Experience nothingness right before waking

Lately I've been experiencing a moment of nothingness just before waking up. Probably not wording it right, because one cannot experience nothing.

It is when I am in the slow process of waking that I realize I am coming out of a state of non-dreaming. It is a moment where my mind is completely blank and black. There is no hunger, no thirst, no pain or any awareness whatsoever of my body. I am not happy or sad. I don't relive the mistakes of my life, or the fleeting successes. In that moment I am not a good person or a bad person. For all intents and purposes, at that waking moment I am coming into existence from a state of nothingness.

Though I have been conditioned to fear death, I must admit that if one morning I were to stay in that...whatever you want to call it...nothingness, and never come back to life, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

With my failing health I wonder if my body is somehow preparing me for death?

Anyone ever experience this? Can anyone even understand what I tried to explain?

reply to post by jiggerj


I'm excited to see your post today, because I have indeed experienced this very same thing that you're describing, though I confess I have never tried to tell anyone about it...it's simply too odd.

For me it's something like coming out of nothingness into a gradual remembrance. So, suddenly "I'm" there, but where, where is there, it's nowhere. Then I realize, oh wait, a notion of reality. Wait, yeah, a universe, Oh! I'm human, I remember that! I'm a man...yes, my name is Lee. Now I remember...then it all just rushes back in and I open my eyes. The only moment that I get to truly marvel at it is when it all comes back, and I can sort of look back at what I've just experienced and realize how strange it was... In that moment I have no name, no form, just void. Like you say, I don't fear it, because there is no such thing as fear there, no joy, no pain, no nothing...eternal darkness. It doesn't frighten me at all because there's no such thing in that non-place.

Truly, I'm glad to read about your experience today. I pretty much figured I was alone on that one...don't quite know why God wants me to experience that...

Peace...

Originally posted by BBobb
reply to post by jiggerj

 

I'm excited to see your post today, because I have indeed experienced this very same thing that you're describing, though I confess I have never tried to tell anyone about it...it's simply too odd.

For me it's something like coming out of nothingness into a gradual remembrance. So, suddenly "I'm" there, but where, where is there, it's nowhere. Then I realize, oh wait, a notion of reality. Wait, yeah, a universe, Oh! I'm human, I remember that! I'm a man...yes, my name is Lee. Now I remember...then it all just rushes back in and I open my eyes. The only moment that I get to truly marvel at it is when it all comes back, and I can sort of look back at what I've just experienced and realize how strange it was... In that moment I have no name, no form, just void. Like you say, I don't fear it, because there is no such thing as fear there, no joy, no pain, no nothing...eternal darkness. It doesn't frighten me at all because there's no such thing in that non-place.

Truly, I'm glad to read about your experience today. I pretty much figured I was alone on that one...don't quite know why God wants me to experience that...

Peace...

Whew! I thought it was just me. You described it a lot better than I did. Thanks!
What I find humorous is that it leads me to the idea that there is no god...just that nothingness.

It's called Hypnagogia.

The state before or after and sometimes during dreaming/lucid dreaming/and sleep paralysis.

It's a cool feeling!

reply to post by jiggerj


Well I'm a man of profound faith, so it certainly doesn't lend me to that conclusion whatsoever (the conclusion there is no God). God is everything, He's all things, so also He's nothing. I know it's paradoxical, but God nature to us as humans is intrisically paradoxical. I, for one, get excited when I have such a happening (they're rare, I've only experienced it truly twice). To me it just elucidates that majesty and splendor of the great unknown...I consider it a gift to have experienced.

Originally posted by SadButTrue
It's called Hypnagogia.

The state before or after and sometimes during dreaming/lucid dreaming/and sleep paralysis.

It's a cool feeling!

Are you sure?

hypnagogic /hyp·na·gog·ic/ (hip″nah-goj´ik). 1. hypnotic (1, 2). 2. occurring just before sleep; applied to hallucinations occurring at sleep onset.

I am definitely asleep and about to awaken. The definition is before sleep.

I know what you are talking about.

I think I always knew what it was subconsciously, but never really thought about it directly. At least until I heard a song by System of a Down called Toxicity.
Specifically this verse: "somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep, disorder, disorder, disorder"

And I thought to myself, "I know that place". I thought it was pretty cool too.