Daydreaming vs hypnagogia vs WILD?

Starry · April 24, 2013, 10:33pm

Since I tried the technique called image streaming, I have had the capability to experience imagery in my mind pretty much the instant i close my eyes. I have in the past gone to sleep very very quickly, so maybe this is normal.

Anyways, what is the difference between these instant visualizations (sort of like daydreaming) vs an actual hypnagogic state. Its almost like im aware while I am doing the instant visualizations but in order to go asleep I need to loose awareness. Very frustrating!

underscore · April 27, 2013, 8:00pm

I’m not too familiar with the sorts of visualizations that image streaming can give you, but here are some questions that came to mind while reading your post:

How intense are these visualizations, in terms of clarity? What are they usually like?
What do you mean when you say,

Are you actively participating in these visualizations? (For example, are you thinking about what you’d like to see, or are you letting your mind produce images on its own?)

Are you experiencing any auditory hallucinations? (For example, a pretty common one is hearing someone call your name.)

Starry · May 2, 2013, 12:11am

The visualizations can range in intensity. It seems that intense visualizations means that i am simply letting the images flow by without comment. So I am simply observing. The one characteristic of this is that it is rather passive, meaning I dont remember the sequence of images that appeared.
I guess it means that I feel like im in an alpha-state of mind, so its keeping me awake! Im not always participating, but it is important that the visions actually be clear. When you do image streaming, it is shown to be a ‘dreaming while awake’ state, so even though you are not necessarily participating, it still keeps me awake.

When I do participate, it has transformed to a confusing intense daydream. And i dont remember what I thought of during it, but I do remember that I was interacting in a bizarre dream like manner. I do believe the theme is constant (its usually about worrying about life), but its in response to random images. So not a pleasant daydream at all.

When the above occurs, i have no auditory hallucinations unless you consider having dialogues in your head hallucinations. Also, i am usually i think unaware of my physical sense, but its funny, i dont remember being unaware, even if i remember snippets of my intense daydream.

No auditory hallucinations

Lumessence · February 14, 2014, 7:46pm

Starry:

The visualizations can range in intensity. It seems that intense visualizations means that i am simply letting the images flow by without comment. So I am simply observing. The one characteristic of this is that it is rather passive, meaning I dont remember the sequence of images that appeared.

I guess it means that I feel like im in an alpha-state of mind, so its keeping me awake! Im not always participating, but it is important that the visions actually be clear. When you do image streaming, it is shown to be a ‘dreaming while awake’ state, so even though you are not necessarily participating, it still keeps me awake.

When I do participate, it has transformed to a confusing intense daydream. And i dont remember what I thought of during it, but I do remember that I was interacting in a bizarre dream like manner. I do believe the theme is constant (its usually about worrying about life), but its in response to random images. So not a pleasant daydream at all.

When the above occurs, i have no auditory hallucinations unless you consider having dialogues in your head hallucinations. Also, i am usually i think unaware of my physical sense, but its funny, i dont remember being unaware, even if i remember snippets of my intense daydream.

No auditory hallucinations

I am… at a loss for words of what to say to this.
This is the exact same thing I have been experienceing for over 90% of my waking life, since the day I was born… I had said that it would require some motivation to talk about it, but I think this is motivation enough, if you’re interested…

It’s as if I’m looking in a mirror…

Eogillig · February 14, 2014, 8:03pm

To my knowledge I have never been able to fall asleep quickly, this is due to having daydream like image series running through my head almost as soon as I close my eyes. The vividity of them varies, sometimes they seem to pass so fast that the memory fades almost as soon as they pass, where as other times they are like the most vivid dreams.

If I attempt to keep track of the images, it will often keep me awake, but if I just let them happen I eventually slip into sleep but with no recollection of what they were about in the morning. Not sure if this is quite what you’re experiencing, but it sounds similar.

Lumessence · February 14, 2014, 8:06pm

This is not limited to only when I’m attempting to sleep. It is constant, day and night, as long as it is running, it keeps me awake. My brain is busy, and refuses to shut down for the night. Not even sleeping medications seem to help with this issue.

What I’m speaking of are not hypnagogia, or WILD. They are much different. They are not random. They are very fluid, flowing linearly, and they are easy to remember. There is no loss of memory of what had happened regarding the imagery. But I seem to shut out everything around me as far as awareness go, but it’s not completely unaware… It’s a form of passive awareness state. If I’m spoken to, or there is any other disturbance around me, I can easily catch it. But if all is still, and there are no distractions - then even though my eyes and ears are open, I see and hear nothing but other worlds within my thoughts. There are - as said, no actual auditory hallucinations, other than a sense of sound within.

That may be going a bit deeper into it. But as far as the imagery goes, yes, it’s the same with me. I can lie down, close my eyes, and in that moment, I see flashes, about 5 images per second. Single frame images, of random places. It’s not easy to remember any of them, but If I do manage, I can actually focus on that image, and actually pull myself into it… I am not truly asleep, but I enter a dream, of that image, just as if I were. Where I can wonder, explore, etc. Though I’m nothing more than a wandering eye, in that sense. I can’t interact with anyting. Only witness.

Starry · February 15, 2014, 4:19pm

Lumessence:

This is not limited to only when I’m attempting to sleep. It is constant, day and night, as long as it is running, it keeps me awake. My brain is busy, and refuses to shut down for the night. Not even sleeping medications seem to help with this issue.

What I’m speaking of are not hypnagogia, or WILD. They are much different. They are not random. They are very fluid, flowing linearly, and they are easy to remember. There is no loss of memory of what had happened regarding the imagery. But I seem to shut out everything around me as far as awareness go, but it’s not completely unaware… It’s a form of passive awareness state. If I’m spoken to, or there is any other disturbance around me, I can easily catch it. But if all is still, and there are no distractions - then even though my eyes and ears are open, I see and hear nothing but other worlds within my thoughts. There are - as said, no actual auditory hallucinations, other than a sense of sound within.

That may be going a bit deeper into it. But as far as the imagery goes, yes, it’s the same with me. I can lie down, close my eyes, and in that moment, I see flashes, about 5 images per second. Single frame images, of random places. It’s not easy to remember any of them, but If I do manage, I can actually focus on that image, and actually pull myself into it… I am not truly asleep, but I enter a dream, of that image, just as if I were. Where I can wonder, explore, etc. Though I’m nothing more than a wandering eye, in that sense. I can’t interact with anyting. Only witness.

I can actually only do it sometimes, and the imagery is so extreme and gives me a freaking headache. It happened after a fairly wonderful trip to Grenoble, France after visiting the Eifell tower. I had a wonderful time, but looking back I also was sort of an outcast in terms of social interaction and I started hallucinating and forgetting i hallucinated.

Instead of getting sucked into images, i got sucked into vivid situations and emotions. Started traveling a bit, then I got sucked into some *** life, and then some unusual circumstances started happening, and I actually start noticing I was hallucinating with my eyes open sometimes too, sort of a show stopper for me …

I call it psychosis, which is why i don’t like it.

But on the other hand, its really fun sometimes to play with the vivid characters. They really dont like that. For example, I developed one scene based on fall out boy in which I set out the scene for a humongous battle between hordes of evil and and heaven itself. I listened to ‘just one yesterday’, and the fall out boy character is based on the principle of ‘there are no rules.’ “This town ain’t big enough for us” became “this universe aint big enough for two of us” and hell was invading heaven because “anything you say will be held against you” (in heaven) [no comment on hell ]

Anyways … I’ve decided i need deep refreshing sleep instead of playing with vivid imagery, because it gives me a headache. But i do it sometimes anyways

Your situation sounds quite cooler, because you developed it into lucid dreaming.

Also, for me, it actually is very similar to hypnagogia, just a very intense version. I find that antipsychotic medicine squishes the vivid imagery into nighttime. This time i didnt need it

In your case it seems perfectly normal and awesome … You should use your ability to light up your real waking life, with the vividness and intensity of your lucid world.

Lumessence · February 15, 2014, 6:24pm

Starry:

Lumessence:

This is not limited to only when I’m attempting to sleep. It is constant, day and night, as long as it is running, it keeps me awake. My brain is busy, and refuses to shut down for the night. Not even sleeping medications seem to help with this issue.

What I’m speaking of are not hypnagogia, or WILD. They are much different. They are not random. They are very fluid, flowing linearly, and they are easy to remember. There is no loss of memory of what had happened regarding the imagery. But I seem to shut out everything around me as far as awareness go, but it’s not completely unaware… It’s a form of passive awareness state. If I’m spoken to, or there is any other disturbance around me, I can easily catch it. But if all is still, and there are no distractions - then even though my eyes and ears are open, I see and hear nothing but other worlds within my thoughts. There are - as said, no actual auditory hallucinations, other than a sense of sound within.

That may be going a bit deeper into it. But as far as the imagery goes, yes, it’s the same with me. I can lie down, close my eyes, and in that moment, I see flashes, about 5 images per second. Single frame images, of random places. It’s not easy to remember any of them, but If I do manage, I can actually focus on that image, and actually pull myself into it… I am not truly asleep, but I enter a dream, of that image, just as if I were. Where I can wonder, explore, etc. Though I’m nothing more than a wandering eye, in that sense. I can’t interact with anyting. Only witness.

I can actually only do it sometimes, and the imagery is so extreme and gives me a freaking headache. It happened after a fairly wonderful trip to Grenoble, France after visiting the Eifell tower. I had a wonderful time, but looking back I also was sort of an outcast in terms of social interaction and I started hallucinating and forgetting i hallucinated.

Instead of getting sucked into images, i got sucked into vivid situations and emotions. Started traveling a bit, then I got sucked into some *** life, and then some unusual circumstances started happening, and I actually start noticing I was hallucinating with my eyes open sometimes too, sort of a show stopper for me …

I call it psychosis, which is why i don’t like it.

But on the other hand, its really fun sometimes to play with the vivid characters. They really dont like that. For example, I developed one scene based on fall out boy in which I set out the scene for a humongous battle between hordes of evil and and heaven itself. I listened to ‘just one yesterday’, and the fall out boy character is based on the principle of ‘there are no rules.’ “This town ain’t big enough for us” became “this universe aint big enough for two of us” and hell was invading heaven because “anything you say will be held against you” (in heaven) [no comment on hell ]

Anyways … I’ve decided i need deep refreshing sleep instead of playing with vivid imagery, because it gives me a headache. But i do it sometimes anyways

Your situation sounds quite cooler, because you developed it into lucid dreaming.

Also, for me, it actually is very similar to hypnagogia, just a very intense version. I find that antipsychotic medicine squishes the vivid imagery into nighttime. This time i didnt need it

In your case it seems perfectly normal and awesome … You should use your ability to light up your real waking life, with the vividness and intensity of your lucid world.

This is actually the reason I tried to stop LDing in the first place. Though it was a feature of myself from birth, It made things worse when I didn’t have a very “fulfilling” childhood experience…

That only caused me to become more withdrawn from the world. It eventually came to a point that I felt I wasn’t able to even live in this reality anymore. I still can’t, actually… That is where the suppression comes in. I was powerless in this world, to harrassment, and other issues. In my dream world though, I was free. No limits… All the friends I needed and wanted. I felt as though if I could bring myself away from the dream worlds, it would increase my ability to maintain myself in this world. Unfortunatley, that isn’t quite how it works, and so - it didn’t. Instead, I was trapped in a state of “limbo” for quite some time. I didn’t become more attached and able to focus on this reality, more so I just fell into a devastating depression, that gave me even worse issues.

So that was a no go.

Starry · February 15, 2014, 11:00pm

Lumessence:

This is actually the reason I tried to stop LDing in the first place. Though it was a feature of myself from birth, It made things worse when I didn’t have a very “fulfilling” childhood experience…

That only caused me to become more withdrawn from the world. It eventually came to a point that I felt I wasn’t able to even live in this reality anymore. I still can’t, actually… That is where the suppression comes in. I was powerless in this world, to harrassment, and other issues. In my dream world though, I was free. No limits… All the friends I needed and wanted. I felt as though if I could bring myself away from the dream worlds, it would increase my ability to maintain myself in this world. Unfortunatley, that isn’t quite how it works, and so - it didn’t. Instead, I was trapped in a state of “limbo” for quite some time. I didn’t become more attached and able to focus on this reality, more so I just fell into a devastating depression, that gave me even worse issues.

So that was a no go.

how much time are you asleep dreaming or lucid dreaming?