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August 9th, 2007 by Sean How to Experience Something Weird

### My First Weird Experience

Before I became interested in psychic abilities (because I thought they were fake), I had a strong interest in hypnosis. I was about 14 or 15 years old, and I saw a hypnotist on TV knocking people out and making them do weird things, like make out with brooms. I was intrigued instantly.

As any nerd would do, my natural reaction was to go to the library and read every book on hypnosis I could find. Unfortunately, there weren’t any. There was only one in the catalog, and I had to order it from another library. A tormenting week later, the book finally arrived, and I dove in.

I didn’t try hypnotizing anyone else… I didn’t really care about making other people look silly. I wanted to try this stuff up close and personal. The only chapter that interested me was the one titled, “Self-Hypnosis”.

I did the exercises, and they mostly didn’t do anything. It put me in a light trance, but even then… it was more like - “Did I do it? Was I hypnotized? Or just messing with myself?” I didn’t have any solid success. I kept at it for a while (probably a month or two), but nothing crazy was happening, so I eventually lost interest.

Except for one experience…

At the time I didn’t make the connection, and concluded that self-hypnosis didn’t work for me. Looking back, I now know that my experience was directly related to my practice with self-hypnosis.

I woke up in the middle of the night, and was laying in bed. The next thing I remember, I could hear people faintly. The volume gradually increased until I could hear a crowd of people as if they were standing all around me. I’m talking about actually hearing people. If someone started a conversation with you in real life right now - that’s the exact kind of hearing I experienced. Real hearing. As if they were physically right next to me.

I could make out the voices and sounds. It was as if I was walking down my hallway in high school, between classes. I could hear some of my friends talking, and other acquaintances. I could listen to the entire crowd and take in all the mur-murs, or I could focus in on one group of people and hear specifically what they were talking about. Just like in real life.

I was absolutely amazed. I was fully aware that I was laying in bed, in the middle of the night. My eyes were even partly open. I was completely calm and conscious. But I heard voices :-P. Perhaps I am crazy? It wasn’t a dream, although part of my brain might have been in a dream state. Eventually I fell asleep, after listening for about 5-10 minutes.

### Hypnagogia

Before you actually think that I really am clinically crazy, I should tell you that my experience is somewhat common, and has been scientifically studied. It’s called a hypnagogic experience. Weird word for a weird state of mind :-).

The scientific community claims that it’s a form of hallucination that people experience between the sleep and awake state. There are a lot of different ways to experience this hallucination. You can hear weird things (auditory), see weird things (visual), or feel weird things (tactile). Or maybe a combination. It just so happens that in my experience, I heard voices.

Since my experience, I’ve had a lot of hypnagogic hallucinations. I can sometimes induce them on cue, but usually they just happen randomly. Some hallucinations are very vivid and seem real, while others are very light and I can easily tell that it’s something in my head. Either way, they are a lot of fun to play with, as long as you don’t get too freaked out :-).

### How to have a Hypnagogic Hallucination

Chances are you’ve already had a light hypnagogic hallucination before, you just didn’t know what it was called. I believe that day dreams are a very very light form of them (although I’ve never read research that has made the connection). A more solid hypnagogic hallucination can be experienced before falling asleep at night.

How? Simple: trance.

Trance out before you go to bed at night, and weird shit happens. It’s a law of the universe :-).

But maybe this is your first time trying to induce a trance, and you have no real clue how to go about it. Hey, don’t worry! It just so happens I have some tips you can try :-).

First, lay down. Close your eyes. Sometimes I listen to music, and that can really help a lot. What kind of music? Surely you can guess by now: trance music :-).

If you choose to listen to some music, then a great way to get into a trance is to focus ONLY on the music. Focus on every layer, every instrument, every background ting and whiz. Make sure the songs are in stereo, and focus on how the left ear is slightly different from the right ear. Put 100% of your focus in the song. Forget your body. Do this for about 20 minutes, and you’ll be in a nice trance :-).

If you choose not to listen to music, then you might have to work a little harder to trance out without falling asleep. Progressive relaxation helps. Basically, just lay there, don’t move your body, and relax all your muscles. Then go muscle by muscle, and focus on making sure it’s completely relaxed. Start at your feet, work your way up your legs, through your torso, down your arms, into your neck and face. This entire process should take from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. It’s not a race! Take your time.

If you do progressive relaxation, and get to the end and you still aren’t tranced out, then just think of nothing. Focus on thinking of nothing. Keep doing that. It’s hard. But it works.

Once you get to a solid trance, either by using music, or relaxing your body, then just maintain the trance. Weird stuff is bound to happen :-).

### What Happens?

If you reach a trance state of mind, then you won’t be fully aware that you’re trancing out. It’s like watching a really good movie. It sucks you in and you completely forget that you’re sitting in a theater, watching a movie. It’s like day dreaming. If you try to pin down, “ok, NOW I’m day dreaming”, then you miss it. But if you just let go and experience it, then you flow in and through it, and you realize afterwards what happened.

So what happens when you’re trancing out? For me, usually something will yank me back. Maybe I was trying to think of nothing, and a flood of thoughts rush into my mind. Or I’ll hear something. Or I’ll feel someone poke me :-P. Hello hypnagogia!

Once a hallucination yanks me out of my trance, I don’t have to go back into a trance. I can just lay there, stay calm, and play around with the hallucination - completely aware of what’s going on.

I experience hypnagogic states of mind about five times a month. For example, last night I saw some weird stuff. I went to bed, listening to some trance music. I listened attentively for about 20 minutes, focusing only on the music, before I tranced out. Then a flood of images and videos came at me. It yanked me out of my trance, but the hallucination continued. I saw faces and people - I was inspecting them and trying to memorize their faces. This continued for about a minute. The faces flashed by me quickly. I didn’t recognize anyone :-P. It was crystal clear though. It wasn’t blurred, or fuzzy around the edges. I saw it clearly.

Sometimes I experience auditory hallucination like I did during my first experience. When I reach that state of mind, it’s like I’m a radio, picking up whatever I want. I can tune myself to music, and listen to songs in my head, with crystal clarity and perfect recall. Or I can tune myself to specific people, and hear them talk. For example, I may get yanked out of a trance hearing my friend say something (”I don’t think that’s fair. Wouldn’t it be better to just talk to him? Maybe I just don’t understand.”). I can tune in to that friend, and listen to them talk. Or I can change to another person and listen to them. Or change to music. It’s fun :-). And it’s all crystal clear, as if it was happening right in front of me.

In the same way, when I experience visual hallucination, sometimes I can tune it as well (but for me, tuning a visual hallucination is harder). I remember one experience where I tuned into receiving cartoon characters. Why? Boredom I guess :-). I tuned my hallucination to only show me cartoon characters. I received a stream of different characters for a few minutes, changing about every second, like a slide show.

### Conclusion

If you want to experience something truly weird, then trance out before you go to bed at night. Don’t have any expectations. Just trance out.

If you can keep your cool, then you’re bound to experience some strange hallucinations. It’s a lot of fun to play with. It’s also amazing the first couple of times, because the hallucinations seem very real, and if you’ve never experienced a hallucination, it can be shocking to see how clear a hallucination can be.

If you do it a lot, you may figure out how to take slight control over a hallucination, and tune it in a certain direction. It’s cool :-). No drugs necessary.

Have fun! If you have a question, feel free to ask in the comments. Or if you’ve had a strange hallucination in the past, feel free to share as well :-).

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 11:13 am and is filed under How-To, Dream Phenomenon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

### 20 Responses to “How to Experience Something Weird”

1. Dis Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 1:41 pm

   Ohhh interesting topic. I didn´t ever think about training this state.
   Having had my fair share of hypnagogic hallucinations, I can only stress that they can truly freak you out. I personally don´t hear voices (frequently, except for my name beeing called loudly from time to time), but see all kinds of persons either with our without environment. They tend to come as a splitsecond flash. Very, very often I see a variety of faces, upclose, over maybe 5 minutes. And those can really freak me out at times. They morph into all kinds of other faces, oftentimes horribly deformed. Another time there was face which I found enormously fascinating - it had a shape that allowed me to identify all politicians I knew, in just this single face. It looked like everyone at the same time.

2. jakedahn Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

   Wow. I just realized that the first time I had a run in with out of body phenomena, I had been listening to trance for about 2 hours before I had gone to sleep. I had gone to sleep and it felt like it was a few hours later I heard some noise and a voice and then burst into vibrations. I never really thought or acknowledged the fact that I had been listening to trance and had tranced out before hand.

   Thanks for pointing that out

3. Hey_you Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

   I will say this because Peebs didn’t mention it (although most of you probably already know this): if you maintain the hypnogogic state long enough it likely you will fall asleep. However, if you are purposeful and you don’t fall asleep, the imagery and sensations will become more pronounced and last longer and if you are awake enough to realize it you will fall into a lucid dream. (One thing you can try is to hold a visualization as you fall asleep, when some other images just pop in wait until they settle into a dream).

   If you know what you are doing you can manipulate the dream, experiment and have fun. However, if you want to OBE it can be done with ease in this state. This is what you do: when you enter the dream reinforce it with a gently affirmation: I am dreaming. This will help maintain consciousness and won’t (if done right) throw you out of the dream. Then when you are ready in your mind scream: out of body now! or I am out of body! and you feel yourself float upwards. Now: you must be strong willed or you will simply fall back into the dream but if you do it right your dream scenery will literally vanish and for a few seconds will only see black as you fell yourself floating up gently. Open your “eyes” and you will be floating OOB.

   This is not hypnogogia: This is a completely different stage of sleep for your body with far different sensations.

   This is not a lucid dream: As you transition you will probably see blackness and here a whooshing sound and the sensations you have in dream land will disappear and you be seeing your room objectively.

   That is the best way to OBE and keep all of your wits about you. Also if you want yell mentally: clarity now! or something like that so that you maintain awareness.

4. Veb Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

   I think I’ve had some of those, however light. Anyway, I don’t really know much about trance music, can you just go to a record store and ask for it, or do you have to order it online? I know it’s a silly question, but I really want to try this.

5. Gumby Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

   I do this a lot. I have a different technique though. I get really tired, like I move auround a lot and I just get tired. Then I instantly lay down and just stay still with my eyes closed. After a few minutes I’ll start seeing things clearly. I’ll actually SEE things clearly. Like once I saw a paper ball crincling up..Usually I’ll start to see wherever I THINK I am. Like once I thought I was at my computer, and I started seeing my computer. Usually I know that I’m laying on the floor though, so I’ll start to see the floor that my eyes are pointing at. But theyre closed. And I’m concious while it happens.

6. Myrmior Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

   Interesting topic. I don’t usually hit this stage for long. The most I ever get before actually falling asleep are loud noises.

   Although I have been able to WILD once, I have very little success with remaining conscious. I usually fall asleep unexpectedly

   I absolutely need to buy a good MP3 player so I can use music to my advantage. I think I just need something else to focus on besides my own thoughts (or lack thereof, whichever it may be).

7. ThePizzaBoy Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

   Sean, could you please possibly provide a link to same of the trance music you use or recommend?

8. Gumby Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

   Myrmior..This isnt a dream thing. :/ We’re not LDing, we’re just going into a funky trance and we get hallucinations.

9. Sean Says:
   August 9th, 2007 at 11:07 pm

   ThePizzaBoy: “Sean, could you please possibly provide a link to same of the trance music you use or recommend?”

   Sure. This is what I personally use:

   AFI’s CD, DecemberUnderground.

   Daft Punk’s CD, Discovery.

   Blaqk Audio’s CD, CexCells.

   I also have used random CDs purchased from http://www.ambient.us/. Specifically, I’ve used:

   H.U.V.A. Network’s CD, Distances.

   Aes Dana’s CD, Memory Shell.

   I’ve also used the exercises from The Monroe Institute’s program, Gateway Experience.

   Last night I was listening to CexCells. Hope that helps!

   ~Sean

10. Myrmior Says:
    August 10th, 2007 at 6:59 am

    Gumby,

    The hypnagogic state is the same thing regardless of weather you enter into a dream, OOBE, or whatever from there. Many people enter HH before using them to enter into an LD.

11. runical Says:
    August 10th, 2007 at 9:35 am

    Interesting to read this. I’ve always wondered what that falling sensation was, which I sometimes have when I wake up. When I try to get the feeling, it’s gone. strange.

    I will definitely try this.

12. furanku Says:
    August 10th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

    That’s so cool. I always heard “you gotta get in a trance to blah and blah” and now I know that I’ve had one. I listen to Trance music alot so i guess im sorta trying to be chill like Yoh from Shaman King, but he listens to reggae ^_^. Hypnagogia is fun but I dont like the sleep paralysis too much, maybe I can take control from there :p
    for anyone interested, I usually listen to “http://www.di.fm”’s Goa-Psy trance channel.

13. EnKi Says:
    August 11th, 2007 at 1:28 am

    Hmm, that is intersting. I don’t think I’ve experienced any of these hallucinations before (except maybe slight tactile sensations during trance/meditation).

    “If you want to experience something truly weird, then trance out before you go to bed at night. Don’t have any expectations. Just trance out.”

    Saying that actually creates one expectation right away: a weird experience.
    To not have any expectation is also to not hope to experience something weird (in this case).
    Just thought I’d point that out.

14. PotentiaL Says:
    August 11th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

    I tried trancing out last night before bed and I had some pretty crazy dreams, when I woke up I felt like I hadn’t slept at all.

    Just thought I’d share my results

15. psionmaster Says:
    August 11th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    interesting topic Sean.does this have any relation to OBE’s because i would like to ask a question regarding OBE’s, but i want to ask first so i dont ask a question that doesn’t fit with the topic.-thanks

16. Derg4 Says:
    August 12th, 2007 at 12:18 am

    I would think it depends on the question you’re asking.

    Also, I’m gonna try this for a few nights. If anything happens I’ll post it here later =)

17. Zectra Says:
    August 12th, 2007 at 1:37 am

    Very cool. I wondered what that was called..I’ve always heard these kind of voice-hallucinations when I was on the edge of sleep, but I’ve never really been able to focus in on them. Trying to would usually bring me out of it and I’d have to get back into the state again.
    Now that I think of it, the first time I had an OBE was when I was listening to the radio.. Maybe I’ll try listening to trace before I sleep and see if it helps. Thanks Sean, your blogs are always awesome.

    (On a different subject, I sent an email to you a week or two ago. If you get a free moment, could you read/respond to it please? The subject was “Thoughts On Ones Intention Vrs Others()”. Thank you if you can. I’d appreciate it.)

18. delimew Says:
    August 12th, 2007 at 5:38 am

    i’ve had a few visual hypnopompic experiences (hypnopompia being the same as hypnagogia, only it’s when you wake up instead of when you go to sleep) one of them was just a panning view of an ocean with impressive waves. the other was some random views of stars.
    interesting thing though, i’ve been very near sighted since birth, so these hallucinations were actually clearer then what i’d expect to see IRL.

    i’ve never actually had a hypnagogic experience though, nor an OBE. i’ve tried, but it always takes me ages to get to reach a near sleep state. even on nights where i just want to sleep it takes ages. i just can’t hold a trance long enough. anyone know any way i might be able to get to sleep sooner?

19. bobelly Says:
    August 12th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

    I get these before I fall asleep or when I close my eyes and I’m really sleepy, and they are usually more realistic than my visualizations. However, most of the time it’s still not 100% clear like I’m seeing with my eyes. I can still tell they’re just in my head… maybe i need to reach a deeper level?

20. Raathuus Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 12:08 am

    I hate when I have hypnagogic experiences! They happen at about 3 a.m. for me every once in a while. They normally involve some living thing (such as a giant bug) in my bed. Then I get all scared and angry then try to get rid of it, but then I realize it was just a dream, then I go back to sleep. I now recall another instance that something like that happened. When I was about 8, it was almost Christmas, and I was at my grandparent’s house with my parents. I was sleeping on the couch, when I heard voices. The voices were that of my parents and grandparents. They were talking about me, saying I should wake up, but when I opened my eyes, it’d stop. Eventually, I fell asleep. I hate hallucinations…

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