Nondrug high/altered state experience thread

[Heretic.Ape.]

I'm interested to know what kinds of experiences the various hedonists and psychonauts out there have had with nondrug methods for obtaining highs and altered states.
Examples of altered states might include things like lucid dreaming, hypnosis, holotropic breathwork, different forms of meditation, visualization, tantra, etc.
Highs could be any number of things including the above and things like methods of releasing endogenous endorphins/neurotransmitters--runners high, bsmd practice, yoga, dancing, etc--or cognitive tricks and such.
All comments and experiences are welcomed and greatly appreciated.
I have had experience with runners high, various types of meditation, ecstatic contemplation and other things that have had varying and unreliable success.

[JDreaming]

For one day in my life I experienced an intense episode of hypnopompic sleep paralysis. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and took a nap at about 2:00PM. About an hour or two later I opened my eyes, thinking I had awakened, but was horrified to find that I could not move my hands or body and could only turn my head slightly. By a strange coincidence, my mind had woken partway up while my body was still completely unconscious. I felt like I was trapped in a state where I was neither dreaming nor really awake. I wondered if the world I was seeing was real or if everything was just a dream, and I feared terribly the possibility that I might never be able to use my mind to control my body again. I saw light and shadow moving in my peripheral vision and at times it seemed almost like something or someone was "present". I eventually fell back asleep... and woke up paralyzed again two more times, before finally getting my mind and body back in sync! I was emotionally exhausted and intellectually baffled for the entire rest of the day after this happened.

I have read that this condition is experienced at least once in a lifetime for a very large number of people, and that it may explain a lot of "UFO abduction" and "angel sightings" reports. The feelings of unreality and peripheral hallucinations leaves some people feeling that they have been "visited".

I have slipped into altered states of consciousness on rare occasions simply from the intensity of a certain circumstance or a certain image... on maybe two dozen occasions in my life, I've had moments of revelation where everything "shifts" and I have to simply stop, examine my surroundings with newfound wonder, and listen for some sort of an internal message that may or may not materialize. I believe altered states of consciousness can occur naturally, as a simple byproduct of spiritual growth and ever-shifting brain chemistry.

[Hadean]

I too often have sleep paralysis. Once every month or two, I'll fall asleep, then wake up but have my body paralyzed. I usually panic and struggle to wake myself up so I can breathe. I have no idea if I actually stop breathing or not, but it certainly feels like it. On one occasion I managed to open my eyes, and I had very freaky full visual hallucinations. My room had a very red, evil tint to it, and there were orbs of light floating around that seemed to have a demonic presence, and voices in my head telling me to keep my eyes open... it was a bit unpleasant to say the least.

Also on occasion, I will be laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and the blotches of color that are normally seen when you close your eyes start to move and shift extremely rapidly. Odd shapes are formed and change very quickly, and I can't focus my imagination at all. If I try to think of something, it gets shifted to something else too. My field of vision seems to alternate between impossibly small and impossibly large very quickly, and it is accompanied by a feeling of moving through space, and sometimes of floating. If I open my eyes, it lessens, but sometimes the size of my visual field seems to change too. The first time I remember it happening I was very young. I haven't yet figured out what it is, and am wondering if it is so common it is never talked about, or so rare that it isn't known of.

[dirkduck]

The other day I took a midday nap at about 3:30 and after a while kept snoozing my alarm every 5 or 10 minutes (it's so easy to convince yourself against waking up when your barely awake!) for the next 45 minutes or so. During that time, I think I may have had some hypnopompic "hallucinations" as I remember thinking I was getting up out of bed then all of the sudden I was back lying down with my eyes just opening.

Those day naps, especially when about 15 or 20 minutes, can make you really groggy, but you can also have some really interesting dream/hypnogogic fun!

[dirkduck]

Oh, and forgot to mention the "runners high," but I'm personally a biker, so "bikers high." After about the first 20 or 30 minutes of riding you get feeling really nice. I've noticed that when doing really intense climbs every once in a while you can get a "endorphin double shot" state for a couple of minutes where it feels like you a sudden rush of endorphins...you can ride up anything for those couple minutes ! First time gave me some insight into why some people are road bikers, as I do primarily XC mountain biking, and used to find road riding kind of boring....