"Special Effects" while falling asleep?

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Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 11:59 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 11:59 AM

"Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 995 Join Date: 4/5/14 Recent Posts
I've seen a number of people here mention that their strangest experiences happen to them as they fall asleep.  I wonder if there's something to that.  Maybe a good practice would be to take a nap after concentration each day or something. Has anyone tried to use this or found it to be useful?

Some of the special effects I've gotten before sleep:

- "Brain throbbing" where it feels like my head is going *whump* *whump* *whump* in a mildly pleasant way. This can be accompanied by an "arrow through the head" feeling, like through the forehead and the back of the skull. If I watch it, it gets stonger and it eventually feels like my whole body is *whumping* along.

- A dip into nothingness. This only happened a few times, but it felt like everything ceased to exist for a little bit, then came back. The first time it happened there was a popping sound. The second time, I spent the rest of the night falling into the edge of it, then kicking my legs out involuntarily. It felt a bit like falling, actually. Didn't get much sleep that night.

- A kind of full body relaxation. This isn't sleep paralysis because I can still move. It just feels like all muscle tension drops away (usually tension I didn't know was there) as well as any aches or pains. I've felt this hapen during jhana, too, so probably related.

- A "stillness" state of nothingness. I don't know if this is related to the black dips into nothing above, but it's a bit more stable. Thus one felt like no body, no mind, just awareness for a few seconds. My thought, "why can't it always be this way," snapped me out of it, haha. Maybe conscious deep sleep? It didn't last long and I kept myself up all night after this one happened too...
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 2:44 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 2:44 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Not Tao:

- A dip into nothingness. This only happened a few times, but it felt like everything ceased to exist for a little bit, then came back. The first time it happened there was a popping sound. The second time, I spent the rest of the night falling into the edge of it, then kicking my legs out involuntarily. It felt a bit like falling, actually. Didn't get much sleep that night.


I get this a lot when falling asleep, I usually call it "sleep".

Sorry, couldn't resist! emoticon
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 3:07 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 3:07 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
Hypnagogic hallucination. Shinzen has a video where he claims that the liminal state between sleep and wake has liberation potential
sloane, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 3:50 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 3:50 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 29 Join Date: 10/11/14 Recent Posts
I frequently feel like I can see through my closed eyes when falling asleep. It's not intentional, but I have the thought that I need to look at something in the room, and my eyes won't open, and then it seems like I can see through my eyelids. I keep meaning to come up with a way to test it, just in case I actually am seeing though them, but I doubt it. emoticon

I also tend to hallucinate voices that sound crystal clear saying totally random things during that time (e.g. "we need to turn that machine off.") These have scared the shit out of me on occasion bc it really sounds like someone is in the room.

When I was doing a lot of noting and hanging out equanitmity for a couple hours a day, it actually really messed with my ability to fall asleep. I'd gotten used to watching dreams start and stop while meditating, and so for a few nights I'd spend the first few hours just watching dreams arise and watching myself fall more or less asleep, without ever acually going to sleep. Was exhausting but fun.
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 7:55 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 7:55 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Droll Dedekind:
Shinzen has a video where he claims that the liminal state between sleep and wake has liberation potential

Happen to have a link? I've certainly had corroborating experiences.
Matt, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 8:01 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 8:01 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
Droll Dedekind:
Hypnagogic hallucination. Shinzen has a video where he claims that the liminal state between sleep and wake has liberation potential

I'm happy for that, because I've felt experiences in my sitting that feel just like I'm falling asleep, which I've been thinking is just that I'm falling asleep.  Liberation potential sounds much more rewarding.
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 8:07 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/11/15 8:07 PM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64BBTV3FOc4
in here I think
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 12:16 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 12:16 AM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Worth the watch, thanks.
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John P, modified 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 10:07 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 9:48 AM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 155 Join Date: 1/24/12 Recent Posts
I would say that the moments just after waking up can also have some special effects.

For example, my senses tend to be at their sharpest state just after waking up, feeling vibrations in parts of the body and hearing very subtle sounds.
Matt, modified 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 10:57 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 10:57 AM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
Droll Dedekind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64BBTV3FOc4
Yeah baby, DhO rocks.  Yet another connection between what I experience, what I see someone else experiences, what some luminary posts a friggen video about, how DhO puts the dots together.

Thank you Droll.
Matt, modified 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 11:05 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 11:04 AM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
In the evenings I get the The Icky-Sticky Creepy-Crawly It-Doesn't-Really-Hurt-But-I-Can't-Stand-It Feeling.  It often completely drives me off the cushion.  Sometimes I 'work through it' which feels like a triumph of equanimity.

http://www.shinzen.org/Articles/artIcky.htm
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Psi, modified 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 11:25 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/12/15 11:22 AM

RE: "Special Effects" while falling asleep?

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
Hi Not Tao, 

This state of mind is indeed very interesting, and this state of mind has led to many positive breakthroughs for humanity.

Many believe Edgar Casey entered into an out-of-body (OBE) state to obtain his healing insights.The famous inventor Thomas Edison used such a “mind awake-body asleep” state of consciousness to work on his many inventions. Edison would place a silver dollar on his head and sit in a chair with a metal bucket in his lap. If he drifted into sleep, the coin would fall into the bucket and restore his alertness.Albert Einstein would enter into a hypnagogic state by sitting in a chair with his arms suspended over the side while holding a small smooth stone in each hand. If he fell to sleep he would drop the stones, waking himself. Artist Salvador Dali was said to use a similar method to gain the odd visions that inspired his paintings.

excerpt from here, I always thought the above Thomas Edison was an amazing way to enter new dimensions of consciousness, I did not know how Einstien did it before this link, nor about Salvador Dali.  And the web article had it wrong about Casey it is Edgar Cayce.  Which is a whole other ball of unexplained wax.


http://buildmindpower.com/85-chance-you-are-traveling-out-of-bod/


Also of interest, the state you are referring to, I think, is traditionally known as Hypnogogia, it can be weird...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

Psi

P.S.

There is also the story of:

The hypnagogic state can provide insight into a problem, the best-known example being August Kekulé’s realization that the structure of benzene was a closed ring while half-asleep in front of a fire and seeing molecules forming into snakes, one of which grabbed its tail in its mouth.[38] 

Which is extra synchronistically hilarious because of your mention about Ouroboros the other day....  

Guess what comes around goes around...  emoticon

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