Sometimes, on the verge of waking up or falling asleep, one attains semi-consciousness. It is very difficult to sustain this; most of the time that I try to remain half-asleep, my brain activity becomes heightened, and I just end up waking up. However, I have on occasion successfully experimented with the semi-conscious state of mind (although these sessions have never lasted more than a few brief moments).
The next time you find yourself in between waking and dreaming (but closer to dreaming) try the following things:
Make your teeth hurt, without moving or touching them, by believing that they hurt. If done correctly, your teeth will hurt.
Play your favorite song or musical piece in your mind (or compose your own music on the fly). Imagine that the sounds are actually being played by real headphones around your head. If done successfully, you will be startled by the realism of your own mind's audio playback; you will be convinced that the music is issuing from headphones around your head.
Imagine the intellectual benefits we could have with the invention of a dream recorder: any original music conceived during a dream could then be remembered flawlessly! Speaking of which, I highly urge anyone reading this note to pursue the invention of the dream recorder. Then we could store them on DVD's and sell them. Or we could rent dreams at Blockbuster, in order to dream action or comedy or porn at night.
