Encountering Hypnagogia
From the Editors
When we discussed the premise of this journal, we stumbled into a quandary: what is Hypnagogia beyond its mere “medical” definition? When a dreamer seeks the transient realm between consciousness and sleep, not as a symptom but as a world to explore — how does it manifest itself to them? Does their individuality inform and create a unique space each night, or do we collectively journey through the same gates, never knowing one another for passersby?
To us, the hypnagogic state immediately precedes slumber, when imagination becomes fluid and logic flies the coop. This “Hypnagogia” seems much like free-association, but borne by the power of image in lieu of the rigid ethos of spoken word. Barriers dissolve; a new frontier emerges on the fringes of consciousness, and therein we float.
Any attempt to steer this ship, and you become lost. Control is in the lack thereof, and insight delivered in the unasked. We seek this state; hoping that those who wander alongside may somehow attain, study, or contemplate. What has been neglected here, in this nether region between bare reason and misty dream? We call for explorers, to help us construct a map.
Our maps begin in memory, on imagined visage. Drifting to sleep, these stories modulate into the absurd, signaling a plunge into virgin territory. A person once spoken to suddenly evaporates, their presence seared into consciousness, but their disappearance greeted as rational circumstance.
Memories splinter; everything becomes impermanent. Ephemeral, flux, no two perspectives the same; we travel through hallucinations informed by an elusive, but concrete subconscious. Our spoils: fleeting impressions: thoughts and emotions traceable to wispy images or hollow sounds seldom remembered. Recognizing the tendrils of consciousness, we falter and slowly regress from modest omniscience. We emerge into the cold familiarity of waking thought, draw our covers close, and try again.
In Hypnagogia we aim to sketch this world, to connect the disjointed memories, and trace the ethereal consciousness which guides but is not a docent. Together we will ascertain its teachings and inscribe what it has to say: a map, to illuminate a path for future explorers.
by Jared Carpenter and Matthew Portman
