Astral Travels 1

My sleep last night was sketchy at best. I seemed to drift in and out of dreams, hovering on the edge of lucidity. Body at rest, mind awake. Somewhere in the night one of my two cats joined me in bed, claimed the pillow ... and I briefly spoke aloud, not to the pet, but in conjunction with a conversation I was having in my dreams. Thereafter my consciousness slid into the hypnopompic state, an oily, glassen stage on which the subjective and objective selves held hands and swirled in unchained harmony, a waltz of the mind unlike any other.





So. We know the labels, we're familiar with the logistics, the mechanics and clinical appraisals of dreams, imaginal states, lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, hypnogogic and hypnopompic. The hallucinations of mind, the firing of neuron transmitters, and those chemicals driving mental/physical activity. We are familiar with night terrors, the incubus and succubus, the 'old hag' syndrome. We understand the theory of archetypes and the collective/uncollective consciousness, ad nauseum.





Our doctors, psychologists, clinicians and research experts can near-duplicate the mysteries of an out of body experience (OBE), and would reduce the nature of consciousness to the mundane level of a cheeseburger given half a chance.





But I think thus: inasmuch as man can dissect the intricate workings of the brain, replicate the wave spectrum of a rainbow, or predictably measure the time it takes for a solar eruption to bombard the Earth's surface with simply gallons of pions ... does not reduce nor fully explain the majesty of the experience. We can explain these things, sometimes, and even go so far as to reasonably replicate, but what we cannot do is understand the why. HOW - we somewhat understand, but many 'whys' are yet a mystery.





With my mini-rant so expressed, I'd like to add that there remains far more we have yet to understand, to discover. And while our experts trip all over their PhD.s in an effort (and a valiant effort I must concur) to reduce every single thing to an irreducible, finite label ... we are rather missing the point in many cases, as well as falling prey to the allure of circular reasoning.





In essence, those who have experienced the profound and have danced in the halls of consciousness, know fully well that something beyond man's recognition beckons down the passageways of the mind. We've been there, we know. There is more, Horatio ...





So. While I really don't disparage the works of those who try to dissect and label the mysteries of the mind (and believe me, I am all for left-brain rational analysis - even though at this moment I sound just the opposite), neither do I think reductionism is the answer, either. There is a reason we do, think, feel and experience these byways of consciousness ... and the reason might not begin and end with matters of the material world.





We . Do. Not. Know. What. Lies. Beyond.





I am a very curious little monkey. I want to know. And I imagine I am not alone in this thirst for knowing. And my whole, entire point is that I think it fully as important to understand the message, rather than the just the envelope which houses it.





I am going to do my best, along with other gray alien and Sapient5 type postings (and whatever else happens to pop up on my mental doorstep), to keep a running diary of sorts for any dream, altered states of consciousness activity. I promise to keep any naughty dreams to myself (sorry, folks lol) (like I'm lucky enough to have any in the first place!).





For the interested, these posts will hence be labeled "Astral Travels" - because it summarizes the dream state as well as any other label ;)

10/21
It seemed that as soon as my head hit the pillow, the hypnogogics came on rather fast. On occasion I 'pray' (of a sort) prior to sleep, maybe I just think about God (whom I privately refer to as Source), or conduct my own little one-sided conversation with Him.

So, having gotten comfortable, no sooner had I began my prayer and thought Source, than I instantly had the bright, white light flash before my inner eye.

Still fully conscious, I wasn't as yet ready to slip into the hypnogogic state. I kept mentally pulling back and starting over. Every time I did, however, the white light was back. (I haven't had the vibrations for a while, which is unusual for me. They are nearly a constant feature of my pre-sleep state. Not sure what is different of late?)

Eventually there was no escaping the white light. I had the feeling it was 'up close and personal', and waiting for me. I'd give my eye teeth to know exactly what the White Light (in caps here) actually represents. Labels need not apply.

As an aside, most frequently the White Light appears in the left side of my mind's eye (forehead region). This particular time, it was head-on, directly bulls-eye center of the forehead.