The wonders of the state between wake and sleep

I have long savoured the in-between state… the state between sleep and waking where the body has fallen asleep but the light of the mind is still awake. This is the eternal abode of the mystic and is well known across the world’s traditions. I also find it to be deeply restoring for the energies of the mind, body, spirit. This state is sometimes pointed to with evocative words like ‘turiya’ in the Yogic Tradition in India, which means the mysterious ‘fourth state’, beyond waking, sleeping and dreaming…  
​
In connection to this evolving and wondrous and yet very natural state, two curious things happened this week. Firstly, in one experience I was falling deep into a trance state in meditation and going deeper I began to feel my energy sinking into the mystic and then I heard  the most beautiful chanting. It was the voice of a women singing beautiful Sanskrit like chants… it was so clear as if I was wearing headphones and listening in on a divine concert. The sounds almost seemed to lift me into an out of body experience or perhaps I needed to life into this state to hear the sounds. The sounds felt deeply nourishing and were connected in some way to my heart centre and throat centre. As I had been doing some deep chakra energy body work prior to this experience. Of course, some may seek to categorize and sanitize such experiences by simply labelling them as hypnogogic hallucinations but I feel something deeper it often going on…

For instance consider how the ancients of the Western Esoteric Traditions considered these experiences:
For In my second experience, I was practising library divination simply allowing myself to be led to a particular book and intuitively open a page and see what is there for us. I opened 2nd/3rd CE Century text ‘On the Mysteries’ to these intriguing words from Iamblichus speaking through his pseudonym the wise Abamon:

“..when sleep departs, just as we are awakening, it is possible to hear a sudden voice guiding us about things to be done, or the voices are heard between waking and going to sleep, or even when wholly awake. And sometimes an intangible and incorporeal spirit encircles those lying down.. when circling it makes a whooshing sound, and diffuses itself in all directions… and does wonderous works by way of freeing body and soul from their sufferings ” And

“possession of the eyes, a seizure similar to a blackout, a state between sleep and wakefulness, and presently a stirring or complete wakefulness, and presently a stirring or complete wakefulness, all of these are divine and fit for reception of the gods, and they are sent by the gods themselves, and such things precede it, a part of the divine epiphany.”    

This is the first time in a long time I have seen such a clear reference to this wondrous, nourishing state in the ancient Western tradition. Perhaps others have also talked about it. If you know of any please let me know! 

---