There is a beautiful moment that sometimes arrives during a deeply relaxing massage. You are no longer completely awake, yet you haven't quite fallen asleep. Thoughts become less structured, your awareness of time begins to fade, and you may find yourself drifting through fragments of imagery, memories, sensations and almost-dreams.

You are somewhere in between.

This fascinating threshold between wakefulness and sleep is known as the hypnagogic state, and it is one of my favourite states to experience—and to observe someone gently drifting towards during massage.

What Is the Hypnagogic State?

Hypnagogia describes the transitional period as we move from being awake towards sleep. Our attention gradually turns away from the outside world, thoughts become more fluid, and dreamlike experiences can begin to emerge.

You may notice colours, shapes, fleeting images, unusual associations or fragments of thoughts. Sometimes there is a sensation of floating or falling. At other times, there is simply a wonderful feeling of being deeply relaxed while remaining faintly aware of your surroundings.

You haven't quite disappeared into sleep.

But you're no longer thinking in the ordinary way either.

For someone who spends much of the day planning, analysing, remembering and responding, there can be something wonderfully freeing about entering a state where there is temporarily nothing to work out.

The Creative Space Between Two Worlds

The hypnagogic state has fascinated artists, inventors and thinkers for centuries.

Salvador Dalí famously experimented with the boundary between waking and sleeping as part of his creative process. He would reportedly sit holding an object, allowing himself to drift towards sleep. As his muscles relaxed, the object would fall and wake him, allowing him to capture ideas and imagery encountered at the edge of dreaming.

Thomas Edison used a similar technique, reportedly resting while holding metal balls that would fall as he drifted asleep.

Nikola Tesla also wrote about extraordinary visual imagery and flashes of inspiration associated with altered states of consciousness, although accounts of his experiences are somewhat different from the deliberate sleep-onset techniques associated with Dalí and Edison.

What fascinated these extraordinary minds was essentially the same territory: the borderland where conscious control begins to soften and unexpected connections can emerge.

Modern sleep research has given us a better understanding of this transition, but there is still something rather mysterious about experiencing it for ourselves.

When Massage Takes You There

You don't have to be trying to invent something or paint a masterpiece to appreciate this state.

Sometimes it simply feels wonderful.

During a slow, flowing massage, the repetitive rhythm of touch can give the mind permission to stop following every thought. Breathing may become slower. Muscles soften. The need to anticipate what happens next gradually disappears.

You might notice that you have lost track of how long you have been on the massage table.

Was it ten minutes?

Half an hour?

Perhaps you briefly fell asleep—or perhaps you didn't.

That ambiguity is part of the experience.

For me, some of the most memorable massages I have received have taken me into precisely this territory. I wasn't asleep, because I could still feel the movement of the massage. Yet I wasn't completely awake either.

Time and space seemed to dissolve.

There was simply sensation, breath and an unusual sense of stillness.

From Thinking to Feeling

We spend an extraordinary amount of our lives in our heads.

Emails. Decisions. Phones. Conversations. Deadlines. Plans. The past. The future.

Massage offers an opportunity to temporarily reverse that direction of attention.

Instead of asking, What do I need to do next?, awareness begins to settle into something much simpler:

How does this feel?

Warmth.

Pressure.

Movement.

Breath.

Touch.

Stillness.

The transition can be subtle. At first, thoughts continue arriving. Then perhaps they become less important. Eventually they may begin floating past without requiring an answer.

This is one of the reasons I particularly appreciate slow-paced and conscious touch. There doesn't always need to be a rush towards the next technique. Sometimes allowing the nervous system time to settle can be an important part of the experience.

Tantra, Awareness and the Space Between

My approach to tantric massage is strongly connected with this idea of moving from constant thinking towards embodied awareness.

Tantra can invite us to pay closer attention to sensation, breath, presence and the subtle experiences occurring within the body.

Paradoxically, paying attention can eventually lead to a state in which we stop trying to pay attention.

The distinction between observer and experience becomes quieter.

The massage flows.

Breathing flows.

Thoughts come and go.

And sometimes you find yourself hovering beautifully between consciousness and dreams.

There is no requirement to reach this state, of course. Every massage and every person is different. Trying too hard to achieve a particular state would almost defeat the purpose.

The invitation is simply to let go and see where the experience takes you.

The Luxury of Doing Nothing

Perhaps this is one reason massage can feel so precious in modern life.

For an hour or two, you don't have to produce anything.

You don't have to make decisions.

You don't have to entertain anyone.

You don't even have to have an interesting thought.

You can simply receive, breathe and feel.

And occasionally, somewhere between the rhythm of touch and the quieting of the mind, that curious doorway appears.

Not quite awake.

Not quite asleep.

A little removed from ordinary time.

Perhaps this is why artists and inventors have been fascinated by the threshold for so long. There is something wonderfully human about discovering what happens when we loosen our grip on conscious thought.

For me, creating the conditions in which someone can feel safe, nurtured, comfortable and able to deeply relax is one of the most beautiful aspects of massage.

Where your mind travels from there is entirely your own journey.

Through rhythmic, loving touch, I invite you out of the thinking mind and into the body—and to discover where that journey might take you.

With health and happiness,

Joy xx