Meditation Into A Dream State
Upvote:1
I've experienced that several times. It took me around ~45 minutes up to an hour to enter a state of dreaming, while meditating. I did not fall asleep for sure as I was sitting up.
The experience was different from lucid dreaming. I experienced lucid dreaming over hundreds of times, so I am confident I am familiar to know a distinct state.
Just like with lucid dreaming, the very first times it is difficult to stay asleep yet mentally aware of your self. Resulting in either loosing self awareness of waking up from the dream.
With this I found the same, but this balance seems even more delicate to me. I was wakefully present in this dream while meditating, but as soon as I realized I was, it lasted only very short.
These dreams while meditating seem more close to wakeful life experiences in a sense that I have a goal, a mental concern or puzzle to solve. Whereas in dreams while being asleep, this tends to be more and more irrational.
How the two states differ in dynamics (wakeful dreaming while asleep/meditating) is not clear to me yet. With dynamics I mean some sort of mechanistic behavior, like gravity here in this physical reality, but then more mentally related. Like when becoming fearful it is more apparent that I am loosing control of the scenario in a lucid dream than in this physical reality because the whole scenario visually starts to mirror my state of mind. How that is different in these dreams while meditating, I am not sure yet.
Good luck with experimenting!
Upvote:2
When you are in deep sleep your Bhavanga consciousness is active and at this stage you are not mindful. If you are in a dream state there is some metal activity hence there can be some mindfulness and concentration, but this goes in hand with Sloth and Torpor hence the level of mindfulness and concentration would be weak.
Upvote:3
Before I became Buddhist I did a lot of random "spiritual" practices, including "astral travel". The later is when you try to retain "waking" consciousness as you fall asleep.
I only had mixed success with the various techniques for achieving that, but the one that worked more or less well was to relax the body and completely refrain from any movement until you lose all bodily sensations. So effectively you let the body "fall asleep" while keeping the mind awaken.
The major difficulty for me was (to avoid) getting overexcited at the moment the body falls asleep - which (overexcitement) resulted in hyperventilation and loss of control.
Eventually I realized that establishing lucid mind inside the dream was easier for me than carrying it over from the waking state, and so I dropped that frustrating practice.
Another related technique I had better success with was doing the Four Immeasurables type meditation at that same moment of falling asleep. This works better as you don't have to artificially restrict body movements, which seems to go counter to deep meditation in my experience.
More post
- π How should a lay person respond if they see a monk teaching something contrary to Dhamma?
- π Should a Buddhist lay-practitioner schedule his/her daily life
- π Getting started young with many attachments
- π Is the Pali Canon the only canon in modern Buddhism?
- π What is Zen, what are Zen beliefs, and why is it called Buddhism?
- π Buddhas (and Bodhisattva) are real individuals or manifestations?
- π Is clinging the reason for losing interest towards certain things?
- π Looking for an Interpretation of The Blue Cliff Record
- π What is Completion Stage Meditation also known as Nispannakrama?
- π Mindfulness is leading to anxiety and depersonalisation
- π Why did first gerneration followers of Gautama Buddha chose oral method instead of written verbal method to preserve his teachings?
- π Meditating with an overwhelming emotion
- π Resolving right action & intention in a white lie
- π Specific sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya: Where is past and future discussed?
- π Original reference for 'The essence of all religions is love, compassion and tolerance' by the HH the Dalai Lama
- π Is begging for alms acceptable for lay persons?
- π Question on sexual immorality and a family situation
- π Does Buddhist's Time Dilation have something to do with Physics's Time Dilation?
- π Need better examples for assuming self to be non-form aggregates
- π How much is the minimal time for practicing Vipassana in daily life for achieving better mindfulness?
- π How does an Δlaya-vijΓ±Δna work?
- π Aversion and dukkha
- π Who or what is observing
- π Can we define craving without mentioning self?
- π Two interpretations of the three levels of suffering, Dukkha Sutta and Tibetan
- π what is difference between volition and intention?
- π Does the first precept require me to check the shower for bugs and make sure to remove all of the bugs before using it?
- π Definition of perception
- π How important are incense and candles to a meditation practice?
- π Can we apply the bundle of reeds simile to all limbs of Dependent Origination?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Meditation Into A Dream State
- π Maintaining the emotional state achieved in meditation through the rest of the day
- π Separating meditation into vipΔssana or samatha
- π What kind of mental state does the meditation on four elements generate?
- π How to know the progressive state of mind in insight meditation
- π Awakening into meditative state
- π When were women first welcomed into Buddhist orders?
- π How to determine the end of a meditation session without a clock?
- π What is the next meditation type after Mindfulness of Breathing meditation?
- π Purpose of touching tongue to roof of mouth during meditation
- π Meditation and 'not trying to change anything'
- π Strange feelings after meditation and mindfulness practice?
- π Why is meditation making me more angry?
- π How to disambiguate between various meditation practices?
- π Overwhelming states of being reached through meditation
- π Can one learn meditation on their own?
- π Can one practice meditation to gain knowledge about the universe?
- π Does meditation increase productivity for software developers and related professions?
- π When meditation goes wrong
- π The object of meditation
- π Problem concentrating during Vipassana meditation
- π Details for Kasina Meditation
- π What is the minimum amount of time needed for a productive meditation sit?
- π Anapanasati Buddhist meditation
- π Is it useful (and polite) to ask a potential meditation teacher about their attainments?
- π Difference in Buddhist meditation and meditation in other religions
- π Meditation technique proposed by the Buddha
- π How can I build up to being able to get into the full lotus position?
- π That "Electric Feel" body sensation during meditation
- π Was meditation not practiced for most of the history of Buddhism?