I would like to share an interesting phenomena with you, which I think I'm not the only one experiencing.

For the years, even before my experience with DMT, I've been experiencing what is known as hypnagogic imagery. It mostly occurred when I would go to sleep pretty much exhausted, and sometimes, I would sleep deprive myself, so just that I could experience it.

However, after DMT, that phenomenon gained a new and somewhat bizarre traits.

First, it happens every time before sleep, regardless of if I'm tired or not. It is so vivid and sound, that it seems as if it's somewhat forced upon me. Second, I don't know why, but I get a strong sense that something is actually is broadcasted, and I'm picking it up. For example, I close my eyes, thinking of something, and out of utter wonder: something completely different shows up on my screen. Sometimes, I even open my eyes out of confusion, thinking "what the hell"? It is so explicit and deliberate that I often end up thinking "whose thoughts are these? These are not my thoughts and images". This is very weird phenomenon, end I would like to hear what some of you Nexians are thinking?

Peace and love.

Maybe because your state of awareness isn't identified with the external world as directly as it once was, the mind is more alert, therefore more open to stimuli which is being received which isn't recognised with a busy mind. In the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, they discuss the sates of bardo, which are experienced in the transition from one life to the next. They go on to explain that we can be aware of that transition in death through an alert, clear mind. This also happens between waking life and going to sleep, which is a similar state to that of bardo, however, most of us aren't capable of remaining completely alert and aware to recognise the transition and maintain consciousness.

The more silent we become, the more we hear.

Yes, it definitely seems as if all this always was there, it's just that now I'm able to "see it".

Just how weird is it, it's like DMT has flipped some switches inside my brain, and now they are this way. :--|

121 views and only one response? Looks like I'm alone with this one.

The same thing happened with me when I started smoking DMT. Even during long hiatuses from DMT, I still notice the imagery, although it can tend to fly under the radar more often, and isn't as saturated. I'll tell you the strangest hypnagogic story I have to offer. This summer I went on vacation to the Caribbean, so for the week I was away, I didn't smoke any weed (I'm a daily toker). The day I came back, I was supposed to get into the airport around 6pm, but because of an outrageous flight delay, I ended up getting into the airport around midnight, and didn't get home till like 1:30. I purposely didn't sleep on the plane or take any naps during the day, so that I would be able to conk out because I needed to go to work in the morning. So when I get home around 1:30am, sleep deprived and with no cannabis in my system, I could have easily conked out, but god - I needed to smoke badly after all the nonsense I went through with the flight delay.

So I smoked some weed, and I was just sitting in my room, when my thoughts became so strong and prominent, that I was clearly hearing them out loud. It was almost jarring. Not having much intention to stay up for too long, I laid down in bed, closed my eyes, and was greeted with the familiar hypnogogic clouds in my visual field. They were particularly bright, but I wasn't too concerned because I hadn't smoked in a week, and weed can strengthen the effect....

What was most unexpected however, was that suddenly, and for only about two seconds, as clear as day, this large, metallic insect emerged from the clouds, kind of shuffled its front legs, and then filed itself back away, receding into the clouds. I opened my eyes in complete surprise at how shockingly detailed the insect was. It wasn't just like staring into an abstract pattern, and thinking, "that looks like an insect" - it clearly was insectoid and non-random. When I went to close my eyes to go to sleep again, nothing fishy happened, and I quickly drifted off to sleep. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't open my eyes...

You're definitely not alone. I experience bizarre states of 'hypnagogia' almost everyday. Some can be extremely psychedelic, or even tie into what apparently seems like a kind of telepathy/precognition, though that is more rare. I remain open minded to possibilities but I've recorded this kind of thing, and seen it in others, too many times to count. Carl Jung spoke on this sort of thing in depth.

When cannabis is involved with music the states can feel less random for me, shifting to mind blowing gestalts in hypnagogic gnosis. It's similar to harmala-induced states of consciousness in many respects, with "imagination" (whatever that is...non-local perhaps?) shifting into the visual/audible/spatial/tactile/synesthesiac spectrum. From imagined, to being. The words made flesh.

One of Dali's methods of inspiration was to purposefully drift into hypnagogia while in his armchair. He left a ring of keys around his finger so that when he dozed off a bit too much they would slide off and land with a thump on the floor, waking him up during the hypnagogiac episode so that he could recall what he'd experienced (and paint it) before fully falling asleep. The trick is to learn how to maintain awareness into it.

Oh, thank you for your input. I much appreciate it. As I said, after DMT, the visuals have changed very much. And what i also noticed, the auditory part has disappeared completely. Before DMT, I would sometimes listen to beautiful, so complex music, which sounded like it was played on piano. Shame it's gone now.

I like this really much, and I'm going to explore it further.

Peace and love.

Yeah, you're not alone. I think it's just more common than you might think. Some people, for whatever reason, are more aware of/remember it more often. I'm pretty sure it happens to everyone, it's just that they don't remember it because of the amnesiac effect of going to sleep.

When I was young, I would remember it every night, it would even happen when I simply relaxed, closed my eyes, and focused on the blackness. As I got older and my attention-energy was hooked to adult life responsibilities and ego, I noticed this imagery less and less.

DMT probably did the same thing as any awareness-expanding technique like meditation can do: detachment from ego and liberation/re-direction of energy so that you are more aware of this phenomenon.

Dreams for me post-psychedelics, especially after some of my strongest DMT experiences, both oral and smoked, has really sensitized me to the reality behind my eyes, especially at night when im laying there. Typically as 'soon' as I lay down, imagery starts to form very quickly, leading into short bursts of hypnagogic scenery from the swaths of beautiful blue/green/purple tryptamine-esque structures behind my eyes.

What Global described, about the sounds/thoughts becoming prominent and externalized, this exact thing has happened so many times to me. The first few times it freaked me out, to the point that I would try to stay awake for the first few weeks that it started happening, even though I was tired. As soon as the hypnagogia would start, the bits of forming scenery and the accompanying sound/s would externalize into consensus reality for brief short bursts. It all was very loud. This happened many times during the day also when id take naps. For some reason during the day didn't freak me out as much, versus nighttime.

There were times during the nighttime that the sounds were so loud that I would immediately transition into them, brief second bursts of scenes with intermittent pressure and bright white light. This specific scenario has only happened a handful of times and hasn't happened in several years. It felt like a stage between these intermittent scenes/sounds and a full-fledged dream. All very fascinating.

I have a friend who isn't into psychedelics who has told me that she hears piano music sometimes as she drifts off to sleep too.



Blue/green/purple are my predominant hypnagogic colors as well. In my last post, I came really close to describing the clouds as green and purple, but didn't for some reason.

That's interesting. When I am extremely sleep deprived I can sometimes hear a chorus singing and drums beating. Weird combo.