had with WILD this morning. I finally beat it through alot of persistence and a little brute force. So I'm not complaining, but thought you might find it interesting, and even better, that you might have an idea for a more delicate solution (that doesn't require hours of trial and error). Here's a quote from my DJ:

I had my usual WBTB. And this was difficult: I had cycles of WILD vibrations on and off for hours, but I was experiencing what can be best described as SP (yeah, I'm looking at you, you know who you are). The good news is that it was easy to break out of, but breaking out of it woke me up each time.

So I decided to try to help myself out: when ever I felt the vibrations, I'd try to get up, or open my eyes, or roll out of bed, but there were too many pillows or blankets or I was too far from the edge of the bed to make it easy. So each time I woke up out of the SP, I'd lose a pillow off my head, then remove all the blankets, then inch closer to the edge of the bed, loose another pillow. Finally, I was pillowless, blanketless, and literally had my legs half hanging off the bed, hoping I could just roll or slide out of bed onto the floor on the next wave of vibrations.

This psychoticness finally paid off, and I was able to stand up out of bed after a big wave of vibrations. It didn't last long and I woke up. But then I did it again, and very wobbly got out of bed..

(then I had a fun LD that lasted a while and got two TOTMs)

Hi everyone ! Hi Sageous !

Lately i have been trying to WILD, after an interesting firts attempt in which fear and tachycardia became unbearable after strong vibrations, HI, and falling sensation. I think of this first experience as a great motivation to keep exploring LD, and i am grateful for it

Now after 2 months and a couple of weird experiences with unintencional DEILDs ( vibrations, sudden rush, vortex dream reentry ), sleep paralysis...i feel somewhat less fearful

But i am still trying to get confortable with it, my fear is not completely gone.

I like to watch my hypnagogic imagery ( green flashes ) because i get them after 10 minutes. i dont know how i should watch it. I try passive awareness, but i also feel like i have to pay some attention to it. it seems a delicate process.

After some minutes of green flashes, they go away and return again after some time. is this normal ? everytime they go away i feel i have to adjust my awareness so they can stay longer and lead me to LD...is this correct ?

I have tried different timings but i usually get too much awake. i think this is because of fear, don't you think ? Btw, is fear an obstacle to WILD even if i don't move ?

For instance last night i woke up after 2, 5 hours. did my WILD, failed, and then insomnia visited me for 3-4 hours. after that, i returned to wild with a loose atitude and after a brief sleep i regained awareness and my dream body got out of bed by itself. is this a wild ?

my room was very dark (like in real life ) and i decided to fall backwards to get somewhere else ( i have this problem many times ). i failed, but later that night i got 2 DILDs.

When i stay awake for WILD for so long it becomes a powerful induction technique for me, so not so bad

thank you !

Hi Vagaltone:

I suggest you take some time to read through the sessions of the class, of which this thread is part. I think if you do, you will not only find detailed answers to your questions about what I call the "noise (HI, vibrations, etc), timing, and much more. I hope you'll give it a chance, because I think it might help.

Hey Sageous and everyone!

This is my first post here, but I've been reading on the subject and experimenting for a few weeks now. I had 2 LDs so far, both with DEILD, but they were short and unsatisfying. I attempted WILD quite a few times now, but never made it.

I got the closest last night when I lost my physical body and was flying through space really fast, but I've made the mistake and thought I was already dreaming and opened my eyes. Stupid me.

So for me the biggest problem is too much awareness. A single attempt usually lasts for 30-40 minutes, because I'm simply too awake and concentrating too much I guess, and no dream is forming because of this. When I got the closest to entering a dream (see above) I had already given up, but in the last moment before falling asleep I gave it a try.
My question is how can I prevent this, without loosing conciousness? I don't have any mantras because I'm able to remain thoughtless for long periods of time while still concentrating. Should I try doing mantras while letting my thoughts flow? (thus enabling my mind to build a dream scene up) Or is there something else wrong with my technique?

Thanks for all the help you've given on this forum, your posts help me a lot!

Welcome Superdrown!

This is going to sound a little odd to you, but your problem might be not enough awareness! Here's why:

First, there is no such thing as too much self-awareness, period. BTW, self-awareness is what we're really talking about here ... awareness without the "self" bit is simply an engine for perception that all living things use, and on its own really doesn't help in LD'ing. Being awake and being self-aware are not the same thing; your natural awareness/consciousness is working just fine whether you are awake or asleep. Indeed, in non-lucid dreams you are plenty aware -- you're just not aware of your Self, and that this place you're wandering is a dream.

No, the problem you have may be that in all that focus and remaining thoughtless, you may be losing your sense of self. I suggest that you check out my WILD Session One for a better explanation of this.

A mantra might be a good idea, because it helps hold your focus not necessarily on the stuff you're doing, but on your Self, and your dream goals. Check out the mantra section too, I think, for further thoughts.

So yes, you should do something like "doing mantras while letting my thoughts flow (thus enabling my mind to build a dream scene up)." That might be an excellent first step... be careful not to let those thoughts flow too much, though!

So yes, there may be something wrong with your technique, and that something may simply be that you're considering WILD a technique rather than the state of mind that it is. Since the DEILD form of WILD seems to work for you, your mind is probably already in the right place ... for WILD it just needs to stay in that right place a little longer.

I hope that made sense; if it did not, let me know.

Well, english is not my first language so at times I'm not saying exactly what I want to
I meant self-awareness of course, and if I think about it, you may be right. The thing is, if I'm not so focused, my eyes tend to do whatever they want (it feels like I have a second eyelid that I just can't stop from blinking) so either I'm thinking about nothing or concentrating on a still image (looking at my hands in a forest for example; basically what I want to see and feel and hear when I enter the dream).

Maybe I just need to calm down more (so my eyes would stop messing with me), but I can't if I can see all the imagery and feel all these vibrations and stuff. My defense for this was the immense concentration, but if I need to do something else instead of that, I don't know what to do. Maybe just totally concentrate on the mantra which involves some sort of "me"? (and yes, I've read your entire course )

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Or is it the point that I feel these sounds and HI, but just accept them and let them go without paying much attention? If that's the case, what I need most is practice as it's hard not to concentrate on them when I'm not concentrating on something else.

Originally Posted by SuperDrown

Maybe I just need to calm down more (so my eyes would stop messing with me), but I can't if I can see all the imagery and feel all these vibrations and stuff. My defense for this was the immense concentration, but if I need to do something else instead of that, I don't know what to do. Maybe just totally concentrate on the mantra which involves some sort of "me"?

Yes, the mantra can be a good instrument for avoiding distractions, and it also is an excellent hedge against "totally concentrating" on anything; I highly recommend you adopt one soon! Be careful not to orient it too much to "me," remember that it's the dream that is ultimately your target, so you should have some intentions built into your mantra as well... maybe something like "This Dream is Mine," with a thought toward your intentions for that night each time you say "dream." Or something else, but you get what I mean, I think!

Or is it the point that I feel these sounds and HI, but just accept them and let them go without paying much attention? If that's the case, what I need most is practice as it's hard not to concentrate on them when I'm not concentrating on something else.

Yes; you are correct on both counts. Again, a mantra will help, but the real key is in ignoring the "noise," and those moving eyes count as noise as well.

Good luck, and thanks for reading the course!

So, I tried WILD today afternoon, at 5pm. Was alone home, had the blinds down on the window to try block out the light (it's 8pm now, but still very bright outside). Well, that might didn't matter though, as I've a mindfold.

Went to bed, put my mindfold on and just relaxed. My head was warm and my eyes was quite hurting in the beginning (I'd been sitting in front of the computer and also taken off my contact lenses, right before I went to the attempt), but it got better after a while.
Continued just lay down and had my eyes relaxed and my body relaxed. Not sure if my jaw and neck were completely relaxed, I've been reading before that sometimes those muscles are tensing when not paying enough attention or so?

Anyway, I continued relaxed and my body came to the level where it feels numb. I always get there.
I started to think that soon I will pop up somewhere else and actually see.
Suddenly I started to see something, some image where I sat up in my bed looking down on my jeans, and I had some cake in my hand or something. But the image disappeared just seconds later and I were still in my bed. I guessed that was 'HI' (hypnologic image or whatever called)?

I continued though and I saw other images later on where I was in another part of my house, though it was not as intense as the first one.

I also felt pain in my right knee (I guess I've injured it a little, or just stretched or something, while being at the gym, I know I've had a bruise from accidently hitted it with a barbell, but also I know I kinda maybe got too intense on the bike workouts), this pain though, only stayed for some minutes I think. Atleast I didn't pay attention to it later, maybe it was because I became numb in my body.

My arm also twitched once. I had my hands on the side of me, and my left arm twitched so it jumped up on my stomach.
These twitching I've got before when I attempted WILD's as well, but also when I've been in bed trying to sleep. Happends quite much when I'm at my gf's apartment.

At one point I also tried to just fall asleep. I had put an alarm on 1 hour in case if I would fall asleep. So I thought that why not just try to fall asleep. As I also was quite tired. But, I didn't fall asleep, atleast what I know of.


That's it.

Total time for this WILD attempt was 40 minutes, but it felt more like 20 minutes, got quite suprised when I woke up seeing it had passed 40 min.

Welcome, Lonelycloud!

First, I highly recommend that you read through the sessions of my WILD class, of which this thread is a part; I think that will help you a lot.

Next, I didn't see anything about a dream in your post -- remember that a WILD is a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream; the goal of the exercise is to bring your waking awareness to a dream; all that stuff on the way, like the pains, the tense muscles, the HI, etc, are just distractions and not goals, and perhaps should not receive so much attention.

If I misunderstood, let me know. If I did not, then I suggest next time you try to pay less attention to the distractions and focus more on getting to the dream... and yes, the class has plenty of pointers for helping you do this -- consider taking it.

Good luck!

Welcome, Xvaiuer!

Looks like a good attempt to me, though you must remember not to pay too much attention to all that noise!

"Settling" for a DILD was definitely the right thing to do: Keeping the dream as priority is always the right thing to do, so changing tactics indicates that you're more interested in it than in all that noise. Nice work, even if the DILD didn't occur.

Also, if you haven't yet I suggest you read the course that's in the same forum as this thread; I think it might help. So too will EWOLD; read it carefully!

God luck!

Originally Posted by Sageous

Also, if you haven't yet I suggest you read EWOLD; read it carefully!

God luck!

I just got EWOLD today! I'm really excited to read it, I think it will really help me. I'm going to try WILD again tonight. I'll post if I was successful on here and onto my DJ.

It's 6:30 a.m., and I'm awake to try a WBTB, so I go for a WILD. After lying there for a couple of minutes, uneventfully, I begin to feel vibrations, and soon the entire bed is tipping back and forth, going in one direction until I almost fall off, then swinging back the other way. But...no imagery. After a some time of this nauseating torture, the dream starts to come into focus. I wait a minute, just to see if it's stable, and jump in. After fighting off a couple of Boos in my house, I jump into my flooded backyard only to be attacked by clay seagulls and an inanimate shark. Getting out of the water, I remember the TOTM and leap from a fence onto the roof. I summon a coal-covered piece of chocolate from my pocket, and break off a clean piece and throw it down to a duck pond where the front yard was supposed to be. A DC asks me why one of the ducks is named Ophelia and I ignore him and try to summon another piece of coal, but again end up with chocolate. The dream ends, despite seeming quite stable.

Total time: 16 min.

Sageous, I've had around 20-30 lucid dreams in the last 7-8 months. (Mostly DILDS). But I need to know, do you sort of whisper the mantra out-loud right? Or just inside your head?

Appreciate the help,

Fin "BruteForce" Phillips

^^ Good question, and the answer is:

Yes.

Since the mantra's primary purpose is to maintain focus on your WILD and center your mind on its goals and desires, its presence is far more important than how it is projected.

In other words, if you are more comfortable silently repeating your mantra; do so. If you are more comfortable chanting your mantra aloud, do so. If your mantra is meaningful, either option will work just fine.

There are schools of thought that feel that a spoken mantra is important -- There's a whole vibration/prayer thing supposedly going on, but I think it's more that some folks just like the sound of monks chanting "om mani padme hum!" in echo-filled temple chambers. Also, a spoken mantra can help with meditation because it regulates breathing by default, so I suppose that could be valuable with WILD (tho breathing is not as important to regulate). But in the end when you're lying there in bed in a darkened room. you're really "speaking" your phrase only to yourself. If you can hear it just fine without speaking, then there is no need to speak... indeed, if you can assemble a mantra that doesn't use words -- perhaps images or remembered feelings instead? -- then go for it.

It's the mantra, and adherence to it, that matters; how you repeat it is up to you!

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ Good question, and the answer is:

Yes.

Since the mantra's primary purpose is to maintain focus on your WILD and center your mind on its goals and desires, its presence is far more important than how it is projected.

In other words, if you are more comfortable silently repeating your mantra; do so. If you are more comfortable chanting your mantra aloud, do so. If your mantra is meaningful, either option will work just fine.

There are schools of thought that feel that a spoken mantra is important -- There's a whole vibration/prayer thing supposedly going on, but I think it's more that some folks just like the sound of monks chanting "om mani padme hum!" in echo-filled temple chambers. Also, a spoken mantra can help with meditation because it regulates breathing by default, so I suppose that could be valuable with WILD (tho breathing is not as important to regulate). But in the end when you're lying there in bed in a darkened room. you're really "speaking" your phrase only to yourself. If you can hear it just fine without speaking, then there is no need to speak... indeed, if you can assemble a mantra that doesn't use words -- perhaps images or remembered feelings instead? -- then go for it.

It's the mantra, and adherence to it, that matters; how you repeat it is up to you!

Thank you so much for the lightning-speed response man.

Yeah I understand, such a detailed reply and completely answered my question Thanks a lot! D

Best regards,

Fin "BruteForce" Phillips

EDIT: I'm definitely going to try this again tonight.

Ah so got up last night after 5 and a half hours sleep, Stayed up for about 5 minutes, maybe closer to 3, not very long anyway.

Then I lay there focusing on my mantra, repeating it first outloud gently and then in my head and focusing on what I was going to do in the dream, But I didn't even get to SP. :/ Not sure what I did wrong, maybe not enough sleep before I woke up, I'll try 6 hours tonight and post how it goes.