Thread: Hypnotic Imagery

I can imagine anything I want to and visualize it pretty well in my head, but I have never one experienced Hypnotic Imagery. Is it something that simply takes practice, and you get better at it or is it something that is there some nights, and not there others, and I haven't had a night where I have had it yet?

hypnagogic (not hypynotic) imagery is the transitional imagery between waking and dream. Technically, the term applies to dream imagery too but generally its just the visualization of random thoughts beyond normal imagination, during sleep paralysis, before you have a real dream.

You probably just dont remember it...

As the other member (I can't see the name) above said, it's "Hypnagogic imagery". Some people get it very clearly and others may hardly have any at all. Pay attention as best you can then next time you're borderline sleeping...as you fall asleep you might notice fleeting thoughts or incoherrent sounds, that's all a form of hypnagogiv imagery...just not very apparent, if you don't clearly remember your HI you probably have this type...like me...where you have to pay more attention to notice it or you'll just fall asleep. Go to sleep tonight with a "I'll watch the show" attitude...see what it brings you....watch objectively, I find that helps to bring out whatever types of HI I have.

Hey there,

Some good responses already. One important aspect I think that needs some special attention, is that hypnagogia are intrusive. What I mean with that is that they are not things you chose to imagine, or visualise. Rather they come to you unbidden and outside of your own will.

You might for example be lying down and visualising a house. And suddenly while doing this, you see the image of a cow, out of nowhere. Might only last a second or less, but it was there, as sure as you were holding the image of the house in your mind. But you neither chose to image a cow, or tried to visualise one. It intruded upon your conscious mind (from your unconscious).

Some people can guide or even to an extend evoke certain hypnagogia, so it is possible to get a degree of conscious control of these things (much like its possible to get a degree of conscious control over your dreams). But the originator, the source of the hypnagogia, stays essentially different from the source of normal visualisation or imagination. I think this forms one of the key attributes of hypnagogia, no matter what shape they come in. And with some training, you can learn to detect this subtle difference easily enough.

Just my 2 cents,

-Redrivertears-