This feeling....how I navigate through worlds...
These waking dreams, known medically as hypnagogic hallucinations, are not an uncommon phenomenon. The structure and physiology of the brain is a very intricately-balanced thing, due to the fact that the brain was not designed, but evolved over time, little chunks of matter developing here and there in a completely haphazard way and occasionally gaining some form of specialization. The more complex the brain gets over the course of time, the more complex the interdependencies become, and the more room for error.
One of the more interesting parts of the brain is the way in which dreaming happens. For whatever reason, the conscious mind gets cluttered and needs to be cleaned up, much like how you need to occasionally defragment the hard drive of a computer, or how if you have a box full of wires or strings it'll get all tangled up even if nothing was moving around in a way which should cause tangling. Dreams are there to keep the memories from getting too tangled up, and to also throw away the useless little short pieces of string which don't do any good.
What happens in the normal brain is that once a person falls asleep and their conscious mind (namely the short-term memory retention, as controlled by the hippocampus) shuts off, the reticular activating system kicks in, first turning off the motor cortex (the part of the brain responsible for voluntary bodily movements) causing what is known as sleep paralysis, and then turning off the cognitive filters which prevent the conscious mind from getting overwhelmed by the vast amounts of utter crap floating around.
The reticular activating system is triggered by a surge of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter responsible for a great number of things, and the precariously-balanced serotonin levels are very easy to knock out of whack by something as simple as stress, or lack of - or too much - sleep.
What can happen is, under certain circumstances, such as during deep meditation or hypnosis, or if there is simply an excess of serotonin in the right parts of the brain, the reticular activating system can kick in while the mind is still conscious. The motor cortex is shut off, and then the mind begins to dream, yet it is still conscious.
A very similar thing happens while in a state of extreme tiredness; sometimes the mind will have little "glimpses" of the filters being disabled. These are referred to as hypnopompic peripheral hallucinations, as normally the resulting hallucinations are only in the periphery of the conscious mind - one might see little glimpses of movement out of the corner of their eye, or hear sounds which aren't really being made.
Incidentally, dissociative hallucinogens such as LSD and DXM (commonly found in cough syrup) work in a very similar way - they shut off the brain's consciousness filters. Someone on a dissociative hallucinogen will see things without their brain getting in the way, and things become much more interesting; you begin to notice the intricate details of the texture of the wall, the tiny imperfections which are on every surface, every little reflection and refraction and shadow of everything around, and also every little thought and memory triggered by the things you see. Static frames of reference are lost, colors appear to shift and fade and merge and change, and every little feedback cycle in the brain further nudges the precariously-balanced perception of things in an outward spiral. Such a state can become very psychologically addictive.
Both hypnagogic and hypnanomic hallucinations can be extremely frightening for whoever it is happening to, especially if they are not aware of the physiology involved. It is generally believed that most, if not all, cases of hauntings and UFO abductions are really hypnagogic hallucinations, and many who experience them under a more rational light believe that they are simply going insane for having vision with no scientific basis. Because of the terrifying nature of sleep paralysis, a vicious feedback cycle of believing something Bad is happening forms, and as a result, hypnagogic hallucinations are more commonly referred to as "night terrors."
For those who are lucky enough to have one or two positive hypnagogic hallucinations, they tend to actively seek them out. For the chance to see inside their own mind in a way that one cannot do deliberately, they purposefully muck with their own sleep and serotonin cycles, they go to bed while not quite tired and begin to meditate, they purposefully set their alarms to go off a few hours early in the morning and let themselves tiredly fall back to sleep, and they otherwise do whatever they can for the chance to slip into a world of pure imagination.
For some, the experiences can become so realistic and commonplace that they begin to have trouble separating the dream world from reality, or perceive that the dream world is real, perhaps even more real than the physical reality. Eventually, the dream world begins to take over.
One of the more interesting parts of the brain is the way in which dreaming happens. For whatever reason, the conscious mind gets cluttered and needs to be cleaned up, much like how you need to occasionally defragment the hard drive of a computer, or how if you have a box full of wires or strings it'll get all tangled up even if nothing was moving around in a way which should cause tangling. Dreams are there to keep the memories from getting too tangled up, and to also throw away the useless little short pieces of string which don't do any good.
What happens in the normal brain is that once a person falls asleep and their conscious mind (namely the short-term memory retention, as controlled by the hippocampus) shuts off, the reticular activating system kicks in, first turning off the motor cortex (the part of the brain responsible for voluntary bodily movements) causing what is known as sleep paralysis, and then turning off the cognitive filters which prevent the conscious mind from getting overwhelmed by the vast amounts of utter crap floating around.
The reticular activating system is triggered by a surge of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter responsible for a great number of things, and the precariously-balanced serotonin levels are very easy to knock out of whack by something as simple as stress, or lack of - or too much - sleep.
What can happen is, under certain circumstances, such as during deep meditation or hypnosis, or if there is simply an excess of serotonin in the right parts of the brain, the reticular activating system can kick in while the mind is still conscious. The motor cortex is shut off, and then the mind begins to dream, yet it is still conscious.
A very similar thing happens while in a state of extreme tiredness; sometimes the mind will have little "glimpses" of the filters being disabled. These are referred to as hypnopompic peripheral hallucinations, as normally the resulting hallucinations are only in the periphery of the conscious mind - one might see little glimpses of movement out of the corner of their eye, or hear sounds which aren't really being made.
Incidentally, dissociative hallucinogens such as LSD and DXM (commonly found in cough syrup) work in a very similar way - they shut off the brain's consciousness filters. Someone on a dissociative hallucinogen will see things without their brain getting in the way, and things become much more interesting; you begin to notice the intricate details of the texture of the wall, the tiny imperfections which are on every surface, every little reflection and refraction and shadow of everything around, and also every little thought and memory triggered by the things you see. Static frames of reference are lost, colors appear to shift and fade and merge and change, and every little feedback cycle in the brain further nudges the precariously-balanced perception of things in an outward spiral. Such a state can become very psychologically addictive.
Both hypnagogic and hypnanomic hallucinations can be extremely frightening for whoever it is happening to, especially if they are not aware of the physiology involved. It is generally believed that most, if not all, cases of hauntings and UFO abductions are really hypnagogic hallucinations, and many who experience them under a more rational light believe that they are simply going insane for having vision with no scientific basis. Because of the terrifying nature of sleep paralysis, a vicious feedback cycle of believing something Bad is happening forms, and as a result, hypnagogic hallucinations are more commonly referred to as "night terrors."
For those who are lucky enough to have one or two positive hypnagogic hallucinations, they tend to actively seek them out. For the chance to see inside their own mind in a way that one cannot do deliberately, they purposefully muck with their own sleep and serotonin cycles, they go to bed while not quite tired and begin to meditate, they purposefully set their alarms to go off a few hours early in the morning and let themselves tiredly fall back to sleep, and they otherwise do whatever they can for the chance to slip into a world of pure imagination.
For some, the experiences can become so realistic and commonplace that they begin to have trouble separating the dream world from reality, or perceive that the dream world is real, perhaps even more real than the physical reality. Eventually, the dream world begins to take over.