Waking Dreams

[AbominableDrPhibes]

I know this term generally refers to nightmares but I was just wondering if this happens to anyone else: You lay down to sleep, just took some melatonin to help it along, and gradually you realized you are dreaming-- but you're still awake. It happens to me all the time and it's kind of cool but also kind of scary. I don't know if I can properly describe it with words. It's like you're sinking into your dream but not quite there, but you can feel both your dream and your consciousness simultaneously. What do you think?

 

[magickmumu]

I was listening to the shamanic freedom radio podcast. Episode 45. a talk by Todd Routt on Astral projections. He described his experience with out of body states of minds.
I was surprise to hear his story as it matches with my own experience of what I think is sleep paralysis

My experiences where kind of scary, intresting as while. Maybe i will write some of it down later.



http://shamanicfreedomradio.podomatic.com/

 

[darkwolfunseen]

Often in two different occurrences. It's either in deep meditation or in the morning with a gentle wakening when I can feel consciousness and the remnant of a dream but no motor control. It is a terrifyingly beautiful experience.

 

[magickmumu]

|Do you have out of body experience while in this state :?: :?:


What happens to me. First I try to move and I can't (sleep paralysis) At some point I succeed in moving and I start walking around the room. The lighting is very dark and sometimes I have the scary feeling that someone is inside the house (a burglar or something) .
I try to put on a light switch and I can not do it. Then I realize my body I still in bed sleeping, and I am back into my body.

 

[darkwolfunseen]

It's weird that you should mention the burglar thing, because I occasionally get a similar vibe, almost as if someone's standing over me. I'd say yes to the out of body experiences. Occasionally, it becomes more of a floating feeling (this is going to cliche but weed helps), where my body literally feels as if it's been lifted up.

 

[magickmumu]

Do you think this has anything to do with what they call astral projection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection

 

[Mara]

I occasionally see things when I'm almost asleep. But it's not like I'm in another environment. It all happens in my room. When I'm in bed, trying to fall asleep, and open my eyes I often see faces coming out of nowhere. Some are human, some semi-human. I see a lot of hands as well, I once saw a hand coming out of my belly. I sometimes see a lion, or a swarm of flies next to my bed. I also see a lot of flying/moving objects, like pillows or cups.

When I see any of these things I get scared and turn on the light next to my bed. When I look again they're gone. What I have to mention is that I am beginning to realise I create those images. I was able to steer an (imaginary) pillow through the air a couple of weeks ago. I realised this when the hand broke through my belly, I was afraid the fingernails would grow and after that thought they did.

Things I also experience when my eyes are closed: bodyparts that grow bigger/longer, the feeling my bed is turning upside down, feelings of floating out of my body (I once saw my own body floating above me and walking away!)

I once found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

 

[st.bot.32]

I used to experience a lot of that phenomena when I was a kid.. seeing people standing in the room next to me, seeing an angel's hand over my face once.. my parents were super religious and thought that something in the house must be possessed, so they started throwing out anything that was suspicious to their beliefs! I used to frequently see form constants too spinning behind my eyelids when I was going to sleep.. No wonder I got into psychedelics..

I love threshold wakeness and hypnagogia, before i got into drugs there were periods where every day I'd come home and put on some minimalist record and just bounce in and out of sleep.. you can get crystal clear CEV, almost like seeing through your eyelids, and you can get some really interesting thought patterns, and changes in perception of time.

 

[????????]

DrPhibes, what you're describing is simply the process of your body falling asleep while your mind does not. this is what you do when attempting to WILD (wake induced lucid dreaming). it's sort of like tricking your way into sleep without losing consciousness. i make the distinction between mind and body because it's easier to think of it that way and allows me to describe the process better. when we relax and close our eyes the body makes this signals that it's like pinging the mind to see if it's still conscious... you can feel it. it comes as an urge to roll over or a need to scratch yourself somewhere. if you ignore these signals your body assumes your mind is off and so proceeds to activate the sleep paralysis (this is what allows us to not physically act our dreams). this feels like a wave of tinglyness that starts at the tip of your feet and moves upwards all the way to the crown of your head. when it's over, if you have a strong character and endure all the bizarre feelings and hallucinations you get (like what Mara describes) that can be visual and/or auditory, you can start lucid dreaming right there. it helps the transition to use visualization techniques, like imagining yourself going up a ladder or entering another dimension and so on.

and yeah these waking dreams can be scary but i think this depends on experience. the thing is you can't let yourself be fooled by them and mistake them for real stuff happening. as you mentioned sometimes we start semi-dreaming while we are perfectly conscious. i don't know why this happens but i've felt it. i think it happens when we are somewhat tired and the body wants to sleep right away. is like getting some bits and pieces of a dream, like tuning to a noisy channel. you only get glimpses of places and situations. and if you're able to still feel your body laying prone in your bed and your dream body as well this is also common, though the feeling is very unusual indeed.

...and mumu what you relate definitely seems like astral stuff. i've never done it (i was this close this one time) but i've read lots of anecdotes. this stuff is tricky because you can also be dreaming you're projecting but what you say of feeling presences sounds like it....
[supposedly when someone projects they are at a high vibrational level --also when we lucid dream but astral is even more so-- and this allows some low vibrational entities to interact with the person... i don't know what they are but they're usually not friendly]

check this out:
http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/2008/08 ... -dreaming/
erin is a highly experienced lucid dreamer.

and also take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LucidDreamTricks
is like lucid dreaming for dummies!

 

[tryptonaut]

Things I also experience when my eyes are closed: bodyparts that grow bigger/longer (...)

That is real common, also bodyparts (especially arms and legs) becoming extremely heavy or becoming smaller up to the point of vanishing.
When I was a kid my mom sent me to an autogenic training course because I always had trouble sleeping - the concept is a bit like self-hypnosis: you talk yourself into certain feelings, like that your bodyparts are becoming really heavy, and really large. These feelings (heavy and large) are like the basic triggers to induce sleep.