Meditation and Dreams: Share your experience

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

A Wise Man once told me that in dreams, we (the soul) gets dissociated from the physical body and moves around. Once I fell asleep while trying to meditate. While meditating, I was in savasana (the corpse posture); ie, lying down, very relaxed all over the body, all muscles loose... no worry left in the mind... a certain feeling creeps in the brain like it is being washed with cold water. It is better than real sleep, as the body and mind are both relaxed.

Anyway, I fell asleep and entered a dreaming state. I saw the exact room, the mat I use for yoga, there was light in the room. I was floating midway in the air. As I looked down, I saw ME, lying spread eagled below! I looked back at my own face from above and wondered, "I am dreaming". Then I tried to float out of the window, into the outside world. But something was pulling me back into the room. Soon I was sucked back into the flesh body lying on the mat. And I woke up.
This dream made me rethink a lot of my fixed notions, and I dont consider this a false imagination of the mind. It was too realistic and philosophical.

Sesame, I have read about others that experienced this same thing. It must feel quite eerie upon waking and then remembering an out of body exprience. What were your conscious thoughts and feelings upon realizing that you had such an out of body experience?

[sesame]

Originally Posted by ila

Sesame, I have read about others that experienced this same thing. It must feel quite eerie upon waking and then remembering an out of body exprience. What were your conscious thoughts and feelings upon realizing that you had such an out of body experience?

ila, it felt great. Strange, unfamiliar, but thrilling. I want it to happen again and again. The reason behind such a wish is... people are accustomed to most phenomena of the known world. As as the years go by, they gradually become bored and tired of having the same experiences again and again. Its much like a broken record playing away the same tune. So when we face some hitherto unfamiliar phenomenon, we may feel fear, trauma, revolt... whatever, but still get attracted to it at the same time. Thrill, romance, twist, amazement... give us the punch we need to emotionally rejuvenate.

Another time another dream. This time I was consciously trying to get an experience for days. But everytime I fell asleep, I dreamt of silly, irrelevant things. This time, I had recently read Carlos Castaneda's "Journey to Ixtlan" and wanted to look at any part of my body in my dream.

This dream only lasted for 10 minutes. Ok, here goes:
I was sleeping on my bed. In my dream also, I "woke up" in my bed. I turned around and looked below. I saw the exact tint and design of the bed sheet. I couldn't see my face or the rest of my body, it was like "out of focus". But I saw my right hand! It was there... green in colour... glowing with radiant green energy.
I looked at it again and again. I was (say) 2 feet above bed hanging in mid-air in a horizontal position. I was unaware of my dream body. I was just looking. Then, I was outside in an instant, & I didnt know how I got there. I saw the road glittering with electric lights. I was moving through the trees that bordered the road. The leafy parts of the trees were foggy. As I moved ahead through the trees, I felt like passing through the same greenish cloud that constituted my hand.
The next thing was a yank and I woke up in my old bed!

[sesame]

Ok, this one is of a more serious nature. Altered state can be brought about not only be drugs, but also by intense meditation... and incantations. I want to relate about one of my own experiences brought about by Vedic incantations.
A powerful Holyman out of sheer kindness taught me an incantation. I checked out the Sanskrit verses and considered the incantation or mantra to be incorrect from a grammatical sense. All my life I had been a doubting ass . Anyway, after six years, out of desperation to catch a glimpse of the astral world, I decided to try out the mantra. I arranged for a clean empty room, sat down for japa (repeated incantation) on a clean blanket upon the floor. I faced East as prescribed. I started at 12 midnight and completed 6000 incantations by sunrise. During the incantations, my mind became quite empty, only the mantra could be heard inside my head. I repeated this for 3 days and nothing extra-ordinary happened during the sessions. I was pretty frustrated and blamed the faulty mantra (and the ignorance of its sourse, the Holyman) for my failure. As tradition commands, the Yogi should go on practicing with unswerving faith and concentration, without giving a single thought to success or failure. :D That is so... not easy!
Anyway, on the dawn of the sixth day, a really peculiar thing happened. I had completed the incantation for the night, and was putting things back to places... cleaning up the room. Then I laid down for the some rest. Suddenly an irregular blotch of white light came out of the wall and headed straight for me. All my strength vanished, muscles all over my body stopped obeying my frantic commands... I was paralysed and helpless... to top it all, my breathing stopped! Only my eyes worked, I looked fixedly at the light and started to ask for help with the same incantation. The light passed slowly over me and entered the opposite wall. Slowly my breath returned, then after two minutes, I could move my hands and feet.

Inference: Due to the incessant repetition of the mantra for long hours at a stretch, which is not a normal human behavor, my mind slowly entered an altered state. On the sixth day, I became conscious of some form of energy and that trauma pushed my bodily functions to a shutdown, temporarily. After that, I stopped the practice and never again witnessed such a light.

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

Inference: Due to the incessant repetition of the mantra for long hours at a stretch, which is not a normal human behavor, my mind slowly entered an altered state. On the sixth day, I became conscious of some form of energy and that trauma pushed my bodily functions to a shutdown, temporarily. After that, I stopped the practice and never again witnessed such a light.

But isn't the idea behind meditation and reptition of a mantra for the mind to enter an altered state? Could it be that the mantra really was faulty and that caused your bad experience? Or perhaps you were trying too hard or expecting too much and pushed your mind to an altered state that it was not prepared for?

[sesame]

Personally, I think, the experience was neither good, nor bad but above such things. Its an astral experience in the physical plane. That is very rare. The light actually materialised in the physical plane and I felt it with my whole body.
I was unprepared for such an experience, so I freaked out. May be I will try it again; this time I wont get traumatised :D

About the mantra: I have observed that there are many mantras in dialects or root syllables that work perfectly. These are all grammatically flawed. How do they work then?
Actually a mantra is simply a vessel of sound that contains the power of the Seer who utters them. If the Seer has power, the mantra performs what it is designed for. Mantras dont work for the doubtful.
Shraddha-vaan Labhate Gyanam = those who have faith attain wisdom.

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

If the Seer has power, the mantra performs what it is designed for. Mantras dont work for the doubtful.
Shraddha-vaan Labhate Gyanam = those who have faith attain wisdom.

Or is this just a teaching method to get the pupil to try harder?

[sesame]

Of course there is a catch for the sceptic. But I dont think real effort is ever wasted. He who is above everything takes care of that.

[mop5]

can i know you

[mop5]

can i know you

[sesame]

I just found this marvelous piece of work.
The whole Patanjali's Yoga Sutras translated by Adept Yogi Swami Vivekananda himself! Nothing can be better. Its so much better and insightful than inexperienced scholars trying to find the meanings of the sutras by guesswork! Now I have someone who has walked the full length of the path.

Here is the link: RAJA YOGA

The Yoga Sutras start on pagecount 97/230 of the ipaper.