When I was child, I often had hypnagogic dreams. Supposably it's caused by a very mild form of brain damage as is the case with petit mal epilepsy (had those too). When I first experienced hypnagogic dreams, I found them very frightening. They're ultra-realistic (realer than real if that makes any sense). Normally I dream in black-and-white but these hypnagogic dreams had a color intensity and level of detail that was beyond natural. As an adult, I can look back upon memories that I had as a child and realize they could only have been hypnagogic dreams. At the time I called them "dreaming with my eyes open". Fortunately I learned a test for detecting a hypnagogic dream. I'd hold my head fixed with my hands and then pan right with my eyes. If I could continue to pan for a full circle back to where I started without moving my head then I knew it was a hypnagogic dream. After learning how to detect a hypnagogic dream, I had fun with them. I did all the standard stuff, e.g. soul floating over a sleeping body, walking through walls, Peter Pan flying, superimposing myself in someone else's body, etc. A disadvantage of hypnagogic dreams over a conventional dream is having almost no control over the dream's plot. I could change my point of view but could not change the course of the dream. One side effect of having long experience with hypnagogic dreams is religious agnosticism. When I read about Paul's experience on the road to Damascus or Ezekiel's vision in the Book of Ezekiel or Mohammed's flight to Jerusalem on his magic winged horse "El Burak", I see someone else having a hypnagogic dream but not having sense enough to do the 360 degree visual pan test. Of course if you've never previously had a hypnagogic dream and are religiously inclined then this could be a very significant religious experience. If you have a very realistic dream of Jesus, before giving up all your worldly possessions and joining a monastary, I suggest simply walking into Jesus and looking out through his eyes. If he doesn't object or continues with his sermon unabatted then you're probably having a hypnagogic dream.

Gary