Reverse Blinking Technique

A friend alerted me to this Reverse Blinking technique. I was sceptical at first, but I was so amazed by the results I felt compelled to share.

What Reverse Blinking may do for you:

Nothing (it doesn't work for everyone.)
Put you to sleep quickly.
Make you so tired you feel you have to sleep.
Put you into a trance so that you can use autosuggestion.
Initiate hypnagogic hallucinations (that is, the kind of hallucinations we experience pre-sleep).

How you do it:

1) Lie down comfortably, as if you're going to sleep.
2) Relax. Close your eyes.
3) Count to five in your head.
4) On the count of five reverse blink: that is, open your eyes quickly (but in a relaxed manner) and close them again. (NB: I estimate that the reverse blinks are about twice the duration of a normal blink - with the eye-opening the duration of one normal blink, and the eye-closing the duration of one normal blink.)
5) Repeat stages three and four.


Experimenting with hypnagogic hallucinations

I wanted to see if I could combine Reverse Blinking with autosuggestion to control the images I would see in hypnagogic hallucinations. I achieved this simply: In my count to four (before the reverse-blink) I would insert the suggestion: "I will see an image of London". Then, after a while - once my eyelids were feeling very tired - I stopped reverse-blinking but continued with the counting to five and the London suggestion. On the count of five I was finding that random images of London places were popping into my head, without any attempt to visualise on my part.

Experiments

There are some experiments I want to try with this technique.

1) I want to see if I can make the hallucinations creative: I'd make a suggestion like, "I'll see a good idea about a place in London" etc.

2) I want to use the suggestion, "I'll see a memory from my childhood my conscious mind has forgotten".

3) On some occasions I've actually stopped blinking and dreamed that I was continuing to blink. I would be interesting in finding out what happens if I create a trigger to ensure I keep blinking and don't fall asleep. Maybe this would be a metronome in 5/4 time. The sound of the metronome click would remind me not to fall asleep. What will I experience when I continue Reverse Blinking beyond the stage where I'd normally fall asleep?

Trying it

Would love to know how others get on with this. I expect that some people will find that it doesn't work at all, while others will, like me, be amazed. When I used the technique two days ago I was reverse-blinking and thinking to myself, "It isn't going to work this time" but within two reverse-blinks I was hallucinating.

A word of warning though: hypnagogic hallucinations can be frightening.