closed eye portals

[terry32]

As I lay with my eyes closed, right about the time I drift off to sleep, I can see what appears to be portals to other worlds. I use the word 'portal' as opposed to 'visual' because what I'm seeing is not merely abstract shapes and colors, but well-defined objects and environments. These portals are only about an inch in size in my central field of view, while the remaining area is dark, so they appear to be at a distance from me. There is only one portal visible at any given time. It slowly bursts forth in my field of view, animates for a few seconds, then slowly fades out, and then another one appears. Sometimes it's the same environment, other times it's a completely different world. Most of the time, these worlds look like something out of a cartoon or video game. And I can see what appears to be people moving around in these worlds, as well as objects like trees and houses. You can tell they have a life of their own. My dilemma with this experience is that at present I can only watch from a distance. I can't seem to change what I see, or enter into these worlds. Anyone have a similar experience? I would like to know a way you can choose what you want to see in your field of view. Or any tips for how to enter into them. Thanks.

[Ctharlhie]

It's a common mistake when starting to WILD to think of these hypnagogic (meaning leading into sleep) as the entry points for lucid dreams, but really these are NREM phenomena of stage 1 sleep when you are first drifting off at bedtime and the REM sleep that generates full-fledged dreams is still more than an hour away. While training to remain aware at the edge of sleep to see more hypnagogia is a useful skill, trying to 'enter' or 'alter' these images will do little because they are not really 'dreams' in the sense we commonly know them - as narrative multi-sensory experiences. What you're viewing are just the junk hallucinations that always accompany the entry into sleep, but for which few people other than lucid dreamers care to remain aware to witness. It would be better for you to wake after 4 or more hours when REM cycles are much closer together, and comprise more of each sleep cycle. At this point it is easier to retain awareness through sleep into a dream, but ironically imagery such as this is less common as you spend less time in NREM stages. Hope that makes sense.