Thread: falling into oneself

Is this a common psychological trait ?

I first noticed it when I was very young:I had dreams where I would be kind of locked into the room.
What I actually mean is that I seemingly awoke from my sleep and made as if to get out of bed.
Then it seemed that I had tried to get out the wrong side as I was just pushing against the wall .
Realising my apparent mistake I tried to get out of bed the other side -the some thing happened :it was the wall.
When I tried the other 2 directions the same result occurred , whereupon I gave up and went back to sleep.
Later (can't recall how much later ; perhaps the following day or perhaps a year or so later) I realised that it was obviously all a dream but at the time I was convinced I was awake (awoken actually)

I am sometimes reminded of this on other occasions (later on in life) when I become aware in my sleep that I am actually sleeping and , in a reflex, I try to "wake up" .This is almost impossible to do so it is a fairly panicky situation where you feel that you will be trapped in your own sleep. But you do kind of struggle awake almost depite your own efforts.

But there seems to be another possibly related event that I sometimes have to deal with.
I should explain that I practice TM -I find it very enjoyable- and sometimes I get a similar feeling to the above experiences. To explain it as best I can I would say that my attention is so drawn inwards that I get an unpleasant feeling that it is not going to go outwards again - like I am going to be stuck inside my "trance" so to speak .
When that happens I have to kind of pull myself back in case I fall into the mind and lose contact with the external physical world.

Has anyone come across any of these kinds of experiences either personally or via third parties or in literature?

Seems quite normal to me. The details are different, but the dream experiences I have certainly had and have read of many others experiencing them. I would go so far as to say anyone who hasn't had them is in the minority.

Originally Posted by John Galt

Seems quite normal to me. The details are different, but the dream experiences I have certainly had and have read of many others experiencing them. I would go so far as to say anyone who hasn't had them is in the minority.

thanks.That brings to mind the apparently (I mean I think ) common phenomenon of people imagining their own experiences are unique when in fact they are common....

You wouldn't happen to any links on the internet to what you have read by any chance as I don't buy books , only magazines?
(Perhaps they will be easy to track down if I was to do a search for "dream struggle awake" or something similar)

Unfortunately not. My interest in this was some time ago and all I am left with is the recollection of the general conclusions. You might try googling lucid dreams or sleep paralysis. There could be mention of the phenomenom in association with either of these. As a word of warning, both of these topics attract fringe elements, so you could also find everything from alien abduction to ESP.

Well that was really easy to track down .I searched for "trapped in a dream" (in quotes) and there seems to be talk of little else!
As a variation I also remember when very young of wishing I was able to talk but being unable to express my thoughts in words! (I mean before I had any language ability of any kind - maybe I could understand but not speak)