World of Lucid Dreaming Forum

I had an experience last night that was new for me and I'm hoping someone can weigh in on what state I was in.

I dreamed I was on campus (I work at a university) and I started to run around for fun. Very quickly I decided i would just fly instead. Now at this point I should say i've been flying since I was a small child and gaining more skill in it, so it's not uncommon for me to fly. I know I missed a lucid trigger there, but it's so common for me I just didn't catch it. However even though I wasn't fully lucid, I was very much conscious and making decisions, so I was at least right on the cusp of lucidity. Anyway, I didn't get to where I wanted to go with that dream, but after waking and recording it, I decided to try the WILD method.

So very quickly after starting to get back to sleep, I started seeing not a full dream but basically shadow figures moving around. It was like a dream was in the making but hadn't fully kicked in yet. When i tried the WILD technique last week and started to see this proto-dream type thing, I tried to latch onto it, but only ended up repeatedly waking myself up. This time I was more relaxed about it, but I came into a weird type of awareness/mental state. I'm guessing it was being conscious while in the hypnogogic state. I wasn't awake but I was fully aware. I found that I could move into and out of the proto-dream state to a degree. Recalling from the training material, I wondered if I was experiencing the same type of awareness that those who dissolve the dream experience (which I totally plan to do by the way). So what do you think? Was this the hypnogogic state or something else?
Appreciate any feedback and looking forward to future interactions in this forum.
Vincent

Hmm. Sounds like a very vivid dream, but if you weren't fully lucid you probably weren't actually making those decisions. I often feel that unless I'm fully lucid, I am not the one making my decisions in my dreams. When I remember my dreams, it feels like I'm recalling an episode of a TV show or something of the like, unless it's fully lucid.

I know what you mean by pre-dream visions with WILD. If you can train yourself to stay relaxed through that and in a sense go with the flow rather an anchoring yourself, you will be thrust into a dream. Often, I get too excited or caught up in those visions and sensations and I pull myself right out of it.

Sounds like you are close though, keep practicing and you WILL get it. Have you tried the Wake-Back-To-Bed (WBTB) method? It worked well for me as a beginner. It doesn't always result in lucidity, but it will definitely provide with some interesting and vivid dreams.