Forcing oneself into different states of mind

jinster

Registered Member
Hi everyone,

When I was younger, I would often stay up a little later than usual and listen to the radio and listen to a cheesy love song channel, hoping that a girl I had a crush on would send me a dedication. ;) Anyway, the result was that I was often very tired by the time I fell asleep, and I often felt myself drifting between full consciousness and full dreaming.. I am not sure exactly how to describe it, kinda like rapid dreams, lots of things happen at once and I immediately come out of it.

At the same time, I could feel my body shutting down one part of me at a time. First my toes, then my legs, then my torso and finally my fingertips. Most nights I would then fall asleep and wake up normally.

After a while, I found that if I concentrated on tingly sensations when my fingers were "shutting down", I could induce myself in a very strange state. I would feel as if I left my body, but at the same time would have those rapid dreams. I would shift between dreaming and being back to "reality" where I was not a part of my body, I felt very light and corporeal. Sometimes this was not a comforting feeling, and I would try to force myself back into my body and do something simple like wiggle my toes.

When I found out that I could not do something that simple, I would panic, and frantically would try to move any part of my body. Only with great willpower would I 'wake' up and be able to move my own body again.

Despite being scared at the loss of control of my own body, I found that I could often return to that state willingly. However, around the ninth grade or so, I lost all ability to do so on my own. Since then, this has happened only about twice.

I later learned about sleep apnea and feel that this accurately describes most of what I went through. However I have never heard of people who could induce that state willingly. Does anyone else have a story like mine?
 
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