\n\n\nSan Francisco–based dream researcher and artist Fariba Bogzaran told me that people who meditate have an easier time of it because they have practiced being both subject and observer at once. She says the important thing is not crashing; instead, go to sleep consciously, and really try to notice the process of falling asleep. The result: a poor man’s psychedelic trip. ^ref-42316
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\n\n\nParasomnias are incredibly important in understanding consciousness because they show that, in the words of one group of researchers, “wake and sleep are not mutually exclusive states, and that sleep is not necessarily a global brain phenomenon.” In a sense, consciousness can be remixed—there is an alchemic quality to the way different physiological mechanisms interact to produce oddball subjective variations. ^ref-32516
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