Hypnogogic Hallucinations

Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice

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I was sat on my settee a couple of months ago, drifting off to sleep after a long day when I heard my mother and my niece come through my front door, talking to each other. I shouted hi. No answer. I went and checked the door. It was locked and there was nobody there. Confused, I sat back down and started drifting off again. My mother and niece resumed their conversation in the hallway!

This repeated several times, eventually ending with it seeming like they were in the room with me chatting away. I'd open my eyes and the talking stopped and nobody there. Closed my eyes and within thirty seconds the talking started again. This was not a dream.

Fearing I was going mad I googled "hearing voices whilst falling asleep" and entered the strange world of hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Most people experience this at some point in their lives. Apparently a common one is hearing a loud explosion which obviously wakes you from slumber (called exploding head syndrome)

It happened again yesterday. Im a little freaked out tbh

Has this ever happened to you?
 
Exploding head syndrome yes…a few times.
But mostly it’s been other experiences.
I tend to view my experiences more as out of body experiences in most cases.
 
Skarekrow said:
Exploding head syndrome yes…a few times.
But mostly it’s been other experiences.
As far as everything else I tend to view my experiences more as out of body experiences in most cases.
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What makes you think these are out of body experiences?

I also frequently have lucid dreams. An ex girlfriend tried to convince me these were out of body experiences. Im not so sure
 
Yes. It's probably not something to be worried about unless you have a sleep disorder or hallucinations that are not associated with sleep.

I have had sleep paralysis too.
 
To the OP.

That would certainly freak me out. Are your regular dreams especially aural? Mine are principally visual, so if I were to dozing-hallucinate, I wouldn't be so freaked by seeing things, as this would at least seem like a cross-over of something normal in the way I dream.

Mentioning it to a doctor is probably a prudent move.

Out of curiosity, could you comprehend what was being said?
 
Flavus Aquila said:
To the OP.

That would certainly freak me out. Are your regular dreams especially aural? Mine are principally visual, so if I were to dozing-hallucinate, I wouldn't be so freaked by seeing things, as this would at least seem like a cross-over of something normal in the way I dream.

Mentioning it to a doctor is probably a prudent move.

Out of curiosity, could you comprehend what was being said?
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Yes I could understand what they were saying. It was a rational conversation based on what I would have expected them to be talking about I.e. My nieces new baby. I could hear them opening doors and taking off their coats too.

My dreams are extremely vivid and usually mostly visual. I tend to be able to fly, especially in my lucid dreams and am often being chased/attacked by something

Internet search suggests its nothing to worry about but it still freaks me out
 
I've had some hypnogogic experiences while meditating when especially tired and also while napping/attempting to nap.

I've had voices shouting, exploding sounds, strange pitches, whispers, normal talking, fast talking etc.

It's not really too concerning of a thing unless it's happening on a regular basis I think. You might just need more sleep or better quality sleep, which is worth investigating.
 
Poetic Justice said:
I was sat on my settee a couple of months ago, drifting off to sleep after a long day when I heard my mother and my niece come through my front door, talking to each other. I shouted hi. No answer. I went and checked the door. It was locked and there was nobody there. Confused, I sat back down and started drifting off again. My mother and niece resumed their conversation in the hallway!

This repeated several times, eventually ending with it seeming like they were in the room with me chatting away. I'd open my eyes and the talking stopped and nobody there. Closed my eyes and within thirty seconds the talking started again. This was not a dream.

Fearing I was going mad I googled "hearing voices whilst falling asleep" and entered the strange world of hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Most people experience this at some point in their lives. Apparently a common one is hearing a loud explosion which obviously wakes you from slumber (called exploding head syndrome)

It happened again yesterday. Im a little freaked out tbh

Has this ever happened to you?
Click to expand...

Yes. Once I experienced sleep paralysis and it freaked me out. But recently I have experienced hallucinations while waking up, maybe three times. All three times I had the same experience. I saw a large tarantula in my room. Once I even jumped out of bed because I thought it was about to pounce on me. By the way, I do not have a history of hallucinating. I spoke to my therapist about these experiences and she said not to worry. It's funny how things can freak you out that are benign, and then there are symptoms you may experience that you dismiss and are actually quite serious. The spiders looked so real but then they moved and then just disappeared like a hologram. It was all in my head, like I was projecting part of a dream into my waking reality. Strange.
 
Poetic Justice said:
What makes you think these are out of body experiences?

I also frequently have lucid dreams. An ex girlfriend tried to convince me these were out of body experiences. Im not so sure
Click to expand...

Typically in a lucid dream you can change your environment, meaning you can interact with it…you can choose to fly, do whatever you wish.
In the typical out of body experience you cannot effect your environment, you can read the book titles for example but cannot take one off the shelf or talk to the people there.
Is there a possibility that your Sister and Mom were together having that actual conversation (just somewhere else), at that actual time, and you were “listening in” while being out of body…this could explain why it was so real.
BTW you CAN effect things to a certain extent while OOB, but it has not been consistent enough of an event in my life for me to make a proper study of myself or even try this or that.
You can try to induce this state by making a small Ganzfield closet…red light, half a ping pong ball taped over each eye, noise canceling headphones.
And after a very short time you will begin to see things…hear things…even feel things….that are supposedly just in our heads.
But I like many others, believe that the mind can stretch out over space and time.
Anyhow…you should call them, and if you can remember anything specific they said that might give you some proof that part of you was there listening in.
 
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Skarekrow said:
Typically in a lucid dream you can change your environment, meaning you can interact with it…you can choose to fly, do whatever you wish.
In the typical out of body experience you cannot effect your environment, you can read the book titles for example but cannot take one off the shelf or talk to the people there.
Is there a possibility that your Sister and Mom were together having that actual conversation (just somewhere else), at that actual time, and you were “listening in” while being out of body…this could explain why it was so real.
BTW you CAN effect things to a certain extent while OOB, but it has not been consistent enough of an event in my life for me to make a proper study of myself or even try this or that.
You can try to induce this state by making a small Ganzfield closet…red light, half a ping pong ball taped over each eye, noise canceling headphones.
And after a very short time you will begin to see things…hear things…even feel things….that are supposedly just in our heads.
But I like many others, believe that the mind can stretch out over space and time.
Anyhow…you should call them, and if you can remember anything specific they said that might give you some proof that part of you was there listening in.
Click to expand...

Interesting. By the way. Have you ever been to Santa Monica? And do you like the Stooges? Both of us are on the West Coast and have probably read Mojo more than once. Cheers.
 
dang said:
Interesting. By the way. Have you ever been to Santa Monica? And do you like the Stooges? Both of us are on the West Coast and have probably read Mojo more than once. Cheers.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have been to Santa Monica more than a dozen times. Do you mean Iggy Pop and the Stooges? Or the three Stooges?
 
dang said:
Iggy.
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Yes…I have some of their music, but I wouldn’t say I was as big a fan as I was of Bowie, he was my, and remains to be my fav.
 
dang said:
RIP
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For certain…if anyone was actually an alien from another planet, he’s my choice.

Back to the thread, where do you fall on the idea of out of body experiences and all that?
 
[MENTION=472]Poetic Justice[/MENTION], you could have a sleep study done and let them know that you're having hypnogogic hallucinations and see what they say about it. There might be changes in brain waves when people experience hypnogogic hallucinations - not sure, but interesting.
 
Yes I do experience this, all the time. I think I made a thread about it years ago although I didn't know it had this name.

I don't think this is an entirely abnormal experience!

This interests me both as an artist and as a mystic, as a liminal space, specifically between sleep and awake. From this perspective these spaces are everywhere, and are also magical creative spaces, gateways to alternative realities, like a sort of magic mirror.

From a lot more practical perspective, this interests me as I am an insomniac and somewhat obsessed with transitioning to sleep. Zolpidem induces a state that has things in common with this, it is a drug that is highly successful for many people (including me) in inducing sleep. When I'm falling asleep (without pharmaceutical help) my mind begins to lose control of itself. It becomes less coherent, it wanders to strange places. It conjures unheard sounds and unseen faces and nonsense poetry that seem to originate externally, seem to have a life of their own. The distinctions between associations are less clear, things become schizophrenic.

When I really get serious about getting to sleep, I concentrate on letting my mind wander, turning up the volume on all the background noise and telling the rational controls to let go. Last night my lecturer's voice came into my head, it was droning on about absolute nonsense, I just let it drone away, talking about whatever it wanted...

Back to topic, I think this is a pretty normal experience. It goes on very quietly most of the time, too quietly for most people to even notice. But sometimes bam, it can really make itself known!!!!

Just a few thoughts, may not be relevant
 
invisible said:
@Stu wondering if you have any thoughts. OK if not
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Holy cow! I experience this in a big way. Some of it is quite disturbing but I have learned to not to over moralize.
 
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