Debunking Ghosts: Hypnagogia and Hypnopompia

Hypnagogia and hypnopompia are two terms that avid viewers of paranormal reality shows rarely hear. A home owner might describe how she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a dark figure standing at the foot of her bed. Another victim of alleged paranormal activity might claim to hear someone speaking in the bedroom. With the paranormal field at a peak of popularity in the media, investigators of the paranormal many times overlook this fascinating explanation for nighttime visions and alleged paranormal attacks on unsuspecting individuals.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

The History of Hypnagogic Consciousness

French psychologist LF Alfred Maury coined the term hypnagogic during the 19th century. A psychical researcher FWH Myers created the complimenting term hypnopompic. However, neither man discovered either state of consciousness. In fact, descriptions of what some call The Borderland State, exist in the work of Aristotle, who wrote of "the affections we experience when sinking into slumber" and Iamblichus, who believed the voices and visions he perceived in-between awake and asleep were god-sent. Seventeenth century astrologer Simon Forman described apocalyptic visions while dosing off to sleep.
Interpretations of hypnagogia exist largely in literature. Edgar Allen Poe's Marginalia makes clear a belief that the visions and sensations that occur before sleep are a look into the spirit's "outer world". Robert Desnos experimented with writing while in this trance-like state.

Although the attempt to understand and document hypnogogic consciousness proves vast, scientific conclusions are sparse. Scientific explanations of the pre-dream state describe the period between awake and sleep and the complimenting period between sleep and awake as a time when the brain cleans itself out. Dorland's "Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers" states the definition of hypnagogia: "occuring just before sleep; applied to hallucinations sometimes perceived during this state".

Sensory Experiences During Hypnagogia

According to existing research, differentiating the sensory phenomenon that occurs during hypnagogia and hypnopompia is pointless. The visions, sounds and places reported seen during either state of consciousness prove too similar. Therefore, the phrase hypnogogic state often collectively refers to both.
During both times, people report seeing geometric shapes and lines, figures, people they know and don't know, hearing sounds like bangs and crashes, voices, conversations and the list goes on. The more extreme claims include out-of-body experiences, attacks by invisible forces, visions of landscapes and heaven or hell-like places. Similarly extreme reports include the presence of body paralysis, where people can see and hear normally while "awake" but lack any ability to move for seconds or even minutes, as though they are pinned down by something unseen.

Hypnagogia May Explain Paranormal Phenomenon
The symptoms of the hypnagogic state parallel many reports of alleged apparitions and phantom sounds that paranormal investigators frequently document. Many reports of ghost activity occur at night, when the individual involved might very easily confuse the hallucinations of their near-sleep or near-awake consciousness with ghosts. Hypnagogia might reveal what our brains are thinking subconsciously, providing insight to our hopes, worries and fears.

One could easily argue the opposite opinion and believe hypnagogic consciousness is a portal to another plane of reality, where the dead can talk and show themselves more easily than when the living are fully awake. Perhaps Poe was on to something. The period of hypnagogia may allow us to view visions and signs from a spirit world or for others, heaven. Interpretations like these differ between cultures.

Sources:

Lachman, Gary. "Hypnagagia". Fourtean Times. October 2002.

Poe, Edgar Allen. "Marginalia". 1-50. The Works of the Late Edgar Allen Poe. 1950.

Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers. Saunders. 2007.

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