When I was a kid, I had very vivid HI. The only bad thing about it is that I had exclusively nightmares, and I saw scary things in HI as well. Not only that, but I could see HI in the darkness with my eyes open. I was scared, so I started to “avoid” them. I focused on total darkness, not seeing anything.
My hypothesis is that I focus my sight on a point beyond the eyelids, not paying attention to eventual HI.
Since HI is often said to be a good starting point for lucid dreams, and since that’s really the last thing I can try to hope to have a lucid dream, my question is: is there a way to get it back?
I can visualize shapeless white-ish blobs for a few seconds, but I have to concentrate real hard, and concentrating real hard is more and more impossible for me as I get closer to sleeping.
How do you know that is HI? HI is something that has to do with sleep and dreaming, it is not just random photos flying in the air.
If it wasn’t HI, I don’t know what it was. Ghosts? And they wren’t photos, they moved. I clearly remember seeing on the ceiling of my room 2 guys in strange gears with what looked like swimming caps on, sitting at a table, and seeming to talk to each other.
HI is what you see when you close your eyes. I saw them when I had my eyes closed, they were very vivid, and a few times I saw them with my eyes open too. But in deep darkness, where it was as if your eyes were closed.
But even if that wasn’t HI, I surely lack it now, and I’m looking for a way to get it back, and hopefully help me to have some dream fun.
The way I got it is that HI are images that appear in the borderline of losing consciousness. What you see if you close your eyes are phosphenes (sp?) and what you experienced was some kind of day dream I guess. Sometimes when I close my eyes and start to drift away, I have some kind of a dream before I’m asleep, I don’t know what it is called, maybe that’s HI though? 
AFAIK you can also see HI now if you close your eyes. Daydreaming is being immersed in “another reality”, but I had visions.
But let’s not deviate the topic, I’d like my HI back.
I have something just like that! I dont know how to stop it…
It’s very surprising. Everybody see those shapeless white-ish blobs (phosphenes) when going to bed and I don’t think you have to focus hard.
Do you really relax well then focus on a WILD’ing practice? If you don’t focus on a practice, you’ll just think about random things and fall asleep without seeing any HI.
@Hebrew: Do you want to stop it or regain it? If you want to stop it, even if I don’t recommend it, maybe you have to focus sight beyond the eyelids. But I’m not sure. I just “killed” any attempts my brain tried to carry out, looking away from them, focusing on total darkness.
@Basilus: as I said, I “deactivated” them, which way I’m not sure. Anyway, my mind wanders unstoppably at a certain point, I lose touch of reality, awareness, and consciousness of myself. I will try relaxing AND THEN focusing. But again, my mind takes over forcefully, it will be hard.
I want to stop it… the stuff i’ve seen, nobody should EVER see, even in their worst nightmares…
And just what did you see?
Too bad you didn’t try to change the images instead of removing them. HebrewB you may want to try to do that. It’s what’s in your head so think about nice things. TooGood ToBeTrue- remember that you have to be aware of the images, that’s the only way to see them. That means try to stay aware as you fall asleep. You trained yourself to ignore them, now train yourself to notice them! Practice in the mornings!
and HebrewB- What DID you see?
I am sure that it is possable to train yourself to not see HI, and also to see HI. I think that lots of people just ignore it and fall asleep. It is only a problem when you think that you have to see it to do WILD. ( or any other method where it is mentioned ).
I was not aware of HI when I started working on WILD. Now I see it just about every time I try WILD, which is about two to three times a week. It is not important to see HI to be able to WILD or LD. It can be usefull as something to concentrate on while doing WILD, but it can also be distracting. It is often said that if you pay too much attention to the HI you will have problems letting your body fall asleep. If you don’t have or notice HI, then do something else to keep your mind awake when doing WILD. Count, listen to the ringing in your ears, or any constant sound in the room. I listen to the fan I have running right now in my room. The important thing is to keep your mind awake while your body falls asleep, not that you have HI.
don