WILD Awareness Training Article Candidate

[pj]

In the original thread, Freespirit gives permission to use this as an article and publish it up front.

This is a simple technique for those who wish to improve their awareness on the borderline of sleep. Those of you who have read Stephen LaBerge's exploring the world of lucid dreaming may recognise the following quote:

Stevenson was not explicit about whether his brownies were characters of lucid dreams. It appears from his reports that they were mental images that appeared during lucid hypnagogic reverie. The technique the writer used was to lie in bed with his forearm perpendicular to the mattress. He found that he could drift easily into his familiar fantasy workshop, and if he fell into a deeper sleep, his forearm would fall to the mattress and awaken him.

So basically you lie down to go to sleep, as you get closer to sleep raise your forearm so its balanced at the elbow. It shouldn't feel in any way uncomfortable, and you should be able to continue your descent into sleep as normal. If you're not sure what i mean take a look at one of Da Vinci's most famous works below:



The idea is simple, relax and attempt to fall asleep as normal while maintaining a thread of awareness. Observe the onset of sleep, watch as hypnotic imagery begins to form in your vision, and see how you get sucked into it and slowly lose consciousness. If at any point you actually fall asleep your arm will fall and wake you. The objective is to retain a degree of awareness and observe your body falling asleep, aswell as to practice playing on the borderlands of sleep without succumbing to it. The nice thing about this technique is that you can try as many times as you wish, usually WILD is a one shot thing (you either get it or you fall asleep).

I thought id share an extract from a recent experience to finish off:
As i fell deeper I heard what sounded like someone breathing beside me, calmly and rhythmically it continued even though i was alone in the room. I guessed it maybe the beginning of sleep paralysis or hypnogogia, but listening peacefully i realised it was my breathing, and that i had no control over it nor connection with it. Id fallen asleep, or atleast my body had, but here i was still consciously thinking with waking awareness. It was an amazingly freeing feeling. I decided to find out if my body was paralysed by moving (even though i wasn't in REM) and the experience was ended =(.

Have fun all and good luck with your lucid endevours =)

[Caradon]

Interesting. My problem is usually waking out of the WILD too soon, so I don't want to set myself up to get woken out of it on purpose. I can see how this could help people who have trouble falling asleep too fast though. Laying on my back is usually enough to enable me to stay aware during the process. I don't fall asleep very easily that way. Actually, I usually get so uncomfortable like that It's very difficult for me to remain laying that way. I keep wanting to just roll over and fall asleep.

 

[mediabat]

What happens to me is, I stay in bed observing myself sleeping for so long and suddenly WTFudge it's morning! I thought I was doing good.

[Sunshine]

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[mediabat]

  I keep forgetting to try this!  Thanks for bumping it.

No probs. I am gonna do it tonight. Report back on your result!

[feist]

I've been meaning to try this to, but i've been kinda slacking with everything dreaming.

I WILD'ed twice last week, unintentionally. I was so tired but it was to early to go to sleep... I layed down with the intent of closing my eyes and drifting for just a bit, but not really sleeping. Both times SP came over me and i found myself dreaming!

In one of the WILD's i didn't have a body... I wanted to bite my finger (RC) but my hand went straight through my head! I was in the dark so i couldn't check if i was invisible to. It was weird and has inspired me to learn to WILD now!

[Sunshine]

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[mediabat]

This is from last night.

I went to bed at midnight. I did some mindfulness meditation for 5 minutes then went to bed. As I laid there I repeated the mantra, "I wake up at 5 o'clock and remember my dream." I was also trying the WILD awareness practice. My arm became tired and I had to switch from my left to right arm. Eventually, I stopped altogether because I rested my arm for too long and in that time I fell asleep. I guess that I maybe have had my forearm up too early. Even so my forearm dropped once because I was tired so I guess it helped with awareness a little bit. No dreams were recalled when I woke up.

[The Littlest Leaf Dragon]

Posted up front.

[mediabat]

Where is up front?

[Sunshine]

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[mediabat]

http://mortalmist.com/

Oh cool thanks.

[Hazel]

I remember this technique from a while ago. I used to use it all the time, then I forgot about it. (Though I'm pretty sure I used it to keep me from falling asleep while meditating.) Now that it's the new year and I'm more focused on my dreaming, I think I might try this again for the "creative HI."

[feist]

That's great!  It seems like you will be good at it if you practice!  Try to do it every time you randomly wake up at night too.

Yes. I try to MILD as much as possible, and i'm hoping to combine the two. I've already had a couple of unintended WILD's through my MILD's. Repeating a mantra seems to be a good way for me to maintain some awareness while falling asleep!

[Hazel]

I've noticed that since I started using this technique again, my HI has started becoming a lot more powerful during the times when I'm NOT using it. This morning, for instance, I was just drifting off to sleep when a creepy voice whispering my name startled me back into awareness. I'd had some really powerful visual HI even earlier, almost like a daydream gone wild. (Which makes me think that this would be a good way to practice Jung's "active imagination.")