The following preliminary experiments were conducted to test the application of hypnagogia and dream lucidity to controlled anomalous cognition. The target of perception was chosen by Sentiws who, one month ago, was asked to recall to memory an object that she owned prior to our meeting, that is no longer in her possession, and which has never been mentioned to me. She then acknowledged that she had chosen her object, after which I instructed her not to reveal it to me at that time.

Hypnagogic Impressions · 01.12.2021 0800–0830
I assume the shavasana posture in bed and direct my focus to the crown of my head (sahasrara). As I enter the hypnagogic state, I ask myself “what is the object that Sentiws remembered?”. Amid an array of visual and auditory hallucinations, a vague image of a red book emerges and passes away, and I notice that the quality of this impression is distinct from the preceding and following hallucinations. After several minutes, I conclude the session and ask Sentiws if the impression matches the object that she recalled a month ago. She then informs me that the color of the impression matches that of the object she chose, and that the word “book” phonetically resembles the correct name of the object in English, despite her having initially recalled it in Spanish, her mother tongue.

Lucid Dream · 01.13.2021 0200–0800
I retire for the evening, lie down, and begin internally repeating the statement “When I dream, I will know that I am dreaming”. I then imagine myself in the first-person perspective, sitting cross-legged on the ground atop a plateau in the desert. As I enter the hypnagogic state, I continue to hold the scene in my mind and fall asleep shortly thereafter.
      I am within a casino of some kind, immediately realize that I am dreaming, and quickly begin focusing on the details of my hands, which stabilizes my lucidity. I then remember the objective of this dream and quickly find a slot machine with a monitor to use as a scrying surface. I verbally instruct the screen to “show me the object that Sentiws remembered”, after which I suddenly feel a force begin to pull me into the screen and cause the entire dream to darken. As this happens, I feel that I will awaken and desperately attempt to focus on my dream body to re-stabilize my lucidity and hold off the darkness now overtaking the dreamscape. My surroundings then begin to transform, and I now find myself in a dark room standing in front of a phosphorescent pool of water, on top of which numerous red orbs begin to materialize. The orbs morph into red boats, then begin to coalesce into a single structure of some kind. At that very moment, I become aware that I am being pursued by a group of people who intend to capture me and prevent me from awakening. I then start to run and somehow know that I have to find a portal in order to awaken from this dream. As I am running, I see my father who, from a balcony, points to a nearby area and yells “There’s one right over there!”. As I run toward the portal, I notice that my assailants are gaining on me, and upon reaching the portal, I thrash my head back forcefully which causes a strange surge throughout my dream body, after which I awaken in my bed.
      Upon awakening, I settle my nerves and realize that I can recall all of the details of the dream except for the final structure that began to form in the pool.

Featured image by Jr Korpa on Unsplash