Neville describes his repeated experience of sitting in his chair at home or lying on a couch or bed and, without physically opening his eyes, seeing another world as solidly real as this one, stepping into it so that it closes around him and he cannot find his way back; he discovered the way back is feeling - assuming his head on the pillow in his own room - after which he returns cataleptic and frozen, able within about half a minute to move a finger, then an elbow, then with great effort to open an eyelid and see the familiar objects on his wall.