Atheist - Focussing On An Image

To Atheist,

I remember you mentioning before about concentrating on an image in your head to help with WILD. Well, in the past I have given up on this because I found that I couldn’t focus properely on an image, sometimes it’s like I don’t see anything at all.

But recently I tried it again, and I decided to try a lot harder. I began with trying to focus on an image of a banana. At first, I couldn’t really see it, but I just kept thinking about the idea of a banana, what I know it looks like, and then eventually the image of a banana popped into my head, and I started turning it round and viewing it as a 3D object.

Then a load of other images sprung into my head and I started to lose conciousness and fell asleep.

Is this the kind of thing you mean? I remember you saying something about a book. A banana just seamed like a nice bright simple object to think of for me.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

:smile:
Ed.

Ed your Avatar remembers me of the Hulk lol…often take gamma showers? :wink:

The rest i leave up to Atheist!

Jeff

Hi Ed.

That’s exactly right. The point is to keep your mind focused on an image or pattern to retain consciousness while your body is falling asleep. As you pointed out with the banana, the image will probably change or enhance as your imagination becomes more powerful. As long as you don’t lose concentration, sooner or later the image will turn into a complete scene, and the dream will take over. I like to pretend it’s easier than most people will tell you - keeps my confidence up. :wink:

I used a book because it allowed me to see when I was getting close. The content on each page would begin to change randomly, and I found it easier to stay conscious by actively reading the text rather than simply observing an object or scene passively.

This is exactly the same as the ‘flower’ chakra method (I believe), which involves picturing a flower growing from one of your chakra points, or something to that effect. The idea is simply that you have something to focus on to shift your attention form the real world to your imagination.

I suppose the key point is actively retaining your concentration for the duration of the experience.

I feel like I’m reading someone’s PM :wink:

Just a suggestion.

Although this seems like a good method I should use if I WILD.

Atheist, that’s an excellent method. I did that when I was experimenting… therefore “inventing” my own technique. My point of focus was light and energy. Don’t ask me why, but I find it the most powerful than other objects or whatever in head I experimented with.

Sometimes I would use SENSATIONS to shift my awareness from the reality into the world of my imagination. I’d imagine myself rotating or riding horse… anything that involves sensation/feeling work very well as that visualizing technique that Atheist mentioned.

Perhaps you can experiment visualizing one night and then sensation one night to see which is the best for you.

Hopefully it is helpful for you. :biggrin:

Jeff, lol! Gamma shower! Lol! You crack me up! :lmao:

That’s a very good point, DM7, and something that I’ll experiement with over the next few days. After all, there’s no reason why it has to be a visual image. Anything you can concentrate on will work just as well, so why not imagine a familier sound, or feeling? Once again, the point is just that you have something to focus on which doesn’t originate from the external world.

Eventually you’re going to find each of your senses replaced by imaginatory equivilents (when the dream takes over), so try it both ways and see what appears easier for you. WILD is a very personal technique.

Indeed it is a personal technique for WILD. It won’t hurt to experiment and it IS more fun if you experiment! :biggrin: Try experiment with taste or smell too… they work very well sometimes if you have a vivid memory (for example if you have been in the garden with strong smell all day, you’d remember it very well).

Speaking of vivid memory, I have noticed that if you play game for like two hours before you go to bed, you’ll still have vivid imagination of it going inside your mind. It is also an advantage for you to focus on while you fall asleep consciously. Just my other 2 cents. :wink:

I always visualized the stars. When I got it clear enough I shift my vision to other parts of the sky and see other stars. Then I would vision myself standing underneath them. By this time I’m dreaming.

Im going to have to try the book and stars method tonight and tommrow, they both seem like they would work really good!

Big thanks to Atheist and DM7! :happy:

That all makes perfect sense to me. The idea of focussing my mind away from the external word, that makes complete sense. I’m sure it would work much easier than something like concentrating on breathing, which means you’re focussing on something to do with reality.

I’m going to try different senses. What if I try music? I could imagine a favourite song playing in my head, and then just let whatever images come into my mind influenced by that. Music and visuals go together well for me, and enhance each other to create something greater than the individual parts, which is why I’ve always enjoyed the following:

  • Watching music videos.
  • Watching TV shows with good music background.
  • Listening to music while in the car or riding on a bus (and sometimes while walking in nice countryside).

I’ve also had another idea. Another method could go like this: Wake up in the night, and then briefly put a DVD on quietly, and watch about 10 to 15 minutes of a favourite scene, and then switch it off and try to replay that scene in my head, and then maybe eventually I would appear in that scene? :happy:

Ed.

Atheist and DM7:

I have read (think it was on lucidity.com) that the sense of sensation/feelings is the first you’ll enter a dream with and the last sense in the dream as well when you awake. So I think it makes good sense to try imagine sensations.

But experimenting is always good I think…

Ed Case:

About watching a move during WBTB, I would choose the Matrix!

Thomas

I would watch an episode of Friends, and then in my dream I could throw a glass of water at Chandler’s face! :happy:

Ed.

WHOOPAH!!
I have a little file on my desktop that I use to save good information about lucid dreaming (other files contain other information…) to print out later. Now it’s full from this topic again. Thanks a lot :cool_laugh:

P.S. I hate it when I play Starcraft and I dream of a 2-d world. Can’t get out of it!

Great idea, Ed. Some nights when I was particularly enthusiastic, I used to wake up and observe an image for a minute or 2 before returning to bed. This gave me a clear picture to concentrate on while I was going back to sleep. It might have been some place I wanted to go, or a person I wanted to ‘meet’. An advantage to your idea is that it also provides you with sound, giving you an additional sense to concentrate on.

This is a very interesting thread.So what you are saying is that if you take a simple object and try to keep its image in the head then in time it will firstly get easier to do so and secondly it will actually become more and more real?
Reason i ask is that im really bad with visualising things and i used to rather think that you either have it or not.

Hi,

Good idea with the book, i am going to try that one tonight.
I only have one question…

Some say that WILD can be done in the evening, when you go to bed.
Other say its not possible.
I dont think is possible because the REM-period starts later.
:eh:

(by the way, I love starcraft :wink: )

Jack, practicing some visualizing techniques would benefit… but you do not need visualizing skills to succeed with. You can use sensations to succeed with. I have a feeling that you’d be doing good with sensation. :wink: I don’t know why, but… lol. :happy:

Anyways, Rage_51, hi! :wave: It is POSSIBLE. Even though REM cycle starts later, I did it several time on my first night of sleep without any problems. :smile: And plus you don’t only dream in REM stage… you also dream in NREM stage too. :content:

That was fast :content:

Thanx for the info ill try now :happy:

bye

I had to teach myself how to visualize when I was a kid so I think it’s possible to do if you practice it. Just like when you practice math your mind begins to get sharper at it and be able to do more math stuff. All I did was I kept trying and didn’t give up and now I can visualize almost anything.

“I have a feeling that you’d be doing good with sensation. wink I don’t know why, but… lol.”
Well yeah,most females seems to sense when Sex God is around…dunno…propably something to do with good intuition:)

Apart from this i dont think i understand your post.To use sensations?err…im not sure what to make out if it.thx