I. A. Mahoney's Alien Dream/Nightmare AnalysesA curious hypnagogic reading of Alien. It is full of symbolism, foreshadowing, and strange terminology.
After doing some research to determine if Mahoney is legit analyzing the movie, I was pleasantly surprised at what I found: the terms do add up to an authentic reading of the film. I had my buddy Alan Ink have a look at the terms. He created an alphabetized concordance of the unique terms used in the article.
Each term is bold and defined within the context of those blog posts, focusing on hypnagogic imagery (vivid, dream-like experiences).
For many terms, they're coinages or poetic creations rather than real hypnagogic terminology. There are some surprisingly apt word-choices revealed here.
QuoteConcordance of Terms from Mahoney's "Alien" Dream/Nightmare Analyses
Ambient space – the broad, unsettled "in-between" mind‑space below REM where ambiguous dream‑like imagery and emotional fear can form. (Relevant to hypnagogia—yes.)
Blue Sun – a recurring "evil one" symbol, a pervading blue light or force that Mahoney equates with a hypnagogic overseer or death omen within the dream scene. (Symbolic, subjective.)
Gotterdammerung – Mahoney's reference to a catastrophic collapse, used metaphorically to describe hypnagogic spatial breakdown. (Poetic metaphor—not technical.)
Green slime – a viscous hypnagogic image evoking bodily horror in the dream structures of "Alien." (Film‑specific, not general.)
Hypnagogic console – mental "control panel" during hypnagogia where visual/emotional inputs flicker, like ship controls overlaid in dreams. (Creative metaphor.)
Lattice position – a mental framework or coordinate within dream imagery where meaning is constructed in the hypnagogic lattice. (Invented term—idiosyncratic.)
Mis en abyme – the recursive "dream within dream" layering, as scenes reflect back—used to describe reflective spaces in the film's hypnagogic structure. (Meaningful in hypnagogic layering.)
Psychodynamics – the emotional and unconscious mechanics driving these hypnagogic dream formations. (Yes, core terminology.)
Schemata – mental archetypes or frameworks layered during the hypnagogic drift; repeated dream‑pattern structures. (Relevant if used carefully.)
Scirpograph / scirpographic figure – Mahoney's name for dream‑texture imagery: swirling, scrawl‑like visual motifs in hypnagogia. (Inventive, evocative, but non‑standard.)
Sleeper – the subject in transition into REM; the hypnagogic individual who receives imagery (as in the crew in "Alien"). (Terminology aligns with sleep‑psych.)
Sleep demon (averter‑tipping‑to‑pursuer) – the archetypal hypnagogic intruder that flips from threat avoidance to active pursuit in dream space. (Descriptive, yes relevant.)
Sniffle – a sudden minor physiological noise during hypnagogia signifying a threshold event. (Idiosyncratic but plausible.) [Mahoney says "The Sniffle" occurs when, after you have somehow magically by unlikely or impossible luck in the application of force, survived.]
Thanatopsis – literally "death‑vision"; used by Mahoney to describe hypnagogic imagery saturated with mortality (Blue Sun). (Poetic metaphor.)
Tartarus – mental underworld imagery (deep, blue abyss) invoked in hypnagogic setting of the alien ship. (Mythic but applied here.)
Vector – Mahoney's "fear vector": a directional shift in hypnagogic space toward panic or dream collapse. (A helpful conceptual tool.)
Vigilogogy – a coined term blending "vigil(ant)" + "-gogy" (study); Mahoney uses it for light trance states at the edges of sleep. (Highly creative; not standard, but descriptive.)
Vigilogoic space (Amibient/ambient vigilogoic space) – the lightly attentive mind-state hovering between wakefulness and sleep; transitional imagery flutters here. (Idiosyncratic terminology, but conceptually recognisable.)
Vector – directional dynamic of psychological drift in hypnagogia, e.g. escalation into fear or dreamitecture. (Important analytic tool.)
