THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: HYPNOGOGIC DREAMS

World Dream Bank home - add a dream - newest - art gallery - sampler - dreams by title, subject, author, date, place, names

Hypnogogic Dreams and Visions

Hypnogogic visions (or hypnagogic, the spelling varies) are the images you get while falling asleep--half-dreaming, so to speak. Their brainwave pattern is distinct from REM, non-REM dreams, and the waking state. They feel different, too: fast, visual, kinetic, rushed as a video, full of vivid images, but without much continuity, unlike REM-dreams with their emotionally engaging characters and consistent if strange worlds and plots. Surreal is the word for it--in fact, the Surrealists mostly drew hypnogogic images, not REM. Their collages in particular catch the quilty, disjunctive flavor of the state. (Sorry. I can see the chewing gum ads already--"The fresh new taste of Quilty! It's disjunctive!") I prefer REM to the hypnogogic state, because I like stories, characters, creatures--hence the brevity of this list. Strictly my taste, though--many dreamworkers, from the Surrealists onward, find the hypnogogic state fascinating. My friend Mark almost lives there.

I have to admit, I've been defining "half-dreaming" very broadly; you'll find a few daydreams, waking visions and hallucinations here too, for lack of a better place to put them. They share the key hypnogogic trait: vivid but discontinuous imagery.

RELATED TOPICS: trances - dreamwork and dream research - Surrealism - dreams of Mark - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.

What this site is - How to read these entries - Ratings: profanity, sex, etc - Add your dreams! - Copyright - Downloading -

	CAPITOL REEF: by Wayan; 277K, 1996. Cartooned daydream of a mid-air (or is it mid-water?) orgy News of a new national park fused with a science show on cleaner-fish spur a fantasy of dolphins, cats and... CAUTION: FISH ORGY; MOCKS THE ANGEL MORONI, TOO
	CREEPINESS: by Scottopic; 2001/11/30. A hypnogogic nightmare. I'm in bed sleepily petting my cat, when I see my cat across the room! What's on my legs? It's big. My cat chases it off... through the wall? My room is sealed. Where did it come from, where did it go?...
	CRYPTOMNESIC TROLLEY: by Wayan; 1991/4/22, a lucid dream of suicide. To prove I really am lucid-dreaming, I let a streetcar run me over. Mm, crunchy! Then I find out... CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT OM...
	DREAM CLARITY, or, the Field of Psychotherapy: by Wayan; 1996/11/27, a dream on dreams While we're making crop-circles in the field of psychotherapy, my hypnotist and I start to argue...
	FALL FROM A STAR: by Edwin Muir; 1920, a hypnogogic shamanic initiation Escaping the tiny red plush room inside a star, I dive back to earth. Oops. A beast eats my broken body. My soul waits...
	FEVER DREAMS: by Wayan; 1993/9/8, a set of wild feverdreams. While my body expels a kidney stone, weird scenes happen on the astral plane. At least I get to dip the pope. CAUTION: PAIN, PEE, POPE
	HYPNOGOGIC ASSAULT: by Dr Simon Forman; 1559-63, recurring hypnogogic images. From age six on, Simon nightly climbs mountains and faces roaring floods in a sort of naptime bootcamp...
	LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Edwin Muir; 1920, an epic hypnogogic shamanic initiation Creatures in the primal sea touch my third eye, dragons cry their eyes out, I fight the Sphinx, and arrive at last in...
	MISCARRIAGE: by John Donne; 1612, a clairvoyant hallucination. Donne, in Paris, was alarmed by a vision of his wife holding a dead baby. At that hour, in England, his wife...
	PATCHES PAWS AT FLYING FISH-TOAST FRIENDS: by Sarah Silver; 120K, 2006/7/26, a hallucinatory image. Patches the kitten, my alter ego, paws at flying fish who are also toast-slices...
	PRIMAVERA: by Walter de la Mare; 1920s, a dream persisting into day I dreamt the Goddess of Spring paraded by my house. I woke and leapt to my bedroom window, and there she was...

This topical list is one of many. See the full LIST OF TOPICS currently indexed.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sh - Si-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites