Hedge Jumping in the Liminal Space Between Dreaming and Waking

The threshold between dreaming and waking isn’t often spoken of in regards to psychic phenomena. There’s lucid dreams and deep meditation and trance states, but not much is said about the liminal space between dreaming and waking.

Often any experience that happens while in this state is written off as entirely imaginary and discarded. Many times this is the most comforting option, especially for those who have experienced sleep paralysis and have been unable to move or speak while witnessing a terrifying vision.

The medical term for this phenomenon is “hypnagogic” (when falling asleep) or “hypnopompic” (when waking) hallucinations. There can be underlying health conditions when these experiences occur, so it is always a good idea to rule that out if this is something you experience.

In the teachings I give through the moon rituals I provide, the month of October is all about psychic ability development and spirit contact. These visions often fall into both categories. To be on the threshold of dreaming and waking and receive a vision (or sound or smell, it may affect other senses than sight) is to cross the veil, or hedge jump, as it is often referred.

My Experiences Hedge Jumping

I’ve been experiencing this phenomena since I was 15 years old (and I have no underlying health conditions that explain why it occurs for me) without any paralysis accompanying the visions or sounds. My psychic abilities were growing enormously at the time these experiences began, though I didn’t realize that was what was happening. Likely it began occurring because my sleep was so disturbed from a growing sense of the presences around me, and because of my own natural penchant for hedge jumping.

I always wrote these experiences off as stress. I didn’t have the capacity to accept them for what they were for many years. I’d run screaming from the room from visions of colossal spiders coming down from the ceiling (leaving my then-husband to die, I guess?) and from squirrels in my bed. I’d jump when seeing the face of small children staring back at me, or grown men in the corner of the room. The visions would always dissipate as I became fully conscious.

Liminal Figures

Then, a few years into my twenties when I was living alone I awoke to two men standing in the doorway to my bedroom. I always slept with my bedroom door closed. However, I could clearly see the hallway and living room behind the two men. One was standing in front of the other, blocking the threshold, staring up toward the ceiling. The other was staring at me from behind, with red eyes.

I sat up, I rubbed my eyes, I stared harder. I was waiting for the men to dissolve into the hats on my door. But the vision remained. I was fully conscious and it didn’t go away. So I started reaching for the knife I kept on my nightstand. Then I switched on the light, and the vision disappeared. My door still closed, day was dawning. This was when I stopped writing the visions off and started paying attention.

Navigating the Liminal Space

The difficulty about this particular liminal space is that many people enter it accidentally and have no idea what’s happening to them, thinking they’re going crazy when really it’s a psychic ability or even an attempt from a spirit to have contact with them. It is quite scary when you don’t understand what is going on. Entering this threshold points to psychic ability and sensitivities in the person experiencing it, even if the visions don’t make any sense (which is common).

The other difficulty is that this threshold isn’t any easy one to come by. We naturally cross it every time we go to sleep, but cultivating a presence for this threshold when we’re at it is not a simple or easy process. Often it is erratic and unpredictable, and the visions happen sporadically.

Then there is the barrier of the natural fear response when we enter this threshold. If you’ve experienced sleep paralysis you know the terror. The terror makes it difficult maintain presence or gain anything more from the experience.

Cultivating Hedge Jumping Skills

Focusing on cultivating your skills with dream work can make it easier to reach presence in this state. Working with certain botanical spirits like mugwort can be of great assistance. Record your visions. Overcoming the fear response takes some deprogramming as well. Our society tends prejudge all spirits of all kinds as predatory. Fear has been a cultivated response to any spirit or presence in the conscious state (no matter what that spirit or presence is truly like), so in this particular liminal state that fear is amplified.

Keeping a protection amulet for hedge jumping under your pillow when actively working to reach this state will help with the fear, while also providing protection. You can ask for assistance from liminal deities. Sometimes I even ask Hekate to make everyone leave me alone if I’m tired and I keep having visions. If you don’t want to explore this threshold but you keep experiencing it, ask a liminal deity to make it stop. You have a choice (usually).

So what about the terrible visions that accompany sleep paralysis? Though I have never experienced sleep paralysis, in counseling others this kind of vision can be your spirit attempting to lucid dream, but it is also often a warning and a billboard upside the head to pay attention. You literally can’t move and are forced to face something that scares you. There’s a message in that, and whatever it is pointing to is likely quite personal to you.

About the Author

Jessica Jascha is a  psychic, herbalist, and writer in Minnesota. She gives readings & counsel, hosts the Moon Ritual Membership, and teaches. You can find her at jaschabotanicals.com or on Facebook.

Image source pixabay.