Funny....me too. Why arent I surprised? For me as a kid it used to be the contrast of tiny lil me and some big kinda mental hurricane, the contrast of stark white and deep black... and it used to send me into a fit of terror. I tried googling on this but without a name to the phenomena it's pretty tenuous and difficult to find. Anyone else have better luck?
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I had forgotten the pillow thing, Snowman! Yes I had that too .... the feeling that the pillow was somehow both soft and fluffy but also hard and gritty and sharp, and that was part of this whole infinite/miniscule texture-feeling unpleasantness.
Which means it must have happened a lot in bed.
Which means it could be hynopompic/gogic or fever-related.
I had a horrific fever-dream the xmas before last where my body somehow was a shipwrecked ship, or like a bare winter tree and I had to, by force of will, put all the pieces back together ... it seemed to take forever but I managed it and woke up feeling better!
None of this has quite the same flavour (synaesthesia pun intended) as "thinking about the impossible" of taking drugs (for me), and the big/small/pillow thing, like the feeling that everything was moving away from me in all directions (like the expansion of the universe) and the echoing wakawakawaka sound in my head (both of which were wide awake, outdoor phenomena I distinctly remember from when I was about 10), hasn't happened since childhood as far as I can remember.
How odd.
Which means it must have happened a lot in bed.
Which means it could be hynopompic/gogic or fever-related.
I had a horrific fever-dream the xmas before last where my body somehow was a shipwrecked ship, or like a bare winter tree and I had to, by force of will, put all the pieces back together ... it seemed to take forever but I managed it and woke up feeling better!
None of this has quite the same flavour (synaesthesia pun intended) as "thinking about the impossible" of taking drugs (for me), and the big/small/pillow thing, like the feeling that everything was moving away from me in all directions (like the expansion of the universe) and the echoing wakawakawaka sound in my head (both of which were wide awake, outdoor phenomena I distinctly remember from when I was about 10), hasn't happened since childhood as far as I can remember.
How odd.
A
Anonymous
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sidecar_jon said:
Well I don't have a very mathematical brain, but I used to have similar hypnagogic experiences in connection with the small/hard/big/soft thing. The one I remember the most was to do with coins (pennies or 2p's) multiplying in some exponential way until there was a ridiculously huge number. I think this was triggered by hearing that if you put one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard and then double the number of grains on the next and so on....... Anyway, there was something terrifying and overwhelming about this.
Weird, ( to use an already over-used word....)
BTW I'd forgotten the 'pillow thing' as well. Something to do with your hand going numb if you've been resting your head on it for a long time maybe??
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Anonymous
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Ugh, that panicky feeling of everything crowding in on you/standing still in a hurricane/close things turning into huge, faraway things and back/having to "calm" your head down. I haven't had that for a number of years.
Also, when I was a kid, I'd be playing and then.. stop suddenly, with the feeling that something was going on just beyond my perception, and if I strained to hear/see/smell/think, I'd catch it. Never did. Great feeling, though.
Also, when I was a kid, I'd be playing and then.. stop suddenly, with the feeling that something was going on just beyond my perception, and if I strained to hear/see/smell/think, I'd catch it. Never did. Great feeling, though.
Yeah, I remember the head on pillow feeling - that tingly, electrical feeling on the back of my head.
It now certainly appears that it's a common occurance - I've got a doctors appointment on wednesday, so do you reacon I should print the thread out, and ask her to have a neurologist have a look at it?
It now certainly appears that it's a common occurance - I've got a doctors appointment on wednesday, so do you reacon I should print the thread out, and ask her to have a neurologist have a look at it?
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Anonymous
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I wouldn't if I was you, they might want to do weird experiments on you 
Again, something not quite the same as others have posted, but does anyone else get the feeling of floating upwards when they look at a high ceiling (ie. in a cathedral or big theatre)? I always have this happen and it really shakes me up every time - I feel myself almost lifting off the ground with a sort of pins-and-needles sensation. I suppose it's like a reverse vertigo, which is odd because I don't suffer from "normal" vertigo.
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Anonymous
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Same here, especially high ceilings such as in catherdrals - classic vertigo symptoms of dizziness and a feeling like I'm about to keel over backwards.
"Ugh, that panicky feeling of everything crowding in on you/standing still in a hurricane/close things turning into huge, faraway things and back/having to "calm" your head."...best decription of how it felt to me, that i have read on this post...nice one..Orbyn!!
Well this seems to be a universal experience, how is it that it doesn't have a name, or has it?, Has it been studied??if not why not?, or is it another unexplained phenominum forever to remain a mystery, never to be solved, like so many other fortean subjects????
Well this seems to be a universal experience, how is it that it doesn't have a name, or has it?, Has it been studied??if not why not?, or is it another unexplained phenominum forever to remain a mystery, never to be solved, like so many other fortean subjects????
Beakmoo
Justified & Ancient
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I've read about that, I think it's called positional hypotension, in other words low blood pressure caused by the position of the neck and head. If, like me, you already have lowish blood pressure, and you lift your head to look up, it compresses the veins/arteries (?) in the back of the neck and causes dizzyness and all the rest. I also see black spots, occasionally they all meet up and I sink gracelessly to the floor, amusing everyone but myself.AndyX said:
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Anonymous
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Just want to say I know exactly what you're talking about, and that there should be a word for this. Feverish effects, unnatural-seeming textures, horrific and vertiginous differences and shifts in scale... for me it's associated with high temperatures and night terrors (especially the scale thing - sensations of horror at the size of planets compared to me...), but not exclusively so.
Try this to induce a sensation that's fairly weak and not exactly the same, but similar in some ways. Put all your fingertips (including thumbtips) together in a kind of tent-like shape in front of you, so right index meets left index etc. Now, keeping fingertips joined, push together quite hard, so your palms move closer together. When they nearly meet, move them back apart again, maintaining the pressure going through your fingertips. Repeat this quite slowly a number of times.
If your brain is wired like mine, you'll get the sensation of there being some sort of flat surface in a plane between your fingertips. But if you keep doing it, it feels weirder and weirder, because the feeling of there being this surface on either side of which your fingertips are fixed is in contradiction with the fact that such a plane couldn't exist, because the distance between the fingers grows and shrinks - when your palms are far apart, all the fingertips are in a small area, whereas when they're close the circle is almost your whole fingerspan.
Does anyone else get a mild version of the 'wrong/impossible texture' sensation that's been spoken about here from doing this? For me it always feels like my brain can't cope and is about to shut down, and then I have to stop...
Try this to induce a sensation that's fairly weak and not exactly the same, but similar in some ways. Put all your fingertips (including thumbtips) together in a kind of tent-like shape in front of you, so right index meets left index etc. Now, keeping fingertips joined, push together quite hard, so your palms move closer together. When they nearly meet, move them back apart again, maintaining the pressure going through your fingertips. Repeat this quite slowly a number of times.
If your brain is wired like mine, you'll get the sensation of there being some sort of flat surface in a plane between your fingertips. But if you keep doing it, it feels weirder and weirder, because the feeling of there being this surface on either side of which your fingertips are fixed is in contradiction with the fact that such a plane couldn't exist, because the distance between the fingers grows and shrinks - when your palms are far apart, all the fingertips are in a small area, whereas when they're close the circle is almost your whole fingerspan.
Does anyone else get a mild version of the 'wrong/impossible texture' sensation that's been spoken about here from doing this? For me it always feels like my brain can't cope and is about to shut down, and then I have to stop...
James_H
And I like to roam the land
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This is the most bizarre thing. After a bit i get a sensation of my finger movement "creaking" like it has a kind of grainy texture 
, but just as i became worried for my health, i find that i can snap out of this by putting my mind on something else.
and i should be doing my homework.
, but just as i became worried for my health, i find that i can snap out of this by putting my mind on something else.and i should be doing my homework.
tomsk said:
I've done this on many occasions since I was a small kid. The sensation is one of an ultra-smooth flat plane between the hands. To be honest, I find it very relaxing and calming!
This has reminded me of something else that makes me feel uncomfortable: extremely large, curved, smooth surfaces. Especially touching them. Again, it's probably the scale thing, but for some reason the fact they're curved makes it worse.
As for the neck-blood-vessels thing, I don't think it's that which is making me dizzy under high ceilings. I don't actually have to look at a high ceiling for it to affect me - just knowing I'm under it will produce the creepy floating sensation. In fact, even writing this I'm getting a slightly buzzy feeling...
Next time I see my doctor I'm going to mention this - writing it down makes it sound so incredibly weird.
GREAT, so if it's an un named "condition",,,can WE name it, if so what could you call it???
i suppose the usual way is use the latin word which best describes the symptoms..
..So whats the latin
for feeling lost , out of proportion, being eveywhere at once, both large and small, too heavy to move , to light to think, nauseous, scared, paralyzed and elated at the same time ,unfatomable distances and masses preying on the mind, dizziness, the world thumping in and out at you, far things appearing huge, close things, shrinking to infinty, and a feeling of being free, in an enoumous prison....
anyone???
i suppose the usual way is use the latin word which best describes the symptoms..
..So whats the latin
for feeling lost , out of proportion, being eveywhere at once, both large and small, too heavy to move , to light to think, nauseous, scared, paralyzed and elated at the same time ,unfatomable distances and masses preying on the mind, dizziness, the world thumping in and out at you, far things appearing huge, close things, shrinking to infinty, and a feeling of being free, in an enoumous prison....
anyone???
It's probably already got a name but I reacon Forteanis Timesheadfuxim or something
Or maybe something lamenting the loss of my drivers side wing mirror, because some lovely person drove into it and snapped it off doing nowt for my already sky high blood pressure
:hmph:
but I reacon Forteanis Timesheadfuxim or something Or maybe something lamenting the loss of my drivers side wing mirror, because some lovely person drove into it and snapped it off doing nowt for my already sky high blood pressure
:hmph:
Another Universal Un named and Reserched Phenominum,
some F^*KER, is going around with hundreds of thousands of right hand side wing mirrors, 16 billion odd socks, a huge pocketful of change and lighters, and a bag full of action man heads...................
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Dont know if this is the same kind of thing but as a kid of about 10, I would be sitting in class and everyone around me seemed to have normal sized bodies but very small heads and at the same time I felt as though I was floating, the sensation would last a couple of minutes and the everything would snap back to normal.
A
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pete, your post made me remember something from jr high school so I was ??? 12?....I would see the light almost fade away, the room getting darker like the sun went behind really dark clouds, and the teacher and the blackboard would seem to receed into the distance, with her voice getting more and more faint. Then I would get that same sort of <snap> back to normality. I would write it off as dozing off but I don't recall ever feeling sleepy.
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Anonymous
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Blimey! And I used to think it was just me all those years ago...I recognise many of the feelings etc. people have been describing but I have another one to offer.Very quiet simple sounds being very loud and complex.Like when they put an unnecessary sound effect in a film it seems really fake and overstated...
When I used to close my eyes I had the feeling of looking at something quite small but very,very close in the dark.
When I used to close my eyes I had the feeling of looking at something quite small but very,very close in the dark.
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So what does it all mean ? does it account for our interest in all things Fortean or is it common with all children approaching adolescence ?
JamesWhitehead
Piffle Prospector
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The sense of things retreating to a distance sounds very like the
brain being starved of oxygen. It might have been brought on by
hunger, breathing irregularities or anaemia.
I also recall that there were "fainting games" we played as children,
which involved over-breathing then sending the blood to the head
for a brief altered state. I was told that this was very dangerous,
though I haven't heard any stories of kids dying of it.
The shrinking heads syndrome - and much else on this thread - is a
complete mystery to me.
brain being starved of oxygen. It might have been brought on by
hunger, breathing irregularities or anaemia.
I also recall that there were "fainting games" we played as children,
which involved over-breathing then sending the blood to the head
for a brief altered state. I was told that this was very dangerous,
though I haven't heard any stories of kids dying of it.
The shrinking heads syndrome - and much else on this thread - is a
complete mystery to me.
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Anonymous
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I used to play these fainting games. Superb fun, except occasionally when things went too far and I ended up blacking out and twitching on the ground... I heard they were dangerous since too, but I'm not sure - a friend asked his doctor mother and she didn't seem to think there was any real risk. I think they involve depriving your brain of oxygen and then suddenly giving it loads?
To add to this 'weird sensations' discussion, do any of you occasionally get a feeling of indescribable calmness, understanding and joy after having a near-faint episode when standing up too quickly from the bath or some similar thing?
To add to this 'weird sensations' discussion, do any of you occasionally get a feeling of indescribable calmness, understanding and joy after having a near-faint episode when standing up too quickly from the bath or some similar thing?
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Anonymous
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big/small
I remember the big/small thing-
used to get it when I was small and had a fever
there's no name for it I can find-
might be related to endoptics, things you can see inside your own mind and are sometimes thought to have inspired the more abstract forms of cave art
but this has a quality of size and sensation as well-
how about mutadimensional endosynasthesia?
ee I love making up stupid latin/greek hybrid labels
steve b
I remember the big/small thing-
used to get it when I was small and had a fever
there's no name for it I can find-
might be related to endoptics, things you can see inside your own mind and are sometimes thought to have inspired the more abstract forms of cave art
but this has a quality of size and sensation as well-
how about mutadimensional endosynasthesia?
ee I love making up stupid latin/greek hybrid labels
steve b
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Anonymous
Guest
this thing and hypotension
Ahhhh - if part of some of these things are to do with hypotension that might explain it a bit. i do have slightly low blood pressure - every time i get up from squatting down or bending over i always have the almost-fainting experience. Sometimes when i am sat at my desk at work, esp if i have been sat there ages, i get a sensation of floating. That could be that head/neck circulation thing mentioned earlier?
I tried the finger tip thing, and that is a big part of it cos although i didn't feel the plane thing, fingertips are weird and start off this big/small feeling thing too.
I get black spots too occasionally - often when i am going to sleep, i think i have my eyes slightly open/i am dreaming they are open - i sometimes see a large black blob float across the room. My mind has attributed this to being a small helicopter. a moth, a small air balloon before. I think it's just half a dream and half my eyes (i do get those black floaty bits in my eyes anyway).....
I find it very interesting.
Ahhhh - if part of some of these things are to do with hypotension that might explain it a bit. i do have slightly low blood pressure - every time i get up from squatting down or bending over i always have the almost-fainting experience. Sometimes when i am sat at my desk at work, esp if i have been sat there ages, i get a sensation of floating. That could be that head/neck circulation thing mentioned earlier?
I tried the finger tip thing, and that is a big part of it cos although i didn't feel the plane thing, fingertips are weird and start off this big/small feeling thing too.
I get black spots too occasionally - often when i am going to sleep, i think i have my eyes slightly open/i am dreaming they are open - i sometimes see a large black blob float across the room. My mind has attributed this to being a small helicopter. a moth, a small air balloon before. I think it's just half a dream and half my eyes (i do get those black floaty bits in my eyes anyway).....
I find it very interesting.
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Anonymous
Guest
Re: big/small
Did your hands swell just like two balloons?
Eburacum45 said:
Did your hands swell just like two balloons?
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Anonymous
Guest
comfortably numb
yeh, and i turned to look but it was gone, i can't explain, you would not understand - this is not how i am!
yeh, and i turned to look but it was gone, i can't explain, you would not understand - this is not how i am!
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Isn't this bizarre- I got exactly the same thing, especially in a repeating dream about a delicate flower that was so incredibly heavy I couldn't lift it. I still get shivers when I think about it now- some of the other descriptions here have a similar effect on me.
Another way to recreate the effect is to find something you know the weight of and find it is completely different when you pick it up- a bottle of mercury does this very well because you expect liquids to weigh something close to what water does and it is far heavier.
Another way to recreate the effect is to find something you know the weight of and find it is completely different when you pick it up- a bottle of mercury does this very well because you expect liquids to weigh something close to what water does and it is far heavier.
