Oh, and speaking of dreams

[beige_alert]

Speaking of dreams, the other morning I had the strongest, clearest sleep paralysis / hypnopompic illusion I’ve had in a long time. This is the sensation of waking up yet being paralyzed, accompanied by various dreamed sensations. People who don’t understand that this is just a weird dream state can be terrified by it (and think that they are being abducted by aliens/molested by demons), but I’ve had some lucid dreams and welcome weird dream phenomena as a gateway to lucid dreams. It was definitely a more intense experience than usual, and there was a moment of confusion and concern before I realized what it was, at which point I started hoping I could get some fun out of it, but as so often happens with these moments of lucidity, I woke up for real very soon.

Comments

Night Terrors

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I had a dream like that once--and maybe something similar on an earlier occasion. I found it horrible and terrifying. Once I was awake, and realized there was no malevolent being out in the hallway looking in at me, I didn't have any sense that anything external had happened, but boy, was it nasty internally. I don't think I could have had fun with it, though your suggestion that one could have fun with that state actually moderates the recollection for me.

Re: Night Terrors

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

The possibility of fun comes when you recognize it for what it is while it is still happening. It is so very weird that it's relatively easily recognized for what it is. I had a moment of panic and then realized exactly what was going on. I tried to hop into the air and fly around, which is always a fun thing to do in dreams, but I woke up.