hi Om, welcome to these forums.
I’ll give you my honest, personal opinion, that comes from my EXPERIENCE.
I feel that it, WILD, is generally a way more fluid & dynamic thing then most resources make you believe.
I remember when I first learned about WILDing, I too thought that there are a few very concrete steps that you go through. Like the vibrations, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic state, and those kind of things. When I started meditating, and generally practicing consciously entering altered states of consciousness, I’ve quickly realized that the borders between everything are much thinner then you would think. Generally, every person experiences it differently. I started having a lot of crazy experiences, but usually I couldn’t quite categorize them into one of the common definitions, since it’s just not that simple.
I think the biggest problem with the usual approach that’s being taught is that there is too much focus on what you need to do with your body and how you need to disconnect from it etc…
But usually, when people think about not moving their body, they immediately begin to twitch. And even tiny twitches keep your body focused.
It’s all about focusing into somewhere. It’s about traveling. It’s about going somewhere without your body.
If you think hard, you can probably kinda remember , have an idea, of that short period of time, sometimes half a second or so before you drift off to sleep in which you see, and hear things. The point where your thoughts become real, where you can really listen to them and see them… You following me ?
Practice just lying down as if you are going to sleep, and get a general feel of what it’s like to stay awake with your mind while keeping your body completely still. Now again, the way to do this is not to force your body to be still. This, in effect, causes your body to be active and it becomes almost consciously impossible to make relax. Don’t take my word for it, try it.
Just focusing on being in a field, or whatever it is you want, without giving any attention to your physical body. (and of course keeping it still) will just cause you to naturally start drifting away towards non physical worlds.
Now, what happens here is personal and depends on many factors, many of which are physical, like your body temperature , blood, amounts of oxygen, and what not… Sleep paralysis, vibrations and all those and other effects are very common , but it doesn’t make any difference what you experience and it does NOT by any means, indicate how ‘on track’ you are.
If you’ve ever seen an organ that you can just like switch to make it play a different sound. It’s the same thing. It’s like switching modes in your mind. Yet doing it consciously. And it is a very natural process that we are all capable of doing . Lie down, relax, stay still, and start focusing AWAY. Once in a while, you’ll probably remember your body and feel it etc… Eventually, if you just do it gracefully and wholly, things will start to happen, you’ll start getting a feeling of being on your bed, yet bodyless. etc… Again, it’s really personal. And there are so many different ‘states’ to experience.
Generally, a few physical tips to keep in mind are:
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Keep your whole body still. Including your eyes!! Very important. If you’re twitching any part of your body, it makes it a lot harder to leave. Not impossible, you can WILD while actually talking or moving your body in other ways. But generally, if you keep your body perfectly still, it makes it almost inevitable to somehow liftoff into another dimension.
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Try it at different times of the day. A popular opinion is that morning, 30-60 minutes after waking is an ideal time. From my experience, it is quite a good time to do it usually. naps are also great. As time comes along and you become better at it, you’ll start developing a natural understand of when and how good of a time is any given time. It’s, again, quite a complex thing and it all changes dramatically depending on the foods you eat, drink, amount of exercise, etc…
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Experiment, have fun with it, and don’t be anxious for something specific. Actually, the more open minded (the less expectations you hold) the better. You might not like hearing this, but learning these things is NOT like learning to play basketball. It’s more like teaching your ear to listen to music and developing musical hearing. You work with your perceptions and with other delicate aspects of your mind. However, keep in mind, and remind yourself, repetitively if needed, that it is 100% possible and that you will learn it if you want to. You WILL. Now that I think of it, it really is a lot like ear training, because the more you try to force it and try to make things happen, the slower the process becomes. The best thing to do is just to listen to tones easily, in a relaxed way, and slowly open up your ear. Then, amazingly, like magic, you start to hear better, you start to become better. Your ear gets cultured. It’s the same thing. It’s delicate, personal, and complex. Yet again, as all things, it becomes very simple when you understand it , physically, emotionally, logically, etc…
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When you lie down, start by taking very deep breaths and exhaling slowly. Think happy thoughts. Relax. Calm your mind. Ease your body. A very very helpful thing to do is to STRESS all your muscles, however you feel like, and release the tension. This really helps your body become relaxed quickly and deeply.
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Meditate.
As a general rule, almost always, the #1 thing that’s keeping people from doing it is Physical Relaxation. Practicing things like tensing your muscles and releasing will make you not only relaxed, but your body will begin to learn how to just relax deeply very easily without tensing your muscles. I think you’ll probably find as time goes along, that there are many ‘levels’ of relaxation. Like when you’re in a room and there are no noises and it’s ‘quiet’ but if you’ll put on earplugs , you’ll suddenly hear a whole different level of silence. It’s the same thing. You can feel relaxed, and as if you are not moving, just like you can hear the silence in a room, but there is always something deeper. A stronger silence, a deeper relaxation.
When you’re physically relaxed, I mean REALLY relaxed. Like your body is when you wake up, although it is stirred out of this condition usually within a few seconds, it is almost inevitable to start cruising.
Hope this helps,
any feedback from your experience will help me and others understand your experiences better and help you.
Ariel