Be aware of the gap between wakefulness and sleep. Between dream and reality What is the name of the state between dream and reality
Perception disturbances occur during space flights. So, during the flight, V.V. Volkov wrote: “There is a characteristic crackle of ether in headsets ... Earth night flew below. And suddenly from this night through the thickness of air space ... came the barking of a dog. Ordinary dog, maybe even a simple mongrel ... And then ... the crying of a child became clearly audible. 204. On the 31st day of the transatlantic voyage on a small sailing boat, the doctor H. Lindemann began to think that the protective cover suddenly began to speak with a human voice. Then he began to hear voices that were heard all around and came from invisible things. Perceptual disturbances appeared against the background of an irresistible desire to sleep. In the ninth week of swimming, also against the background of a sleepy state, he developed vivid visual illusions of perception. When he overcame the drowsy state, the visions disappeared. W. Willis, when sailing alone on a raft, describes similar deceptions of perception during periods when he wanted to sleep, and the current situation required vigorous activity205.
In our opinion, these disturbances in perception can be attributed to hypnagogic ideas that developed in an intermediate state between wakefulness and sleep. As noted, under conditions of prolonged isolation chamber isolation, hypnotic phase states appear. Of interest are the hypnagogic performances that took place at the doctor B. and the journalist E. Tereshchenko in a group isolation that lasted 70 days.
Here are the notes of subject B. “Today I want to dwell on an interesting phenomenon that I have been feeling for a long time at night before going to bed, but somehow I didn’t immediately note everything in my diary, and in the morning, of course, I forgot. A few days ago, before going to bed, I suddenly I began to feel some kind of hallucinations. When I heard it for the first time, I was frightened, and immediately schizophrenia, a split personality, a symptom of auditory hallucinations in this disease, crawled into my head. I remembered my first patient from a psychiatric clinic ... He was the first violin in the opera and ballet theater "And now, along with the main symptom of the disease - a split personality - he had strong auditory hallucinations. But he was a musician, and very educated (he graduated from the conservatory and graduate school), and I? And my heart was not very good .. .
Just started to fall into the abyss of sleep - again this music. Now I have begun to listen to her more carefully. It was some kind of mournful, rather pleasant melody (very similar to Japanese music), which then went to very high notes, then descended to the lowest. Moreover, her character was somehow unearthly; it was like the music that is now perceived as cosmic, or like that which is presented in the form of colors and changes in the gamut of colors. But the melody was very pleasant for me. I don’t remember the further course of events, because I fell asleep ...
Another time, the voices of the boys' choir joined my organ music - melodic, high, even turning into squeaky tones. To be honest, I don't really like boys' voices, and I always associate the performance of the Sveshnikov Choir with something inferior. And then the music aroused quite positive emotions in me, I wanted to listen to it all the time, listen and listen ... But the dream, most likely, interrupted this pleasure. There were no more dreams. Such phenomena were repeated several more times.
What is this? The fruit of a sick fantasy or an objective reality that transforms into music? Can not answer. Only one thing I can say is that all these phenomena are possibly associated with a running fan. But it is very interesting: why does all this happen before going to bed and at night, and not during the day? Second: why is the nature of the music heard different each time? Camera acoustics? But I think it's just ridiculous to talk about it. What kind of acoustics can there be in the musical sense in this crypt?"
Approximately the same phenomena were observed in E. Tereshchenko. In his diary, he wrote: “For a whole month now, in our absolutely soundproof cell, at night, in complete silence, voices, music, Kozlovsky’s singing, a choir, screeching, howling, animal fussing in the ventilation pipe. I did not tell anyone about this. I lay with my eyes open, trying to drive away the sound ghosts - nothing worked. Just before leaving, Stac admitted that he heard organ music and a boys' choir. That's why he sometimes had such a strange look. He was silent for the same reasons as I" 206.
In our opinion, hypnagogic representations in these cases appeared in connection with the development of the ultraparadoxical phase during the period of falling asleep. In contrast to the persistent long ultraparadoxical phase in some mental illnesses, here it acted as a relatively short-term (no more than 30-40 minutes) in the process of falling asleep.
If in the examples cited hypnagogic representations under conditions of sensory deprivation occurred only during the period of falling asleep, then during prolonged insomnia under the same conditions they also appeared in the waking state. Here is what subject G. said: “Here, at the end of the regime of continuous activity, I discovered such an ability. I sat in an armchair, a fan was noisy in the corner ... And it seemed to me that I heard some kind of note. This note was immediately somehow associated with the song "Horizon, Horizon". In fact, there is some kind of noise, and I began to listen to the song in this noise ... It also seemed to me that I could hear through the fan how quietly the receiver was playing. Well, then I realized that one and the same motive on the radio cannot be continuously transmitted for a long time" 207.
In support of the fact that musical hypnagogic performances arise precisely against the background of the ultraparadoxical phase, the following arguments can be made. Under normal conditions, organ music and the boys' choir evoked only negative emotions in subject B. The appearance of this music and the choir during the period of falling asleep can be regarded as a revival of "unwanted" performances, inhibited, but becoming "paradoxically" pleasant. Here is an entry from B.'s diary dated September 2: "Again, before going to bed, this is musical accompaniment. Now the pioneer horn, the sounds of which have turned into some kind of pleasant music, and sleep has come."
The reason for the sudden and single appearance of bugle sounds on the night of September 1-2 was subjectively incomprehensible to subject B. before joint analysis and discussion with us. When, in order to explain the appearance of musical ideas that were opposite to the taste of the subject B., a hypothesis was put forward about the development of the ultraparadoxical phase, the psychological causal connection of the inclusion of horn sounds in musical hypnagogic ideas became subjectively obvious to him. September 1 is the day the school starts. On that day, daughter B. could not go to school due to a serious illness. The whole day thoughts about his daughter did not leave B. Falling asleep, he tried to get rid of them. It is possible that during the period of falling asleep, it was these thoughts that received their figurative reflection in the sounds of the pioneer bugle.
During the period of development of hypnagogic phases, the relatively stable character of emotional relations to objects and phenomena developed in the process of individual development of the personality can be significantly violated. This happens, firstly, because representations can leave their usual associative connections and enter into bizarre new ones, and, secondly, because the dynamics of emotions, obeying the dynamics of phase states, can cause a change in the emotional background without a clear connection. with a specific set of ideas.
The phase dynamics of the development of musical hypnagogic representations in the case we are considering consisted in the fact that reflections and orienting activity later turned into a pleasantly indefinite form of pleasure with a bizarre combination of musical phenomena, which then imperceptibly passed into deep sleep. The following entry speaks of this: “But let me return to my dream. These strange phenomena with auditory hallucinations (otherwise I cannot name them) continue as before. Just yesterday, falling asleep, I again heard organ music on the theme of Russian folk songs in such fantastic variation, which is simply amazing, how you can invent such musical images.Then it all turned into a mourning song... In the end, the voices of the boys joined the music, and the soul became so blissful that one simply marvels.And this is from such a song! !! Here's the devilry that attacked me!"
The peculiarities of musical hypnagogic performances observed in long-term isolation cannot be understood if we proceed only from the physiology of the phase states. It is known that every person involved in music can find in his memory such melodies that he cannot imagine without "reliance on perception", but which easily pop up in his mind when their accompaniment is performed. In the cases we are considering, musical performances developed against the background of the noise of a running fan. At first, this noise greatly disturbed the subjects and interfered with falling asleep, but in the process of adaptation, it began, apparently, to be "neutralized" by the layering musical performances. This method of "neutralization" was not unusual for the subjects, since something similar happened to them when traveling on a train, when rhythmic melodies also arose in their memory to the sound of wheels at the junctions of the rails. But if in these cases the melodies were experienced as an internal mental act, then in conditions of isolation, musical representations were localized outside and were accompanied by the illusion of their involuntariness.
While the nature of consciousness in the waking state is known to all, the nature of sleep and dreaming still needs to be studied. Nevertheless, modern research sheds some light on the nature of the psychophysiological functions of sleep, which lays the foundation for further scientific research and analysis of Yoga Nidra. Sleep is a natural regular process of our life, and a person needs periodic rest and relaxation of the mind and body in order to turn off the conscious activity of thought, sensation and movement. In other words, sleep is pratyahara, that is, the natural distraction of the senses, in which our consciousness spontaneously separates from the organs of perception and action and, therefore, does not accumulate experience. When there is a distraction of consciousness from the organs of sensory perception ( gyanendriy) and from organs of action ( karmendriy), contact automatically disappears between the external world, on the one hand, and internal excitation in the sensory-motor area in the cerebral cortex, on the other. At this important moment, consciousness, abstracted from the external world, directs its activity to the search for an internal source. Research has shown that during this distraction of consciousness, sensory possibilities are drastically reduced due to the fact that consciousness sinks into deeper levels of the mind. The mind becomes numb and enveloped in sleep... According to Tantric philosophy, entering sleep is nothing more than a gradual movement of consciousness up the chakras up to its cosmic source of sahasrara. So, for example, the sensation of smell (smell) is the first separation of consciousness from the muladhara, which personifies the earth among the tattvas. The smell excites the taste, awakening the tattva of water, which is personified in svadhisthana. The process of satisfying the taste indicates the fire of digestion ascending to manipura. Touch is anahata, the tattva of the air, and, finally, hearing is the tattva of the ether or vishuddha chakra.
Thus, Yoga Nidra, devoid of all these sensations except hearing, corresponds to that stage of sleep, which is on the border between wakefulness and sleep.
States of consciousness
Both yogis and psychologists and physiologists recognize that there are 3 distinct states of consciousness: wakefulness, dreaming and dreamless sleep. It is also not denied that each of these three states (as well as the state in Yoga Nidra) is fixed in the cerebral cortex according to the degree of electrical activity, as shown in the table.
| Stage | State of consciousness | Levels of Consciousness | Wave frequency | State experience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wakefulness | Consciousness | Beta (13-20 hertz) | Sense perception, external experience |
| 2 | Yoga Nidra | Superconsciousness (turiya), hypnogogic or borderline state between sleep and wakefulness | Alpha (8-12 hertz) | Deep relaxation, mystical insight, conscious sleep, revealing archetypes |
| 3 | Dream | Subconscious | Theta (4-7 hertz) | Release from emotions, repressed fears, etc. |
| 4 | Deep dream | unconsciousness | Delta (0-4 hertz) | Awakening primal instincts |
In the waking state, consciousness interacts with the external world and actively perceives it through the channels of the senses. This stage is fixed by researchers with a high frequency of beta rhythms (from 13 to 20 hertz). In the dream state, when the subconscious mind predominates, repressed desires, fears, deeply rooted impressions are activated ( samskara). In accordance with this, the high frequency of beta waves is replaced by theta waves of a lower frequency (from 4 to 7 hertz). In the state of deep sleep, the unconscious mind, the repository of instincts and all the experiences of past evolutionary development, is activated. Unlike dreaming, deep dreamless sleep completely lacks any elements of sensory and mental activity, all past impressions (samskaras) and desires ( vasanas) are paralyzed, consciousness and prana are distracted from the individual factor and directed towards an impersonal creative source. During this stage of consciousness, which is known in tantric and yogic scriptures as the "night of Brahma" or the "germ of creation" ( hiranyagarbha), the researchers recorded the rhythmic vibration of delta waves with a frequency of 0 to 4 hertz. Interestingly, this frequency also coincides with the vibrational frequency of the material universe - a fact recorded by the instruments of scientists.
Hypnagogic state or Yoga Nidra
Between wakefulness and dreaming is located the most important layer of consciousness and experience, defined by psychologists as a hypnagogic state. This transitional state lasts about 5 minutes and is characterized by alpha waves with a frequency of 8 to 12 hertz, accompanied by deep relaxation and positive release from physical tension throughout the body. Consciousness still continues to retain some residual signs of external influence. There comes a period when wakefulness is no longer there, and sleep has not yet come.
If Yoga Nidra intervenes in this process right now, it is able to stretch it out in time, pushing back the approaching unconscious sleep with the help of conscious sleep. Yoga Nidra, as it were, shields the outside world from the introverted mind, keeping only one channel awake - listening to the instructor's voice and mentally following his advice. Curiously, during a session of Yoga Nidra, the researchers noticed how sometimes flashes of alpha waves seemed to crumble, yielding to the onslaught of beta waves, then theta waves. This means that consciousness is trying to gain a foothold in the stage between wakefulness and sleep, that is, between extraversion and introversion. If extraversion prevailed, the person would return to wakefulness or sense perception; however, introversion would lead to a gradual fall into sleep. But if the consciousness of a person is fixed at an intermediate stage, in which constant pulsations of alpha waves are noted, one can achieve a deep experience in a state of complete relaxation. This achievement is in every way comparable to neither being awake nor sleeping, for it has all the advantages of both without their disadvantages. Not to mention the effective benefits for, such a state opens the gate to the realm of the superconscious.
Dive into sleep
Ordinary falling into sleep means the following: due to the transition from wakefulness to sleep, the frequency of the wave vibrations moves from beta to theta and further to delta, bypassing the alpha waves. Meanwhile, in Yoga Nidra, the process of falling into sleep is completely different: from beta to alpha (delay at this stage), and - if you lose control over the alpha state - there is a subsequent slide to theta and delta states. Satisfactory relaxation cannot be achieved simply by falling asleep without first consciously relaxing. This is why most people go to sleep with muscular, emotional, and mental stress, going from beta state directly to delta state, without getting rid of all the clamps and complexes in the pre-alpha state. That is why they get up in the morning tired and devastated. Having not experienced true relaxation during the alpha state, they continued to perform psychophysical actions during sleep, accumulating the potential for tension. Yoga Nidra allows you to linger in the alpha state and completely free yourself from all tensions. After such a rest, a real sleep comes, refreshing and strengthening a person ... Yoga Nidra is considered as a state different from sleep, and yet it can be said that thanks to Yoga Nidra, a truly constructive sleep occurs, which is how Nature created it.
Glimpses of superconsciousness
Most people, when going from wakefulness to sleep, lose awareness of the experienced state and do not try to stretch the transitional phase between wakefulness and falling asleep. If they forced themselves to do so, they might experience, as a result of regular experimentation of this kind, a higher harmony and unity between all levels of consciousness. One who prefers all three stages of consciousness to Yoga Nidra as the highest stage merges with the universal nature of consciousness. The religious tradition defines this superconscious experience as a divine state, but Yoga Nidra and the Tantric tradition define it as a glimpse of superconsciousness. Ordinary people tend to remember their dreams, or talk about their visions, as something extraordinary and amazing. Meanwhile, all these experiences are deeply archetypal and symbolic and cannot be realized by an ordinary mind. As a result, they still remain on the other side of consciousness and are not absorbed by it. Man continues to live within his limited space, unaware of all its infinity. He does not understand and is not aware of those hints and impulses that are constantly vibrating in himself and cannot use them for his own benefit ... And so he lives with his fragmentary consciousness without a whole picture of mental experience. He does not know who he really is, nor where he is going. This is the root cause of all his suffering. That is why he is not able to live in harmony either with himself or with the whole environment.
Yoga Nidra is the means that helps a person to discover the source of self-consciousness and inexhaustible inspirations. Yoga Nidra is a technique of "self-awakening sleep" through which we can discover the treasure trove of our true consciousness, explore and use it to enrich our daily lives.
Sleep is controlled by the mind
Our dreams are a kind of energy patterns of consciousness that depend on awakening, liberation or flashes in the mental body. They arise spontaneously and Yoga Nidra allows you to take them under control. Rising higher and higher on the spiritual scale, you learn to shape your dreams with the help of Yoga Nidra. However, in order to create your dreams and learn to understand them, it is necessary to maintain a dual state of half-sleep-half-awake. In other words, while you are sleeping, you should know that you are sleeping. The ability to witness one's dream is a dynamic form of pratyahara.
As such, Yoga Nidra is the best form of raising the level of sleep awareness. Almost all people dream, but their interpretation of dreams is very crude and ineffective. As a rule, most of them simply do not remember their dreams. It is possible to preserve the memory of dreams with a clear visualization of the witnessing consciousness. This alert awareness of sleep can be developed through the Yoga Nidra technique.
Genuine awakening
As modern research confirms, the presence of witnessing consciousness against the background of the ongoing sleep process leads to fundamental changes in the functioning of the central nervous system. A new stage of consciousness is coming, known to yogis and tantrikas as turia, as a result of which the experience of direct perception is intertwined with the experience of mental and astral perception. It is the fourth or highest form of consciousness, unifying the experience of all possible forms of consciousness (waking, sleeping and dreaming). At the same time, the highest form is not absorbed by any of these three, but only traces the triune experience of psychophysical experiences. It is known that this was already said thousands of years ago in yogic texts, and only now the “secret” is becoming a reality in modern laboratories with the help of modern science. From the point of view of neurophysiology, increased excitability of consciousness, accompanied by motor activity of the limbs, indicates a new form of ongoing processes in the cerebral cortex, in which there is a combination of activation of the zones responsible for external perception and internal awareness with a decrease in activity in the zones responsible for the manifestation of emotions. Thus, Yoga Nidra opens a new page in further exploration of the possibilities of the brain, activation of self-awareness, control of the regulatory functions of consciousness, which ultimately forms a conscious destiny.
The Phenomenon of Indian Yogi Swami Rama
Swami Rama, a high-level Indian yogi, experimentally proved the existence of a "mysterious" and "secret" fourth form of consciousness or turiyas.
In 1977, the Center for Brain Research (Kansas, USA) conducted scientific research and observations of the brain of the yogi Swami Rama, while he was engaged in relaxation and gradually entered into deeper states of consciousness. Scientific research was led by Dr. Elmer Green, and the vibrations of the biocurrents of the brain were recorded on an electroencephalograph. Subsequently, the world learned about the scientific discovery. Scientists have recorded that the yogi, by willpower, alternately entered different states of consciousness: when he completely relaxed his body, he entered the state of Yoga Nidra and the device registered 70% of alpha waves in a 5-minute period of visualizing the blue sky with rare clouds floating on it. Then the yogi entered the state of dreams, which were accompanied by predominantly 75% theta waves for 5 minutes. Swami Rama later said that this state was uncomfortable, he called it "noisy and unpleasant." He further added that he had succeeded in eliminating it by "transferring consciousness into the subconscious." Here he experienced certain desires while contemplating archetypal images that were rapidly trying to take possession of his consciousness. Finally, Swami entered into a state of deep sleep (realm of the unconscious) and this was confirmed by the slow vibration of the delta waves. However, his mind remained vigilant throughout the scientific experiment. So, for example, he easily recalled various events that took place in a scientific laboratory and were related to the experiment. So, for example, after the experiment, Swami Rama voiced the questions that one of the scientists asked the yogi during the activation of delta waves. The presence of delta waves indicates deep sleep and, it would seem, the yogi could not perceive these questions ...
Scientists have not yet had to conduct such studies, when deep sleep could be combined with awareness of the moment being experienced. This clearly indicated that scientists were faced with a great discovery - turiya, which the ancient texts of yogis so stubbornly repeat, really exists as a manifested fact, and not a phenomenon of faith. Scientists have seen with their own eyes that the nature of superconsciousness really includes all possible states of consciousness: both wakefulness, and superficial sleep and dreaming. In other words, the simultaneous interaction of conscious, subconscious and unconscious is quite possible. Thus, the maximum relaxation of all psychophysical processes in the body invariably leads to the integration of consciousness as such and to the enlightenment of the individual. In fact, people who have reached this state do not sleep. They know only the state of being, which is unchanged, whether it is a dream or wakefulness. They are constantly in the state of turiyas, in Yoga Nidra.
It became clear that the "universal mind" or superconsciousness could be gradually developed and strengthened with the help of such effective technologies as Yoga Nidra and meditation. Thus, the previously mysterious and impregnable world of the unconscious is losing its positions, which are now defined as superconsciousness. This gradual process of enlightenment of the personality and liberation from the yoke of "mysterious" forces is called self-realization, kaivalya, moksha or samadhi.
superconscious
So, if in the past superconsciousness was defined as something related to mysticism or religious experience, now the term "physiological reality" has been assigned to superconsciousness. The modern psychologist Carl Jung defined superconsciousness as "diving into the collective unconscious." The latest research in the field of parapsychology, psi-phenomena and psychotronics has confirmed that the "universal mind" really exists.
55. Be aware of the gap between wakefulness and sleep
The third technique for self-remembering: At that moment of sleep, when sleep has not yet come, and external wakefulness has already disappeared - at this very moment Existence is revealed.
There are some turning points in your mind. In these moments you are closer to your center than at any other time. You change "gear" and the moment you change gear you are going through neutral. This neutral position is closer to you. In the morning, when the dream goes away, disappears, and you feel awake, but not yet awake, when you are just in the middle of waking up, you are in "neutral gear". This is the moment when you are no longer asleep, but not yet awake, right in the middle. You are in neutral gear. In the transition from sleep to wakefulness, your consciousness changes its entire mechanism. It jumps from one functioning mechanism to another. Between these two mechanisms there is no other mechanism, there is a gap between them, a gap. Through this gap you can get some idea of your essence. The same thing happens in the evening when you jump back from the waking mechanism to the sleep mechanism, from the conscious to the unconscious. For a moment there is no mechanism, there is no pressure of the mechanism on you, because you have to jump from one mechanism to another. If you can be aware between these two moments, if you can become aware between these two moments, if you can remember yourself between these two moments, then you will get some idea of your real being.
How to perform this technique? When you are about to fall asleep, relax. Close your eyes, darken the room. Just close your eyes and wait. Sleep is coming, just wait, do nothing, just wait! Your body is relaxed, the body becomes heavy, feel it. Feel it. Sleep has its own mechanism, it starts working. Your waking consciousness disappears. Remember, because the moment will be very subtle, the moment will be atomic. If you miss, you miss. It is a very short period - one moment, a very small interval, and you will change from being awake to sleeping. Just wait, remaining fully aware. Keep waiting. This will take some time. This will take at least three months. Only then can you get some hint of the moment that is right in the middle. So don't rush. You can't do it right now, you can't do it tonight. But you have to start and you may have to wait a few months.
It usually happens suddenly within three months. It happens every day, but your awareness and meeting with this gap cannot be planned. It happens. You just keep waiting and one day it happens. One day, suddenly, you become aware that you are not awake and you are not sleeping - a very mysterious phenomenon. You may even be afraid because up to now you have only known two states: the waking state and the sleeping state. But you do not know the third state of your being, when you are neither asleep nor awake. The first time you encounter this condition, you may be frightened. Don't be scared. Everything that is new, that was not previously known, must cause some fear, because this moment, if you experience it again and again, will give you new sensations too: you will be neither alive nor dead, neither this nor that. This is the abyss.
These two mechanisms are like two hills, you jump from one peak to another. If you stop in the middle, you will fall into an abyss, into an abyss without a bottom, you will go on falling, falling and falling. This technique is used by the Sufis, and before they give this technique to the seekers, they also give another practice, just as a safety measure. Whenever this technique is offered in the Sufi system, another technique is given before it, which is that you close your eyes and imagine that you are falling into a deep well - dark, deep, bottomless. Just imagine falling into a deep well - falling, falling and falling, endlessly falling. There is no bottom, you cannot reach the bottom. Now this fall cannot stop. You can stop it, you can open your eyes and say that there is nothing more, but the fall cannot stop by itself. If you continue, the well is bottomless, and it gets darker and darker.
In the Sufi system, this exercise must first be practiced with a well - with this bottomless dark well. It's nice and helpful. If you practice this exercise and realize its beauty, its silence, then the deeper you fall into the well, the more silent you will become. The world remains somewhere far away, you feel that you are flying far, far, far away. Silence grows with darkness, and there, in the depths, there is no bottom. Fear takes over your mind, but you know it's just imagination, so you can continue.
Through this exercise you become more accustomed to this technique, but then when you fall into the well between wakefulness and sleep, it is no longer imaginary, it is a real fact. And here, too, there is no bottom, this abyss is bottomless. That is why the Buddha called this empty void shunya. She has no end. Once you know it, you also become infinite. This idea is difficult to have while awake. It is impossible, of course, to have it during sleep, because then the mechanism functions and it is difficult to disconnect oneself from this mechanism. But in the evening and in the morning there are other moments - just two such moments in twenty-four hours - when it is very easy, but you have to wait for it. At that moment of sleep, when sleep has not yet come and outer wakefulness has already disappeared - at that very moment Existence is revealed, then you know who you are, what your real being is, what is your true existence. We are false when we are awake, and we know it very well. While awake you are insincere, unnatural. You smile when it would be more natural to cry. Your tears also cannot be trusted. They can only be a façade, a ceremony, a duty. Your smile is fake, physiognomists might say that your smile is just painted on. There are no roots in it, a smile is only on your face, only on your lips. It is nowhere else in your being. It has no roots, no other parts of the body. She is forced on you. Smiling does not come from within, it is imposed on you from outside.
Whatever you say and whatever you do is false, and it is not at all necessary that you are doing all these false things of your life consciously - not at all! You can be completely unconscious - and you are! Otherwise, it would be very difficult to carry on this false nonsense all the time. This happens automatically. This falseness goes on while you are awake, it goes on even while you are asleep - in a different way, of course. Your dreams are symbolic, not real. It is amazing that even in a dream you are not real, natural, even in a dream you are afraid and create symbols.
Now psychoanalysts are all the time analyzing your dreams. They have a very good business because you cannot analyze your own dreams. They are symbolic, they are not real. They talk about something only with the help of metaphors. If you want to kill your mother and get rid of her, you will not kill her even in your sleep. You will kill anyone else who looks like your mother. You will kill your aunt or anyone else, but not your mother. Even in a dream you cannot be sincere. Then a psychoanalysis is needed, a professional is needed to interpret – but you can describe everything in such a way that even the psychoanalyst will be deceived.
Your dreams are also completely false. If you are real while you are awake, then your dreams will also be real. They will not be symbolic. If you want to kill your mother, then you will have a dream in which you are killing your mother, and then no interpreters will be needed to show what your dream means. But we are so fake. In a dream we are alone, but still afraid of the world and society.
Killing the mother is the greatest sin, and I don't think you have any idea why this is the greatest sin. This is the greatest sin, because everyone has a deep enmity towards the mother. This is the greatest sin, and you are so trained, your mind is so conditioned, that even the thought of hurting your mother is sinful. She gave you life. All over the world, in all societies, the same thing is taught. There is not a single society on earth that would not agree with this - that the murder of a mother is the greatest sin. She gave you life, and you kill her?
But where does this teaching come from? Somewhere deep down there is a possibility that everyone is against their mother out of necessity - because the mother not only gives you life, but she is also the instrument by which you become false, she is the instrument for forcing the unreal on you. She made you what you are. If you live in hell, then she took part in this, the biggest part. If you are suffering, then your mother is here somewhere, she is hidden in you, because the mother gave birth to you and raised you - or, in fact, threw you out of your reality. She faked you. The first lie happened between you and your mother, the first lie happened between you and your mother - the first lie!
Even when there is no language yet, and the child cannot speak, he can lie. Sooner or later, the child begins to realize that many of his feelings are not approved by his mother. Her face, her eyes, her behavior, her mood - all show that something in it is unacceptable. Then he starts suppressing his feelings. Something is wrong. The language is not yet there, his mind is not yet functioning. But his whole body starts suppressing. And then he begins to feel that sometimes something is approved by his mother. He depends on his mother, his life depends on his mother. If his mother leaves him, he will be gone. His whole existence is centered on the mother.
Everything that the mother says, does, shows, all her behavior matters. If the child smiles and the mother loves him, gives him her warmth, feeds him milk, hugs him, then he is learning to be a politician. He will smile when there is no smile in him, because he knows that in this way he can persuade his mother. He will smile a fake smile. Then a liar is born, a politician appears. Now he knows how to fake, and he learned this in his relationship with his mother. This is the very first relationship with the world. When he becomes aware of his suffering, his hell, his confusion, he will find that his mother is behind it all.
There is a good chance that you feel hostility towards your mother. That is why every culture insists that killing the mother is the greatest sin. Even in thoughts, even in dreams, you cannot kill your mother. I'm not saying that you should kill her, I'm just saying that your dreams are also false - symbolic, insincere. You are so false that you cannot even have real dreams.
These are our two false faces, one appears when we are awake, the other when we sleep. Between these two false faces there is a very small door, an interval. Through this interval you can get some idea of your original face, of the face you had when you were not in contact with your mother and therefore with society, when you were alone with yourself, when you were - but not this and that, when there was no separation. There was only the real, the unreal was not. You can take a look at this face, this innocent face between these two machines.
Usually we don't think about our dreams, we think more about our waking hours. But psychoanalysis is more concerned with your dreams than your waking hours, because it knows that in your waking hours you are a big liar. In dreams, at least something can be caught. In sleep you are less aware, you don't force things, you don't manipulate them. Then you can catch something real in them. During your waking hours you may be a chaste monk, but you repress your sexual desires. Then it will impose itself on your dreams, your dreams must be sexual. It is very difficult to find a monk without sexual dreams - rather impossible. You can find a criminal without sexual dreams, but you cannot find a religious person without them. A debauchee may not have sexual dreams, but not so-called saints, because whatever you put in while you are awake will come out during your dreams and color them.
Psychoanalysts don't deal with your waking state because they know it's a 100% lie. If one can get some idea of the real, it is only in dreams. But tantra says that even dreams are not so real. They are more real - and this seems paradoxical, because we think that dreams are not real - they are more real than your waking hours, because then you are less alert. The sense organs are dormant, something may come out, the repressed may manifest itself - symbolically, of course, but the symbols can be analyzed.
Throughout the world, the symbols manipulated by man are the same. When you are awake, you may speak different languages, but when you sleep, you speak the same language. All over the world the language of dreams is the same. If sex is suppressed, then the same symbols appear in a dream. If the passion for food, the passion for food, hunger is suppressed, then the same symbols appear - or similar symbols. The language of dreams is the same, but there are still problems with dreams because the language is symbolic. And Freud may interpret it one way, Jung another, and Adler some third. And if you are analyzed by a hundred psychoanalysts, there will be a hundred interpretations. You will be even more confused than you were before, more confused by a hundred interpretations of the same thing. Tantra says that neither when you are asleep nor when you are awake are you real. You are real only between these two states. So don't mess with waking or with sleep and dreams. Pay attention to the gap, be aware of the gap between them. Catch a glimpse as you transition from one state to another. And once you know when that gap is, you become its master. You have the key, at any time you can open this gap and enter it. Another dimension of existence opens up, the dimension of the real.
The borderline state is a certain state that almost everyone who practices the so-called "Lucid Dreaming" encounters. This state has quite stable characteristics, so I refer it to one of the levels of the dreaming process.
We can say that this is a state in which a person is at the intersection of the "Lines" of wakefulness, ordinary sleep and dreaming. This can happen for two reasons: natural awakenings in a certain state of sleep and as a result of the practice of dreaming.
Distinctive features of this state:
Difficult to tell if you are asleep or awake.
It is difficult to move the physical body;
The presence of various unusual phenomena.
How does it usually happen?
A person tries to enter the Dreaming from the state of wakefulness. After a while, his consciousness begins to "Float" and fall into a state of drowsiness. Thanks to this floating state, the dreamer can wake up in one of the states of sleep, i.e. - for some time he seems to fall into a dream, and then wakes up again, but after a while, having fallen into a dream, he wakes up already in a dream (as if without fully resurfacing into the waking world.
Usually, it happens like this: during the execution of the dream entry technique, the practitioner falls asleep and his consciousness falls into sleep. But suddenly, at a certain point in time, he realizes that his eyes are open and he observes the usual picture of his bedroom from a prone position. And here, the dreamer may feel that the body is as if numb and difficult to move, or, raising his hands to his face, he may notice that the hands of the sleeping body have remained in their place. It feels like I haven't fallen asleep, but I haven't fully woken up either.
Often in this state, various unusual phenomena begin to occur, for example:
Feeling of pressure on the body;
Someone unfamiliar just stands and watches (acts less often);
The presence of shadows in the room (from amorphous to quite clear in outline);
Various color spots on the interior of the room (as if colored lights);
Incomprehensible noise or voices (as if someone is talking behind the wall);
Animals (may behave aggressively);
The presence of objects that do not correspond to the decor of the room (for example, a small plane may stand in the middle of the room);
Someone enters the room or knocks on the door;
Some of the acquaintances begin to help "Get Out of the Body", or vice versa - to interfere with this;
Other.
I have indicated only some of the phenomena, but there are many options. Much depends on the personal history of the dreamer - his ideas, expectations, fears, etc. The reasons for these phenomena can be different, I spoke about this in part in my article "Frightening Images".
A similar situation is often faced by people who accidentally fall into this state due to sleep paralysis. At the moment, the statistics are such that at least a third of the world's population at least once in their lives fell into this state. So far, this phenomenon has not been fully studied, but we can already confidently say that the state of sleep paralysis is a natural phenomenon and is not a physical or mental pathology.
At the beginning, when you encounter this phenomenon, it seems that the borderline state is a state between sleep and wakefulness. Here, as it were, the characteristics of reality, sleep and the "Out-of-Body State" converge and overlap each other. At the same time, there is a feeling that you are not sleeping and, along with this, there are signs of the manifestation of the "Second Body" and the randomness of random images that are characteristic of ordinary sleep. The state is paradoxical, at first it is very difficult to understand really whether you slept or not.
Later, with practice, a different feeling and understanding of this phenomenon comes. The easiest way to describe this is as a partial “Exit from the Body” (partial separation of the dreaming body. For the main characteristic of this state is the incomplete exit of the dreaming body, its incomplete separation from the sleeping body. And what is interesting is that over time, many unwanted and frightening phenomena go away on their own , often for this a complete separation from the body is enough (which leads to certain thoughts. Now this is perceived as one of the steps in the dreaming process.
Read more articles about the interior of a small apartment
In that moment of sleep, when you are not yet asleep, but you are no longer awake, at that very moment Being is revealed.
There are some vital moments in your consciousness. In these moments you are closer to your center than at any other time. You change "gear" and the moment you change gear you are going through neutral. This neutral position is closer to you. In the morning, when the dream is gone, disappears, and you feel awake, but not yet awake, when you are just in the middle of awakening, you are at “neutral speed”. This moment when you are no longer sleeping, but not yet awake, like once in the middle. You have switched on the neutral speed. In the transition from sleep to wakefulness, your consciousness changes its whole mechanism. It jumps from one mechanism of action to another. There is no other mechanism between these two mechanisms; there is a gap between them. Through this gap you can see some glimpse the same thing happens in the evening when you jump back from the mechanism of being awake to the mechanism of sleep, from conscious to unconscious.For a moment there is no mechanism, there is no pressure of the mechanism on you, because you have to jump from one mechanism to another If you can be aware between these two moments, if you can remember yourself between these two moments, then in You will get some idea of your real nature.
How to perform this technique? When you are about to fall asleep, relax. Close your eyes, curtain the room. Just close your eyes and wait. The dream is coming; just wait, do nothing, just wait! Your body relaxes, your body becomes heavy: feel it. Feel it. Sleep carries its own mechanism, it starts working. Your waking consciousness disappears. Remember, because the moment will be very elusive, the moment will be tiny. If you miss, you miss. It is a very short period - one moment, a very small interval, and the transition from wakefulness to sleep will take place in you. Just wait, remaining fully aware. Keep waiting. This will take some time. This will take at least three months. Only then can you get some hint of the moment that is right in the middle. So don't rush. You can't do it right now; you can't do it right tonight. But you have to start, and you may have to wait a few months.
It usually happens suddenly within three months. It happens every day, but your awareness and meeting with this gap cannot be planned. It happens. You just keep waiting and one day it happens. One day, suddenly, you become aware that you are not awake and you are not sleeping - a very mysterious phenomenon. You may even be afraid because up to now you have only known two states: the waking state and the sleeping state. But you do not know the third state of your being, when you are neither asleep nor awake. When you first experience this state, you may be frightened. Don't be scared. Everything new, something that was not previously known, should cause some fear, because this moment, if you experience it again and again, will give you new sensations too: you will feel neither alive nor dead, nor nor this. This is the abyss.
These two mechanisms are like two hills; you jump from one peak to another. If you stop in the middle, you will fall into an abyss, into an abyss without a bottom: you will go on falling, falling and falling. This technique is used by the Sufis, and before they give this technique to the seekers, they also give another practice, just as a safety measure. Whenever this technique is offered in the Sufi system, another technique is given before it, which is that you close your eyes and imagine that you are falling into a deep well - dark, deep, bottomless. Just imagine falling into a deep well - falling, falling and falling, endlessly falling. There is no bottom, you cannot reach the bottom. Now this fall cannot stop. You can terminate it; you can open your eyes and say “enough”, but this fall cannot stop by itself. If you continue, you will find that the well is bottomless, and it gets darker and darker.
In the Sufi system, this exercise with the well must first be practiced.
- with this bottomless dark well. It's nice and helpful. If you practice this exercise and realize its beauty, its silence, then the deeper you fall into the well, the more silent you will become. The world remains somewhere far away, you feel that you are flying far, far, far away. Silence grows with darkness, and there, in the depths, there is no bottom. Fear takes over your mind, but you know it's just imagination, so you can continue.
Through this exercise you become more accustomed to this technique, but then when you fall into the well between wakefulness and sleep, it is no longer imaginary; this is a true fact. And here, too, there is no bottom, this abyss is bottomless. That is why the Buddha called this empty void shunya. She has no end. Once you know it, you also become infinite. This vision is difficult to obtain while awake. It is impossible, of course, to receive it during sleep, because then the mechanism operates and it is difficult to disidentify oneself from this mechanism. But in the evening and in the morning other states happen - only two such states in twenty-four hours - at such moments these states come very easily, but for this you need to wait.
When we are awake, we are false, and we know it very well. While awake you are insincere, unnatural. You smile when it would be more natural to cry. This falseness continues during your wakefulness, it continues even during your sleep - already in a different form, of course. Your dreams are fictitious, they are not real. It is amazing that even in a dream you are not real, not natural, even in a dream you are afraid and you create images. You are so false that you cannot even have real dreams.
These are our two false faces: one appears when we are awake, the other when we sleep. Between these two false faces there is a very small door, a gap. You can get some idea of your original face in this gap. Get an idea of the face that you had then, when you did not yet communicate with your mother and, therefore, with society. When you were alone with yourself; when you were not this and that; when there was no division. There was only the real; was not unrealistic. You can take a look at this face, this innocent face between these two machines.
Tantra says that you are not real when you are asleep or awake. You are real only between these two states. So don't mess with waking or with sleep and dreams. Pay attention to the gap; be aware of the gap between them. Catch a glimpse as you transition from one state to another. And once you know when that gap is, you become its master. You have the key; at any time you can open this gap and enter it. Another dimension of existence opens up: the dimension of the real.
