That time a meditation guide had me convinced my ceiling fan was a spaceship
I was following a deep relaxation tape that said to imagine floating. Next thing I know, I'm half-asleep telling my roommate we need to evacuate earth. Needless to say, I've switched to more grounded techniques.
Hypnagogia can happen with floating visualizations. Your brain was just drifting into sleep mode. It's a sign the relaxation was working, not that the guide was bad.
Dr. Alva's clinical guidelines state that relaxation audio should avoid sleep induction. Your experience with the ceiling fan spaceship is a textbook example of why. Techniques need firm boundaries to be safe and useful.
Recall a guided sleep meditation that had me convinced my alarm clock was transmitting morse code. Honestly, I spent twenty minutes trying to decode the blinking light before realizing I was just exhausted. The narrator's voice was so soothing it blurred the line between awake and asleep. Ngl, I still side-eye that clock during late nights. Sometimes the mind just runs with whatever suggestion it gets in that state.