Thread: HI? Overactive Imagination? Waking Dreams? What?

Greetings all, I'm a new member of the forum, and new to LD. As I explained in a previous posting, I've had SP on and off for many years, though I only recently found out what it was. After reading through the forums and tutorials yesterday, I decided to try and work on remembering my dreams/having an LD/having SP. Basically I just wanted SOMETHING to happen, heh. All day long I did RCs and I constantly told myself that I would realize when I dreaming and remember those dreams. As I was laying in bed trying to remain conscious while chanting my 'mantra' and falling asleep, I started to see things. There were no sounds associated with them at all. I don't know how to fully describe them, since I had already forgotten most of the details by the time I woke up. I'm not sure why, but the words I want to use to describe them are 'interactive scenes'. I remember seeing various people in various places, some of them aware of me, some not. What I found particularly interesting was that I seemed to be in total control. I kept 'dismissing' these 'scenes' so that I could continue to concentrate on my mantra. Different ones would keep appearing, and I would keep dismissing them.

I had gotten that impression that its basically impossible to have LDs right when you go to sleep, since you must be in REM sleep to have them. So my question is: does anyone have any thoughts on what these detailed scenes were that I experienced? How does one identify a HI? I'm almost wondering if my subconscious didn't start feeding me images because I had so badly wanted for SOMETHING to happen. Any thoughts/comments would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and btw - Nice to meet you all

I have these as well - I call them dreamlets. They're like mini dreams that last for probably less than a minute, but can be very real. Sometimes I have control, but more often I do not. They usually happen when I am near falling asleep at the beginning of the night. I guess they are HI, although I generally think of HI as the usually "yellow" swirling patterns that appear on the back of my eyelids that try to hypnotize me to sleep. When I'm trying to WILD I concentrate on those patterns to help me get sleepy. Often more detailed images come and go and I have to concentrate to remain consious until vibrations and SP. If I get too involved in the detailed images they may just become a full fledged non lucid dream.

I experience these "dreamlets" as well, but more often during meditation than right when I'm about to fall asleep. They usually occur when I am concentrating intently on dreaming or sleep.

For example, this morning I had to go back to the daily grind after having a nice break, and so I tried to go to sleep early. This was hard, since I was so used to a much later bedtime, and I really had to work to get to sleep. First I saw the spinning red circles, and then the "dreamlets".

I've never induced a lucid (or non-lucid, for that matter) dream from the dreamlets, but they seem to be connected because I almost always have a lucid dream after intense meditation sessions right before bed, and I had a very vivid one last night. That's an interesting connection I never thought of before. I think I'll look into it.

Anyway, sorry for rambling.

I'm not sure if I'm talking about the same thing, but I have mini dreams before I really fall asleep. They are extremely vivid and if I fall in these little dreams, or if someone throws a baseball at me and whatnot, then I usually wake up with a jump.

Originally posted by s0berbob
I'm not sure if I'm talking about the same thing, but I have mini dreams before I really fall asleep. They are extremely vivid and if I fall in these little dreams, or if someone throws a baseball at me and whatnot, then I usually wake up with a jump.

Yeah, they sound the same. Never had a baseball thrown at me, and most of the time they just end, but sometimes I'm jolted awake by something in them.

Originally posted by s0berbob
then I usually wake up with a jump.

This used to happen to me all of the time in class. The teacher would always get a good laugh out of it when during a lecture I suddely jump in my seat knocking all of my books on the floor. Really makes you feel quite sheepish.

I'v had these too, it would always happen right before I dozed off, but then I'd get this completly horrible rushing feeling and dread and fear, and I'd wake up with my heart pounding a thousand times a minute.