Thread: Could Lucid Dreaming be a method for preparing for Death?

Mirai,

I also have studied meditation for over 25 years. The technique I learned was called "soul travel". It was supposed to induce an OBE, but it never did for me. It did seem to open consciousness to a broader awareness. I think that combined with my natural curiosity about dreams. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to stay awake while I fell asleep. I didn't want to lie down, have everything go black, and then wake up again in a dream. I wanted to stay conscious from being up to being in a dream with no interruption. I wanted to watch it happen. I did that every night for many years. I was determined.

I think that same curiousity made me want to be able to do the same thing when I went black at death. If something was going to survive in consciousness at death, then it was already here and I should be able to access it. I wanted to find out what would happen after death, not by reading what other people said, which just seemed to be fairy tales, but by actually eperiencing it.

I have heard it said that the way to move on beyond this world is to move on while still in it. I don't think that is true. I used to always talk to my dad about the afterlife. He said it was a black void, nothingness and that his consciousness would not survive. I said I thought that something continued, but I didn't know what. After he died he came to me in a lucid dream. He was extremely young and vibrant and alive. Younger than in any picture I had ever seen of him, and yet also an adult. He glowed like an angel. All of the burdens of life had been lifted from him. He was joyous and laughing. He only said two things to me. The first was "You were right!" I've never seen him since.

JJ

Originally Posted by Mirai

I have never had a lucid dream, as I am still trying to get my very first one. But I am an avid follower and user of the techniques given to us by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I am a meditater. Google him if you do not know who he is.

I also have had similiar experiences of this "nothing" that many of you have been experiencing, inside my meditation sessions, as well as outside. It really is a nice feeling, quite blissful indeed, but at first it was quite scary. I believe there are many different ways to get to this certain state of consciousness, and that is what it really is I believe. A different state of consciousness that you "elevate" to. Perhaps it brings you closer to death as you are in this state, but I think it brings you closer to enlightenment. Perhaps this can also been seen as a state which is close to death. To not have attachments to anything, to not want or need anything. To just let go. To see your ego get smaller and smaller right before your eyes. It's truly something that can't really be put in words very easily, but has to be experienced to truly understand it. Quite amazing indeed.

Havago,

It seems from my experience that attachments to the things of this world, especially ego, keep our world small. Small is all the ego can handle. As I came to realize that the ego was just a silly game, i stopped playing. It kept tricking me to get me back, but I gradually unravelled a lot of it.

It seems that without that specific anchor that my consciousness soared. Instead of using my life energy to hold on, I let everything go. It was completely terrifying, but only to ego. Another part of me seemed to enjoy it. So I kept identifying with the part of me that felt the bliss. That seems to be the part that becomes everything.

JJ

Originally Posted by havago

Ok, JJ

I will do this as I fall aseep.

***

But if I stay and feel the fear of dissolution, instead of becoming nothing, it seems that I become everything.

***

Some one (a Buddhist friend) said that every time we sleep we move through all the .... anyway, a person enters ... extinction.

The trick is to let it happen consciously. Like what you said:

And being conscious through the (nightly) extinction sleep phase is ... enlightenment.

So

Humans get the opportunity to die every night. They do die (become extinct) every night. It's a chance for total Enlightenment every night.... The opportunity for Permanent Liberation 365 times, every year, that they live.

Thank you, JJFrank

Nomad,

I find myself silently saying "please let me die" every day. I don't know who I am saying it to. It just bubbles up out of me. This has been happening for years.

I am not in pain. I am not suffering. Nomad, is your pain physical? Or is it existential suffering? I feel that death would be a joy, a relief, a pleasure. It seems that I should be able to float effortlessly into it and not come back. But every day I wake up in bed. That is usually when the voice bubbles up.

I keep asking "Is there someone who needs me to stay?" "Is there something I need to do before I can go?"

I find it unpleasant to kill myself, just the same as I would not want to kill another. I think there must be another way out. Haven't found it yet.

JJ

Originally Posted by WakingNomad

Dream Yoga is about preparing for death, the Long Sleep, (or Long Dream!) I sometimes want to die because I know I will be free of this chronic pain I feel every second of my life for the past three years or so. I don't want to kill myself, or hurt anyone, I just want to exit. I see death as the opposite of birth. When we die, we live again on the Dream Plane, and can reincarnate if we choose. maybe.

JJFrank,

I have never heard of "soul travel" before, I'll be sure to look it up. But I think your curiosity about dreams and the afterlife is really what puts you ahead of most people. When you are determined to find the answer to something, you will find it eventually!

Seeing your dad in one of your lucid dreams, all vibrant and alive made me wonder. Perhaps when you are in the afterlife, your "soul" goes to a period of your life where you were I guess "happy" or had reached a point where you no longer feel the need to have attachments. But you still carry on looking like the person everyone knows and loves. Just more glowing and alive as you said. But if someone had never reached a point like that in their life, I guess perhaps they reach that state once they enter the afterlife. I don't really have a clue, I probably won't for quite some time!

But the fact that you actually saw him in this state, and he came to you in a Lucid Dream is just truly amazing! I guess he just wanted to say one last goodbye before he continued on. Thanks for sharing JJFrank!

-Mirai

Originally Posted by JJFrank

Mirai,

I also have studied meditation for over 25 years. The technique I learned was called "soul travel". It was supposed to induce an OBE, but it never did for me. It did seem to open consciousness to a broader awareness. I think that combined with my natural curiosity about dreams. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to stay awake while I fell asleep. I didn't want to lie down, have everything go black, and then wake up again in a dream. I wanted to stay conscious from being up to being in a dream with no interruption. I wanted to watch it happen. I did that every night for many years. I was determined.

I think that same curiousity made me want to be able to do the same thing when I went black at death. If something was going to survive in consciousness at death, then it was already here and I should be able to access it. I wanted to find out what would happen after death, not by reading what other people said, which just seemed to be fairy tales, but by actually eperiencing it.

I have heard it said that the way to move on beyond this world is to move on while still in it. I don't think that is true. I used to always talk to my dad about the afterlife. He said it was a black void, nothingness and that his consciousness would not survive. I said I thought that something continued, but I didn't know what. After he died he came to me in a lucid dream. He was extremely young and vibrant and alive. Younger than in any picture I had ever seen of him, and yet also an adult. He glowed like an angel. All of the burdens of life had been lifted from him. He was joyous and laughing. He only said two things to me. The first was "You were right!" I've never seen him since.

JJ

JJ:

Per Nomad's suggestion, have you ever looked into sleep yoga?

Though it may be similar to the "soul travel" meditation you described, sleep yoga is more focused on the unique conscious state that lucid dreaming generates, and may be a helpful bridge for you.

If you are interested, the first step is dream yoga, because it helps get your mind in the right place for sleep yoga's challenges. If you're interested, Sivason did a dream yoga class here at the DV acadamy.

If you've already explored sleep yoga, then never mind; I just figured it was worth mentioning. Good luck!

Thanks, Sageous,

No I have no heard of dream yoga. Or sleep yoga

I actually thought Nomad was using the term "yoga" as in "a regular practice". I didn't look up "dream yoga" but will do so now.

JJ

Originally Posted by Sageous

JJ:

Per Nomad's suggestion, have you ever looked into sleep yoga?

Though it may be similar to the "soul travel" meditation you described, sleep yoga is more focused on the unique conscious state that lucid dreaming generates, and may be a helpful bridge for you.

If you are interested, the first step is dream yoga, because it helps get your mind in the right place for sleep yoga's challenges. If you're interested, Sivason did a dream yoga class here at the DV acadamy.

If you've already explored sleep yoga, then never mind; I just figured it was worth mentioning. Good luck!

Originally Posted by JJFrank

Snoop,

Is the "pink elephant" a metaphor for death?

Since I feel I have attained some conscious control over dreaming and the maintenence of the illusion of personality, I would consider it irresponsible to NOT cntrol the experience of death. To me, that would be like not controlling what I eat of wat I watch on TV. I will definitely determine the time and method of my release from this body. Why wouldn't I? If not me, then what? Suffering terminal disease? Having others take care of my decrepit body with its senile mind?

JJ

Sorry for the late response. The pink elephant is a metaphor for any anxiety really, it was just easier to explain that way.

Originally Posted by JJFrank

Nomad,

I find myself silently saying "please let me die" every day. I don't know who I am saying it to. It just bubbles up out of me. This has been happening for years.

I am not in pain. I am not suffering. Nomad, is your pain physical? Or is it existential suffering? I feel that death would be a joy, a relief, a pleasure. It seems that I should be able to float effortlessly into it and not come back. But every day I wake up in bed. That is usually when the voice bubbles up.

I keep asking "Is there someone who needs me to stay?" "Is there something I need to do before I can go?"

I find it unpleasant to kill myself, just the same as I would not want to kill another. I think there must be another way out. Haven't found it yet.

JJ

I don't think that the ego is bad, I think it is necesary to live in this world, to conect with the physical and let it influence your core. Involving yourself with your ego is a part of what this life is about, separating totally from your ego is like living in an zombie state.

The ego is a tool for you to live life more fully, to believe everything happening here is real. The thing is, don't confuse yourself with your ego, you are more than your ego, the ego can evolve in parallel with your conciousness and understanding. But when you think you really know who you are, your ego in fear is trying to define who you are, so it doesn't dissapear, so it doesn't die. Theres always more to learn about yourself, different ways of being and aspects of yourself.

There's something I don't like about this society, they say never change, if they see someone that's not used to certain way of being, for example a nerd guy trying to be outgoing, they say he's being fake... that's not who he is... People like to limit others, because they believe it's easier to understand and predict what others do and at the same time they believe that their own established ego will be more real, that they know who they are.

I agree. Since the ego is completely made up, then why can't it be anything we want it to be? And why can't it change whenever we want to change it?

But I am not sure that we are anything other than 1. a physical body, and 2. an ego created in the complex mind of that body. What evidence do you have that there is anything more? Can you be sure that perceptions of anything else are not merely creations of that mind, just as it created the ego and as it creates dreams?

JJ

Originally Posted by mowglycdb

I don't think that the ego is bad, I think it is necesary to live in this world, to conect with the physical and let it influence your core. Involving yourself with your ego is a part of what this life is about, separating totally from your ego is like living in an zombie state.

The ego is a tool for you to live life more fully, to believe everything happening here is real. The thing is, don't confuse yourself with your ego, you are more than your ego, the ego can evolve in parallel with your conciousness and understanding. But when you think you really know who you are, your ego in fear is trying to define who you are, so it doesn't dissapear, so it doesn't die. Theres always more to learn about yourself, different ways of being and aspects of yourself.

There's something I don't like about this society, they say never change, if they see someone that's not used to certain way of being, for example a nerd guy trying to be outgoing, they say he's being fake... that's not who he is... People like to limit others, because they believe it's easier to understand and predict what others do and at the same time they believe that their own established ego will be more real, that they know who they are.

No evidence whatsoever, it's just a hunch and believing that the soul and spirit exist. Maybe there's no way to know the difference. I see ( I hope) the ego more like a tool that interconects your soul, spirit with the physical. Some people's ego's break and they go crazy, the construct to interact with the physical is faulty because it doesn't let their souls/spirits express themselves through the physical.
Soul/Spirit can suffer in the measure that they're being conected with events that don't let them be theirselves (express their/your feelings), if the construct is less favorable for the soul/spirit there will be less conection with the soul-ego and consequentially conciousness.

I think that evolution not only seeks for survival, but to make physical forms evolve in a way where souls/spirits can express themselves fully. I know it sounds strange but that's what I believe/hope to believe is true.