Dreamscapes and Hypnagogia - Part I

I spent quite a while trying to figure out how I would organize this first post of mine. The time I’ve spent experimenting with hypnagogic states is not something I can measure. I used to spend some time every night before bed performing a specific meditation technique and would also give it a go if I woke up in the middle of the night. It helped me relax if nothing else. Sometimes I was successful in establishing some kind of contact with entities. Other times I would go long periods without any new experiences.  Before I get into the specifics of some of my experiences, I want to point out that I haven’t read anything specific on this type of work. Yes, I’ve got some blurbs here and there that I’ve picked up, but I don’t have any major works I’ve read on the matter. Just about all of what I have to say about it is Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG), and while I understand that UPG is a negative term to some people, there really isn’t any other way to relay this. If I’m honest, some of it is going to seem completely bonkers, and believe me when I say I’m completely aware of that. 

To start, I’ll go ahead and define what exactly hypnagogia is. To put it simply, it’s the liminal state between wakefulness and sleep. Apparently, it’s the space where lucid dreaming occurs (It’s also where sleep paralysis happens, but I’m not getting into that this time). A lot of lucid dreaming, from what I understand, is often initiated consciously or accidentally by the dreamer while they are already well into sleep state and is achieved before waking. I don’t know how common it is to get there before sleep, but that’s what I do.   

Hypnagogic meditation did not come to me intentionally. It first occurred when I read in a tarot guide that sleeping on a new deck helps align and connect the owner with it. I put it under my pillow that night and closed my eyes. As I layed there, practicing an old relaxation meditation, something odd happened. The members of the Major Arcana appeared and paraded one by one in front of me, stopping to acknowledge my presence.  They were clear as day. I wasn’t asleep. I could hear the pulsing crunching noise in my right ear that was barely touching my pillow (tinnitus) and could feel the bedsheets under my hands. Although this was a brief and simple interaction, I wondered if I could recreate the process without an object prompt (I.e. a tarot deck). 

On subsequent nights, I tried and tried again. I only achieved one or two connections over a long period of time. I purchased another new deck some years later and repeated the process I mentioned before. The same thing happened as with my old deck, and honestly, I was thrilled. We moved to a new house shortly after and that’s when things really kicked up and I had a pretty jarring experience.  

One night as I laid in bed, feeling particularly tense and restless because of some regular stress of life, I decided to try out my relaxation meditation to help me chill out a bit. I laid still with my eyes closed and started the process. I didn’t get very far when a door appeared in my mind. It was a white four panel door in the middle of complete blackness. It opened and an older woman stepped through. She was dressed in a black, high collared Victorian dress with her salt and pepper hair, slightly frizzy, pinned up. The door closed behind her and she folded her hands in front of her, just watching me. I started to talk to her and just kind of unloaded all my stresses to her. When I was done, she quietly opened the white door behind her, and left. The door disappeared and I opened my eyes. I fell asleep shortly after. 

The next morning, I was in the shower thinking about this interaction. I wondered aloud to myself what her name was, because she never told me. The name “Vera” suddenly popped into my head. Then I wanted to know Vera who. Then “Van How” or something that sounded like it came to me. I thought it was weird that my brain actually answered me so specifically but didn’t think about it much the rest of the day. 

 

That evening, I received a social media notification that I had a new follower. Her name was Vera. My heart nearly stopped as I stared at this person’s profile picture, which incidentally, looked exactly like the person I had interacted with in my hypnagogic meditation. The icing on the cake? Her full name was Vera Vaughan Hough. I was shocked to say the least.  She unfollowed me almost as quickly as she followed, and I was unable to message her. I don’t know what she would have thought if I did actually reach out to her. So maybe it was for the best? I’m still not sure if the experience over all really meant anything. Perhaps it was just the universe’s way of telling that I have a latent skill. I may never know. 

The Vera story is just a snippet of what I have experienced in the past year. There will be more of this, but I realize this has gone on for a long while for just being a blog post. Until next time, stay liminal.