On a relax Sunday, a typical reverie is when you're so zoned out that countless ideas appear before you or better yet, when you smoke weed, your body loosens and the creative side of brain just opens up. How does it link to Hypnagogia? Hypnagogic state refers to a deeply relaxed state teetering between awake and asleep. At this state is where vivid imagery appears behind your eyelid and sounds can be heard even though one’s not completely asleep. Everyone falls into it every night whether you realize or not. The best way to describe hynagogia is the transition to sleep.
There's More To Just Emptying Mind
If you’re an experienced meditator, you would realize this as an alpha-theta brainwave state, the holy grail for spontaneous out-of-body experience, lucid dream, hallucination and sleep paralysis. If you're wondering what is this alpha-theta shit, it is brainwave frequency associated with your activity. There're 4 main state which are Beta( when you're active and awake), Alpha(relaxed state eg: Watching TV), Theta (REM occurs here) and Delta (deep sleep). Before you go ‘fuck that’, let me just say you can do wondrous things when your ego mind is out of the way.
They Do, So Must We
Famously used by Thomas Edison where he came up with insane ideas for his research especially the theory of relativity. With great practice, one can attain the skill to balance on the edge of sleep and wakefulness in order to control the imagery to a certain degree. Many scientist, writer, artists, philosopher like Aristotle, Edgar Allen Poe , Isaac Newton and Beethoven used the hypnagogia to boost creativity, reduce stress and solve problems in ways they’ve never thought before.
How To Enter Hypnagogic State
Soak yourself up with as much information related to your problem before performing. Your preparation is what makes the experiment succeed or fail. I suggest to keep a positive expectation as you want to remain clear and focus. Using muscle memory, replicate the time when you’re so drowsy and on the verge of falling asleep and trying to stay awake. Remember what it feels like. With that said, Thomas Edison uses the following method.
- Sit on a chair and relax (if you want to lie down on the bed go ahead)
- Prepare a pen and paper next to you
- Hold a heavy ball bearing on your hand. (you can use spoon or coins too)
- Rest your arms on the chair’s arm
- Place a metal plate or pan below your hand. (the loud clattering of the ball falling on the metal plate will jolt you as you fall asleep)
- Before your sleep/nap, set your intentions/questions that you want to solve
- Hold the thought as you allow yourself to drift off (Your mind will wonder and hallucinate if you just maintain a little awareness)(Be an observer not a participator)
- As soon you fall asleep, you’ll most likely drop the ball and therefore awake (the goal is not to sleep)
- Grab your pen and paper and jolt down the images and ideas that pop up
Note, you can’t directly engage the hallucinations but you can subtly suggest things to the subconscious. After the session, even if the written insight seems nonsensical, only you can decipher what your unconscious mind is telling you. Don’t get discourage on your first attempt if you’re trying out. Over time as you practice more, you’ll be able to produce better results. Edgar Allen Poe develop the capacity of inducing hynagogia on will after many experiments. Like I’ve mentioned above, if you meditate occasionally, try to use it to your advantage.