Thread: hypnagogia is the bomb

hi all,

i have been actively LDing for a year now. I have gotten really good at it (not bragging, just saying) - I LD a couple times a week, and if I get a morning of sleeping in, I can usually reliably do it for what feels like a 15-30 minute long stretch. I don't have to tell folks here how incredible and fun and surprising and fill-in-adjective-of-choice LDing can be.

But that's not what I want to talk about here.

What I want to talk about now is hypnagogia - all of the hallucinatory-ish stuff that happens as one shifts from being awake to being asleep/dreaming.

Most of my LDing has been WBTB-driven WILDs. While learning, I followed advice here: not moving my body, concentrating on hypnagogic imagery, wait until sleep paralysis (SP) sets in, the viola - lucid dreams!

At first, I was always very "teleological" about it - i.e., I focused on the LDing, and saw everything else as simply steps to reach the ultimate goal of LDing. But as time passed, I became interested in the so-called intermediate steps. SP, in and of itself, is a pretty amazing experience. Most times that I SP I end up in an LD. But sometimes I don't. Since I LD quite often, I don't view these as "failed attempts". I just appreciate the SP for the experience that it is.

And that brings me to the main subject of this post: hypnagogia. I once saw this as a stepping stone. But now I realize how amazing that space is, when you are partially conscious and "sober", and partially tripped out - making weird connections, and seeing things and hearing things that are neither full-on dream nor reality.

A long time ago (over 10 years) I did mushrooms a handful of times, and it kinda sorta reminds me of those experiences - where you are conscious that you are "tripping," seeing things you don't normally see, and making mental connections between things that you wouldn't normally associate, but you can also appreciate them for their uniqueness, and sometimes brilliance.

For the record, I am not trying to say that hypnagogia is a hallucinogen, or that it is better than LDing. I'm just saying that, on it's own, it is amazing and potentially insightful! I think a lot of people dismiss it as the "foreplay" of LDing. But there is a ton to appreciate and enjoy there. I know I do. Sometimes, whether I LD or not, I can spend an hour or more in that liminal phase between wake and sleep. And my experiences there are almost as rewarding as, and sometimes equal to, those I experience in LDs.

Curious to see if others have similar experiences...