[mej10]

I have become conscious during dreams that I would describe as "being in a river of disjointed thoughts and emotions" -- the experience is exactly like I was witness to the many thoughts being considered/happening in my brain rapidly and simultaneously.

It is much more intense than normal dreams and I usually wake up within a few moments, and there is never a narrative like normal dreams -- just an awareness of many concurrent thoughts in quick succession.

[scribu]

Are you refering to hypnogogia? That usually happens right before falling asleep.

[mej10]

Nope, though I am familiar with that, too. At least in my experiences with hypnogogia I have some "control" or at least a feeling of control over what is happening to some extent. Or maybe it is better to describe it as being a more sequential experience than the other one I am describing.

Maybe if one is to stay conscious during hypnogogia for longer than I ever have they would experience a similar thing? There just always seems to be some bias in hypnagogia steered by and experienced by my consciousness in first person. In the other experience it is really more like I am an outside observer.

[CrawfordJF]

Do you mean that you have had a lucid dream¹?

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

[mej10]

I have also had many lucid dreams -- I used to practice lucid dreaming.

This is like a lucid dream but there is no narrative or control over what is happening -- only awareness. It is really most like being in the center of a river of thoughts, briefly experiencing them as they rush by.