Sometimes when I’m drifting away into sleep I suddenly feel strong emotions as if I’m falling into the deep. After this I always wake up with a shock.
On the Internet I found it is known as myoclonic jerk and it has something to do with sudden contractions of the big body muscles.
Some time later I read about this phenomenon but it was called falling between two worlds. Apparently this “falling” is some kind of threshold for the ancient Sufi and Hindu mystics, a crossroad where one isn’t asleep nor awake. According to the mystics, one can see a glimpse of the Real Self in this gap between the two worlds. This confrontation is supposed to be very radical and transforming, but it seems to be VERY difficult to experience it. Does anyone know anything about this or have the same feelings before falling asleep? I’d like to learn more about it, but I found nothing on the Internet. Thx.
Yes, I know what you are talking about. I have experienced this before too. Though usually it happens if I doze off while seated on a chair during the day. I very rarely experience it at night in bed. Usually when it occurs I seem to be entering a dream from consciousness, and I feel myself falling and I jerk out of my sleep. This action is quite dramatic…talk about scaring yourself! I have nearly fallen of my chair a few times doing it. I always thought it was just something telling me that now was the wrong time to go to sleep, because it has happened to me once or twice in work, when I put my head on the desk and started to doze off!
Yup…I get these sensations…rarely though.
Usually happens when I lay down to nap at a different time that I normally would fall asleep.
It is a good/bad feeling all at once.
I haven’t heard of the ‘two worlds’ explanation before though!
My real self eh?
I always knew I was a fake…wait 'til I find this real self…she has a lot of explaining to do!
Yeah, I get that sometimes too, when I fall asleep I get jerked awake by this falling sensation that feels like I just tripped and I’m falling out of bed or something like that. Really scary. I’ve heard of a theory, that when you fall asleep, you’re astral body goes to the astral plane to dream. Sometimes, somewhere in between waking and sleeping, something goes wrong in that transformation, nobody knows why, but you’re astral body is jerked back to you’re physical, causing a falling sensation. That might explain why people are experiencing it in places they don’t usually fall asleep in, like chairs, because you’re body needs to get used to working and that position or something …
I like your “two world” theory better though, much more interesting … 
I’ve had these before too. This is a really wierd sensation. I totaly forgot about it happening untill I read this article. Thanks for bringing the memory back. I’d like to learn more about this. If you could tell us where you found your info on it I would be more than grateful.
I once feel asleep on a lawn lounge chair and had a myoclonic jerk.
I jerked and it folded the chair’s legs in and I collapsed to the ground. 
Uffgh! … 
Thx for your posts.
Dreamwalker : I read about the “falling between two worlds” experience in Malcolm Godwin - The Lucid Dreamer. As far as I remember he mentioned one has to practice meditation and yoga for a VERY long time before being able to experience this radical transformation.
This gap appears to be very holy ground (a very dangerous ground too). Godwin emphasizes this is not something for beginners. It could become a véry terrifying experience instead of a transforming one.
In Hindu (Vigyan Bhairav Tantra and others) and Sufi literature there are supplementary exercises mentioned to prepare one for the “gap confrontation”.
The Real Self I mentioned is known in Hinduism as Atman, the eternal and immortal human Self. It’s not the same as the temporary mortal Ego. During our lives we tend to identify ourselves with our Ego. Hindus try to free themselves from their Ego in order to become one with Atman.
This explanation stands miles away from the dry scientific explanation: a myoclonic jerk which is caused by muscle contraction… 
As soon as the book is available again in the library I’ll give you a more complete description of the phenomenon 
Finally the book is available again in the library, so for all who wants to know more about this phenomenon, here’s what he says:
The practice of falling between two worlds is derived from the 55th of the 112 meditation techniques which are said to be received directly from Shiva. These meditation techniques were written down in the Hindu text Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. It goes like this:
At the point of sleep,
When the sleep has not yet come
And the external wakefulness vanishes,
At this point Being is revealed.
Sufi mystics know a preparatory exercise which you must do before even trying to do anything else: imagine (you must have a VERY vivid imagination) you are falling blindfolded into a bottomless pit. You keep on falling into the infinite and eternal emptiness below. It feels like people are throwing hot and cold water over your body at the same time.
If you have overcome your initial gruesome fears of the experience, you’ll start to feel a tranquillity and silence, growing deeper and deeper. It possesses a great beauty and you feel you have to let go every connection you have with the reality of waking life. You also feel the need to open your eyes. All this time you kept on falling.
After this, the main technique begins:
At the point of sleep, when the sleep has not yet come
As I mentioned before, this is a threshold, a crossroad where one isn’t asleep nor awake. At this point, the process changes and you’ll make a giant leap from one state to another. There’s a gap between the two states and in this gap you can see a glimpse of your true Being (or Self). At this moment you are truly awake and what you’ll experience will be both radical and transforming.
Hindu tradition gives us an example of how to find this gap. It’s kinda like focussing on hypnagogic imagery (inducing of WILD): stay fully conscious as you’re falling asleep. Do not flow with the hypnagogic imagery if they should occur, but instead try to find the moment where the waking state moves over to the sleeping state. Although this boundary between the waking and the sleeping is very subtle and as light as gossamer, it’s definitely there. With a lot of practice you can experience it, but you’re asleep before you know it.
Some people believe it can take up to 30 years or longer before even knowing what’s actually meant with this technique.
I’m not even thinking of getting started with practicing this, because it goes way beyond my comprehension. Perhaps in 30 years or so
Nevertheless I find these things very interestings, but I can’t find any other information about it than this. So if someone knows anything else about it, please let me know
I have found that VERY interesting! In fact, I have been caught in that stage where I was too tired to jerk. I have found myself thinking of really abstract thoughts… and then all of a sudden, the virbration strikes me and I begin to fall. That brief espiode… I was totally at peace with no thoughts. At this point, I seem to recieve some quiet suggestions/inspirations. Then the vibration stikes me, catching me off guard that I immediately forgot about them and the dream starts to form. Now I wish I did remember them! It happened to me like 3 days ago… on my attempt in wilding. I don’t know if it’s related… but to me, it is related. I’m going to try again and see if I can achieve that stage… thanks to you!
DM7: Very nice experience you had a few days ago! Please let us know if this should happen again
I think it’s like walking a path of consciousness. Somewhere there’s a very tiny but bottomless crack into the ground, which marks the exact boundary where the waking becomes the sleeping.
When falling asleep and walking down the path, people practically always step beyond this crack and simply flow into the sleeping state. But sometimes you step exactly into the crack (perhaps you did, DM7 ), so you start falling into the deep emptiness, not sleeping nor awake.
It must be fantastic if you have the ability to see this path while being fully conscious and look for the crack, instead of just walking it every night without even knowing you’re there!
I also experienced this “jerk”
It doesn´t happen very often, but I only get it when I am normally lying in bed and trying to sleep (except one time, when I was a little child we build a “cave” with a table and covers, and I slept a night in it).
But I always wake up from a dream when it happens.These dreams usually don´t have a story or something.Typical dream for that is that I am running over the grass, without a goal or something to flee from.Then suddenly the ground isn´t solid anymore, I sink a bit in with one foot and almost fall on the ground.This moment I awake with the falling sensation.
The moment I wake up I am always a bit disappointed.I feel like I did the same mistake again (although I don´t know which is my mistake, and which is my goal).
That somehow fits your theory, perhaps I know somewhere that I missed the chance to see my true self…?
Traumgänger
Hi… uh, this morning I was exhausted so I decided to turn off my alarm and go back to sleep. I decide to try and refollow the steps I did 3 days ago to see if I can achieve that again. I was physically exhausted so it was an excellent condition to attempt in. I found myself experiencing a strong urge to wake up, but I pretended that I am too tired to wake up. It worked. Suddenly, the vibration hit and I’m there in… uh the void. It only lasted briefly. This time, I just enjoy the quiet enviornment… then I realized that I was awake, but I wasn’t awake. I started to panic, thinking that I broke the quiet envorinment that I have been snapped out of this trance, but I wasn’t. I was still there in the void. My thoughts were more direct and LOUD unlikely trying to think in a noisy envorinment. I tried to maintain this state, letting the river to flow to see if I could get to have this “true self” vision. The next thing I knew was that the void started to pull some random thoughts from me, forming a faint image of book. I was able to read it even though it was very faintly. My mind remained blank. I even didn’t react. I just read. I knew that I was in this… uh… detached state. The vibration striked me again, making me forget the whole thing (about what the book was talking about). Then I woke up. I treated it like I have missed the “crack”… but when I typed it down here. It is starting to sound like I did. Now I’m confused. What do you think? shurgs
I’m not quite sure what you experienced. Perhaps you were already asleep (and stepped over the crack) but still being conscious, which is a very rare experience too. The book you saw could have been faint hypnagogic imagery, a precursor of a dream.
Did you have the sensation of falling? If so, than perhaps you really stepped on the crack.
Perhaps you’ll get much clearer results next time
I just read the whole thread, and i have to say this sounds like a very intresting way of doing self hypnosis or helping yourself to induce in between worlds. This seems like it has more meaning to it, and something that you can focus on more. Thanks mystic for sharing those posts i have to say it is very intresting, and in my spare time, I liked to try and experince leaving my body. I have to say on this forum i read lots of posts,experinces, and info; they all seem to work and this site brings so many ideas that i would never think of.
At the point of sleep, when the sleep has not yet come
I know that place, but I fear it. It’s a place where I’m in total control, yet I’m in the hands of someone else, in total control of everything else, like I posted in another topic.
Sometimes I love to be there, but when I feel the “presence” of the “other”, I fear it.
I never dream I fall into the unknown. I often dream I fall, but I can see where I’m gonna land. Where I’m supposed to land. It’s always looks like I’m going to be impaled, but I’m not, cause all of a sudden I just… hang there. Then I “move” next to that sharp stick, and land softly on the ground. Now this happens EVERY time I fall. Most of the time someone was chasing me and that “jumping” / “falling” the only way to safety is, but it also happens that I accidently fall.
Anyone know what that means?
Actually,I’ve also had the running over grass experience,but I remember that I was playing soccer.I tripped over a hole and just kind of fell through the ground.
Once I was walking up the stairs with heavy books in my arms.I tripped walking up the stairs.Same thing happened.I fell through the floor.
So.Are there cracks in a dream that you can fall through?If so,how do you avoid them,or use them for a quick way back to Earth?
That´s cool, I think I also had a dream like this in which I sank through the stairs.
Does that “sinking into the ground” has any special meaning?
Really sounds like there are hidden trapdoors or something in the dreamworld
Traumgänger
Very interesting things you’ve all experienced! Could be this sinking into the ground has some meaning. I don’t know. Perhaps a dream dictionary can tell 
But I don’t think it has anything to do with the “falling between two worlds”, which only takes place exactly at the boundary between the waking and sleeping state and not during a dream.
Hmm, but the “jerking” feeling is exactly like you describe it.
However, I am dreaming, that´s right.But it isn´t some dream, it is always some kind of dream that I get right after falling asleep (not after 1,5hours in my first REM).And this dream is only lasting 5-30 seconds or something.
So, I think in a way it IS a state between being awake and falling asleep.
But most of you seem to experience the sensation before the border to the dreamworld, or standing on it, while Hivemind and me seem to have crossed it a tiny bit already.
That´s the way I look at it
Oh I didn’t know this happened right after you fall asleep. So maybe it really was the same experience as the one I described before, but it was mixed up with some (hypnagogic?) hallucinations. Who could tell…
This phenomenon keeps intriguing me, but unfortunately I didn’t find ANY information about it on the web 