I think I caught myself becoming conscious

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the other morning when I woke up this weird thing happened to me. I was aware somehow that I was like, there, and thinking (yo descartes what up), but I was NOT awake (sadly I do not remember what I was thinking aside from 'I am here and thinking but not awake'). so I decided to be awake, or something like that, and suddenly there was this SHIFT, and I went from not being aware of like being aware of my body or the room or anything else, to it all rushing in on me.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 27 October 2002 04:56 (twenty-three years ago)

when I was there but knew I was not awake I guess it was just like I figured as much because everything seemed shut off, like there was no connection with my body at all.

and the question is: has anything like this ever happened to you?

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 27 October 2002 04:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Sounds like what Whoopi went through in Ghost.

― Leee (Leee), Sunday, 27 October 2002 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Moments of self-consciousness combined with wry amusement, I get, but nothing quite so dramatic (and that's a very fascinating description there, Josh!). My mornings usually tend to more a shift between "Oh, I'm awake" to "Oh god, that's right, I have to do this [or this happened last night or whatever]." But I wouldn't say mind and body are so clearly separated for me in the way you describe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 October 2002 05:23 (twenty-three years ago)

well who knows if I am putting it right, it was really fucking weird. and leee I am not watching ghost to find out what you mean.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 27 October 2002 05:44 (twenty-three years ago)

If I remember right the start of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man is a sharp take on the acting of waking up in a fictional context and what it entails. Perhaps give that a read...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 October 2002 05:47 (twenty-three years ago)

On nights when I have a restless sleep, I often wake up convinced I never fell asleep at all. I've also woken in the middle of REM and had hallucinations. [insert Ned making Michael Stipe joke here] If you ever have lucid dreams, you get that sort of conscious "This is a dream. I am asleep. I should conjure up some cute ladies to smooch on."

― bnw (bnw), Sunday, 27 October 2002 05:53 (twenty-three years ago)

there have been points in my life where i sensed my body and brain becoming completely dissociated from each other, but there were er reasons for that

i am hallucinating now: the doctor sez i have to wear an eyepatch over my right eye until wed at least (haha now i am momus, ph34r me) and i'm really not used to the eyepatch thing, so i'm getting these crazy visuals. bedtime for me.

― geeta (geeta), Sunday, 27 October 2002 06:02 (twenty-three years ago)

its called the beginnings of a nervous breakdown, josh.
i know, i just had one over the last two years.

nothing to worry about...:)

― ***1979*** (***1979***), Sunday, 27 October 2002 06:37 (twenty-three years ago)

It actually happens to me quite a lot: it's one means by which I wake myself up on days where something important (a deadline, say, or an interview) is to occur. My guess is it's my subconscious hyping me into action; your experience may be (probably is) something completely different.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 27 October 2002 08:00 (twenty-three years ago)

like an out of body experience? I have been aware of being lifted out of my body before.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 27 October 2002 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

When i listen to certain types of music my body floats!

(look ma, no drugs!)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 27 October 2002 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

the doctor sez i have to wear an eyepatch over my right eye until wed

Your doctor prescribes marriage?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 27 October 2002 12:28 (twenty-three years ago)

This happens to me a bit when I wake up slowly (so not for a while since I became totally dependent on my alarm clock to wake me from my slumber of the gods). I sometimes have a bit of lucid dreaming at the end of a really vivid non-lucid dream which allows me to engineer a nice ending, or otherwise I just lie there in a pleasant state like Josh. Then for some arbitrary reason I decide to rise to a higher level of consciousness, but then I'm moving too fast and before I can stop myself I wake up, somewhat regretful (it's a bit like that scene in 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' where Charlie and his uncle can't stop rising in the tower).

This exact process also happens, somewhat annoyingly, upon the exact precipice of anything exciting happening in any sex-related dreams.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 27 October 2002 12:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Sleep paralysis?

― david h (david h), Sunday, 27 October 2002 13:59 (twenty-three years ago)

that's interesting, tim, because it does seem to me like when I know I am dreaming (usually because I may have woken up once already), and want to keep dreaming (because it is a sex dream of course). in those instances, though, there doesn't seem to be as big a gap between the whatever state, and being conscious - maybe because the threat of being awake again is always there pulling at me while I am trying to keep having the dream.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 27 October 2002 15:26 (twenty-three years ago)

is there some way to encourage lucidity in dreams? it seems as soon as i realize i am dreaming, i have but a few moments (dream moments, that is) before i wake up. i think the closest i've come to an actual lucid dream was waking up in my dream, realizing that i'm not actually awake, and then deciding to write a message to myself (i can't remember what it was, sadly) and place it on the lounge table to see if it would be there when i really wake up. it wasn't.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 27 October 2002 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, when i was younger i had more lucid-type dreams and tried to control whether i was awake or not.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 27 October 2002 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

mitch, there are lots of ways suggested to encourage lucid dreaming. I think most of them have to do with eating certain foods or setting up certain kinds of sleeping habits. look on the INTERWEB for more details.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 27 October 2002 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also helpful: any drugs that will boost your serotonin levels.

― bnw (bnw), Sunday, 27 October 2002 18:38 (twenty-three years ago)

hypnagogic state!

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 27 October 2002 18:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know what it was any better than you do Josh, but it may not be as rare as you might think. If you're intrigued with the experience, the following links *might* shed some insights...

The Soul in Human Consciousness: http://www.san.beck.org/Soul-2a.html
[This site has a section devoted to Levels in Consciousness: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/zen30.html]

Timothy Leary/Levels of Consciousness: http://www.near-death.com/experiences/lsd2.html

The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment: http://freespace.virgin.net/sarah.peter.nelson/lazyman/lazyman.html

Alan Watts: http://www.deoxy.org/watts.htm

Osho: http://members.tripod.com/sandyinrhythm/s_osho.htm

30 Minutes to Enlightenment: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/zen30.html

Please don't ask me what it all means -- I haven't figured that out yet. If you figure it all out first, come back and tell the rest of us.

― ragnfild (ragnfild), Sunday, 27 October 2002 18:57 (twenty-three years ago)

If I'm understanding this right, this kind of thing happens to me a lot.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 2 November 2002 21:43 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

it's a deep feeling

― Surmounter, Monday, 7 July 2008 15:21 (seventeen years ago)

i try to avoid it as much as possible.

― Surmounter, Monday, 7 July 2008 19:41 (seventeen years ago)

i thought this was going to be about conscious rap

― s1ocki, Monday, 7 July 2008 19:42 (seventeen years ago)

http://consciousrap.org/images/quote.gif

― omar little, Monday, 7 July 2008 19:43 (seventeen years ago)

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