Yoga Nidra

For years, on and off, I have been practicing a meditation called Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep. Its akin to watching the body go into a very deep sleep. Whilst one's awareness remains active throughout the entire process. In the earlier stages of the process, one is aware of breath, but at the very deepest stage, there is no awareness of the breath nor the body at all. Just a void of pure emptiness at the very root of our being. The deepest stage is very hard to enter. I have only achieved that state a few times (many years ago). Just bathing in that emptiness is incredibly powerful. Resulting in a very blissful state for about 1 hour after the meditation.

By entering the void and bathing in it. Strange things will eventually occur in waking state. It slowly opens channels (trickle at first) that many would equate to esp. It is an ego-trap. Register it as your true self and don't think of yourself as special in any way. Just see it as expansion of ones limited consciousness into the greater consciousness. Just sweep the floor when the ego starts thinking that it be that, which it is not.

A medical journal here describes the process if anyone is interested in trying Yoga Nidra. For myself, it is more or less automatic, I just sink into myself, lower and lower whilst keeping my eye focused on darkness in the eyes (there seems to be two levels of eye-sight - one is pitch black). If the mind wanders, just witness the wandering and let the wandering die by its own accord. There is no need to force anything. When sensation of limbs go heavy it is followed by what I would describe as feeling like the skin turning into concrete. Its not painful but it feels something akin to pain. Not something I enjoy. But If I don't fight it. It quickly dissipates. Whilst in the void. One can exit at any-time. But when exiting, the body feels like its been in hibernation for months. The body just wants to stretch upon awakening.

Some practitioners have remained in Yoga Nidra for days. So if you have a partner and decide to stay in the void for a long time. You better tell your partner beforehand or you might find yourself awakening in hospital. Them thinking you were comatose.

I believe the void is labelled in many religions by various names. Perhaps Taoism describes it in the simplest terms - "This source is called darkness. Darkness born from darkness. The beginning of all understanding.".

a reply to: glend

Thanks for sharing this.

So it's simple meditation whilst laying down in a corpse like fashion essentially? I think I somewhat stumbled across this technique when experimenting around sleep, I wanted to know more about what's going on at that point when consciousness flips to unconsciousness since I was having issues around sleep.

I never quite entered a place of darkness, I had "the wall of imagination" in the center of my vision which is the trillions of little dots we or I see when I close my eyes usually, it was surrounded by pure darkness though... Kinda like a screen suspended in my mind. So ignore that bit?

I only read a few pages of your link so apologies if it explains further, I'll give it a good read when I get the chance.

a reply to: RAY1990

Yes just lay down on your back and sink through the mattress. When you think you have sunk all you can. You haven't. Will yourself to sink even further through the mattress until the body starts to go to sleep and just witness that process unfolding.

My feelings is that there are three states. Consciousness, subconscious dreaming and a state of pure awareness. The third state does have a consciousness of its own but its very pure and subtle compared to the minds consciousness.

It sounds that you have a foot in both the consciousness and subconscious when you visualize the little dots. More akin to lucid dreaming. If I meditate when too tired sometimes the subconscious switches on and if I catch it, I switch back. If not I just fall to sleep like normal.

a reply to: glend

I've read the link properly and I think I can practice this myself, seems I was on my way when I was "lazy meditating" laying down lol.

It sounds that you have a foot in both the consciousness and subconscious when you visualize the little dots.

The little dots are the screen I imagine with when closing my eyes, trillions of them. Red grey/black is the default screen colour, for me anyways. I was fully conscious when having these experiences which was a trip because it was a lot like lucid dreaming although for the most part I was just observing with the odd thought about what I wanted to "look" at.

The visualisations were greater than dreams but also on a screen if that makes sense? I don't have a strong imagination beyond dreaming so it was quite the experience.

I could blabber on about the things I saw and worked on in that state but I don't wish to detract from the thread, just wanted to say whatever I stumbled on worked at the time and I somewhat understand why.

Now it's a case of practice

a reply to: RAY1990

The dots you are referring to, are a type of visual matrix, which lays over our physical vision

Those trillions of dots, correlate to every star in the universe, as well as to every living thing within it

It can be manipulated into a picture, with practice. A process which is much how we "see" while we are dreaming

It is, basically, a form of dynamic concentration

What glend is referring to, lays on the other side of the spectrum to this

I cannot speak for their method in particular, as I have not looked into it or tried it, but I can contest to state of dark emptiness they speak of, as I have experienced this through other methods, such as self annihilation

I do not want to overstep here glend, so please feel free to correct me, if you think I am talking about something completely different ...

This is just from my experience with something which sounds like what you are describing

There is a blackness which lay under the dots you speak of

Most people have likely not seen this true pitch blackness in their entire life

I did not see it until I was in my 30's, and when I did, it was quite extraordinary. Like seeing the real colour black for the first time in your life

In this state, your mind goes quite, in a way which is quite hard to understand, unless you have experienced it

The best way I can think of to describe it, is that there is no though. There is no need for thought, because within that state, every question that could ever be asked is answered. Without needing to be considered

Everything is known, without any feeling or need to draw your mind to anything

There is no emotion. There is no love. There is no pain

There is a perfectly open emptiness. Which feels like knowing silence for the first time in your life

In fact, it was the realisation that my mind had never been so perfectly empty and free of all thought, which brought me back into some semblance of reality, from this state

For a minute or two before this realisation. I had sat up in my bed, I had moved through my room. Commanding my body to operate, without any form of thought or feeling

There was only a perfect blackness, which expanded out beyond this world. Without any care, concern or consideration

Thought returned. But it was not like normal though. Not how we normally think of things in this world, where we consider something, as if questioning

This thought was a knowing, which seemed to exceed the world

For a moment, I considered this thought, and it was as if I were outside of all time, space, and this world itself

I held the world within me, as if it were only real, because of the fact that in that moment, it was contained within this all-encompassing thought

A moment of realisation, where I knew I exceeded this world. In even my most basic form

Without emotion. Only a type of sense, like I had turned off "reality"

In that moment, looking out into the purest blackness of my room, without a single one of those trillions of dots to be seen, I realised that this world only exists, because I am here for it to exist

As much as I exist, only because it is here

I tried to draw "reality" back in, as if I was looking for a way to feel, or think something again

For a moment, I was trapped in this state, though I was wide awake, lucid and standing on my feet, looking around

It felt like I was searching out into the darkness, to try find my normal waking mind

Trying to find thought again

Something, like a voice out within the darkness, not my own, told me that I needed to ground myself

Still within the pure silence and darkness of the void, I walked out into the kitchen and made myself something to eat

It was not until I started eating, that my mind, and the "reality" which connected it to this world, started to return

I could feel it wash back in over my body like waves, as if it were mirroring the food I was swallowing into my body

I refer to this state as "bottoming out"

a reply to: glend

There is a method I can suggest to you, which may help you in accessing a version of this state fairly easily

When you meditate, in whatever way you do ...

Concentrate on a point on your forehead, such as where you would find a bindi, and focus your mind in, to that point

All thought, all emotion. Direct it inwards to this point

Eventually, you will begin to observe the flow of these things, as you described in your post

Once you have yourself centered correctly on this point, you can then focus in your physical reality

All thought, all emotion, then becomes everything physical that it is contained within

If you do it right, it will feel like your arms, legs and body, all shrink down into an orb

Your fingers, feet, arms, legs, torso, everything. It will all feel as though it has shrunk down, to exist within the exact same focus on your forehead

Your hole body, floating in one spot

Then, open yourself up within this space. To be able to feel everything at once

You will feel as if you are an orb of light, floating in the air. A body, with every one of its parts existing in the same focus point, as both mind and body simultaneously

At first, it may feel strange, feeling a sensation like your feet (and body) being in your forehead, floating in the air

The strangeness of it may make you slip out of this state. Which will feel almost like falling back to Earth

Just practice it, and it will get easier

Once you have yourself physically, consciously and emotionally focused as an orb of pure light, you will come to a pretty profound understanding about your limitation, relative to the orb of the Earth around you

You will be able to feel your personal 'orb', layered with the Earth pretty easily

The hard part from here, is projecting within the Earth, as an orb of light, once you are in this state

You can align yourself to the planet fairly easily in this way

The trick to the next step, is that you need expand yourself outwards from your orb, to layer to it to the Earths orb. But do so in a way where you do not expand to meet the earth, nor it shrink to meet you

Rather, you realise that you are already one in the same, in perfect phase to each other, and you are merely shifting your position within that connection ... From internal, to external

You need visualise, that there is no bigger or smaller. There is merely a level of phase, to which you already exist. And you are shifting within that phase

That spot within you, that you have focused yourself into as an orb. Is not just you, and the planet, but every cell, big or small, in existence, within the universe

You are merely opening your eye, to be able to see within, and through any particular cell you want, anywhere you want, at any particular time

I'll leave you to work out the rest from there

If you can focus your mind and body into feeling like you are a floating orb, between your eyes ...

You will understanding the possibilities that go along with it

Hope I have helped. Good luck

Let me know if you need any more help

If you have problems centering. Try meditating exactly in the middle of a (round as possible) oval. Preferably one surrounded by trees

Use the trees to ground yourself, then help you visualise the "cell", as you focus yourself inwards

a reply to: Compendium

I have returned to meditating 2-3 hours a a day over the past few months. Think that I am breath away from entering the unmanifested. So I really don't want to change tact at the moment. But if I still have not succeeded in short term, I will give your technique a try. Thanks for explaining in great detail. Very much appreciated. I have copied your text and put it in my meditations folder.

"There is no emotion. There is no love. There is no pain"
"I do not want to overstep here glend, so please feel free to correct me, if you think I am talking about something completely different" ...

Never worry about overstepping, always love reading your posts and the way your express things Compendium. The experience of the non-consciousness you describe, sounds to me, as if its a shut down of your local minds consciousness. Which will allow the inner (unmanifested) to penetrate the outer (manifested). Perhaps a stage of metamorphosis, rather than being the end result. Whereas the awareness that exist in the unmanifested itself, seems to have a consciousness of its own, be it very subtle, that some label as female (emotional). So I am not sure if you have experienced the other side in its totality or merely had a touch of it penetrate the outer. When exiting the manifested there is massive explosion of 100% bliss (pure love in oneness with all) that is unmistakable and unforgettable. So I suspect we are dealing with different grades of experience, rather than, if it was the same or not.

a reply to: Compendium

I would say those dots are the eyes themselves, I see the same thing when staring at a blue sky. If I have any kind of a mind's eye I can't or don't use it. Everything comes to me via the eyes. I don't have a strong ability to naturally visualise in my mind and it's usually a hypnagogic experience or actual dreaming that gives visualisations usually.

That said working on this kind of stuff tends to "upset" my interactions with imagination.

What glend is referring to, lays on the other side of the spectrum to this

When I had these experiences "the screen" was pushed back and was surrounded by pure darkness. I just didn't let go of the screen but admittedly I was toying around and "saw some things" that interested me.

There is a blackness which lay under the dots you speak of

There's a few layers of dots too... I'm guessing ego plays a role in keeping them around when doing things like this. Thanks for the post Compendium, I've noticed a few of your posts when it comes to stuff like this and they've helped me realise that all the paths kinda lead to the same place.

A bit like a famous saying about cat skins. Metaphorically speaking I'm uncomfortable with that and I know ego plays it's role, especially in the discomfort I can find when toying with such concepts, that discomfort is mostly found around the hypnagogic and sleep stages.

So yeah, work to do. Thanks again for being a light round these parts

a reply to: RAY1990

The dots are gateways, so eye is actually a pretty good analogy

And thank you ...

I can ramble on a little sometimes, so I am always glad if something I share helps someone on their own path somehow

Likewise, thank you for what you share, to help me on my own path