Philosophy Now Forum

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~ Has Anyone Here Experienced Hypnagogia? & if You Have, Could You Describe Your Experience? ~



Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the hypnagogic state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.



Hypnagogia is flat-out some of the most AMAZING states of consciousness that I have ever experienced in my life.



I have not actually re-experienced this state for many years. It's kind-of strange that I cannot bring-on or induce this state in myself. The state hypnagogia of just comes-on by itself...or-not.

In me, the state of hypnagogia would RARELY come over me but when it did I would be reading. In these rare times I would often find myself reading philosophical works. And perhaps that is what brought these states on? A type of self-reflective residue or an ultimately relaxed self-consciousness.



I really remember this state of hypnagogia come over me when I was reading Vonnegut and, of coarse, I was rather tired. An almost sleep or dream state - yet I was still on the side of a wakefulness of some kind...




It's an amazing state & when I was experiencing this state, again, years ago, I did not have this label - the label of hypnagogia to paste on these moments.

Can't say that the insights or thought processes I experienced were meaningful or memorable but the actual STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS when I was in hypnagogia definitely left a deep impression upon me.



I would like to know if anyone here has passed-through the state of hypnagogia & could you, if you know what I am referring to, in some way, attempt to explain your experiences?











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Bill Wiltrack wrote:.


Hypnagogia is flat-out some of the most AMAZING states of consciousness that I have ever experienced in my life.

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And we're all still waiting and wondering what you'll turn out to be like if and when you ever fully wake up.

Harbal wrote:

Bill Wiltrack wrote:.


Hypnagogia is flat-out some of the most AMAZING states of consciousness that I have ever experienced in my life.

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And we're all still waiting and wondering what you'll turn out to be like if and when you ever fully wake up.

There you are.

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" To dream and altogether not
to dream. This synthesis is the
operation of genius, by which both
activities are mutually reinforced."
~ Yun-Wen Shaw ~






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Bill Wiltrack wrote:.






" To dream and altogether not
to dream. This synthesis is the
operation of genius, by which both
activities are mutually reinforced."
~ Yun-Wen Shaw ~

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You mean mutually diminished, surely.

Are lucid dreams supposed to be sufficient to denote hypnagogia, or are they just commonly found in hypnagogic states, but not exclusively in hypnagogic states?

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A possible physical explanation for Hypnagogia is rooted in the discovery of magnetite crystals in cells of the brain and meninges.

It has been found that there are five million magnetite crystals per gram in the human brain, and twenty times that number in the meninges. These ‘biomagnetite crystals’ are oriented in the brain in a manner that maximizes their magnetic moment, thus allowing the crystals to act as a system, and marking the ability of the brain to sense energy fields.

These crystals could very possibly be the cause and explanation behind psychic abilities, as well as the feelings of intuition during states of hypnagogia.

Let us further explore how this phenomenon may be possible. Studies that show the proximity of the crystal-containing brain cells to the pituitary and pineal glands, have led researchers to propose that these glands may use information from the earth’s magnetic field to regulate the release of hormones in the brain, thus directly controlling conscious awareness levels.






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I've occasionally fallen asleep reading, or watching the telly, if that's what your referring to. Sometimes, it's much better than what I was reading or watching.

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...um, yes? Those are the times hypnagogia has happened to me BUT THE STATE RARELY HAPPENS.


So, I would say that unless you had a dramatically estranged state of consciousness within that particular scope of time YOU MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED HYPNAGOGIA.

In short, I can't say if you did or did not experience hypnagogia. That would be a sence that only you can actually know.





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Wanted to add an experience that happened to me yesterday.


Got done working-out. Came home & took a rather large amount of a highly addictive research chemical at around 11:30AM.


Had an emergency that caused me to stay-up much longer than my normal bedtime.

Was fading in & out of consciousness when I began having deep episodes of hypnagogia. Really did not recognize the experiences as hypnagogia as the experiences were happening to me.

Can't really remember what exactly I was thinking but a DEEP sense of the distortion of time. It was like a folding of time over itself. Like things were passing through my consciousness but I didn't know if they had happened already or if they were a perfect representation of what would happen to me based upon my essence of my true, perfect psychological representation.


Strange. Had a few of these episodes in a row & although, at the time they were happening I did not recognize them as hypnagogia I remember that I did want and encourage the experience in those moments.


Perhaps that want was based upon my literation of hypnagogia upon this very site. So, this site, this specific thread, may have directly been involved with my own, very personal, evolution.


And it may have done this in the very exact psych-mechanical mechanism that hypnagogia works through.






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