Fear and troubles with WILD/OBEs

Hello all, I’m brand new (only been reading a book for about the last week), and have run into some problems with WILD/OBEs.

It must have been some beginner’s luck, for the 1st two days in a row of reading the book I managed to do my own version of WILD (before even knowing it existed), although were more like OBEs as although I transferred to the dream world aware, I did not get far enough to create a scene and enter it…I was still in the dark of my room only a few feet from my body (but in my dream body - one as a rippling cape, and the next night just as a regular body).

With this partial success of my first WILDs, I was quite confident I could do this every night…for I did it twice in 2 days, and then learned that it was a type of LD the day after and I was on the right track! Unfortunately once actually learning about it I have not been able to do it again. To make matters worse, I was almost there the other night but instead of remaining lucid, I ended up falling asleep just as I was about to transition to the dream world, and dreamed I was on the basement floor paralyzed…and had a sense of fear because of it. I haven’t had a nightmare in a long time, and know that paralysis is just part of my every night routine, but for some reason now my darn heart beat amps up as I try transitioning over to the dream world and then I call it off…not wanting to have a heart attack…lol. Last night I made even less progress as although I didn’t have the same fear as the previous night, I didn’t even get to the feeling of transitioning…despite have SP for like 2.5 hrs. Needless to say I’m a little frustrated with WILDs/OBEs as they now leave me tired, sometimes with a high heart rate, and I’m close to calling them off to try a normal DILD (which I haven’t done before).

It’d be nice if I could:

  • WILD again, and without getting an amped up heart rate just before.
  • WILD for longer so I can actually create and enter a scene
  • DILD (so far my brain doesn’t feel that my truck turning into a bicycle, or me joining the circus is far-fetched).

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated - and keep in mind nothing you say would be too simple for me…I’m brand new and barely know anything!

In my experience with OBE’s, even though I focused on initiating OBE’s separately from LD’s, and I spent years of regularly-scheduled meditations to initiate an OBE…when I finally succeded, it didn’t feel like the fruits of several years of regular meditation. It felt like I would have been able to initiate it within twenty minutes of my first try, if only I had known how to do it.

So, as I remember, it would go:

  1. Completely relaxed body. As though you’re asleep. Not a fiber of tension anywhere except for what you can’t help doing (such as breathing, swallowing, and heartbeat)
  2. Completely quiet mind. There’s a way to quiet your mind that feels like it’s forced, and unfortunately that’s only “thinking about not thinking” that’s still a form of mental tension and will get in the way. Treat your thoughts as dead leaves floating on a river away from you, so you might notice that they are there, but no more than that. Eventually, this metaphorical “river” will run clear.
  3. While this sounds like more mental noise, there’s a way to do it that is using the clear-river mind. Play with your proprioception, turn a tactile imagining of your sense of location to like…becoming aware that there is air in front of your face, and air in front of the air in front of your face. It’s complicated to explain, but the thought it very simple. After you have removed your sense of location to somewhere comfortable (for me it’s about a foot and a half in front of myself), while remaining physically relaxed and mentally quiet…
  4. Trick yourself into giving up. Keep up the three above, but cultivate a feeling that it doesn’t matter whether or not you OBE. Cultivate an apathy so thorough that you sit with release.

Within 20 minutes, you might get this sense of movement that does not come from you voluntarily. Continue to not care. It might be noisy, frightening, unusual, and there might even be a “mirage” of sorts like there is a person with you. That person should disappear if you remain calm and apathetic (or, if they do not, they might turn out to be more civil conversation than meeting somebody first thing upon waking up before coffee).

That’s the difficult way. I hope it helps! I still feel that OBE’s are separate and different from lucid dreams, but I have had lucid dreams where I tried going out of body, and it’s much easier than trying to OBE from corporeal waking life.