Ahh,I’ve been wondering if others experience this too!! I began a few searches but never really found much, and I’m kind of unsure how to even search properly for it.
For me, it happens as I’m laying still, slowly waking up and usually when I still feel fairly sleepy before fully waking up. A series of flashing images, more like bright lights really, in such fast succession and mostly in geometric forms, various colours.
Sometimes, though, it’s just one bright flash that peaks in brightness before disappearing.
I’ve noticed something distinct about the experience though: once it’s done, I’m 100% fully aware and alert. It almost feels like the full stop at the end of my sleeping/dreaming journey, kind of similar to the way a shamanic drum journey ends with a faster, more intense rhythm (which, without fail, brings one back to a fully awake state). It’s not ever really linked to the end of a dream, not even the dream state, but more so the end of a sleepy state.
[center][/center]I’ve had this happening for the past couple of weeks now. Just a fast flashing of still images that i can’t find a special meaning to. I will point out though that they only happen when i meditate before bed. I have no idea if that has anything to do with it. Its usually at the end where i am completely aware that im within a dream. Now i don’t know if anyone has experienced a feeling of being lifted up or feeling this warmth or seeing this bright light before this all occurs. For example today the light happened twice until on the final try it took me to go and see these images. I don’t know if im unconsciously controlling it? But i’d love to hear your thoughts!
Upon waking, before being fully awake, I am aware of a “slideshow”. It used to run left to right, geometric shapes and symbols that I don’t recognize. Then it started to evolve into a 3D presentation of layers of shapes and movement, I could feel myself moving and being swept along. Then the shapes and images started to become scary somehow. I can’t even describe what I saw and felt, it was like nothing I have ever experienced or saw. It started to become frightening, so I asked my higher self to stop showing me these things and then they stopped. I am aware of ascension and I believe this to be an ascension symptom
This phenomena has been happening to me, too - ever since my father passed away (Oct 2017). One thing I have been able to do that I haven’t seen anyone post yet: I have been able to TALK to the image.
For example, one of the images was a still of 2 women. I told the still to “stop.” It stopped. Then I said “Hello.” One of the women in the image “came to life” and said “Hello” back! I woke up in terror, shivering, had to catch my breath. It was so scary!
Anyone else experience this? Please email me at cabbagejenny@gmail.com. I am writing a short story that will be using this experience as one of the main plot elements.
As I awake i see images flashing in my mind so quick I cannot recognize them. It feels like electric in some way. I find it upsetting like i am having a seizure. It frightens me and my mind stays foggy for sometime after waking.
It happened to ne just 2hours ago and i woke up breathing heavily. When i checked the clock i was only asleep for like 10 or 15 mins. I saw flashes of pics its fast but ive seen all i even saw a name and a number and a pic of a lady i never met before. Before iit happened i remember feeling something heavy on top of me then it started flashing like im trying to recognize it but i dont understand and even the handwritings are weird.
Just experienced this for the first time. I had just woken up and wondered if I could get a few more minutes of sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes the images started. At first it startled me but I immediately wanted to see what happens. The images were black and white moving very quickly from right to left. They were mostly shapes and symbols with heavy black lines. I recall one image was of a horse’s head. I was trying to acknowledge each image as it moved through. It lasted for about a minute and I just opened my eyes. I truly don’t think I fell back asleep. Very curious about this!
Has anyone found out what the medical term for this is and what it means? I have had this happen a few times in my life… I’m about 50 yrs old… and it happened about 30 times in my life from young to just this morning. Like 1000s of images flashing VERY FAST in front of me like 10+ per second for several minutes, I feel like my mind is racing and I think I recognize or understand most of the images. It is MUCH faster than I think while normally awake. This is as I am waking up, it’s like where my subconscious meets my consciousness. Often I have a headache afterward.
It’s technically termed a hypnopompic hallucination. I have them quite frequently, and I was twice able to make an image stop and say hello to me. It was so scary; struck me at my core. We are onto something here – I think the “mind” is collective, and we tap into it when we dream. It’s a small piece of evidence that we are beyond our physical matter. That’s my 2 cents.
I have had several similar experiences. During one of them, I was waking, either from a false awakening (dream) or in between sleep and a waking state. I just laid there with my eyes closed and the same rapid succession of images just came flooding through. During times before this, it was so fast and intense that it was too much to behold. This time, however, I watched carefully as some of the images slowed down at the end. They were busy scenes with places and people. Almost with an illustrated type of quality. Then, I noticed more clearly, that they were nonsensical shapes. Everything I was seeing was nothing recognizable. The shapes that I thought were people were just tall rectangles with little circles on top. The whole terrain and landscape in the images was just a bunch of random colors and shapes.
In other dreams, there were buildings, offices, text on computer screens, paperwork, and a whole host of other images that were flashing in extremely rapid succession. Then, they became incredibly small and were moving horizontally accross my field of vision like static. The smaller images began to make up larger images and the whole process kept repeating itself infinitely fast. In a dream where I woke, seeing what is described above in a partial waking state, I eventually awoke feeling something like static. It was a very euphoric, yet terrifying feeling. My heart was racing and I felt that if I were to let go at that particular moment of waking, that I could die (my heart is usually racing after waking like this). The fear eventually passed, however, and the euphoria continued on for several minutes.
Hi
I would like to chime in on my experiences, very similar to those in this thread, for which I have been searching for an explanation for a while.
Periodically I see a rapid progression of still images just before waking fully. I am conscious of the images and able to remark to myself internally about them. It is not a dream, as I am able to ‘hang on’ to the experience for a little while and it continues so long as there is no distrubance. The images come at the speed others have mentioned, maybe 5 a second, or more. It feels odd that, even though they are very rapid, I can see the detail in each one. Sometimes the images are all well lit, with bright colours, others are dim. The images are grouped - at times I will see all faces, at other times the images will be all landscapes. Another curious thing is that none of the images are recognizable. there is no sound ,or movement.
The experience is not unpleasant, and I wake with no adverse feeling. In fact when I see many face images it is quite pleasant.
I wonder if this is caused by excitation of speciifc brain regions that store archetypal images, from which vision is constructred? A TED talk by Oliver Sacks suggests such a thing (sorry can’t include the link here)
It would be interesting to hear from brain/vision researchers on this.
David
I really think we are tapping into something that’s beyond science (and I’m a true believer IN science!). I think that this is evidence of the collective consciousness.
I’ve experienced these still images when entering a dream. It starts from still images that spark some different memories until I get immersed completely into a train of thought that forms a dream world.
Hi, I have also been having similar experiences: in the past three months it happened at least 5 time. I hardly remember any prior occurrence. When i gather consciousness from sleep, I have my eyes closed and I start seeing different images that go by very very fast. I do not control their flow, nor they seem related in any way. What i find interesting is that I hardly even notice the content of the image, yet they are so alive I’m immersed into them!
I’ve also had a dream kinda like yours but I didn’t feel like I was in a dream. I felt like I tried to fall asleep but I stopped half way and That’s when I saw a huge white flash in my eyes and a big ring in my ears.Then it looked like pictures of random men from Twitter started flashing in my eyes brightly.Each picture took about 1 second to show. What I remember quite vividly was an Asian man posing for a picture. I got quite startled with all these sudden pictures of this Asian man so I tried to wake myself up but I couldn’t I was stuck in my position. I couldn’t move anything and it was pitch black the only thing I could see what the flashing pictures.It all lasted I think 15 seconds but it felt like it lasted for a really long time.
I host a Podcast called Things That Go Bump in the Night. I would like to interview someone who has experienced these hallucinations. If you would like to be interviewed, please ping me at cabbagejenny at gmail dot com.