Thread: Lucidity Through a Spontaneous HIT

Last night, I drifted into a pretty strong hypnagogic state in which I walked down a sidewalk, but floated up a bit with each step. I realized that I wasn't awake, but that I wasn't exactly dreaming either, recognizing it as hypnagogic. But it had a similar submersive quality as in dreams. So I willed myself to do several flips, which occurred in an impossible slow motion. I then snapped out of it.

I saw little difference between it and a lucid dream, so I did a search on it here just now and found this: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17793

Yay for me! I'll count this as my first lucid dream since joining here.

Anyway... I only found two references to successful HITs here. But those messages got posted almost a year ago and didn't give any detail. Does anyone here have any HITs they can share. I'd like to see the range of possibilities with this technique. I'll also post some more specific technique discussion questions over in Attaining Lucidity.

Woo! Congrats on that awesome LD action!

Originally posted by sasha
Does anyone here have any HITs they can share.

This happened to me before I started journaling here - and was what got me interested in LDs. This is recorded in my blog:

I came home and napped, but had an odd experience with that. I woke partly at one point, and was able to sort of watch myself as I went back down into the dream. It wasn't really watching myself... it was definitely first-person... but I was conscious. I could see what was happening and consider it. There were visual patterns that changed rapidly and became patterns of objects. At one point, martini glasses were sprouting like time-lapsed daisies as I flew over them. Martini glasses! Then I was dreaming. I remember most of that dream, though I wasn't aware of dreaming in the dream. It was my my normal morning routine, bizarrely coupled with unusual objects - like morning coffee in a martini glass that I was having trouble balancing. I'm sure there was a William Powell link in there somewhere.

I experienced something like this once, I classified it as hypnagogic because it was just like HI but I had control, I could move in it like it was a dream and still could feel my real body. I snapped out of it too after a short time. How did you tell the difference from an LD?

To me HIT seems a lot like WILD. I haven't successfully tried either of these techniques but aren't they the same?

Originally posted by nightshade
How did you tell the difference from an LD?

In my case, because I knew that I had just turned out the light and couldn't have yet entered a dream state. And I knew this quite consciously in the "dream". I then confirmed this after snapping out of it.

Originally posted by nightshade

To me HIT seems a lot like WILD. I haven't successfully tried either of these techniques but aren't they the same?

The experiences may have very similar features, but I'd guess they have different physiologies. With WILD, don't you slip back into the dream state after just having come out of it? But with HIT, you haven't slept at all yet and haven't sunk into REM or anything. But I don't really know much about dream or sleep physiology.

Originally posted by Gwendolyn
Woo! Congrats on that awesome LD action!

Thanks!

right on...knew you'd have a lucid before the month was out

*The experiences may have very similar features, but I'd guess they have different physiologies. With WILD, don't you slip back into the dream state after just having come out of it? But with HIT, you haven't slept at all yet and haven't sunk into REM or anything. But I don't really know much about dream or sleep physiology. [/b]

it seems the line between HIT and WILD is incredibly vague..my first successful WILD started as an unintentional HIT. actually, i am trying to remember whether i had been asleep beforehand, or not. i am fairly certain i had not slept yet.

i laid down, and started to drift off to sleep. eventually i noticed hypnagogic imagery, but didin't pay it too much attention. eventually the scenes morphed into a continuous scene of a restaurant, and a second later i found myself sitting at a booth. so i go up and had a minute or two of exploration before i awoke.

there was no clear transition between the two states aside from the feeling i was "within" the scene. numerous other transitions between HI and a "lucid dream" have happened likewise. in some it was only after i had managed to "possess" the body of someone in the scene that i felt i was truly in a dream.

it seems analagous to watching television as opposed to jumping onstage during a live play. HI is like watching scenes which are separate from one's disembodied/"external" viewpoint. whereas LDs are generally scenes which one takes part in. yet i have found the quality of the scenes in not neccessarily different, only the perception of one's place within it.


(incidentally it is possible to DILD when in nonREM sleep, and some relate accounts of being able to WILD without sleeping beforehand. REM sleep is not neccessary to lucid dreaming, it only makes it much easier.)

any which way though, there's no doubt you've had your first lucid...congratulations...it's only up from here on in

REM sleep is not neccessary to lucid dreaming, it only makes it much easier.[/b]

I'm beginning to believe that it makes it easier to REMEMBER the LDs, 'cause I'm just about positive that LDs are happening in non-REM sleep for me - but they are not being recalled.

Originally posted by wombing+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wombing)</div>

right on...knew you'd have a lucid before the month was out *[/b]

Thanks!

<!--QuoteBegin-wombing
it seems analagous to watching television as opposed to *jumping onstage during a live play. HI is like watching scenes which are separate from one's disembodied/"external" viewpoint. whereas LDs are generally scenes which one takes part in. yet i have found the quality of the scenes in not neccessarily different, only the perception of one's place within it.

Interesting. I experienced the HI from a very much embodied perspective, seeing only what my eyes would see while awake.