Consciousness

Chapter

Fifteen

Dreaming and beyond

expect them to report different dream contents to match because what counts as
the dream story was determined only on waking. On this theory, dreams are not
conscious experiences until we have woken up and decided they were. They do not
happen ‘in consciousness’, but then nor does anything else (Blackmore, 2014).

This theory gives us an alternative to both the standard theory that dreams are
conscious experiences happening during sleep, and the alternative that dreams
are composed unconsciously during sleep and then ‘become conscious’ on wak-
ing up, both of which have serious theoretical and empirical drawbacks.

THE BORDERS OF SLEEP

Strange, dreamlike experiences can happen before we fall asleep or as we are
waking up. At these times, when sensory input is reduced, hallucinations are
common, and range from simple visual forms or musical notes to sensations on
the skin or imagined changes in the location of a limb. This type of hallucination
was first described in 1848 by Maury, who called those which happen while fall-
ing asleep hypnagogic images or hypnagogic hallucinations and those that occur
on waking hypnopompic images (Mavromatis, 1987).

‘When the sleeper

awakes, a dream is

concocted, backwards,

by selecting any one of

the possible multiple

threads’

(Blackmore, 2004)

PRACTICE 15.1

STAYING AWAKE WHILE FALLING ASLEEP

It is easy to start to explore the borderland between reality and imagination

by learning to hover on the edge of sleep. Do this exercise for a week and

you may be rewarded with fascinating hallucinations and insights. The

visions and sounds may be frightening for some people, and you should

not pursue this if you find it too unpleasant.

Go to bed as usual, lie in your normal position, but then try to keep your

mind clear and empty. When any thoughts arise, gently let them go, as

you did when practising meditation. Look into the darkness in front of you

and watch for patterns. Listen attentively for sounds. When you see or hear

things, or feel odd twitches in your muscles, try not to react but stay relaxed

and keep watching and listening.

There are two difficulties. The exercise may keep you awake when you

want to sleep, or force you to have a clear mind when you would rather

indulge in fantasy or worry. We can only suggest that the visions may be

worth the loss of sleep, and that in fact you will not take much longer to go

to sleep than normal, however it feels.

Alternatively, you may find that you drop off to sleep too fast. One suggestion

from the Western occult tradition is to lie on your back, holding one forearm

vertical. As you fall asleep, the arm drops and wakes you. This way you

can oscillate between sleep and waking. In any case, lying on your back

makes hypnagogic imagery and sleep paralysis more likely. Like many of

these exercises, this one gets rapidly easier with practice.