uncontrolled images.

[IJesusChrist]

Does anyone else get uncontrollable (or very weakly controllable) images while meditating or close to sleep?

Before bed, especially if decently tired, I will undoubtedly start having pulses of random images flash through my mind's eye.

At times they are unrecognizable, at others I can make out a corner of a desk, or the bulb in a street light, or the leaf on a tree.

But at other times I become completely immersed in a picture, and some of my artwork reflects these images. They come from nothing, atleast no conscious effort for inspiration or motivation - they are what seems to be completely random.

If I care to at times, I can almost seem to control them, but it does not work really, only slightly.

But I do believe the two hallucinations I have had when sober were an extreme example of these images.

If I meditate when tired - physically or mentally - I can certainly get them to start to appear. In order to start viewing them, it is almost as if I take a 3rd person view of my body, and they start to flow. Very odd, but apparently my father gets some of these as well... it was very fascinating to hear it from him!

Anyone else...?

 

[Nanosage]

YES! Thats how I know when I am about to start a lucid dream. Just last night, I woke up at whatever time it was in the middle of the night, saw my thoughts.. My thoughts get REALLY random just like they are when I am high on weed. Since your tolerance to weed is so low I'm sure you understand the random thoughts that happen.. But anyways last night, I remember seeing two pokemon fighting, but it was just like the old games. And one would hit the other and the other would flash like it just got hurt.. Very strange things pop into my head right before I fall asleep lol..

Whats an example for you? Lol they are pretty awesome thoughts! Every time

 

[Nanosage]

When I first started smoking, I remember an image of 'a bee riding a wrench' And I can see it now. It was a bee that was merrily riding on a wrench.. VERY WEIRD.. I have these all the time, and I just figured everyone did.. Have you talked to people who say otehrwise? Lol

 

[Cosmik_Debris]

Sounds like you're talking about hypnagogic imagery. I'm looking for an article on dreamviews.com, but the search isn't working at the moment, so for now I'll just have to refer you to google.

EDIT: Ah, here it is: http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/Hypnagog ... s-Tutorial

 

[Nanosage]

Sounds like you're talking about hypnagogic imagery. I'm looking for an article on dreamviews.com, but the search isn't working at the moment, so for now I'll just have to refer you to google.

EDIT: Ah, here it is: http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/Hypnagog ... s-Tutorial

Its weird, I can tell almost how deep I am because the images, as they go on, make less and less sense.. Like first I ALWAYS see purple and yellow swirls, hear whispers.. But then I start too see things in my minds eye almost perfect, I can see something like a bee riding a wrench(Actually saw that once..) Then deeper and deeper I start seeing things like figures running around in a graveyard, and they just get more and more complex..

I have only had full on sleep paralysis once, all the other times I did WILD, I went straight into lucid.. I saw a poseidon and a lcd plasma screen tv around my bed and I couldn't move =/ Whats up with that?

 

[IJesusChrist]

cool... it usually happens when I'm extremely tired so I just attributed it to the same mechanism of dreams. Seems like I'm right...

but yeah, they start off jumbled - it's always the corners of object for me, like the corner of a box, the corner of a house and slowly they become whole images, soon they start to become intertwining meanins and such. very useful for art

 

[ophiuchus]

"I have only had full on sleep paralysis once, all the other times I did WILD, I went straight into lucid.. I saw a poseidon and a lcd plasma screen tv around my bed and I couldn't move =/ Whats up with that?"


you weren't fully lucid, you only had a dream that you were thinking of lucid dreaming :| your mind can be a tricksy one...

 

[ophiuchus]

but yes, i do believe you guys are referring to the hypnagogic state. it's a good "place" to get the feel of the different "levels" of consciousness, try to go back and forth

 

[itsscience]

I think everyone, normal and psychonaut alike, "see" things when they close their eyes. In fact if you do it right now you will see lights, and patterns and maybe even images. As I understand it the photsensitive cells of our retina become "stained" with light and when we close our eyes we can see those "stains".

Here's a link to the first article I could find (sorry too lazy/busy with other things to properly research):

http://www.iovs.org/content/6/6/647.short

(if you don't like reading about animal research then the above is definitely to be avoided.

 

[IJesusChrist]

yeah, but what I was referring to has nothing to do with light, present or not...

It's the same imagery that comes from dreams - there is no source other than the mind itself.

 

[ophiuchus]

anything that you've ever seen ever was depicted to you in the form of light, the things you imagine in your dreams are things that you've already "witnessed" in one way or another, and then of course brought to you in a fresh perspective. events that were more "traumatic" (for lack of a better word) or intense or profound to you when they happened, are imprinted deeper into your head. the image never quite leaves you. this is all dealing with light...

if you want to go deeper, light is energy. and you are energy, so we most certainly are dealing with light, albeit a less conventional form.

 

[31andsunny]

Does anyone else get uncontrollable (or very weakly controllable) images while meditating or close to sleep?

Before bed, especially if decently tired, I will undoubtedly start having pulses of random images flash through my mind's eye.

At times they are unrecognizable, at others I can make out a corner of a desk, or the bulb in a street light, or the leaf on a tree.

But at other times I become completely immersed in a picture, and some of my artwork reflects these images. They come from nothing, atleast no conscious effort for inspiration or motivation - they are what seems to be completely random.

If I care to at times, I can almost seem to control them, but it does not work really, only slightly.

But I do believe the two hallucinations I have had when sober were an extreme example of these images.

If I meditate when tired - physically or mentally - I can certainly get them to start to appear. In order to start viewing them, it is almost as if I take a 3rd person view of my body, and they start to flow. Very odd, but apparently my father gets some of these as well... it was very fascinating to hear it from him!

Anyone else...?

Yes!! I started having this after drinking to much one day, the next day when i was trying to sleep i kept getting these flashes of images rapidly of horrifying things one was of undead zombies which were reaching out at me. i didnt sleep too well that night. but ever since then ive been having just flashes of the most random images when im trying to sleep. like one i remember was a detective guy in a trench coat and a hat, and another was a cartoon worm with eyes. lol wtf

 

[Schwanke668]

Yeah I get these. I know I am heading into sleep when they start. I can induce them and controll them though I find it more pleasurable if I dont. I have always attributed the content to freudean memories etc of greater or lesser important things from my past though some can be combinations. Like that bee on a wrench if I had it could have been some wierd combination of a school spelling b spelling the word 'retch'. (retch sounds like wrench, spelling b, bee, you get it) mind is a wierd place, atleast mine is lol and I assume everyone elses.

The most fun I have with these is my hypo manic states where I get flowing liquid H R Geiger imagery. Kind of like liquid metal and moving shapes all flowing together. Sometimes it looks a lot like flowing clockwork like you see in industrial themed movies or maybe the stuff from the movie Dark City.

I also have an effect sometimes where I will reach these meta dreams then fall asleep then wake up to some kind of halucinated sound. Slamming door, car horn, door bell. It usually ties into something I was praying about and is sometimes an answer to a question I asked God but for me I find it interesting to see God using my dream states to answer me when I am not really a vision person in the classic sense.

 

[Toxicomethorphane]

Hallucinations caused by drugs are all incontrollable, as well as dreams.

 

[Crimzen]

Hallucinations caused by drugs are all incontrollable, as well as dreams.

actually one time i was on 2 hits of acid i was in an apartment with my cousin
we were both sitting at this browny orange round plastic coffee table which was covered with fake wood kind of looking pattern
the whole thing was small swirls and dots and was very 'vague'
i was sitting there staring at it very intently and dragging my finger over it like it was liquid and then the patterns started to move with my finger as if i was squishing it out of the way
i played with this for awhile but it got boring so we watched late night music videos on tv (RAGE has the best music videos in australia, this night was specifically psychedelic! synchronism!)

 

[DaZeD]

Yea, i have them too, even at bright daytime, i was once driving in a car, as a passenger, it was a really nice day, warm and sunny, and i closed my eyes enjoying the heat and i saw a visual of a Hindu guy dressed in an orange piece of clothing or fibre, loosely draped over his left shoulder, he was sitting there, kinda like he was meditating, under a wooden barrack between some trees and i could feel the place where he was, almost smell it, it was so intense.

but not only visuals, this may sound, well i dunno, let's say schizophrenic or something but lately i've been waking up in the middle of the night from a vivid dream and immediatly my thoughts are at full speed, from the moment i realize i'm awake they are in overdrive, thinking random thoughts but very dramatic, and fast, like thoughts that catch up in the middle of some conversation in my head, i really dunno what the hell that is all about, i had it quite often lately, maybe 3 times or more in a month, also in the morning when i wake up.

And when i'm really tired, and this again will sound schizophrenic, sometimes i think in another persons voice, usually the voice of someone i've been with all day, like a colleague or a friend.

Is this normal?I don't think it is, but am i the only one?
I think it's weird and annoying.

 

[ararat]

this sounds like the mind/fantasy playing tricks on you, don't worry about it. it seems to me that schizophrenia is an undertaking of a completely different level of intensity.
and considering that the voice in my head is not exactly me it doesn't seem overly far fetched for it to change to the voice of another person, especially if you listened to the voice of another person the whole day.

I'm pretty much convinced that you are not the only one with that kind of stuff

 

[IJesusChrist]

Dazed!!

When I am very high and tired I get the same thing with voices - last night I was hearing a very intense conversation. It was extremely odd because it was something I could not consciously come up with myself. (they) were speaking about their day, their life, random things - going to the store. I couldn't really make out words, but I could kind of make out a few sounds and it felt like I knew what they were talking about.

Then I started to have very very intense visualizations. Reminded me of the shit movie conception (Sorry) in how the world curves in on itself and whatnot - I WAS making the conversation, but it was my subconscious. I took comfort in this, that it was just me, but it was fantastic to be honest - I was consciously experiencing my mind beginning to make a dream -

A conversation, a setting, a plot - it was like a bunch of ideas being filtered out to create this delicate image, setting, dream.

So no worries mate, you're just entering the dream state - but you're body/mind is too tired to hold the two apart.

 

[ophiuchus]

interesting. i babysat my little sister the other day, who lives with my dad. after spending pretty much the entire morning/afternoon with her, i had a tinge of her dialect fused to everything i thought about the rest of the day. kind of funny to think like a 3 year old, literally

 

[DaZeD]

Oh.... well, good!

I'm so happy i'm not reaching insanity (yet).

Cause most people i talked to about this looked a bit funny at me, even my wife thinks it's strange, so i stopped talking about it, good thing i bumped into this topic, no one could relate to this, so it's kinda comforting to read your opinions.

Hey Jezus, i also can relate to the conversations your'e talking about too, i guess i won't come over as a complete nut now since you brought it up too, at least there's two of us now.

When i'm really tired i too pick up on some random conversations, when i'm in bed and trying to sleep there's sometimes random voices of people having a coversation, it's possible to tune in and focus on them too, but they don't make sense cause they are so random.

Right now the voices are ordering me to kill my neighbors, is this normal?
Nah, just kiddin'.