Deep Visualizations?

There are times, often after I wake up (trying to WBTB) where rather than losing track of my thoughts and falling to sleep, I sort of begin visualizing. Eventually, it becomes like a spot between sleep and consciousness that doesn't seem much like HI. Usually, I hear about HI being kind of random and such but these are actual situations that seem quite realistic. If I focus into them, with time I can imagine the feelings, smells, tastes, sounds, etc... but I never slip into a dream with that particular situation and often times my dream isn't even similar to the situation. It's pretty much just as the title says, a deep visualization. For example, last night I had this dream: Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Kvxdelta's Awkward World of Hidden Truth and Reality Beyond Recognition - Dream Journals (Dream 021: The Dreamgate) and I tried to re-enter it by going back to sleep. (this was before I tried to write it, or the others down, while I was lying in whatever position I was in.) I began to lose track of my thoughts and wander in the quieter, calmer parts of my mind like I usually do and fell into a deep visualization of riding an Ender Dragon (Minecraft monster) over a large forest, that also seemed to be from Minecraft. Me and my friend had battled riding Ender Dragons over a forest on his Minecraft server the other day, if that says anything. However, there was no other person around and I think I MIGHT have been wielding a sword. I also think the trees might have been Minecraft ones. Now here's my question. What are these "deep visualizations" and are they normal? Are they just loose and/or distant dreams? Is it actually HI? I'm confused. >.<

What you are doing is taking advantage of the HI state. In the 1st stage of sleep nREM1 you will still have partial awareness of your body, but you are infact tecnically asleep acccording to EEG style monitors. People in studies denie that they were asleep when awakened in nREM1. So, we have this crossover phase in sleep, are we awake or not? Monitors would say we are, and HI stuff happens, but subjectively we may claim that we were still awake. It is a great sign for trying to WILD, you reach nREM1 and are still aware.

In nREM1 many people just have randon HI like sounds and faces and a sensation oof spinning or vibrating. What else can happen involves conciously taking advantage of the HI state to form rudimentery nREM dreams. nREM dreams have a different quality then standard dreams, but can be fun anyways. I am sure you found your experience to be fun?

Congratulations! This is a form of lucid dreaming. I use it to keep my awareness and to avoid true unconciousness, while I allow my body to sink deeper into sleep. If you can maintain your "deep visualization" nREM lucid until REM hits, you will have WILD down, and off you go, a real lucid dreamer.

Our big human brain visualizes and dreams in the same area of the occipital lobe. This area is collectively known as the secondary visual cortex. When we visualize, knowingly or not, we are priming the pump for sleep and dreams. It is not unusual, however, to be visualizing about one thing and then find yourself dreaming about something completely different. This is because are brains are going through a kind of housekeeping process as we sleep... keeping important data whilst discarding useless memories we had during the day. This is what dictates our dream subject matter. However, a trick I have learned is to visualize the last dream you can recall... especially is a dream you just awoke from. This has opened the door to many lucid dream experiences for me over the year.

Happens to me fairly often when i am trying to WILD nap, so i think it's normal, though recently have some problems going further than that for some reason :poof: .