Hi, Owen. Thanks for your tip about the RC program. I found it, but when I checked with my husband he wanted me to wait on downloading until we check with our computer friend. He's leery about donwloads. But I bought a couple of carved items from other cultures that I put on my computer stand at work, and they are actually working to remind me to do RC's. The really interesting LD I had before I got my novadreamer and joined the forum had a bunch of wild animals and some characters who were S American Indian. Then a couple weeks later I found a carved gourd that reminded me very much of my LD. I suppose it doesn't mean anything, but I was impressed and I keep the gourd by my bed. Anyway, the interesting items from other cultures theme seems to inspire me. The one item is a stone hand, which on the palm side has some kind of creature with a snake-type head, but he has a leg extending that has the S American Indian look. I like the occaisional LD theme of some forum dreamers' of meeting people from other cultures who offer gifts. Come to think of it, my mother brought me a dragon from Wales a few years ago. I'll bring that in too in respect for you. A Celtic touch will definitely be a good, mystical addition. I think I'll also bring in a digital watch and just leave it on my desk, set to go off regularly. The watch I wear isn't digital but decorative. I'm also training myself to constantly ask myself if I'm dreaming and do some kind of RC. When I do this I also remind myself how, when I'm dreaming, it never seems that I'm dreaming, so I really could be dreaming at any time, and need to test. It's surprising how hard it is for me to get into this as a habit. But I'm almost positive it would pay off in terms of the habit carrying over into my dreaming mind. I assume it has worked for Dr Laberge, and that that's why he recommends it. Frequent lucids, Kate

Ralf,

Thanks for the welcome. Last year I went to a sleep lab to rule out sleep apnea as the reason I was sleep deprived. I didn't fall asleep until after 3 AM during the sleep study, and I had my typical early morning nightmare that occurs if I fully awaken in the early morning before falling back asleep. I didn't have sleep apnea, instead I was simply not getting adequate amounts of sleep.

Before I went for my study I had read Dr. Dement's book, The Promise of Sleep, in which he mentioned scientific verification of lucid dreaming. Having spontaneous lucid dreams in the past, especially after meditating, I was interested enough to seek out LaBerge's book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. I bought the book at the end of December 2001. Prior to that I had about 1 spontaneous lucid dream every other month. In January 2002 I had 16 lucid dreams, thanks to LaBerge's techniques.

After reading his comment on sleep paralysis, I realized that was the cause of my nightmares. The next time I experienced sleep paralysis I became lucid instead of having a nightmare. I had eight typical lucid dreams, and one more episode of sleep paralysis induced lucidity, before I had my first totally unexpected "out of body experience." That is now my dominate lucid dreaming experience.

Currently I am practicing some of the techniques in the book, Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. It is a useful book, even for a non-theist like myself.

I hope this answers your questions.

John

John, that's an interesting set of experiences and a great success story for applied lucid dreaming.

In reference to Tibetan dream yoga, I was inspired by that book to look into Buddhism a bit more and it seems that although it functions as one of the world's great religions, it's essentially a non-theistic philosophy. Some of its branches have whole pantheons of minor deities for those who like that kind of thing, but as I understand it, ultimately they're to serve as meditational aids toward the goal of non-dual awareness (in which the gods turn out to be as imaginary as ourselves....)

Interesting stuff!

Joy

Hi, lucid friends

In fact, I'm somewhat resistant to the practice of LD these days. After fighting this, I simply gave in and now have a pause. So: More time to read and write.

John: Thanks for going into detail regarding your LD history. Everyone has his own way to LD. I hope you keep having pleasant LDs instead of nightmares.

Alan: I don't think, that there is a great difference between the meaning of hypnagogic and dream - images. The difficulty is, that there is no plot, it is because of this not easy to make up connections. If there is random, it is the same for any dream - onset. All seeds spring from grown up plants. All images stem from your experiences (mostly). Passing and inconsequential thoughts. Hm. I think there is more than thoughts to hypnagogia. Maybe this stage reveals the veiled emotional context of thoughts, in that it provides thoughtlike images. Maybe this process isn't consequent, but associative. The more dense it gets, the more likely the pictures are linked together in a plot, a dreamscene. I just "speed - read" an article in the latest issue of electric dreams. It touched the subject of hypnagogic imaginary, too. But in this case to relate it to the view of the structure of the postmodern self. The author writes something about the fractioned, open character of the postmodern self and how one can experience it especially in WILDs, in the hypnagogic state.

QUOTE

Hypnagogic imageries can be compared to an aspect of postmodern deconstruction... ... Thus, the experience of perceiving rapidly changing images in a hypnagogic state is analogous to a deconstructive view of the world. The kaleidoscope of images perceived in the hypnagogic state represents a free play of signifiers that eventually shades into dreaming. Dreamers who are able to maintain awareness while falling asleep develop a special sensitivity to witnessing the 'breakdown' of the waking world into a random display of images. ... By relinquishing the idea of the self as given, the lucid dreamer is able to take fractalization in dreaming as the normative condition of consciousness to engage in the play of differences ad infinitum. Without the constraints of waking life, fractalization in dreaming empowers lucid dreamers to relativize themselves in a manner that would not be considered disastrous to their sense of well being. ... The realization that one can actually awake in dreams implies the possibility of treating waking life as dreamlike in nature. It is beyond the scope of this paper to speculate on how these developments will influence the future meaning of social and cultural reality, but suffice to say that the world will no longer be the same once we all awake in our dreams.

ENDQUOTE

The Self, Lucid Dreaming and Postmodern Identity By Raymond L.M. Lee http://www.dreamgate.com/pomo

When a WILD isn't: I was laying in bed the other night holding still trying to dream. Finally I twisted out of my body and through the headboard and through the wall and started flying. I thought, "Wow, my first WILD!" Then did some other things and awoke to write out the experience.

It was then I noticed I don't have a headboard on my bed!?# - I had a dream of a WILD and then became lucid and had a DILD. Very tricky but still fun and it did nothing to reduce the sense of joy at becoming lucid.

Anyone else had this kind of DILD/WILD? Dream on, Ted

Hi, Ted

Very interesting dreams. In fact, WILDs seem to be more often combined with false awakenings, than DILDs. So, what I think is, that you had a "real" WILD, then a false awakening, which you recognised very well (Congratulations!), and then a DILD, if you want to call it so. I had some false awakenings, but still have to learn to recognise them. Only lately have I been able to do it the other way round: Had a DILD, awoke physically (that is what I think, at least) and then spun myself into a WILD. (I could have posted this one in this thread, too)

There are certainly more dreamers, I will only name Keelin, Joy and Linus, who had this kind of dreams for sure. I think these combinations appear, when you have more and more LDs, when you get used to this state.

Keep on good work

Ralf

False awakenings are pretty common for me. On several occasions I dictated a lucid dream into my voice recorder only to find out I was still dreaming. I believe I really wake up from my lucid dream, but unknowingly fall immediately back to sleep with my intention to record the dream firmly in mind. At other times I momentarily awaken and end up with multiple WILDS instead. I experienced that early this morning with at least two OBE experiences. On this occasion I never "lost" consciousness going from the waking state to the dream OBE state.

Thanks for the quotes friend Ralf. I think your analysis is more apposite than Mr Lee's because his "free play of signifiers" academic-theoretical approach misses the intensely personal and emotional character of the kind of WILDs I experience - which are not a 'kaleidoscope of images' but discreet and highly emotive (I mean intimate) events. For example, I was once quite seriously ill, and spent three days lying in bed with a temperature, cramps, vomiting, etc. On the third day, my son Nat (who was 'really' overseas) walked into the room chuckling, kissed me on the cheek, and said, "It's over!". And it was.

Please explain what you meant by (mostly)? :-)

Christoph: I get those pre-WILD noises, too. Last few times it was a loud and intimidating thumping on the ceiling, and an equally alarming sound of someone moving around in the living room outside. My non-expert take on it is that they are manifestations of the alarm felt by some part of the brain when crossing the border between consciosness and LD. If I was fully asleep and in REM mode, such alarms would manifest as some sort of nightmare, I guess. But in this hinterland state they project on to the real environment.

Incidentally, someone mentioned hearing music. Last night I became semi-lucid while listening to a complete and beautifully orchestrated song I'd never heard before. I thought, "Gee, I wish I had a tape recorder in this dream", without, unfortunately, becoming fully lucid.

Alan, old Maui pal!

There you are again. Fine! Do we really have random thoughts? I'm not sure. I'm not sure about the definition of random at all. (mostly): meant the ESP / telepathic possibility. I didn't want to start another discussion... Impressive WILD story.

Refreshing LD's to you

Yours Ralf

P.S. I, too, had some wonderful music - dreams lately. Perhaps I should make music in daytime more often...

John,

thanks for your contribution. It inspired me to try the OBE like thing, again. The day before I had OBE - like feelings after an awakening from a short lucid phase. I experimented a minute, could move arms and legs of dreambody while having total consciousness of physical body. Then I tried spinning, but it didn't work. Then I simply relaxed and drifted off into another non - lucid dream.

Today I had a false awakening from a near - LD and I nearly became lucid. Next time...

Keep on posting. It is encouraging.

Ralf

Hi, fellow lucids!

I'm proud that I can post another LD here. This is my first WILD without gap between waking and dreaming. Please don't mind me giving all the details of how I got there, I think, they are as worthy, as the (short) dream itself.

A window into dreamworld 20032002 #MILD #WILD #DSA4 #Prolonging #HAND RUBBING #SPINNING #NOT MOVING

It is my third day of MILD exercising in a row. Bedtime 0:05 am. Alarm 05:00 am. I take short notes on dreams, then really (!)get up (the other days I dozed another hour). Type the dreams on PC, read some forum posts.

Back in bed at 06:10 am. Do the 61 points relaxation. This time I don't drift off a single second. I continue going through the points and am able to let occasional thoughts and pictures float by without disturbing my rhythm. That isn't self - evident for me, I count this as progress. Afterwards I do a complete, "schoolbook - like" MILD, again without loosing focus. And there I am: Still too aware.

I decide to turn from back to the right side and relax deeper, reduce willpower, don't "talk" that much, but keep aware. I start to think over the posts of the Kalani dreamers. Then I see a wall in front of me, while I keep on thinking. My minimal awareness grows, as the wall dissolves and a tropical landscape appears. I'm dreaming. But I'm immediately out again, no time to do the prolonging - task.

I lie still for some time, but can't get into spinning. I turn on my back, relax again, dive through some nonlucid scenes, awake and am somewhat annoyed now. But I keep on and say to myself from time to time: "The next thing I will see, is a dream." And turn to the left side, again reduce willpower, only try to maintain minimal awareness, as the images and thoughts are floating through me, as I float through them, and I'm hearing the alarm clock ring, but don't believe it. And I'm right. This isn't the rhythm of my clock. Although I come to this conclusion, the sound stays, OK, don't think too much, boy, just keep on floating, a window appears in the dark.

It has a crossbar, dividing the pane into six parts. I'm standing in front of the window, looking at the street, it is daytime, bright light, still minimal aware, but without a doubt knowing, I'm in a dream now. My first impulse is to put my head through the window. I do it and see, that I'm some meters above the ground. I think, it wouldn't be clever to jump down, because I fear the dream isn't stable enough now. I turn and face the darkness behind me. That is no good, either. The dream fades. Now I remember the prolonging task. I rub my hands. I feel the friction, hands get warm. I get calmer. I try to move, but can't easily. Body seems still too awake. I can get into a slow spinning movement, while I still rub hands. I tell myself: "The next thing I will see is a dream." I want to say it "loud", but all I can produce is a whispered stammer. All I see is darkness, then everything turns grey, the dreambody dissolves and I'm feeling the physical body again.

I don't move, but try spinning one more time. Without success. I try to relax and enter some dream. Doesn't work, either. Some minutes later the alarm goes off. For real. I quit the alarm and doze from dream to dream for another 45 minutes.

Seems I have to sleep nine hours minimum to have enough. But this is the same for nights without MILD - exercise. BTW I had lucid moments all the other MILD - nights, but no blown up dreams. The false alarm seems to have the same function, as the steps and thumping, that Alan heard pre his WILD.

WILD nights for all

Ralf

I had another of those discreet little meaningless but so vivid WILDs last night. This time it was a cat. I was just drifting off, when I felt a little 'thump' on the bed, and knew immediately it was a cat - a WILD cat :-) I kept myself stable (that is, I didn't open my eyes to look, just kept a calm attention) and felt the cat walk up the bed and stretch out, purring like a Ferrari, right beside my head. I used to have cats 20 years ago, and wondered if this one was some sort of memory of the Burmese ones I had then. But the fur was too long for a Burmese (I could feel it tickling my face). I just lay there hearing this cat purring loudly and happily right by my ear, and feeling its fur tickling my cheek. I wondered if this was a prelude to an LD of broader scope, but nothing else happened. Nice, though.

Dear Alan

Nice to hear of your lucid explorations. Your WILDs are special, because they seem to involve many senses. Did I mention, that I have more and more dreams with animals? Lately I had a non LD with a dog. I felt its wet nose and tongue, what was a very special experience. Seems like the senses return into my dreamworld, I rarely feel something wet.

CU later

Ralf

Hi, Alan. All I can say about the cat dream: Wooie!! Th'th'th'eeee!! I got the hugest warm fuzzy reading about that cat. I could feel fur everywhere, and I'm still hearing it purr.

This dream was odd since I had such a difficult time finding out if I was really asleep or not. It felt like I had just finished turning onto my side, after intending that I would become lucid in my next dream, when it began.

I'm lying down in bed. Suddenly, I feel my body completely relax. It feels like I slump back into the bed an inch or two. I believe I am feeling the onset of sleep, but I am afraid to move too quickly in case I fully awaken. Slowly I push myself towards the edge of the bed and let my arm drop down. I remember Monroe had tried putting his hand through his floor to test if he was having an OBE or not, so I try and push my fingers through the floor. My fingers only slight sink into the carpet. I'm still not certain what state I'm in. I get out of bed now and look back. There is no body in my bed. It is dark. I walk over to my LED clock and check the time. My glasses aren't on, and the display is dim, so I can't be certain what time it is. No definitive reality check there either. I believe that I am really awake, but something still doesn't feel quite right. I imagine my body getting lighter and hop up to see if I can float. I fall immediately back down. I must be awake, but I feel my mind is just not quite with it. I walk into my bathroom. Upon seeing my window I think, "I better not go out that because if I am really awake I'll fall one story to the ground and kill myself.' Instead, I look at the bathroom mirror. I see my reflection. It looks normal. There aren't any distortions that I often see when I look at my body in bed. I put my hands on the counter, lean on my hands, and lift my body up into the air. My reflection does the same. But my reflection is slightly different. Perhaps my reflection is smiling too much. This time I put my head up against the mirror, look down, and push. My head goes through the mirror and into several other sections of wall. Lost in the layers of wall I decide to turn around and let myself fall. I fall backwards into another bathroom. This one has tiled floor with Roman motifs. There are still urinals there, so I'm still in modern times. In my mind I am repeating, "I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming.' As I look around I realize the whole bathroom is full of people. One person I notice immediately is a blonde gal nearby chatting with the man next to her. I say, "Excuse me! Can someone help me?' The guy next to the lady gives me an annoyed looked and everyone else just tries to ignore me. Now I see the door leading out. I open the door and walk into a mall. I see quite a few people in the mall, but a man and woman catch my eye towards the entrance of the mall. He is there to provide information, and he is helping a slightly dark skinned brunette. From the distance she looks Asian or Hispanic. I walk over to them. She begins to leave. I try to get her attention, and even call out to her as she gets near the door, but she ignores me. The man comes over and asks if he can help me. I say, "Well, yeah. I need to know where I am.' He points to a directory map of the building and points to where we are. He says the name of the place, but all I am able to remember is the word "Bonsai" is used ' perhaps the Bonsai Association or Society. As he continues to talk things begin to fade. I abruptly wake up.

John

Thanks for your detailed report

The watch test: It is over and over amazing, how the dreamers thoughts and the realistic environment veil the truth. I wonder what would have happened, if you pressed some buttons of the watch. That rarely gives the expected results. The mirror: Next time, wave your hands between you and the mirror. It was in the light and mirror - experiment, as far as I remember, that I read this. This seems to produce distortions safely. I still wonder, why these complex "graphic" tasks sometimes work fine in dreams, other times not at all. The location: Why did you ask, when you knew it was a dream? What did you expect? Was this question the reason for the dream breaking up?

Fine display of self control and lucidity, anyway

Keep on posting!

Ralf

Ralf,

Electronic and mechanical devices never seem to properly function in my dreams. I'm sure the clock would have been no different.

Your suggestion to wave my hands between me and the mirror is a good one. I'll have to try that next time.

Why did I ask where I was or for help? Frankly, both of my questions served the same purpose; to see if any of the characters in my dream would talk to me. If our "unconscious" brains generate people in our dreams to match a dream theme, how well do they respond to asking atypical questions? For that matter, how well do they answer questions related to the dream theme? The only person in this dream to answer me was a man whose job was to answer questions. All of the other strangers were silent. During the dream I was wasn't thinking specifically about all this, but I did want someone to say something!

I believe I woke up while the man was talking because I stopped moving around and lost 'physical' sensations while listening to him.

John

Hi Ted,

Just read your post of 3/13 titled "When a WILD isn't"

I call these False Wilds since I usually get them after False Awakenings. They occur fairly often when I'm trying to practice WILD techniques. It's a good illustration of how one does things in dreams that one does when awake.

I'll have have a false awakening, remember to try a WILD technique, and then suddenly find that I'm dreaming (big surprise :-). Of course it would be more efficient if I just checked whether I was dreaming after the false awakening, but I'll take any lucidity that comes my way...

I had taken a few months off trying to induce lucid dreams. For the past 3 years I averaged only 1/2 a LD a month, so I was quite frustrated. This morning at 4am I was woken by the cat rattling around with my kids toys. I decided then to try using WILD to get into a LD. After laying back down from putting the cat downstairs, I was near sleep within a few minutes. Soon I felt that weird "dissapearing body" sensation that happens at the begining of WILD. Now, this part I've done before, but usually I'd get so excited at the knowledge that I was about to enter the dream, I'd wake up. This time, I just forced myself to remain calm, and next thing i know, I'm "awake" in my bed in a dream. I get out of my dream bed, and start walking down the hallway. I look behind me to see my wife following. It's kind of creepy, since she's not talking, just sort of following me and looking at me, like she was waiting for me to do something interesting. I walk down the hall of my house and by the time I reach the end, it has morphed in to my cousin's house, which I havent been in since 1990. At that point I woke up.

I was quite excited when I woke up, but managed to get to sleep again, and entered another dream via WILD right away. This one was much shorter, consisting of me sitting up in bed and doing a reality test with my watch. When the light wouldnt come on on my watch, I confirmed I was dreaming. I awake right away.

I think I'm going to use WILD exclusively for a while. DILD has never worked for me.

Hi fellow wild dreamers! I was curious about a sensation I have been experiencing recently when I attempt to induce a wild. I know there are always a variety of weird sensations but one in particular has got me wondering. It happens while I am relaxing my body and letting go of the day's stress and thoughts. My right thigh begins to tingle and go numb, sometimes spreading throughout my body. Some days it feels kind of relaxing, at other times it's a real distraction. I always try not to move my body at all while using wild, but this persistent feeling causes me to slap my leg and rub the numbness out of it. It drives me nutty! One time after trying to induce a wild my leg went numb and it felt numb for the rest of the day. It was really annoying. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions pertaining to this odd phenomenon? Why does my leg go numb? Is this "normal'? All input is appreciated.

Ryan,

It is true that many people feel strange sensations as they ENTER sleep. What you describe is different. You should consult your physician as you may be suffering from a pinched nerve or some other disorder.

John

Hi dreamers. I wanted to discuss a weird type of dream I have been experiencing. I have been doing the nap technique every weekend, twice. Every Friday morning and Saturday morning I have done this, for about 3 and a half months now. I now have 2-4 lucid dreams a weekend. I do wild. All I really do to get in the dream is wait for hypnagogic images to begin appearing, then try to feel my way into the dream with tactile sensations. I lay down and don't move a muscle; my body gets numb, always starting with my right thigh. I then hear sounds, voices, weird noises, et cetera. When I hear sounds that sound as if they are coming from my apartment I know the hypnagogic images are soon to follow. So I relax, and wait. The first sporadic hypnagogic images that begin appearing are what I call hazy. Then they become short dreamlets, also hazy in appearance. When I first started this method I thought "Oh I don't care about dreamlets" I figured them to be like random thought patterns. I did not think of them as dreams scenes that can be entered.

But then one night I had the following random lucid dream:

I lay down to sleep and felt a jolt. You know when you get that feeling of a jolt coming down from your neck when playing with wilds? It was like that. I saw a small river and felt I was there in it. I began to swim through it and started getting very strong tactile sensations. I clearly felt that I was in the water, and brushed by something slimy. I felt my arms and legs swimming through the water even though the water was very shallow. I decided why did my body have to be human anyway? Then I became a panther that I have been before in dreaming. I began trotting through the water and decided to climb up the riverbank. I saw my paws in front of me, digging into the earth. I saw something to my left. It was a large form. As I looked it became a huge lion. There was another form near it, a lioness. She walked towards me as if curious. I started to get frightened but then realized that here, I too was a feline. I trotted over to a group of three lions (I think) I never really saw them clearly. They had scratched or drawn some images into the dirt. I believe it was an attempt to communicate with me. They called me "The one who dreams scenes'.

I hadn't relaxed at all and had been lying down for about one minute. The entire dream was hazy, almost as if it was superimposed on a snowy TV screen. It was similar to when I visualize something and can see it very vaguely in my mind's eye, but with slightly more cohesion. I could recognize the environment, and use tactile sensations to stabilize the dream scene. The entrance happened very fast, as if it was all a matter of timing. It felt to me as if I had somehow slowed down the jolt that I had felt and interpreted it in a different way, thereby rearrange uniformity and cohesion in a more intelligent manner that my interpretation system could recognize. If these jolts are dreams interpreted differently due to lack of cohesion then perhaps slowing them down could lead to greater control, and more dream experiences. I will often have many of such jolts during a wild attempt. The above dream; however, is the first time I have ever entered into one as a dream scene!

Anyhow, all strange theories aside, I had a similar experience last night while using the nap technique. This time however, it happened more times than I could remember the dreams that occurred. I was cycling through them waiting for one with good visual quality so that I could enter it. I had about 3 dreams with that vague quality of imagery, where I used tactile sensations to get into them. At a given time the dream would fade and then a new more vivid dream would happen next. Vividness increased with each successive dreamlet that I entered. Finally I was in a dream state with great clarity. I entered it and had some fun.

I am calling these "light dreams" for their lack of visual cohesion. I am aware in these dreams although they seem harder to recall than other types of dreams. Also I am fully aware in these dreams with a minimal awareness of my body, which usually feels numb. I believe that using the nap technique with wild is helping me tremendously in terms of getting into these dreams, and is causing me to have spontaneous lucid dreams and wilds during the week due to the fact that I am getting familiar with the process.

So, has anyone any light to shed on this type of dream experience?

P.S. I originally created a new topic for this post in open conversation but for some reason it didn't work.

Ryan, I think this is the right place to post this experience. It would simply be lost or we blow up the number of threads unnecessary. This is the WILD thread...

Thanks for going into detail. I still have these weird experience in my WILD and MILD sessions, that sound very similar to yours. If you go back some time in this thread, you might find an earlier posting of me regarding these type of dreams. I do have fuzzy dreams AND seem to perceive my physical body somewhat, still. I interpret the whole thing as overlapping models. I think the "sleeping body" model still has some "power" due to external stimuli not entirely cut off. But sometimes you should be able to move this model, because it is now and then cut off from sensory feedback. Try that. Then you'll perhaps experience something like "OBE".

I don't count these experiences as something new. But nonetheless I sometimes have the impression, they open up some special occasions to work on physical body through dreambody, maybe for healing purposes.

Keep on researching and upgrade us...

Ralf

The Lucidity Institute Forum: Open Conversation: Had my 1st wild!! amazingly 3 back to back

By KLatchsnow (Latch) (64.12.97.13) on Saturday, September 28, 2002 - 11:09 pm:

3 In a row- in the early morning as usual for LDs for me. Each one was longer than the preceeding. The 4th did'nt happen. I think I was too wound up about the 1st 3. In each dream I dremt I was in bed, so when I got out of bed in the dreams I constantley reality checked because whenever I dream that I am in my home I continually need to check wether I am awake or not. Door handles & simple things of this sort where always different keeping me reminded that I was dreaming. Been trying again, & I know i'm close becase of the sinking feeling I get when I fall asleep. But I've never been so consiouse while this is happening. Thanks to La Berge's sugestions in "Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming" I was sucsesful.

Latch,

I posted this to the place, that seemes to be the home for WILDs. And just want to add my congratulations. Good display of lucidity and RCs, while going through what sounds like a row of false awakenings.

Keep us posted on progress and excuse the long delay, please. Most people were busy these days.

Yours Ralf

Prior to going to bed I was reading a Nagual Carlos Castaneda interview. It described a method of saying out loud, "I am a dreamer'. I did this before I went into dreaming. I said, "I am a dreamer. I am a being that is going to die. I am a dreamer. I am a being that is going to die.' In the interview he said it does not matter if you believe what you are saying, your mind will believe. He said a lie doesn't exist that there is no intent behind a lie. I was kind of excited when I went to sleep; here was a dreaming procedure that I have never tried. Vocalizing affirmations just prior to dreaming. I had seen the effect vocalizing had in dream states, often radically affecting the clarity of the dream far beyond what I have normally perceived.

I lay down, stretching and relaxing my body. I got into a comfortable position that I wouldn't get the urge to move from for awhile. I then slowed down my thoughts and waited for hypnagogic images to appear. I kept seeing weird looking fibers moving around. After about two minutes my right thigh went numb, like it always does. I lay there waiting and an indefinite amount of time went by. Perhaps a few minutes perhaps a half an hour.

I then noticed that my whole body was numb, but it was a very pleasant feeling rather than a disturbing one, as it has been in the past. I felt as if something inside me moved or shifted. It was a feeling of sliding, shifting momentum. I could now see my bedroom behind my closed eyelids. (What a mess, must be laundry time. ) There was a dark fiber, or strand in my room. It was sort of hovering in the air. It was about 2 feet long, and seemed to be slightly bent in the middle. It wasn't sitting still but sort of bouncing around the room, as if alive and ready to take off at a moments notice. For some odd reason a dream hand of mine stretched out to my side and made a beckoning motion at the strand. What prompted me to do that I may never know it was a purely instinctive reaction to my dream. It bounced and floated straight at me. It went straight into me. I merged with it. Or it merged with me. It moved me around pushing me this way and that within myself. I felt it distinctly. It was fluttering inside me, as if it had wings. I felt how I could take off with it. It spun me around; I was twisting and turning. I felt how it was an impersonal force. It was intent, intent of flying off, of movement. It was the intent of the mystery of dreaming, the intent of the navigator who explores the mystery of the unknown. The sudden feeling that I had merged with something abstract and impersonal gave me a jolt of fright, I let out an audible sound of fear in my dream and woke up.

I lay there in bed not moving. My body was still totally numb. I took five or six deep breaths. My entire chest was tingling, I could feel it moving against my shirt. I thought to stay still and not move, to try and reenter dreaming. My breathing distracted me, I could feel my lungs filling with oxygen, deep long satisfying breath. It struck me then, that this was a magical thing, just breathing. The sensation of breathing was somehow intensified due to my paralysis. I moved my arm and the strange feeling vanished, and my whole body was instantly not numb anymore, except for my right thigh, which took a minute or two to feel normal again. Forty minutes had gone by. I was wide awake and a bit exhilarated by the whole experience, as I usually am when I am able to enter dreaming direct from waking without the preliminary five hours of sleep from the nap technique.

Ryan

Thanks for sharing your WILD experience. And congratulations to bridging the gap one more time.

You know about the role of expectation and how it may frame and mould our experience. I think for this reason you wrote, that you read on Castaneda before.

There is one aspect to Castaneda's experiences, that is he was often fearful. I can say, that this has been the case for me, too, especially with trying WILD. But there is an aspect to his writings and the teachings of Don Juan, that is they deal a lot with impersonal forces, with guides etc, that can "materialise" in your dreams or waking physical life. Especially for the WILD thing these stories can have some impact, on what you experience.

And I don't want to say, that it isn't possible to experience that. But from my experience, especially in the last month with the ASDreams psi dreams conference I can say, it is extremely difficult to directly and clearly communicate with another being in dreamstate. Note: I don't say it isn't possible. It is the other way round: I experienced psi effects, that I don't personally doubt, although the frame of the conference wasn't a controlled experiment. It was a contest. So this doesn't add to proof of psi. What I want to say is just, that it is important to keep that mind open, but someone said to me, not so open, that your brain falls out. And I don't exactly aim to you and your dreamreport with what I write, but this is more a general comment to the subject of the reality of dreamcharacters or other "external" influences.

Crossing the bridge of worlds

Yours Ralf

Yes I know the role of expectation. That was my point, actually. How absurdly easy lucid dreaming can be if we can convince ourselves that our expectations are real rather than instilling doubt. If I tell myself I am a dreamer, meaning that I can easily go into a dream state at any time, and believe it, then I can surely expect my wild attempt to succeed. If I add to that, say, the psychological pressure of the fact that I am human and as such, my time is short. I am going to die someday, maybe ten minutes from now, maybe 10 years from now. The message here is there is no time to waste! So there is no time to waste, and I am a dreamer. Therefore, I am highly apt to succeed.

I tried this again last night. I told myself the same thing. I am a dreamer, I'm human and it's my fate, as it is for all humans, to die. I said it out loud and convincingly.

Interestingly enough, I had a lucid dream last night. I don't use reality checks, as they have never worked for me, so I can't say it was just a random reality check. I think it was the firm intention setting, the out loud vocalization.

The fear thing can't really be attributed to a specific belief system. It's a common occurrence in wilds. It's the realness of the event, I believe, that leads to this fear. In this particular case I realized I was doing something really weird and unknown to me. It was an utterly new experience for sensory interpretation, one that holds no comparison to the waking world. It was just a jolt of fear at the end, the experience wasn't ruled by fear. I went through this phase of being scared to death of the weird things that happened to me in wilds. That was about 12 years ago. This fear wore off after awhile, as I became accustomed to routinely experiencing sleep paralysis. But, still fear can be interjected into our dreams, albeit it happens rarely anymore to me.

Also just to clarify I did not see this "strand" as some type of entity. There has been no description of such an event as a precursor to the dream I had. It was an original experience, not outlined in someone's teachings or books. That is the beauty of perceiving it's truly to each there own interpretation system. It has always been my way to remain an unbiased witness to dreaming, and not come up with wild irrational conclusions that affect my waking state in anyway. I don't run around in the daily world seeing oddities that aren't there. Although I can visualize pretty good now, and can sometimes conjure images that seem as if they are superimposed on the world around me, somewhat like hypnagogic imagery.

I am ever open to new possibilities though, trust me, my brain hasn't fallen out.

Ryan,

I trust you.

Thanks again for your inspiring thoughts and report.

Intention is indeed very important. And I too feel that death is a good advisor. If you are ready to bring this intensity to the moment of planting intention into mind, the effect will be great. Congratulations. Tholey and Stephen and many others do advise the reflection / INTENTION exercise.

And speech is useful to guide thinking, as Stephen mentioned in relation to prolonging lucidity.

Keep on good work

Yours Ralf

Hi Ralf, indeed this has been working for me! I am surprised at how easy I have been dreaming aware this week. It has made enough of a difference making these statements that I have added it to my nightly practice. It has worked three times out of four, and the fourth time I was really tired. I had a cluster of lucid dreams very early in the night, a rarity. It was so obvious when I found myself in a dream at one point that I was laughing hilariously at the dream sign. I woke up giddy with exhilaration. I also had an amusing experience of stretching way out of my body, but my feet were still attached. I stretched out about 25 feet it seemed, and then snapped back like a rubber band. It was all very fluid, the transitional stages of hypnagogic imagery and numb body were non-existent, or just glossed over. A cluster of three lucid dreams, all from just saying "I am a dreamer" two times before passing out.

Thanks for all your input, as always I like to hear your point of view.

P.S. I think my brain has fallen out before.

Ryan

I tried "I'm a dreamer" the other night. Felt good, intensely, but didn't have a LD.

I keep on trying It is so good to share experiences and success!!

Ralf

Had a successful WILD this morning. I woke up at 2am, went to the bathroom, got back into bed, and then decided to try WILD. I started counting 1, I'm dreaming, 2, I'm dreaming, etc., then by 38 I was 'awake' in my dream (tho still in bed). The dream is foggy, Im not in total control. With effort, I raise my hands in front of my face to try to bring the dream into more detail. My hands are only half there! The palms are missing! What fun! I get up from bed, still very foggy, and walk down the hall. I can't see out of my right eye; it feels like I have a large wool hat pulled over the whole right side of my head. Since it is a dream, I decide to try to float down the hall. I jump up and forward, and float slowly down to the floor and bounce a little. I then wake up.

BTW, what is the appropriate topic group to discuss the effects of medication (like Zoloft) on dreaming, lucid or not?

Richard deCosta, Composer http://www.RicharddeCosta.com

Richard!

Congrats to your WILD. I commented re Zoloft in the "Frustration group" thread. You could make up a new thread or use "Your diet and your dreams" in the "Research, ..." folder.

WILD dreams for everybody!

Hi, fellow dreambodies. I just wanted to report that I had a WILD. It didn't last but it's (I think) the third time I got lucid with this technique and that's very encouraging. Most night's when my alarm goes off I decide I'm too tired to procede with the technique and I just go back to sleep. But last night I got up and re-watched a movie (the importance of being earnest)while doing artwork, then went back to sleep. In the arly a.m. I was having a non-lucid about taking each exit I came to on an interstate, and how in every town I stopped at, there was nothing happening, as if the towns were stage sets, or as if something supernatural was going on. No one else seemed to notice until this one woman did, that I started talking to in a parking lot. But she didn't seem to have the conceptual theory I did - she just noticed it was happening. I tried to tell her what I thought about the phenomenon, but she didn't seem to really listen. She just seemed to find it interesting, whereas I was seeing something major and trying to figure out what was going on. She was smiling and friendly, and waved at me as she went to get back in her car. I was walking in the parking and realized that given what was going on, I must be dreaming. The scene was very vivid and real, with bright daylight, people walking around and some trees at the edge of the lot. I was very sure I was dreaming, and told myself I was, and convinced myself to realize it. As if I were two people, or something. Anyway, I believed myself and got into lucidity. To experiment, I decided to make a little girl who was walking in front of me fly. I had to concentrate on her, and she turned around and looked at me. I didn't let that stop me from continuing to focus on her. She turned ahead again, and then I made her lift way up off the ground. I wondered if she might be upset, but I heard her make a delighted, amazed sound, so I knew she enjoyed the experience. After that I couldn't stay lucid and woke. But at least I got there. I'll try this method again tonight, although it still would not be my preferred way to LD.

Hi WILDers!

As you know I'm pretty new in the forum, but although I know that WILD means wake-initiated-LD I still can't define this properly. But I'm sure I had my first one a few months ago.

For example: I go to sleep and have those vivid, seemingly already independent "hallucinations" - not yet a dream, but not a daydream either... And if this condition leads me directly into a LD it's a WILD. BUT: when I start dreaming (unconsciously) after those "hallucinations" and then start dreaming lucid by a conventional reality check or dreamsign.. is it still a WILD?

Or must a WILD contain a non-interrupted consciousness?

Thanks for your help!

Natalie

Natalie, in my experience wild is falling asleep consciously, with uninterrupted awareness of an ongoing process. However sometimes while attempting wild there will be a brief "lapse" of self awareness, like a dream-let type scenario totally non-lucid. The dream-lets can happen really fast like a passing thought without conscious volition. I'm not sure if this is losing awareness or more of a passive witnessing of a subconscious thought pattern. If you're aware of it as a passing thing, then you haven't really lost awareness. Most of my successful wilds I am visualizing my self moving through some imagined dream scene, usually a familiar place that is easier for me to visualize. At a certain point the conditions are just right and whoosh I'm sucked into the dream scene. Now, if I have entered a full on normal dream without awareness, and suddenly conclude that I am dreaming through a reality check, Id say it wasn't a successful wild. I consider this type of dreaming to fall more under the heading of mild/intention setting with varying lengths of unconscious lapses into non-lucid dreams.

Dream free!

@ Ryan: Thanks for your help, it offered me a good idea of the definition - or its difficulty ;)

Einen wunderschönen Tag!

I think it's time for my first WILD to share. As I mentioned above, I'm not really familiar with the exact definition of a WILD - maybe there is none - but hopefully you can get an accurate picture of this - not important if WILD or DILD..

Nevertheless I enjoyed it, although it felt odd and somehow frightening at first.

I was unusually tired this day and went to bed late at night. Despite my exhaustion and tiredness I could't sleep and I turned over and over till I finally could relax. While trying to sleep I was busy with thoughts - emotionally involved with a serious, recent problem. While thinking about a solution, I strolled lost in thought through a small book-shop. (The dream started unconsciously whereas I was still thinking consciously). When I noticed some books I'd like to read, I felt content about the fact that I was dreaming in particular about these books lucidly - so that I can have a look in it, and see what my mind creates.

But suddenly this idea was disturbed by a penetrating sound. I looked for the origin of this noise and finally found some kind of "bio-machine" that throbs and rustled. I felt deeply disturbed by that until I realized that this actually was my own heartbeat and my breathing. And because I always know during my LD's in which position my body is lying in bed (I Kind of sense it), I remembered to check this - and with this try to sense my body the visual dream faded and all there was, was black.

But I still wasn't awake, I felt not even near to it. Instead of waking up the noise of my heartbeat grows louder, until another noise joins in: a extremely odd sound of maybe in part bells, clicking, roaring, even electronic sounds seem to mix with all the others. I never heard something like this before...

I knew that my brain must be producing this. I started to feel uncomfortable... The noise developped into screams; screams of a dozen men, roaring into my left (or right?) ear. Again I thought I must still be dreaming, it surely will fade soon. But then I had the feeling that somebody was punching beside me on the bed; and I thought: hum, maybe it's my father who wants to wake me up (maybe for school), so I tried to open my eyes to check this; but I couldn't move anything.

Now I started to get afraid, because in the same instant I started to feel extremely intense vibrations; I felt like having epilepsy and I thought about being seriously ill or maybe even dying - but although this all seemed too strange and much too intense I knew it was alright, and knew that my real-body wasn't shaking (althoug it felt like my real body - well, almost... It felt like my body would be a second cover to another body which now was shaking). I had the feeling of having an accurate sense of time, so that must have lasted for at least 2 minutes (this is a long time if you're unable to move) and slowly the vibration turned into smooth, energetic pulsating. I calmed down a bit, so I tried to move once again. But loosing the control over it, I was snatched and thrown somewhere. Into my room? Surprisingly not. I suddenly stood in front of a window which was definitely not mine, but without a doubt real. It was dark outside - as I expected - and before the window there was a light-colored desk. A quite broad one, with integrated shelves. Ouside there was a street lamp with pale, white light. My view was a bit dim - like it would be in reality due to the darkness. Convinced that I was able to walk around I tried to do a step toward the desk, but again couldn't move. Although I felt my own weight on my feet, I had no control over them. In general I felt quite good - healthy and strong and warm. I knew it wouldn't lead to anything if I made a reality check... I could't anyway. But.. in the view of this irrational experience I was now getting really scared and confused, and started to weep. But before I could weep I felt for a second like flying or dissolving and again these smooth vibrations. I finally woke up and immediatly felt ill; but also immediatly awake. After I checked my body for injuries or malfunctions etc. I was so upset that I just bursted out of my room phoning my brother telling him that something has happend. I thought: Tell this somebody or nobody will believe you. I must have sounded so excited and upset that he thought we'd have an emergency or anything.

From the moment I got into bed and awoke, passed half an hour (I checked my watch), so the initial WILD and the following something may have lasted about 7 min.

Has anybody experienced anything similar? Maybe I should add, that afterwards I was quite positive about this, I don't know exactly why; but the next days I simply felt good. Even the following weeks I still have been excited about that night (and still I wonder about it a lot, although I meanwhile found my own kind of explanation for this).

Thank you for listening

Have a wonderful time,

Natalie

Hi Natalie.

You said, ' Has anybody experienced anything similar? Maybe I should add, that afterwards I was quite positive about this, I don't know exactly why; but the next days I simply felt good.'

I always feel quite exhilarated after lucid dreams, and wilds in particular. Sometimes it is only for the rest of the day, and sometimes for weeks to come. It just feels great to get there! I love it. Sometimes wilds can be intense and cause a little bit of fear due to their intensity. I recall one time I kept falling into dream paralysis and was in a fearful mood, weird things in my room and me paralyzed. I would wake up again and not move, and tell myself ok, this cant be scary It's a dream, I'm going back in. Then find myself in the dream again with a similar reaction. I went in and out of paralysis like this about 5 times and finally the fear was gone. It is just so real at times, and I get convinced that I really can't move, and the fear of not moving manifest into horrible things popping in and out of my room.

The odd sounds your say you hear, the bio machine and the weird screaming, and the odd sensations of someone punching the bed beside you, and the feeling of intense vibrations are all symptoms of dream paralysis and commonly occur during wilds. I had a friend who had been experiencing this all the time when he went to sleep and he thought he had epilepsy. I asked him if it only happened when he was lying down, then explained to him that he was on the verge of lucid dreaming at those times. As it turns out he didn't have epilepsy at all, but for some reason he was always at this stage when he went to bed. He had gone to the doctor many times and the doctor didn't have a clue what was wrong with him. Nothing was wrong with him.

You said,' But before I could weep I felt for a second like flying or dissolving and again these smooth vibrations"

Dissolving is one of my favorite things to do in a wild. It can be really intense if you go with it. I recently had a dream that I exploded with tiny particles from the inside out. It was a burst of golden whitish energy particles, and I was all of them. Tiny particles of individual consciousness, or a damn good dream creation of such an effect! This type of dream gets me pumped for weeks after, it has a sort of euphoric effect on me.

So in answer to your question yes I have experienced similar sensations and occurrences such as you report.

Well since this is the post your wilds topic, I'll post my most recent wild while I'm here.

Okay I admit it I went and bought a book on o.b.e. It is my belief that whether or not the soul leaves the body or its all a lucid dream is a moot point when it comes to techniques, out of body books have a great many to choose from.

So I tried some of the techniques to produce the following dreaming aware experience. The whole process was very smooth, and remarkably successful. I tensed and relaxed all my body parts, from head to toe. I did some tactile sensation techniques, which involve creating stimulation in your legs by focusing on them. Then I did the same with arms. The exercise is to kind of feel awareness in those areas, the entire leg then arms. It is amazing the weird tingling sensations that happen when you do this. Then after that I played around with what they call raising energy through the chakras, which in short, basically involves more of the same tactile sensations, this time through the middle of the body. This whole process took about 2 minutes. Then I moved on to what was called trance induction. Looking over the methods of trance induction I realized it was all basically a redundant visualization involving movement. So I came up with my own, and visualized a large boulder slowly rolling downhill. I did this for about one minute.

Quite abruptly I felt as if I was sliding to my right. The feeling was kind of localized in my head. Which makes sense. I felt as if I was sliding to my right, and it felt as if I had moved about 15 feet that direction. I knew this was my window of opportunity. My perception around me was totally black, as if I was staring at the blackness behind my eyelids, but I knew better. I couldn't possibly slide to my right if I wasn't already asleep. I knew if I believed myself to have had an out of body experience then I could end up in a recreation of my bedroom. How boring! I put my hands into the blackness of the dream and pulled each direction as if ripping open a veil. When I did this a vertical beam of white light appeared and I went through it. I was in a dream! I was in a very beautiful neighborhood. As has become a habit for me, I shouted "Clarity Now!' and the imagery around me sharpened with unbelievable clarity and crispness. My thought then was that this place was as real perceptually as anything I have ever experienced in waking was. I was in a very nice housing development, on the street. On either side of me were very nice 2 story homes. The street was very well kept, not freshly paved but smooth and new looking. The sidewalks had not square curbs but nice rounded ones. The houses had a wide variety of architectural designs. They seemed to be mostly painted in different shades of brown and light brown. Front yards were small but brightly lit with plush green grass and plants. I decided to fly down the middle of the street, and just take in the scenery. The sky was bright blue and sparsely littered with small white fluffy clouds. Everything around me had an energetic glow, not sure how to describe this accurately save to say things were very crisp and clean. In other dreams of housing communities that I have had the houses were redundant and all looked the same. Not so here! The only true oddity about the place was it's apparent desolation. There were no vehicles in any of the driveways or people walking about. I was going to fly about until I found some sign of life but the experience ended as I woke up, amazed at the ease of the whole experience.

Dream free!

Hi Natalie,

About 70% of my lucid dreams have been WILD or OBE types. The vast majority of them begin with pulsing sensations through my "body." Several of them were accompanied by sounds (rushing pulses, music, etc.) or images. Before I knew what was happening the fear of the unknown turned all these types of dreams into nightmares. Now they never are, although the sounds and images can be disturbing during the transition into my dream. My experience is that when I attempted to resist the experience the dream became negative, when I let go and tried to fully experience them I had positive dreams.

In my experience I find that whether I become lucid in a dream or have an OBE/WILD experience the world in which I find myself is still nothing more than a creation of my own mind.

John

Using Awareness hands to "feel" inside my brain to induce wilds.

The other day I decided to try a new wild technique. Using imaginary hands that I partially visualize, and partially feel, I began to probe around in my brain while falling asleep consciously. Oddly it was easy to create weird sensations within my skull where my brain would be. Wherever I moved my "hands" a stirring tickling sensation would appear, as if I actually stimulated that part of my brain and solicited a response. My reasoning was that since the brain is responsible for lucid dreaming then why shouldn't I attempt to focus on the brain when inducing wilds. I speculate that it might even be possible to solicit certain responses by triggering certain areas within the brain. I feel I should learn more about the brain, it's sort of surprising that I know next to nothing about my own brain in this day and age. Remind me to buy a book on it or something. Anyhow, I moved my "hands" all around in my skull, getting all kinds of weird sensations that to me signified that I was entering into the pre-dreaming stage where hypnagogic imagery appears. The image of a purple ball appeared suddenly. It had about ten tentacles coming off of it ending in suction cups. It was sort of grotesque in appearance. As suddenly as it appeared it vanished. It had appeared inside my head; or rather I had started to dream that it was inside my head. Then, just as suddenly I was looking at someone lying in bed. Funny it looked just like me. Oh wait it was definitely me. It was a stagnant dream scene of myself, lying in bed. I felt a weird spiraling sensation inside my skull. It felt as if it was spiraling up out of the top of my head. I woke up fully at this point, intrigued at the response I had got from this type of focus. Today I again tried this technique. I felt very rested after about ten minutes of probing around with my imaginary hands in my brain, and had several dream-lets that came and went so fast that I hardly noticed them. It didn't seem very effective no intense images or anything. Then I opened my eyes, thinking whatever I had been doing wasn't very effective. A small black rat-like shadow was crawling across my closet door. As I watched in amazement it slowly dissipated. I was fully awake but did a reality check just in case. I will be playing with this technique a bit more as the first two tries have had interesting results. Seeing imagery while fully awake doesn't occur that often so I was surprised at this. If the brain can be stimulated in this way to effectively trigger different results, just think of the possibilities in terms of control. Just sharing some wild speculations. (Pun intended) Dream free.

Thats an interesting idea, Ryan. Robert Ornestien published an excellent illustrated book entitled 'The Amazing Brain' sometime ago, it covers the architecture of the brain in some detail. Probably best to keep your fingers away from the reptilean area though, you might get bitten!

Ryan:

The Society for Neuroscience has many available resources including a "52-page primer on the brain and nervous system" called Brain Facts, which can be downloaded from their website.

Joshua

Joshua, a great website reference! Thanks, Edwin.

Glad you dig the site, Edwin (yeah, that's a bad archaeology pun). Incidentally, if you search their Public Resources for the string 'dream' you will receive a link titled "Neurobiology of Dreams". This link points to a page in what used to be an electronic magazine titled "Brain and Mind" ('used to,' i.e. the link now returns an error--I have notified SfN's webmaster). Don't know what happened to it. If anybody does, please share.

Joshua

Hi Joshua, the link you referred to (thanks, saved me a lot of time) is alive and well. I hadn't any problem downloading texts like Neurobiology of dreams: electrical activity and Neurobiology of dreams: neural mechanisms. Interesting stuff; it will take some time to digest though. Wishing you high voltage dreams, Edwin.

You're quite right, Edwin: the problems that I experienced w/ that link were my own. Cool, there's some good stuff there.

We now return you to your ir/regularly scheduled WILDs.

Joshua

Hi lucid dreamers how are you? After an upheaval in my personal life that disrupted my lucid dreaming routines the nap technique succeeds in breaking the dry spell. Having overcome the mental distractions and emotional responses that this upheaval caused in my life I was ready to get back into lucid dreams, but found I could not. I had been at a lucid dreaming prime of 10-20 lucid dreams a month and had plummeted down to 0 a month. I knew it was my frame of mind that was holding me back, I was depressed. Even though I half-heartedly tried to continue my lucid dream work it was all to no avail. When I was over my depression I felt I was ready, but nothing seemed to be working. So I tried the nap technique, and on the third try I finally got lucid. I had a brief non-lucid dream then awoke and initiated 2 wilds. I just have to say, I love this nap technique, and because I'm bored and there haven't been many posts of late, I will share my wilds.

Nap technique 5/10/03 4:50 a.m.

Woke at 4:00 a.m. stayed awake for about 36 minutes and then laid down to sleep. When I begun this session I did a quick mental check to make sure I was relaxed throughout my body. Then I laid down, occasionally reminding myself of my intent by mentally repeating "Now I'm out of body'. I intentionally tried to keep all my mental and visual processes inside my head, where my brain is. I playfully searched for the "brain button" that is supposed to stimulate out of body experiences. I immediately began to get weird sensations and images of my brain as well as random hypnagogic imagery. Roughly 14 minutes later I fell asleep. I had a brief non-lucid dream about Tomas and Melissa. I wrote my name down several times, followed by my phone number. The first time I wrote my name and number I did not like the looks of it and crumpled it up, sticking it in my pocket. The second time I tore a corner off a larger sheet of paper and wrote my number and name down on it. Then I held it up and examined it, and something was odd about it but I could not figure it out. Tomas appeared in the background of my apartment hallway, walking towards me. Melissa was never more than a vague presence in the background but I knew she was there. I woke from this still in good form I had not moved my body and I was deeply relaxed and aware. For whatever odd reason I felt compelled to try and roll into the dream. Actually in retrospect I do recall that my bed had felt as if it was pointing the wrong direction within my room, I believe it was this subtle clue that made me realize my situation. I rolled myself forward like I was curling in on myself. It felt like a forward somersault, but not quite possible to achieve physically, as my dream body was too tightly curled. This was an extremely fast yet intense sensation, and quite abruptly I was standing at the base of my bed in a dream copy of my room. I was right in front of the door. Tiny golden flecks of light were sort of superimposed throughout the dream scenery. They reminded me of raindrops frozen in time, and they were slightly stretched vertically. "Clarity Now!' I verbally demanded loudly in the dream. Nothing really changed so I moved through the already open doorway and into my hallway. I was repeating the phrase clarity now on occasion if it felt I was losing visual coherence. Also I stayed moving, at least until I got to my closed front door. I paused at the door, for too long. I woke up. Once again I had not moved my body one-inch. I was still deeply relaxed and dreamy. I immediately rolled into the dream in the exact same fashion as before. I was standing in the exact same place as before and moved again to the doorway repeating clarity now. Everything was super-similar to the first dream, right down to the golden motes of light. I got to the doorway and paused again. I quickly remembered that there was no need to try and go through the door like a ghostly spirit thereby blacking out the dream imagery which usually causes me to awaken. So I simply reached out my hand and opened the door. I was outside and it was dark. As usual whenever I enter an open space it causes me some vertigo and threatens to initiate the waking process. Repeating my favorite phrase "Clarity Now" I step out side. My verbal commands are not working so great at the moment and I sense a hazing out of the dream environment. Recognizing this I throw in some tactile sensations. I hunch down and touch the rock embedded cement sidewalk as I walk along dragging my hand across its uneven surface. It seems there is plenty of distracting texture there. I can feel the varying shapes of rocks protruding from the cement in uneven shapes and odd patterns. Wobbling along like some freaky hunchback I take a left turn between two apartment buildings, a dream copy of the apartment I live in and the adjacent one. I get about mid way between the path that leads between them when I notice a woman walking up behind me. She does not see me, as I am hunkered down in the shadows. Feeling a bit playful I pop up from my crouched position and growl. The growl comes out far harsher and more primal than I ever intended. With a frightened look my direction, as if she could not see me very well or pinpoint me with her eyes she turned and ran the direction she had come from. "Wait, come back, don't be frightened!' I yell after her. Too late she is long gone. Standing there watching her run off I have half a mind to follow her. But I have pondered and stood still for far too long, and disengaged tactile sensations. I wake up.

Dream Free!

Ryan:

Welcome back! You have been missed!

And thanks for sharing your dream(s), which provided a true tour de force of the lucid dreaming lexicon -- preparation, intent, reality checks, hypnagogic imagery, even prolonging and WILD techniques. I'm glad you were able to put that kind of expertise back into action, and hope you'll share more in the future.

Your descriptions were very clear, but I have just one question: who are Tomas and Melissa? J

Thanks for rejoining the currently quiet fray. I hope that you continue your return to lucidity, and continue to share.

Peter

Thanks Peter, for the warm welcome back.

As for who those two are; just friends of mine, and there is a story about trying to give my number to one of them, but Im not going to get into that now

I will continue to share, as I enjoy it, and it gives me motivation to sit at my computer desk and type out detailed descriptions of my lucid dreams, which in turn gives me more motivation to have lucid dreams.

Sometimes it takes a bit of motivation to drag yourself out of bed at 4:00 am on a weekend, but I must say, the nap technique has been well worth the effort.

Hi all,

This morning I had three waking induced lucid dreams one after the other. They happened at 7am which is a good time for me.

The first was the most vivd, the second and third more foggy.

The biggest problem I face is staying calm at the realisation of lucidity and prolonging it.

Another problem I have is that some of my WILD's are really foggy, and I find it very difficult to move. This prevents spinning, rubbing hands etc.

Just about the only thing I can move in these situations, is my eyes and eyelids. I feel that I can regain some mobility in the rest of my body, by gradually opening my eyes; But as I do so, I feel myself waking up. I open up one eye gradually and find that I can move my limbs a little, but I feel half awake (it feels like everything I do is in slow motion). I open the other eye gradually, to gain a little more control only to find that I awake soon after.

I must do a reality check at this point, because sometimes this proves to be a false awakening, but mostly it is not.

The first WILD started out a bit foggy, but as soon as I left my living room through the patio doors it quickly changed into vibrant colour. I was suprised to find the garden and surroundings all sparkling with frost (in reality it is summer time of course). The layout of my garden and the surrounding houses was completely different from real life. The lanes and streets, layout of the gardens and paths etc was completely different from real life. I began to recognise this landscape from a series of non lucid dreams I had had before, it felt odd like I was visiting a place I had been before. It strikes me on waking that I have had non lucid dreams containing this sort of content, but I have not always remembered them well enough to document them.

I now feel a slightly better connection between my dream self and waking self.

Geoff.