I have also experienced seeing profile faces over the last couple of years myself but it has always only been random viewings during meditation,some times as many as twenty in a line one after another. I dont understand the significance of them really. I dont honestly know what they really are,meaning,Spirit-Guides,past friends or Whatevers.I can tell you though you can try to call them forward one at a time,if that makes sense to you.

Did you find a Box yet ? I found mine :)

Welcome, D.H., to the Inward Quest Forum. I have never heard of anyone having a "moving picture show of people" before they fell asleep, and this intrigued me. I saw your question, and it sort of "stuck" with me...You mentioned that you changed your thinking, and the "picture show" disappeared...So, as far as I can understand it, you want to know two things:

Why did you see the pictures of people in the first place? and

Why did the pictures stop?

I do not know why you saw these pictures. You do not mention how long this went on in your life- I assume it was since you were a little child...Perhaps your brain found it a bit confusing to learn new faces and people when you were young, and you got into the habit of just "flashing" random pictures in your mind's eye to comfort yourself that you had some sort of control over the flow of people in your life. I can only guess at this.

The second part- why did the pictures go away? You said you changed your thinking, and they went away. Perhaps somehow, you discovered the "key" to your picture show, and no longer need it to lull you to sleep. Perhaps it was just an idiosyncrasy of your brain, and you stumbled on the way to rid yourself of this habit.

As I said, I can only guess!

I am sure others will post their thoughts about this question- hopefully, one or more of us will help you find an answer.

Thank you for posting! Please post other questions that come to you, and feel free to answer those questions that you think you can answer.

Don't forget that you can vote after you have amassed a few points!

Blessings, Jai

I've been seeing vivid still frames of people since I was 5 yrs. old. They are completely unknown to me. I have an acute photographic memory, so if I'd seen these people before, I'd know it instantly. They are also of different sexes, ethnicities, ages and even time periods (if you pay close attention to their clothing). Some are happy, some are sad, most fall somewhere in between. I can usually only see the face, but sometimes their entire body (sitting or standing). They never say anything or move at all, it's just a snapshot. I ONLY see them when I am falling asleep, but I am not yet asleep or dreaming. When I do finally drift off these images are not incorporated into my dreams. The only times I am unable to see them is when I become absorbed in work, life etc. and then they seem to disappear for a time (perhaps it's because I'm so exhausted, I fall asleep as my head hits the pillow). I am not religious, I am dubious of psychics, but find this experience very curious. At the suggestion of a friend, I've begun taking art classes to learn how to draw the faces I see. Wouldn't it be great if we could make a forum/website where we could all post the faces we see and check for any similarities?

I too see faces as I am falling to sleep. I also "hear" random words that come to me only as impressions and its my consiousness that formulates them into words ( also in my voice, i say this so you can rule out any schizophrenia). I am in fact what poeple term a "highly sensitive person", which only means that I an tuned in a litte better to the "intuition" that we all have within us. I also work dilligently on cultivating this gift by meditation, research and experimenting with the mind and body relationship. All of this said, I do have a theory as to what these faces may mean to me.

While I do spend time cultivating these gifts, I too am victim to the "noise" of life that inhibits this gift in most poeple, most of the time. I have a job, a family, responsibilities etc. just like everyone else. I beleive that as we are falling asleep, as the noise diminishes, we allow our receptors, our listening to become more acute. So the images or verbal impressions that you recieve is in fact your consciousness entering the "spiritual super hi-way" (as I tend to picture it as being) and your encounters with other's consiousness. some random, and perhaps only percieved by you but also sometimes a two way connection. like the person you are percieving is also percieving you at the same time. This may seem out there but next time this happens to you, try to focus your energy towards that person ans see it you can "feel" them

Just a theory, but its what i feel and believe. tell me what you think

I have been searching on line for people with similiar experiences, so first of all I am glad I am not the only one! It only started last summer and was very frightening as the images were shown to me so quickly that I couldn't actually remember what they looked like? Once I got used to it, the images seemed to slow down. But in the back of most images was a man in a trench coat and hat. Always dark and I could never see his face??? Sometimes I would focus on him and not the actual images. Does anyone else get this?

I am so glad I finally searched this topic. I have been experiencing seeing faces for as long as I can remember. It used to scare me, but now I'm just curious as to why. My faces are almost always obscured from total view. They also morph into another face, rather than one right after another. Sounds freaky, but it's pretty cool..thought maybe my mind was just still rambling from the day. I have tried to mentally reach out to see if there's something they want - but I get a little freaked out about that. Nice to know I'm not alone. I've never told anyone about this. I also experience street lights going out on occasion when I'm very deep in thought. I'm pretty normal otherwise, don't think I'm a nut case.

This happens to me too. It has happened for the last two years. I can't make it happen, but I think that it happens in that space/time just before I fall asleep. When I was a teen, I used to have OBE's, but those don't happen to me anymore. But the seeing faces is strange and somewhat fascinating because the faces aren't of anyone that I know, but somehow I know that they exist or have existed. Sometimes too I get certain...feelings or impressions with some of the faces. Once in awhile I will get a sudden frightened feeling with a face, but I can never really remember the faces with clarity when I am fully awake and thinking about it.

I'm a 49 year old male. About a year ago I started seeing faces when drifting off asleep. I know I'm not dreaming because I'm not asleep yet. After i see one or two of them, I'll open my eyes and think how freaky that was. I've never seen the clothing of the people because It's always only the face. I've even seen my mother who passed away several years ago. She is the only person that I've known. There is no movement, the faces are like a very clear photo that disappers after a couple of seconds. Last night I saw a face of a small infant. I only see one or two faces in a row. It doesn't happen every night, but maybe one night every week or so. I've told no one about this because I'm scared they wouldn't believe me or think I'm crazy.

I get this too, like photo snapshots. Could be a girl on a esculator or someone sitting on a boat. random people. never seen them in my life. never been to the places i see them in. Seems like hundreds of them every night. Every now and then one will shock me and stop the slideshow. I pray for them, to God from the bible, because there is nothing else i can do. They may not even be real but cant harm them if they arent. The emotions on their faces seem real.

I have experienced this for as long as I can remember. I actually never thought about it until I mentioned it to a friend, and they had no idea what I was trying to explain. I am glad I found this thread even though it is an older one. Now I know I am not the only one.

I also see these faces as a picture or snapshot as the original poster mentioned. Almost always just the face, and I very rarely see the whole body. The faces don't seem happy or sad or angry. They seem neutral. They almost seem blank. I have no idea who these people are or why I see them. They have never scared me or anything.I have always seen them this so I guess you could say they are just a part of me.It is like the faces come toward me out of the dark, and then disappear when they almost get to me. Sometimes there will be other random things like a chair or a tree or a table or something else totally random that's mixed in with the faces. I always see these when I am trying to go to sleep, but haven't fallen asleep yet. Sometimes I see more faces or things than I do at other times. Sometimes what I see is very detailed and vivid, and other times things are kind of fuzzy or distorted. Sometimes I the images seem to be rushing past me one after the other. It is kind of cool there are others who do this as well. I do wonder if I am actually seeing things that are real somewhere sometime or if it is just my tired mind trying to shut down for the night.

You asked "why has this now stopped?" Did you happen to have a surgery about the time you stopped seeing the "faces"?

I've seen these "faces" for many many years. A couple months ago, I had eye surgery. Propofol was one of the anesthesia's used. I have NOT seen the faces since and I really miss them.

I to have this weird happening, and just decided to google it and arrived here. With me they can be male or female, and completely unknown. Always shoulder maybe waist up. never more than one at a time and not every night. My last one was in the last week, and was of a male age about 30, fair haired and with a couple days beard growth. The images just materialise right there in front of my eyes. Its never a horrible experience, just confusing as I want to know who they are. I also have regular sleep paralysis, which I will see if its being posted about. Cannot believe that other people get this! thankyou.

I see people just before I fall asleep too. They are not snapshots though. When they see me they always smile as if they are glad to see me and I can feel their love for me. I feel as if these souls are from another dimension and that I will understand more in time.

I also experience these if I am very sleepy or not very sleepy. When I am relaxed and in the midway point between the w sleep states I don't get to experience these.

But, recently I've been almost dreaming of scenes immediately upon hitting head on the pillow.

Check your state of alertness before going to sleep - that may give you and indication of if you will see dreams before going deep into dream state.

Cheers!

It never occurred to me to actually google this before, I just always accepted it as a part of my life since I was 13-years-old (I am 37 now) I am so grateful that I am not the only one who can share this "gift" or "curse." I still haven't decided what it all means, I've contemplated going to a psychic, but my skepticism won't allow it. It's the same thing every night... I'm laying in bed tired and ready to sleep. What happens with me is the "falling" sensation when the faces get too close to me. Y'know what I mean, you jerk yourself awake from the "startled" effect. Then I have a hard time relaxing and going back to sleep. It was always random faces of people I never knew, always adults, up until a year ago. Now the faces that come at me are still strangers, mostly adults, but now it's sometimes children. What's even more striking about all this is that it always turns out to be a child that turns up missing days, weeks or sometimes months later. It's like a deja-vu when I see these children's faces on the news or on a poster. There's never anything else, just faces. It's awful.

well i remember as a child i would see people face on the wall and playing with my though would change the picture that i would see on the wall but by doing that the face usely would become more grotesque and evil. so i just decided to not see those face on the wall no more if they would become grotesque and evil and it slowly went away.

As I wrote last year, the images aren't grosteque and they don't morph into anything else. It is more like a slide-show. Still, it's an interesting phenonmenon and it's also fascinating that so many of us have experienced it. I'd always believed it was unique to me! I still have this happen!

This is called Hypnagogia

Hello, I was just sitting in front of my laptop and slipped into that near-sleep state - and had another face appear! I immediately googled and found this thread. I began seeing faces after a meditative experience in a sweat lodge maybe thee or four years ago (I'm forty-nine), and continued to see almost a parade of them for days, and regularly then - they are mostly neutral, some markedly happy and some markedly angry. Most are surrounded by orange light and are head and shoulders only, very clear and last for a few seconds or more. I asked a spiritual friend who suggested they were guardians watching over me, but I was inclined to think they are people I have been or that I knew from past lives. However since I don't recognize any of them, I think I like the answer put forth here a few times that I am connecting directly with someone on the planet and they are seeing me as well in that moment. If I try to hold the image in my mind, I find it morphs to another or changes from happy to sad or vice versa.

I'm very glad to found found this thread, and wish we had more ways to understand this!

Thanks,

Chris

I tried posting earlier but don't think it went through.... I too have had this for years. I always assumed it was part of the process of falling asleep and have observed hundreds of people on a regular basis in slideshow form. Like others have said in all ethnicities and time periods. The people just look expressionless and Never have I had the unpleasant faces. Until last year I had never recognised any of the people that I saw. One one occasion I had seen my friends late aunt that had died the year before. She had suffered a debilatating death and was bed ridden. In the image I saw of her she was stood with another lady both dressed in pale blue and looking fresh. It was only after I saw her in my slideshow I said to people "you know when you fall asleep and see the people?" to which people looked on at me blank!! I'm glad I'm not alone in this but since last year I have found myself really intrigued to research this

Hello, WOW how cool to find all of you! I googled "flashing faces" after hearing the Rescue Mediums refer to it as their own experience. This did used to happen regularly to me. I noticed not too long ago, it hadn't happened in a while. But yes it was before sleeping and many different faces, sometimes morphing into another as one person said. I never questioned it TOO much, kind of knew it was happening but almost acted to myself like it wasn't because it was too strange and never met another who talked about it. I also remember I would see places I had never been to, like specifically one time flying over a valley or a city I knew that I didn't know. Thank you so much for your posts. I'd like to see these people again. I will try to get to bed earlier and IF THEY ARE LIGHT BEINGS, welcome them. I believe they are spirit with some connection to me. I have also by the way heard words or just as falling asleep, noises. This was often as I used to go off downstairs (while I was sequestering myself when my ex was still here) and would fall asleep in front of the tv and just as I dropped off, would hear squeaks or creaks or similar. One time, quite a long time ago, I heard a voice, neither male nor female say "You are getting closer" and said my name. I popped my eyes open and said in my mind, "closer to what?" I still find this encouraging though. Thank you for listening.

I have found my people at last! lol. I'd like to add my experience as well. Like most of the posters here, for years I have been able to see images as I'm falling asleep. They were always dark and hard to see, but every once-in-a-while I could make them out. I am 52 and had a triple bypass about a year and a half ago. Before going into surgery I "requested" (prayed) that I have a spiritual experience - that God would meet & talk to me while I was out.

After surgery I was on a low Morphine drip for pain, which I think helped slow my brain down and allow me to focus. The second "key factor" that I believe helped me see the images clearly was the nurse left the light on in my room. I conjecture that the combination of the "back lighting" and the Morphine did the trick.

Over the next week, as I lay recovering in my hospital room, I had the following experiences:

I would close my eyes and see a "pattern" of some kind. Like the wood grain on the top of a kitchen table, or a part of a brick wall. Always some kind of pattern first. Then I would open my eyes to make sure I was awake, and not asleep or hallucinating. Then I would close my eyes again and the "PowerPoint presentation" would begin.

I would see High Definition images in succession, each usually lasting a few seconds. I recognized that this was the same thing I had experienced all my life. Only now I was able to see the images clearly. At first they were static photos. The one I remember most was a black and white photo that looked like it was taken in the 1800s. I saw a throng of men dressed in the black suits and Bowler hats of that time period. They were gathered in a dirt street and looking up the road. One man had climbed on top of something like a light post and was straining to see what was coming in the distance. I remember thinking that someone important had died and the men were all waiting for the funeral procession.

Like some of the posters here, I was able to see images that looked to be from the past, present and future. I saw some close-up faces, but I was also able to see groups and landscapes. And like one poster here, I was able to see from up above and looking down (a birds-eye view).

And here is where my experience got really interesting: I began to experiment and wondered if I could control what images I saw. So I opened my eyes and requested out loud "I would like to see a forest". And when I closed my eyes I saw the most amazing green and vibrant forest. It was a birds-eye view, looking down on a low mountain range, with a river running through it - with a slight morning fog. Absolutely beautiful!

Later, I remember thinking "I wonder if I could see some video" or moving images. And it accommodated me. At first it was just slight movement. Like a static image of someone and then they would turn their head slightly. It wasn't full video mind you, just some slight movement. And later still, I wondered if it would be possible to see the same image from a different view point and once again "it" accommodated me. I was able to see like I was looking though the front window of a car (from the passenger side) and looking back toward the driver side back seat. Then the viewpoint change to like I was sitting the back seat passenger side, looking toward the driver. Cool.

Some of you may have noticed I wrote '"it" accommodated me'. I say it that way because I got the distinct impression that I was working with someone or something to make things happen. It was, or at least could be a collaboration. There were other aspects of the experience that I have not included here, but this was it for the most part.

I have created a Yahoo Group for anyone who would like to join: please search 3rdEyeImages on yahoo groups.

I am a professional writer and will be collecting stories to include in a book. Please join the group and submit your stories. I want to read them! Maybe together we can figure out what this is.

Sincerest regards, Troy McConnell