These visual and auditory experiences are often described as creative, sometimes bizarre, sequences of images, thoughts, and verbal constructions. According to Mavromatis (1987), "Most, if not all, of the conditions of creativity are present in hypnagogia." Budzynski (1991) writes,

"The Twilight State (i.e. hypnagogic state) is important because it represents a state of mind which facilitates creative associations and the assimilation of certain types of information, both verbal and imaginal, without the usual critical screening which is operative during the waking, fully conscious state."

Although hypnagogic experiences vary from person to person, visual imagery is the most common. At the "front door" of a hypnagogic experience, flashes of colored light and geometric shapes appear which gradually transform into faces, people, animals, flowers, countrysides, buildings, or any number of elaborate scenes. Faces often appear in lifelike detail and can belong to close friends or family. Visions of landscapes are often described as radiant and heavenly. Less commonly, people hear sounds and may experience bodily sensations such as movement and touch. Green and Green (1971) noted four main features of hypnagogic images: vividness, originality, changefulness, and independence of conscious control.

Any inquisitive reader may experience hypnagogia for herself or himself. Quieting the mind by looking inward and excluding external stimuli slows brain-waves into the alpha-theta region allowing creative insights and solutions to surface into consciousness. By entering a self-induced hypnagogic state, one can learn to think more clearly and creatively as numerous famous artists and scientists have confirmed throughout history. This is an experience not only for the so called gifted few, but is open and naturally accessible to every human being. However, because of the difficulty in maintaining this delicate fleeting state of consciousness without falling asleep or waking, few people are aware of its creative benefits and actually make use of it. A 10th century tantric text put it well,

"In order to acquire continuity of consciousness, unaffected by lapses into unconscious states, you must hold yourself at the junction of all the states, which constitutes the links between sleeping, dreaming, and waking: the halfsleep or Fourth State."

From our experience with mind machines, it appears that they make access to and maintenance of this fourth state of consciousness far easier than by oneself. Similarly, numerous researchers including Dr. Thomas Budzynski (1991) have recognized that mind machines help induce and maintain the hypnagogic state of consciousness. Richardson and McAndrew (1990) stated that,

"Of all the many procedures to bring about an equivalent of the naturally occurring hypnagogic state (Schacter, 1979) and which, in turn, facilitate the emergence into awareness of visual imagination images, the easiest, safest and potentially most precise in its effects, is photic stimulation."

Dr. Thomas Budzynski (1991) reported that

"In 1980, at my clinic in Denver, we studied one of the early commercial L/S units, and, as mentioned in Michael Hutchison's book Megabrain (1986), we found that use of the unit appeared to enhance hypnotic induction, produced drowsy, hypnagogic-like states (at theta frequencies) and, at times, vivid holographic  images."

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