Hypnagogia and Embodied Imagination

In the practice of Embodied Imagination, we often speak of the hypnagogic state. This refers to that state between waking consciousness and sleep; What might be experienced as a descent from wakefulness into sleep.

To dream and altogether not to dream. This synthesis is the operation of genius... (Novalis)

The word Hypnagogia is put together rather beautifully with, Hypnos (sleep) and Agogeus (conductor, leader). In a sense it is to be lead or guided into sleep. In this liminal state, we may experience the loosening or blurring of ego boundaries, changes in quality of thought, multiplicity of realities, and greater suggestibility/receptivity ².

Many in antiquity, including dear old Aristotle, wrote about hypnagogia. Iamblichus in the third century CE wrote about the borderland of wakefulness and sleep as a condition in which one might have mystical experiences ². In more recent history, Edgar Allan Poe wrote about his ‘psychal’ experiences in the hypnagogic state as ‘arising from the soul’. Hypnagogic experiences are common, and the incidence of hypnagogic imagery is not limited to any particular age or physical condition.

Regarding the brain and its activity during hypnagogia, the following information from electroencephalography (EEG) is perhaps interesting to note. During regular waking consciousness, the human brain operates predominantly in the Beta frequency band (14-30Hz) and Alpha band (9-13Hz) ¹. As one shifts into hypnagogia, the brain activity descends into the slower Alpha band (9-13Hz), and then the Theta Band (4-8Hz). Going lower and slower into Delta (1-3Hz), one experiences deep sleep. One could say that the hypnagogic state occurs in the frequency range of 4-8Hz.

Referring back to the idea of stages in hypnagogia, there is certainly a point at which going too deep into the lower frequencies is undesirable for Embodied Imagination work (falling asleep is not useful here). A final note regarding the hypnagogic brain comes from McGilchrist, who reveals that it is the open attention of the right hemisphere that engages with the imaginal world; In contrast with the left hemisphere, which attends in a more precise, narrow way to the world of objective ‘out there’ things ³.

In Embodied Imagination, the practitioner or therapist facilitates the induction of a hypnagogic state. For the purposes of our embodied work, one must not slip too deeply into hypnagogia. Rather, dual consciousness is maintained so that the immediacy of the present moment is not lost. This is achieved by sensing into one’s physical body (interoception) and visualising a descent at a slow and steady tempo set by the EI practitioner.

Depending on the amount of practice and one’s natural capacities, the process can vary in length and intensity. Once the moment is right, the given dream, vision or memory is re-entered, and the work begins. One’s diffuse attention is increasingly attuned to the hypnagogic reality. A relaxed receptivity (inherent of hypnagogia) aids one in exploring the garden of dream images; And it is gnosis rather than episteme that one finds there.

References

Demos, J. N. (2019). Getting started with EEG neurofeedback (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Mavromatis, A. (1991). Hypnagogia: The Unique State of Consciousness Between Wakefulness and Sleep. Routledge.

McGilchrist, I. (2021). The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. Perspectiva Press.