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Hypnagogic

Aug. 30th, 2016 11:09 am
poliphilo: (bah)
[personal profile] poliphilo
You're supposed to be drifting off to sleep, but if you rein back a little and stay alert and pay attention to what's going on it's- well- rather interesting.

Things crop up. Random things. The raw materials of dreams. For me it's mostly in black and white- high contrast, glittery black and white, but with sudden- gone before you can focus- flashes of brightly coloured scenes- a field of grass, children leaping into water, a man bending over a rock pool- One time I was going down a sort of tunnel made up of a collage of faces- real faces, not generic ones- as if cut out of old photographs and pasted on the wall. Another time the thing I was seeing- which seemed to be some kind of rolling wave- not necessarily made of water- was overlaid with a fine rectangular mesh as if for the guidance of any artist who might have wanted to draw it. I hear voices too. Rarely saying anything of consequence, but startlingly real- as if the speaker were standing close behind me.

There's a word for all this sort of thing- hypnagogic. I'm told that if you hang around on this level long enough-  with properly focused intent- you can take your consciousness out of your body and off into other dimensions.

Date: 2016-08-30 12:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
I tend not to drift into sleep- I just go there like a shot!

Date: 2016-08-30 12:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Then you're missing something...:)

Date: 2016-08-30 12:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Dreams, mostly. Don't do it all that often.

Date: 2016-08-30 01:00 pm (UTC)
ext_12726: (Default)
From: [identity profile] heleninwales.livejournal.com
I have occasionally experienced that state. I've never tried to do it consciously though.

Date: 2016-08-30 03:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Me neither until recently.

Date: 2016-08-30 04:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sorenr.livejournal.com
I do that a lot, simply because if I don't go to sleep directly when I go to bed I can lie semi-awake for a very long time. It makes for an interesting, reflexive head-space where thoughts are slightly out of control. I think it's healthy to be a bit out of control at times.

Date: 2016-08-30 07:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Yes. Healthy- and also- perhaps- a spur to creativity...

Date: 2016-08-30 09:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davesmusictank.livejournal.com
Fascinating - sounds like something i should try too.

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