Thread: The instanteous switching between "rooms of experiential content"

I had another interesting experience, and it led me to write up some thoughts. I posted it in Hangouts with some friends, but they are not the most LD connected, so I thought I'd post it here as well in case anyone has additional experience with this topic that could be helpful to augment and inform these early thoughts. (after all, I have not had that many LD experiences, so have not had as many chances to delve into and experiment with the dream state)

Some bizarre things happen on the verge of sleep... (everyone already knows this, but was just suprised by one)

Crystal clear images that have complexity and seeming "life" to them, despite one being comatose intellectually. So strange to experience the separation of the parts of the brain -- one part simulating an animation with fluidity, the other comatose observing it all, then jolting back into intellect when it remembers "I am here... what is this?". And the further question of what exactly prompts consciousness to fluctuate in and out of these "rooms of experiential content".

One instant, you as the observer are in the mental room, seeing what is there. The next hairs-breadth of a moment later, your consciousness has jolted back entirely into the real world. It's that jarring split that... makes you question certain hard-to-express inner assumptions about the reliability of the world. In other words, it reminds you of the path from the objective world to inner experience, and that the 99% reliable line can nonetheless occasionally be broken, in stark ways.

My experiences are compatible with my model of the world and mind; but nonetheless, there are various "suspicious" components which are not what I would expect, based on it. For example, the distinctness with which the "rooms of experiential content" are displayed to the observer/soul, and the fact that even when you're comatose, the "entities" in those "rooms of experiential content" are *doing stuff* seemingly independently. That is, when you jolt back into awareness within those rooms, you can tell that the projections have been active for some time without you being really conscious at a high level -- you had some awareness, but merely of the morphing of colors and such and vague categorization. Once awareness returns, however, one or two final behaviors occur (perhaps a posture change as they appear to recognize your budding awareness -- another oddity since the intellect has not yet had a chance to "anticipate" such acts, and thus be the source), before *zap* it all disappears instantly. What happens then, behind the scenes? Is that room with that projection continuing to be animated and simulated? Is it being simulated even now, and I'm just not present in that room? If I had "biconsciousness" as that writer described, would I be able to transition even now into that room, and re-experience the same projection in a persistent way? Or is this something different, and it fades soon after you leave it? How many "rooms" can be simulated at the same time?

I believe there can at least be two, as I have read a number of experiences with people claiming to have experienced a "splitting of consciousness" where two streams of content were experienced simultaneously, and only afterward "stitched together" as the content was downloaded into the person's memory and consolidated. Including experiences where the person seemingly came across the second half of their consciousness. I personally do not think an actual split occured, but it does serve as evidence for it being possible for the mind to simulate at least two rooms at the same time, and instantaneously switch between the two while preserving state. (Note that these are people who have had many thousands of lucid dreams, so they are not fools in ability to categorize their experiences. They may still have incorrect conclusions, but they are not 14 year olds having their fifth lucid dream and claiming to have lived a whole week out...)

I can understand that dreams serve a function, for example, but I do not understand why the pathway seems to be so... standard, so... intrinsic, and so rich. It's as though we were built to be able to traverse it. That's what I'm feeling more and more as I gain more of these sorts of experiences -- that somehow the oddities of the mind and experience are not oddities but rather the origin or intended substrate. In other words, I think the spiritual reality of the world may connect more directly with our consciousness and dream-engine than we realize. That's not to say we're exploring real "spiritual realms" when we lucid dream, but rather, we are exercising some base abilities there which are actually partly spiritual. (that is, we are enacting some spiritual functions despite it having no spiritual "object")

Obviously, because these reflections are not very system-guided, they may well turn out to "be off" -- as so many reflections must be (since they often conflict -- though to be fair, many are complex models rather than simple intuitions, with the former less likely to be correct). But I don't think they're worth discarding entirely either. Intuitions and impressions can matter when the things you're dealing with are "near" and "rich in information", and are not yet "caught up with" by the system-guided exploration of scientific study. I look forward to the day when we begin a more serious look into these questions as society, guided by the standards of reproducability, statistics, etc. Until then, the world of dreams and in-between-states is our playground, with at least impressions of extreme depth to it: when these experiences occur, they are joyous and lighthearted, but they also feel meaningful and weighty. I don't think the impressions feel meaningful and weighty for no reason; I think there is something about the state of our soul/consciousness, activated differently than when awake, which imprints those feelings of weight and meaning (and joy and lightheartedness), rather than merely being side-effects of our emotions.

Has anyone else had experiences like this, where they "wake up" and catch just a glimpse of a "room", before a split-second later it disappears? (On this, I'm sure the answer is: yes. Included for completeness. ^_^)

Has anyone been able to examine these states more carefully to try to figure out attributes of the "switching mechanism"? For example, is it possible to consciously trigger the switching manually? And if so, how did you learn to do it? And how persistent is the state of these "rooms" as you switch between them?

Also, have any others had experiences where it seems that their consciousness split into two halves, and encountered each other? I am skeptical personally, and think it's probably a mind trick on oneself, but am open to the possibility. (one must be when dealing with the topic, since we know so little right now)

Furthermore, what changes occur as you gain many more experiences of this sort? Does the sense of wonder and awe and joy and lightheartedness etc. fade at some point? Or does it persist to a substantial degree even after many thousands of them? In which case, do you consider this a special outflow of the underlying state, or merely a side-effect of your everyday emotions like excitement, happiness of having freedom, etc. when in the state?