Crossing the Threshold...
Will
Sometimes when I'm really, really tired and about to fall asleep, I see
weird images. It's not like dreaming where the images are in my head.
It's like I'm looking with my eyes at things. These things sometimes
look like people, animals, and when I was younger, monsters. Sometimes
I'm parylized while this is occuring.
Anyone else experience this?
Will
Fabian Rubini
Third eye?
Paul Dwyer
Sort of, I didn't realise I'd fallen asleep once when my body went
paralytic and someone slowly walked into my room. it looked like an old
man (never seen him before) and i was shit scared and he walked over to
my bed and was about to reach out and touch me and I screamed out and
thought (breifly lucid) "well my mother will wake up soon from my
screaming sleeping body's noise and come and wake my up" then I lost
lucidity and in the dream saw my mother run into the room and see if I
was all right and the old man dissapeared. I woke up and all was quiet.
This was quite a few years ago however a few days later I was in bed
again (thinking I was still awake) no really lucid as such, just not
aware that I was asleep. when i felt mysef become paralysed again and
blind, heard the footsteps then the hand touch my shoulder when I woke
up. when I first felt myself go stiff in the dream I remembered lucidly
what had happened in the last one and tried to wake myself up. I didn't
know much about lucid dreams then and didn't realise that it was
controlable... I nearly shat myself
--
Paul Dwyer <dw...@internetshop.com.au>
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Ross Overbury
In article <321F18...@erols.com>, wbe...@erols.com says...
>
>Sometimes when I'm really, really tired and about to fall asleep, I see
>weird images. It's not like dreaming where the images are in my head.
>It's like I'm looking with my eyes at things. These things sometimes
>look like people, animals, and when I was younger, monsters. Sometimes
>I'm parylized while this is occuring.
>Anyone else experience this?
>
>Will
about to fall asleep, that I see or hear things that I know at the time do
not exist. I'm not sure whether I am in fact dreaming or if this is some
sort of intermediate state. I've had many dreams with false awakenings in
them, and they are often convincing enough.
The last time this happened, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a
shape which appeared to have depth and texture, and was brownish in colour.
It did not appear to be out of context with the dark room, that is it was
not brilliant in colour or illuminated differently than other objects in the
room. I stared, and its shape became more distinct for a few seconds, then
faded away to be replaced by the real room behind it. I would guess it
occupied about 10% of my field of vision at the time.
This used to disturb me when I was young. Last time, I took the opportunity
to study it, rather than trying to snap out of it. The whole thing lasted
less than a minute. The interesting thing is that the "object" did not take
the shape of any real object. I wonder if this was the result of my
understanding the phenomenon -- maybe this would have taken the shape of
a monster if I were a child!
Ross Overbury
Philip Marley
>Will wrote:
>>
>> Sometimes when I'm really, really tired and about to fall asleep, I see
>> weird images. It's not like dreaming where the images are in my head.
>> It's like I'm looking with my eyes at things. These things sometimes
>> look like people, animals, and when I was younger, monsters. Sometimes
>> I'm parylized while this is occuring.
>> Anyone else experience this?
>>
>> Will
>Third eye?
If you like...
A more mainstream/scientific explanation is that this is simply
hypnagogic imagery - i.e. the visual centres of your brain
generating images because they're not getting any stimulation.
You're literally seeing (as in: there's activity in the visual
cortex) things that aren't there. This is a separate process,
as you point out, to seeing "images in your head", i.e.
imagining things. Once your awareness drops off and you get
lost in the imagery, you're in a dream. The dream is, in fact,
"taking place" (as it were) in exactly the same way, the action
doesn't shift to your "mind's eye" - your visual system is still
involved. If it wasn't, your eyes wouldn't be moving and we
wouldn't call it Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
Hypnagogic imagery is worthy of investigation in its own right.
Observing and using it can be a good way to lead yourself
into a lucid dream (a wake-initiated lucid dream or WILD).
See LaBerge's book "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming"
for more on this (or see OGLD [below]).
The images of people, animals etc. are perfectly normal - all
sorts of strange things pop up in hypnagogia. The paralysis
is just sleep paralysis: again, perfectly normal (and
harmless, even if it can be frightening if you don't know
what's happening). What _is_ happening is your body's
system for keeping you imobile whilst you're dreaming
isn't switching off at exactly the same moment as you
wake up, or is starting a few moments before you
lose consciousness. If you relax, it'll pass quite
quickly. Sleep paralysis can also be used as a method
of LD induction (again, see EWLD or OGLD). Between the two,
you're on the right track! (presuming you are actually
interested in lucid dreaming).
Philip
Philip Marley - Maintainer of The Online Guide To Lucid Dreaming
http://www.thenet.co.uk/~philmarley/ogld FAQ, methods, tips,
experiences, advice, software, research, and lots more!
Email: philm...@thenet.co.uk Web: http://www.thenet.co.uk/~philmarley/
Will
all by the way.
Will
Adam Grossman
> Sometimes when I'm really, really tired and about to fall asleep, I see
> weird images. It's not like dreaming where the images are in my head.
> It's like I'm looking with my eyes at things. These things sometimes
> look like people, animals, and when I was younger, monsters. Sometimes
> I'm parylized while this is occuring.
> Anyone else experience this?
>
> Will
Er...I think this is called hypnogogic images. It is right before you fall
asleep (Or right after waking). It is normal, almost everyone has them.
--
Adam Grossman
adamg...@aol.com
Ken Czepelka
Philip Marley wrote:
> (snip)
> You're literally seeing (as in: there's activity in the visual
> cortex) things that aren't there. This is a separate process,
> as you point out, to seeing "images in your head", i.e.
> imagining things. Once your awareness drops off and you get
> lost in the imagery, you're in a dream. The dream is, in fact,
> "taking place" (as it were) in exactly the same way, the action
> doesn't shift to your "mind's eye" - your visual system is still
> involved. If it wasn't, your eyes wouldn't be moving and we
> wouldn't call it Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
I just tried an experiment as I read this. Try it for yourself.
Close your eyes and imagine walking down a sidewalk in New York City.
Observe the people moving past you as you make your way through the
crowd. Are your eyes moving? Mine do. So for me, being able to
determine whether I was "seeing" or "imagining" while I was dreaming
could not be determined just by observing my eye movement.
But something just occurred to me. While awake, the difference between
how things look when I use my eyes and how things look when I use my
"minds eye" are *very* similar to how things look during a lucid dream as
opposed to how things look in a dream. Is it possible that during an
ordinary dream we are not using the sight center of the brain as you
suggest but instead are using the "minds eye" and when we flip over to a
lucid dream and suddenly everything looks *much* more real (like a fog
lifting), that is when the optic center takes over for the minds eye.
Seems to make a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Ken
--
"Things should be as simple as possible but not simpler."
Albert Einstein