Had a meditative experience while awake...anyone had similar?

[janeseymour78]

A strange thing happened earlier. I was sitting down doing my check list of things to take to take to the office: keys, purse, etc. So totally mundane. Out of nowhere I had this overwhelming urge to lie down & close my eyes, and started thinking about my grandparents.

I was transported back about a decade to my grandparents house. For context, I come from a very small family with no siblings & for a time spent every day with them after school. My grandad who I was very close to died from cancer 8 years ago & my gran has dementia and no longer knows me.

Anyway - it was like a lucid dream. I could see the house with its old wallpaper & even old pictures I'd forgotten about. My grandad was there cooking & talking to me and I could practically smell him/how fresh he always smelled from a type of detergent. I was not dreaming.

I then started sobbing & had to pull myself together! I haven't been overly stressed lately. The only thing that has changed is I've been swimming for an hour most days. Should I be worried??

Worried no. Comforted yes x

I still feel upset although it was quite cathartic. It just seemed to come out of nowhere.

In the past, I've had maybe 3 dreams about my grandparents since my grandad died but nothing during waking life.

Just remembered my mum once experienced similar during a massage (during a stressful time). Not sleeping either.

Her long deceased Gran came to her and spoke to her about her son (my grandad) who was very ill at the time. I always saw it as her brain playing tricks - it makes me think I might be more stressed than I actually realise.

It sounds like a wonderful if disconcerting memory, as you say, a lucid dream. You say you closed your eyes so you might have been between waking and sleeping and woke up crying. That state between wake/sleep is the one most likely to produce this type of experience, I think, I've had sleep hallucinations that felt real and it's mostly on waking or falling asleep. I once smelled a smell that was exactly my grandma who had been dead years- never smelled it again! It was just like one lovely reminder! I wouldn't worry that it's a sign of stress unless it starts happening regularly or you are disturbed by it. Lots of medications also cause disturbed sleep/waking which can cause more vivid, lucid dreams or hallucinatory experiences, like anti-depressants or beta-blockers.

I read about a similar experience once. That person was having a stroke.

I had this and it was a simple partial seizure x

i still have them here and there as part of my temporal lobe epilepsy. Don’t lose any consciousness and they feel lovely in most cases, not at all unpleasant… unless they escalate as they have done twice to a full seizure. I’d book the docs, sorry x

Ffs keep it light eh

Thanks @FarFarFarAndAway - I've been taking hay fever meds last few days. I know they can cause hallucinations when a lot is taken but I haven't taken that much.

I definitely wasn't asleep. It felt like a waking meditation but maybe I'm more tired than I realized. It was very strange.

also to say that I spent many years thinking I was psychic too. None of it was that, it was seizures where you stay conscious. They originate in the memory area of my brain. Did you have any stomach sensations?

i am more likely to get mine after exercise, on a diet, tired, stressed or ovulating.

Bloody hell @CoteDAzur and @SisterAgatha - I feel fine now so
I hope not! That said, if it happens again anytime soon I will see the gp

@SisterAgatha I'm tired and exercised recently. The other weird thing that has happened to me this month is my period has not come (7 days late). I'm not pregnant.

I'll keep an eye on it.

I’d watch out for more and just make sure you have something starchy to eat.

I used to cry, feel overwhelmed and emotional after; and there was ringing my ears. There’s always a stomach sensation though, like a kind of pleasure like when going over a hill or in a roller coaster. I can chat to people through them. That’s why I asked about the stomach x

@SisterAgatha I didn't experience a stomach sensation, no.

The sudden need to lie down and close my eyes (despite feeling alert a moment before) and the 'memory' was all that happened aside from the crying. It has never happened and honestly I hope it doesn't happen again nice as it is to see my grandparents as they were...