Hi from a fellow dreamer (bit troubled with HI)

Hello dreamers,

my name is Jasper and I've been lucid dreaming sinds i was a little boy and like to practice it now and then. I'm currently doing research about dreaming and personal development so i thought i would join this great community.

Alltrough i am a very big fan of dreaming and lucid dreaming in particular i'm not always busy with it. This is because when i'm getting in to it i start to have hallucinations while laying in bed. i think this is called HI? HI Hypnagogic Imagery. It doesn't really scare me anymore and i'm not religious or anything so I'm aware that they are hallucinations. the problem is that the more i am dreaming (and lucid dreaming) the more vivid they get. from things like flying shadows to actually people standing beside the bed for more than a minute.

I'm wondering if more people get that from being to infatuated to lucid dreaming and how they handle it.

I just joined today and found your post interesting. I've had some strange experiences in the past, but I'm not sure if they're related to this. I will say that I've found that when I'm trying to focus on certain things before falling asleep in order to induce lucid dreaming I tend to hear things very clearly that aren't there. I'll see pictures in my head very clearly, maybe a face or a place, but more often I hear someone saying a name or yelling out something clearly but with no meaning for me. I associate it with the imagery that happens when I fall asleep naturally, only escalated somehow? Maybe it's only because I'm more aware at the moment of falling asleep instead of just letting sleep take over. Either way, most times when I'm falling asleep I see pictures or hear things and that's how I know I'm falling asleep. But, yes, I can say that when I started to try to lucid dream more often the last couple of years it seemed a little "louder" for lack of a better word.
I'm curious, though, when you say you see these people or shadows, are your eyes open or closed?

From what i've heard thats about the same thing only with sound. And yes its even so that when i close them i see nothing or they even go away (changing light also helps). It all depends on the intensity. Like shadows, or blurs shift when i look the other way and stay in my line of vision. So they appear to be floating but when i see a person it stays on the same spot like its really there.

I'm wondering,.. can you interact with the sounds? i've tried with the images but only the blurry ones with no success.

also, i've read something in an article that a woman had the same thing you had and asked the person in her dreams (lucid) to keep quite in daytime and it actually worked.

I get occasional HI and, personally, I find it entertaining. The different shapes and colors all changing and morphing into a dream scene are really interesting and provide good entertainment before I even get into a lucid dream. I find that I can sometimes interact with the images, focusing on where they could go, but I haven't tried anything with the auditory hallucinations. I rarely get them so I don't really have the chance but I'd imagine they're the same or at least similar to the images.

Yeah, I only get sounds. Nothing ever scary, just stuff that distracts me.

Welcome to the community! I hope you choose to get more out of LDing since I feel like the more you have the better it gets! Most of all have fun though. :P

So, you see these things when your eyes are open? Is that an HI then I wonder? I was under the impression that was something you saw in your minds eye so to speak, I didn't realize you would see things with your eyes open. That sounds more like extrasensory perception. Maybe you don't want to think along those lines though. Anyway, I've never tried to interact with the things I hear, but they've mostly been in my head. It's not like I hear them physically in the room. I've had that happen a couple of times a few years ago but that was when I was waking up and not dreaming at all. After I had just woken up one morning, and I was still lying in bed, I clearly heard someone say my name from the hallway...as in it sounded like someone was physically in the house and said my name within 6-10 ft. of my face. I was living alone at the time so I didn't know what to think of it other than that it was pretty amazing. Otherwise the sounds I hear when falling asleep are more in my head, not physically in the room.
Do you ever have any other sensations with the things you see, or is it mainly visual for you?

My experiences with HI have ranged from troubling to profound.
The first time it happened to me, I was frozen. I heard the ringing of bells. They were dissonant and definitely not in tune, far away, and echo-ing. Evil intent. A word (something scary I can't remember) came into view, and each time the bells would chime, green waves would radiate from them. I woke myself up from it because it scared me and I went back to sleep. As I was drifting back, I heard a man say my name. I get the feeling he was bald, middle aged, and very round yet massively strong. Also potentially a clown.

Another time, I felt a deep euphoria in my body. Even though I was frozen, I felt my dream body pulled up by my stomach, as my limbs curled up under into a ball and I felt like a sphere of existence. Then waves, as if I was being shot through the air at impossible speeds and waves were coming over me. The sound of a training and rushing water. Intense and overwhelming. Finally, I came to what I perceived to be an infinite measure of space. Squares of vision, like TV screens were popping up. Each held a different realm and possibility. Some were cartoon shows. Some were peoples' lives. Some stared at me, welcoming or threatening. A woman looked at me from one and I knew she wished me ill. I went into one and a dream began.

More recently, I awoke in my house. I had a vague feeling I was not awake, and the dream was fading. The house was ill-lit, grey, almost wet. All color was a dull grey. I opened my door and darkness surrounded me as I woke up into hypnopompa... the last I felt of the dream was an evil presence and then suddenly I felt the waves... the familiar feeling of flying, falling, and the distortion of the vibrations around you. I tried calling out to my dog, hoping she would come over and in the process wake my body up. But as my body was asleep, all I could make were barely audible groaning sounds until I woke up.

That sounds kind of like the things ive experienced. Most of the time the dreamcharacters wish me ill or are actually attacking me. Trough i don't really mind unless its during the hallucinations i have. So i guess it isn't callec HI.

I tried doing a WILD last night en while i didn't succeed i did hear sounds. Things like people i know, calling my name. I also started seeing faces or other imagery. This effect is similar to what i told earlier(the not so intense visions). So my body felt heavy and when i got this falling fealing i actually woke up. But i did have this dream feeling while awake after it.

Altrough its a bit scary, i'm going to try another time tonight. Most of the time i do this is right after i wake up and is almost always succesful trough i cant controll it as good as a normal lucid dream. So i'm wondering what its called what i have then.

I know this isn't really what this site is for, but I've read a lot on out of body experiences as well and what you're both describing sounds very familiar to those experiences. I don't know for sure that I've experienced it myself...I've had a few strange things happen that don't always seem dream related...but the experiences you're describing can be found in out of body books. I could try to look through my collection and see if I could find some specific books you could read on it if you were interested. I've experienced tingling throughout my body as I fall asleep, but not the tingling you feel when a limb is falling asleep, more like my whole body is vibrating. I've also had sensations (after this tingling) that my arm was floating up but I wasn't moving it at all. As far as I know that's as far as I've gotten. It felt really wonderful, and I heard a loud buzzing/roaring at the time as well (hard to describe, but very loud). I've never seen anybody, but many years ago I used to have these experiences at night while trying to fall asleep where I would hear footsteps on the carpet in my room and just feel that somebody was there. I would even feel pressure on my ankles/calves like somebody was touching me (in a friendly way). I know it sounds "out there", but my cat even responded to these "visits." She always slept in the crook of my knee and one night when I felt these things she sat up real fast and started growling low in her throat. When the sensation reached my knee (where she was at) she collapsed and started breathing real heavy like she just fell asleep. I know I couldn't imagine that happening. She didn't sleep in my room with me for several nights after that (and she did every night). I would also have sensations that I my head was tingling like a million atoms bouncing around real fast and my body felt like it was moving real fast away from my bed on some nights. These were things that made me look into out of body and extrasensory possibilities. They just don't seem to fit with HI. I can say that I believe that these things are possible, but I don't know what's happening, it's just a possibility. I like to keep my mind open considering we can't claim to know very much. We can only see and hear a very limited range so who's to say what else might be going on that we're unaware of? Anyway, I might be making a fool of myself here, but your experiences remind me of my readings in those books. Maybe it's something different and that's just the best possible explanation some people have for it right now, but it might be something to look into. I find it interesting to talk about anyway :)

I should mention that the author of one out of body book I read had the opinion that lucid dreaming was a sort of out of body experience as well. I'm not sure how I feel about that at this point, but it's his opinion. Like I said, I like to keep an open mind because who really knows the answer to these things? I find it interesting anyway. Whether it is or isn't, it can be fascinating. It was the experiences I had before dreaming or falling asleep that made me look into other explanations. I've never felt anything negative or "evil" in my experiences. My first experience I actually felt an overwhelming sensation of love like I've never felt before or after. I was very young and I had been sleeping. I was lying on my side with my eyes closed waiting to fall back to sleep. I had very long hair and my blankets were pulled up to my shoulders. I suddenly felt the blankets slide slowly down my back and my hair was pushed to the side. Then I felt this sensation, like a gentle caress on my neck. It didn't feel like a hand or air, it's hard to describe, only that something caressed my neck. As this happened I felt this overwhelming sensation of love. It just enveloped my whole self. I've never felt anything like it since. I just smiled, it felt so wonderful. Then the room suddenly felt different, like someone wasn't there anymore. It just felt empty for lack of a better word. That's when I realized what had just happened. The blankets were still down my back and my hair was still pushed to the side, so I didn't imagine that. Some would say it was a dream and I was still sleeping and imagined it, but I know I didn't. It might make me sound crazy, but I know what I felt. Whatever it was, it made me feel safe though; it was beautiful.
It was about a year or two after that experience that I started to have those other experiences I mentioned above, along with very vivid dreams and occasional lucid dreams. I still have the dreams.

I've always been of the other idea. That OBE is a type of LD. Just my belief though. Of course one could argue that any dream is a type of OBE. :/

True, you're experiencing things in your mind, not your body, so it could technically be considered out of body. I don't know what to think of it all, but definitely keeping an open mind. How often do you get to experience LD?

Check out my DJ. December ended with only 8 lucid because of some doubt and some bad sleep (which made more doubt, a vicious cycle). But since the beginning of 2013 I have had 7 LDs since I got my confidence back and my sleep schedule back. I should be able to continue like this. Added all together since I started my DJ, September 7th

123 days 51 LDs... almost 3 a week. Or a little less than 1 every other day.

But I like to count it since my DJ actually started working! haha. Starting October 1st.
100 days 46 LDs. 3.2 LDs a week. or a little more than every other day! haha!

To look more on the bright side, I have had 7 this year. Out of 9 days. :) very happy about this and don't plan on slowing down!!