Can Meditation be self induced sustained Hypnagogia ?

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Okay I'm trying the college thing again, and one of the perquisite classes I have to get through is Psychology. Most of the homework is basic easy stuff to get points for but the main project is a research term paper. I thought about mine and decided to select Meditation.


Personally I practice a kind of meditation or relaxation technique before going to bed, but I thought it would be interesting to learn more about it. Also most techniques recommend a sitting position and I usually just do this while laying flat on my back in bed. While expanding my knowledge of meditation through my term paper, I would like to try including some day time 20 minute meditation sessions.


Now I have had some questions about what I often experience during my relaxation method. While I think it's pleasant I think it would sound weird to put in my term paper or especially in my oral presentation that I see things while my eyes are closed. Especially if I get deeply relaxed.

So while researching I've come across the term Phosphenes which refers to odd patterns that may be seen with out a light source. For example if you rub your eyes really hard. It even has a slang term Prisoner Cinema for people who get tossed in the hole. Basically I may see monochromatic grid patterns or shifting light blobs. I have also seen images of faces or close ups of eyes. It is monochromatic though and like looking a snowy TV picture. Once in a great while I light blobs in a vibrant Blue color but much of this is in black and white.

I also read of a term Paresthesia describing limbs falling asleep. My arms and legs do feel very relaxed and my sensation of them seems distant. This does not have any thing like the awful Pins and Needles feeling though. It just feels like all tension is going out of my limbs.

[EDIT] I also found something listed called a Hypnic Jerk. It seems to describe a mild muscle twitch. I don't find this discomforting it also feels like tension going out of me and feeling quite relaxed. Also this is linked to the Hypnagogia state.

Both the Phosphenes effect and Paresthesia are things that I've been reading that are a part of Hypnagogia which is the relaxed state experienced as the body and enter sleep and dreaming.

I find the meditation or whatever it is quite pleasant and sometimes it feels really deep and the visuals may be brighter. For some time though I've been curious about understanding Meditation in a more technical sense. Especially now since I'm doing this term paper and wondering if I should include my person experience or if the class will think I'm nuts.

Another thing I wonder about is I hear meditation often described vaguely as "Diving within" or "Experiencing Consciousness Directly". I'd like to pin this down and have mediators really explain what they mean. I'm wondering if they're talking about the same thing or maybe their meditation technique and experiences are different.

Anyway I appreciate any feedback. I've seen a few topics like this on the internet before but I haven't found and good solid answers from medical science articles. In other instances I've seen people just call it "Closed Eye Hallucinations".

I do plan to keep doing this relaxation/meditation habit at bedtime, but for the purposes of a term paper I would like to understand it better. Otherwise I'll kind of skip around it and talk about meditation in a more broad sense.

sometimes while meditating I see the siloette of a person then the figure becomes bizzarely thin and seconds later grows and becomes bizzarely fat....then fluntuates between the two kinda quickly for about 5 minutes. At first, this used to freak me out to the point I had to stop meditating, but then I learned to just observe it without reacting and it went away after that.

maybe the diving in is a type of "introspective hypnotism" I made that term,in hopes it will guide you in the right dirrection.

Jojo

Hmm. Sometimes I also wonder if this is the expression of mental clutter that meditation may help settle down.

There are times where the visual "snow" and other things eventually part or move to the peripheral vision and the center become black. Although, only one time I saw very vibrant blue orb.

So I'm also wondering if Hypnagogia experience is common for novice low level meditaters, but veteran meditaters go beyond that into real "No thought" state?


What this is interesting for myself, I'm having a helluva time trying find good articles on it for my term paper. That's fine though because there are plenty of articles just on Meditation techniques of all kinds have benefits or even famous people like Clint Eastwood who practice TM.

This was just an angle on it I was trying to use so people know if they're on the right track or what they can expect. Trying to find real specifics instead of vague lofty comments like you Dive Within and then you Transcend.

lol I have to admit I'm wondering if I'm way over complicating my term paper.

However, if I come up with a good study source with decent credentials that ties in the Hypnagogic state it might make for the most interesting oral presentation.

This is very interesting: as a child, through adolescence, I experienced a similar vision while falling asleep. I would see a round shape which at first would be incredibly smooth, then suddenly become incredibly crumpled, then switch back and forth. I told my Dad about it and he said he had had a similar one when he was young. Then he described exactly what you did above! I guess this is some part of our brain mechanism. Curious.

As to the OPs question: I would put your personal experience into the paper. It is relevant and many psychological discoveries begin with a researcher's personal experience.

Well this is interesting....

http://deep-zen.com/how-to-meditate-30-day-plan/


How to Meditate: 30 Day Plan:

Days 6-15: Inducing the Trance State

For days 6 to 15, you’re going to practice keeping your mind and body in what’s called the “hypnagogic state,” which is the deep meditative state between sleeping and dreaming.

Lie down flat on your back somewhere comfortable and bend your arms at the elbows so that your forms are at a 90-degree angle with your torso.

This way, as soon as you begin dozing off to sleep, your arms will fall and awaken you, keeping you suspended in the hypnagogic state.

As you are doing this, pay attention to when your body is about to fall asleep, because the goal of meditation is to be able to put yourself in this state and stay there at will.

You’ll also find that random thoughts will come into your mind during this time, again, don’t worry about those just yet. During this 10 days, you’ll simply be learning how to suspend yourself between sleeping and dreaming.

You might also experience something called “sleep paralysis” around the end of these 10 days. Sleep paralysis can be scary and is sometimes accompanied by hallucinations… just know that this is completely normal and don’t be afraid of it.

I found another link from an unusual source, David Lynch's book Catching the Big Fish. I already had the book and was flipping through for reference material for this college paper.

Quote from Catching the Big Fish:
"Many people have already experienced trancending, but they may not realize it. It's an experience that you can have just before you go to sleep. You're awake, but you experience a sort of fall, and you maybe see some white light and get a little jolt of bliss. And you say,"Holy jumping George!" When you go from one state of consciousness to another--for instance, from waking to sleep--you pass through a gap, and in that gap, you transcend."

I would still like to clarify this a little, but I feel satisfied that this does link at least Transcendental Meditation with Hypnagogia. I also think David Lynch is a credible representative of TM.

I think one of the difficulties I've had with this subject is the terminology and I didn't quite get what was meant by Transcending. If this is really what it is then TM seems less difficult then I assumed it was.

I don't know if this is relavent or not. I used to meditate and during the meditation I would think my way around the inside of my body, never knowing if it was imagination or if I was actually sensing the inside of me. Then one time there was a black bit which I couldn't see into, I tried, but couldn't. This persisted and a couple of weeks later I discovered I was pregnant, with the black blob corresponding to where the "other person" who would become my son was. I found it strange as I always felt a pregnancy was part of me, not seperate from me. I am still unsure of what conclusions to draw about it.
Otherwise I do feel that it is partly like a hypnogogic state complete with dreamy images, colours etc floating past, and often I actually fall asleep, the arms held up tip is one I will try next time.

Well I turned in my essay and did my oral presentation. I think it came together rather well. I felt familiar with the material and comfortable talking about it.

I did not use the specific term Hypnagogia but I did refer to how Lynch described it as being like the state right between wakefulness and falling asleep.

I was also told I was the first person in the class to use Meditation as a topic so I thought that was kind of cool. I think some students were actually even interested in the information I presented. In particular one student want to be a counselor for drug addiction and he seemed curious about it.

I thought this topic I made was fairly similar: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt191660.html

Now mediation is not hypnotism, but it is similar to it. I know a fairly good amount of hypnotism, lately been using it on myself to try to lucid dream. When your hypnotized your brain waves are at the same state as when you are dreaming, so if mediation is the same in that way then it make sense that it is an in between. You are awake, but your memories of it seem fogyish, kind of like if you were to remember a dream.

Well in some of the ways I hear it described Meditation takes you to a point that is similar to the Gap between wakefulness and the dream state. I don't think Meditation aims at being like the sleeping Mind which is occupied with dreams and REM.

In my own amateur dabblings in meditation that seems a reasonable description of it. I would like to visit a training center someday and get input from people more experienced in it.