My mother’s not going to like this.
I’ve blogged already about the audio recording I made which contains the state of deep sleep. The enthusiasm of purchasers suggests that states of being – like sleep – are easily conveyed through audio recordings.
As I continue to hear more and more feedback, I’m realizing that BOTH the state of deep sleep AND the state of conscious awareness are present on that recording. This makes sense to me since I was both asleep and awake when I made it.
While this might sound odd to you, this combo experience is what sleep is like for me now.
While you might prefer sleep the old-fashioned way, I find it very practical and delicious to be awake while I sleep. Unlike most people I can plan a menu or mentally compose a blog post during that time. And I know how exquisitely relaxed my body feels while it is sound asleep.
Apparently this isn’t just part of my wierdness. I recently discovered that this is an advanced yogic state highly sought-after by the yoga crowd.
Who knew?
Its called Yoga Nidra or ‘Conscious Deep Sleep’ and is described by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati as “one of the deepest of all meditations, leading awareness through many levels of mental process to a state of supreme stillness and insight…. you leave the Waking state, go past the Dreaming state and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake.”
Kewl…
The ironic part of this for me is that I tried yoga lessons once.
For some reason I was deemed an unsuitable participant and encouraged to withdraw. I didn’t realize until today that I’ve apparently continued to practice yoga on my own.
Anyway, this new information is interesting and I’m trying to decide how to ‘market’ this recording now.
If you have any ideas, I’m all ears…
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, Wendy!
I think your blog post pretty much points the way to marketing this. If I, who have no trouble sleeping could have the experience of deep refreshing sleep while also have a part of myself fully awake, I would purchase the recording. Yoga Nidra without the practice. Or shortcut to lucid dreaming? Probably other things that we don’t even think of. Really curious about audio recording listeners’ more detailed feedback.
Is this similar to Theta state? In deep trance hypnosis I have heard of similar things happening. Sounds very cool Wendy.
Well, the presence of the theta state on the recording may explain the fact that some people fall soundly asleep while others feel their bodies fall asleep while remaining conscious.
Hypnotist Dr. Laura de Giorgio says this:
“a person without any mind training will tend to fall asleep when getting into theta state, while a person who has undergone some form of meditative mind-training will be able to be very deeply relaxed, yet conscious.”
I could see this being useful to those of us who swear they don’t have enough time in their day to get more accomplished.
Imagine the idea of having and being able to utilize your laser sharp focus and being totally present in your tasks during the day and then use your mind for other tasks,thoughts, and planning while your body is totally relaxing and resting. That totally makes me think that I can begin to accomplish more and more.
It’s like you’d could truly be totally present at all times knowing you can let your mind take care of the other stuff while you’re body is resting.