Please tell me what this is.

[Wert]

This happened about 10-20 minutes ago. I woke up from a very vivid dream, I stayed still in my bed with my eyes closed. My whole body felt 'pins and needles' and I felt as if I couldn't move. My right ear felt like it was being sucked into my pillow, more of my inner ear (I don't know how to explain it) and I could hear people talking and saw outlines of flashing faces (not detailed) from what I assume was the dream I had prior to this experience. This has never happened before, I have never tried to attain lucid dreaming or anything like that but researched it and became interested in it about 4 months ago. If anyone can help it would be appreciated, it scared the shit out of me to be honest. Thanks.

[Philosopher8659]

You were lucid, but not awake.

[Wert]

So this must be in the wrong section though. To clear up what I saw. It's almost as if I saw them INSIDE my eyes, like a projector? Can you explain the inner ear thing? Or go in depth on to what was happening more, Thanks for answering Philosopher.

[Philosopher8659]

One can lucid in any sense and every sense, that is as simple as it gets. When you are transcending from being awake to lucid dreaming, and vice versa sometimes, people tend to call it hallucination, but it is only things comming on line and going offline. Thats all, nothing to worry about. part of mastering your awareness is knowing that it is just part of the process.

[Wert]

But I thought reaching lucidity took tons of practice, I didn't even mean to do anything. I was just thinking about what I dreamt (like I said, very vivid..I can still remember it) and not moving and then all of a sudden I couldn't move. So was this in fact sleep paralysis?

[Philosopher8659]

Wild takes practice. Incidental lucid dreaming does not. It is like learning to walk. Children take a few steps from time to time before they can actually walk.

[Wert]

Ahh that makes sense. So if I was lucid dreaming then what would be the next step so to speak? Also, the feelings stopped and I put my head back onto the pillow and they recurred around 2 more times. Also, was this SP? The more research I do the more this interests me.

[Philosopher8659]

I would not worry about acronyms or things when you first start out. Each person has different levels of success, and experiences become rather particular. Just try to keep it simple. Determine before hand what you want to do in a dream and go for it.

[Wert]

I would have tried to do SOMETHING if i knew what was going on, I was to confused/frightened. Only after the fact did i have an idea what was happening. Thanks for your help.

[LonelyTurtle]

This is known as Hypnagogic Hallucinations/Imagery, and are common when WILDing. They are simply fragments of a forming dream. These Hypnagogics may include noises like banging, clanking, buzzing, shuffling, whispering, screaming etc. Or may involved visuals like you described, trees, faces, eyes, knives, anything. The tingling you expirienced was Sleep Paralysis, something that happens every night, you just aren't normally awake to experience it. About 80% of adults have experienced it while awake at some point in their lives, likely not on purpose. Sleep paralysis is your body paralyzing you so you don't act out your dreams in real life. Hypnagogic H/I and Sleep Paralysis are results of transcending into a dream while being conscious, they are nothing to bed feared as long as you remind yourself that they aren't real. Many people have the occasional lucid dream without practicing them, and most don't understand the significance.

[Wert]

So it is significant that this happened to me. Very informative LonelyTurtle, I am going to try and recreate the feeling..but i'm not sure I will be able to do it again as I don't practice this sort of thing.