Between sleep and wakefulness

[Klaatu]

The state of semi-sleep is awesome.

I've had some of the my greatest CEVs and egoless adventures in strange places. Weird entities, vikings greeting me from behind trees, black pyramids with skies made of rainbow-colored eyes. Also falling into a one-minute lucid dream and waking up again just to fall asleep again is pretty interesting, especially as this happened in an unfamiliar room. At some point of taking that nap I had no idea wether I was awake or not.

So I decided to try "attempting to fall asleep without losing wakefulness" with the method given here. (It seemed interesting enough to ignore the "citation needed" tag :>)

So off I went to my room one night, with a large metal bowl, and one slightly smaller. Dropping the smaller bowl inside the larger one caused a horrible noise, like a gong put through a delay effect and a flanger, sure to wake me up.

I sat comfortably into my armchair, tying to fall asleep. After waking up a couple of times I started to feel really tired and wanted to just get away from this world as the chair felt so uncomfortable. After the "gong" had waken me up about the 4th time, everything started to feel weird, I didn't really understand what I was seeing. I started reciting a poem consisting mostly of random English words that seemed to rhyme at the moment. I had to close my eyes, I could feel being pulled away from my body.

I got to bed, holding the smaller bowl on the edge of my bed. I heard strange noises, I don't really remember how this felt, I was clearly slipping deeper into a trance of some kind. The gong woke me up again, and the sound frightened me so much I decided I had to stop. Dreams were vivid, can't remember much though.

Has anyone tried any other methods of staying on the border of the dream world and this world? Interesting, but difficult. Sleep deprivation is interesting, too, but seems to be somewhat dangerous. Experiences, thoughts, ideas?

 

[st.bot.32]

I love the hypnagogic state.

I generally get into this kind of state quite easily with music which isn't necessarily minimal but still based in repetition with plenty of changes.. (Coil, some IDM, etc) I have had pretty interesting experiences with my perception of time feeling almost like it is ahead of the music, or in the hypnagogic state, my brain interprets musical structures and parameters (like gestures and dynamics) from the music onto completely unrelated nonmusical things, like as the music changes in pitch, thought patterns slide back and forth between themselves.

Sometimes I get CEV so clear and vivid that it feels like my eyes are open (on rare occasions).

I've gotten into this state as well when in a situation (like long bus/plane ride) where I kept teetering between being asleep and awake for several hours.. strange vivid dreams based on the immediate surroundings, etc

Definitely sorta like tripping. Actually I started doing this actively long before I started taking psychedelics, and I guess I approach psychedelics in much the same way.

What the article describes is really intriguing however... worth trying sometime.

 

[Brugmansia]

I have used Zink or ZMA for powerful lucid dreams. Which also occurs in food but way too low doses. Take vitamine B6 and magnesium too. Supplementing it is an awesome help for lucid dreaming. Avoid diary and calcium. Bascilium increases the chance of getting a sexual/sensual dream.

I tried to relax and just fall asleep and when my REM movements are occuring, I try to focus strongly on the black vision and my concentration, trying to keep my thoughts neutral and getting everything else, physically and mentally shut down.The deeper I fall into sleep, the harder it is to keep my concentration without disturbing my sleep path. When I'm about to fall off, I imagine a frozen picture and from there on it's just a matter of luck and there's no control or choice in where I'm going through.

Every physical movement wraps me quickly back rapidly. Losing concentration nearly always leads to a sleep with hardly any lucid dreaming. Or nothing at all.

 

[random]

I find it really difficul to control it. And I try it everysingle night (maybe not those nights when I'm really tired and just need rest). But I try it very often.

I lay down on my bed (with my chest up) , and try to clear my mind of any thought and concentrate on the OBE. But it seems that must of the times I just fall asleep without noticing it. And, actually, never had a real OBE. Like walking around some where or see some scenario and interact with it, or something like that.
What I've reached, so far, is just visuals (sometimes more vivid, and other times, and most them, not that vivid), sometimes I hear sounds or voices and such.

And about lucid dreaming, just recall them when I was kid. Lately I just recall one lucid dream, and the only one since I was a kid. It was very cool. Flyed :)

From what I understood of lucid dreaming , is that you Have to really believe anything so it can happen (just like this reality. flying doesn't count, or does it? :p). And if you doubt or question your believe, the table turns upside down and what probably will happen is some kind of "lesson" that urge you to not doubt your beliefs. And then you wake up.
That was what happened to me , when I started to fly I was really Happy at that time, and then this thought pop out: "now I have to control the "power" of flying, can I control it? Maybe I can't?". Wasn't sure if I could control that "new power". So when I tried to turn left my body turned but my direction was still going foward. (visualy I was flying in the same direction but my head was in the left side and feet on the right. So technically I was flying to the right side )
And suddenly I saw my self on a building that was infinitly tall and was damn scared of looking down, because it had no end, and I was surrounded of buildings that tall. And I didn't thought about that scenario, so who teached me that lesson of "Believe it or you won't do it"?

Love

 

[????????]

Ahh Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming :)

I've had really bizarre experiences attempting this and is quite scary. Coincidentally (or synchronically?) I just wrote about it in another thread... I once almost did it but I got scared. Because I felt as if my body was no longer sustained by my bed and I FELT it going down as if there was an infinite abyss. So I assumed my normal sleeping position and slept. The next day I tryed again and I felt the same but diagonally... After that I stopped trying.

I'm getting interested again but I have to make time for this kind of things and the university keeps me busy...

The metal bowls method seems interesting :)