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    Thread: Advanced Skill #1: Suppressing Emerging Thoughts.

    1. #1
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      Advanced Skill #1: Suppressing Emerging Thoughts.

      This is perhaps one of the most advanced of yogic activities. In my own opinion it is far harder than anything I have presented so far. It is often the stated goal of many schools of meditation. The truth is that even after decades of practice I have a long way to go to suppress all thought for more than a minute or so.



      The good news is that you do not need to master this skill to use it in lucid dreaming!


      If you get good at the basic concepts involved it will greatly improve your control over the random elements of your LD.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:14 AM.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      The way it works requires understanding why random crazy things take place in your dreams.

      In a normal (not shared/astral) dream, every element comes from thoughts you have had. You do not have acute enough awareness to detect the thoughts without training, in most cases.

      The thoughts can be subtle doubts you have in your ability, wandering thoughts about movies you have seen, or random crazy nonsense.

      When you are dreaming any random thought can derail the course you wish to set, manifesting into any number of stumbling blocks. Any doubt you allow to be expressed as thought can prevent you from using super powers.

      The purpose in this lesson is first to develop the ability to detect a forming thought before it can take place as internal monologue. Then to give you tools you can use to suppress emerging thoughts. After getting some skill at this while awake, you will then be able to use the skill in an LD to prevent DCs from appearing or interacting with you, and prevent random plot twists and events.

      You will likely sometimes choose to allow the dream to be random for self-reflection or entertainment value. However, if you are attempting to practice a skill or complete a task, it is important to prevent the random elements from derailing the flow of the dream.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:17 AM.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      The actual lesson is pretty short; the path to achieving the goal is a many year journey, but you are all planning on lucid dreaming the rest of your life, aren’t you. If you get good at suppressing emerging thoughts, then you will be able to increase your control by many degrees.

      Here is a portion of one of my recent lucids where I was able to use this ability twice, and as you will see, a great deal of my control stems from using this skill.


      Quote Originally Posted by sivason View Post
      I decided to play with a female DC. I was not feeling sexual, but to accomplish a quick and pleasant dream control task, this seemed like a reasonable task. I flew up alongside a sky scraper and knew there would be people inside. I saw into an office and focused on a DC that was a woman at a desk. Not especially pretty, but that is easy to change. I phased through the side of the building into a hall/stairwell and then walked into the office. The DCs had little animation and were almost just my puppets, but that was ok (I was preventing them from interacting with this skill). I went to the woman and gently placed my hands on her sides and encouraged her to stand. She responded to light pressure from my hands and walked with me back out into the hall. My brain tried to spice things up by placing two male coworkers there who would have tried to stop me. I saw the formation of the idea, and used mental control to prevent the thought from developing. The DCs just froze into scenery. I took the woman out onto a balcony and tried to take her flying. I floated out between the buildings with her, but my mind tried to tell me levitation is harder if you carry someone. We started to float downward. I suppressed that thought and up we went again, but I decided just to land on the next building.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      Step 1: Become familiar with how quickly thoughts form. Sit and watch the hands of a clock. You will do this only 15 seconds at a time. Try to avoid any thoughts by saying the number corresponding to the second hand in your head. It is unlikely that while awake you will make it to 15 without a thought forming. Work on this until you can get from 1 to 15 with only a single interrupting thought. You must stop thinking about whatever the thought is, as quickly as possible by focusing on the next number. You will notice that despite using your inner monologue to count, you still can form thoughts. In this part of the lesson I simply want you to experience how quickly you get interrupted by a random thought and increase the speed with which you can suppress that thought by focusing on the clock and the next number. You can move on as soon as you can only have 1 random thought in the 15 seconds and refocus on the clock before the 15 seconds expires.

      You may still attempt the next steps before you achieve that goal, but also keep working on this until the goal is met. You may need to almost yell the next number inside your head at first to over-ride the random thought. If you can stay focused on the counting and avoid thinking at all for the whole 15 seconds, then give yourself a hand. Even 15 seconds without thinking, while using the crutch of counting, is a great accomplishment.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:11 AM.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      Step 2: Spend a couple minutes doing the “Be here now” meditation. It is described in an earlier lesson. Simply interrupt any random thought that does not apply to things you are experiencing with your sensory awareness, by using your internal voice to narrate what you are seeing or experiencing. If you start to think about your job, then force your mind into describing or commenting on something taking place at the moment.


      It will go kind of like this (I will underline the thoughts that are to be avoided),,, “I really need to get new shoes”…. Interrupt with “These shoes are worn out. The laces are almost broken. I probably should get some boots.” Interrupt this with, ”I see little fibers sticking out where the laces are frayed.:”
      In this step you are spending time seeing how quickly you can identify a thought that is random. You should work on being able to distinguish the first hint of an off topic thought, and then interrupt the formation of the thought. In the case of the thought "I probably should get some boots" some process will have led to that thought. It may have been a flash of memory about stepping in mud, or an image forming in the mind's eye of a boot. The image of the boot is one step before the formation of the thought, but the recognition of a flash of memory would have been even before the image. Note that this is taking place in fractions of a second.

      Here is a very important thing to clarify. You must get to the point when you recognize that a thought is forming while it is still subtle imagery somewhere in your mind’s eye, before it becomes internal speech. You can do this with practice. All thoughts have a moment when they are emerging, yet have not reached the stage of being fully expressed as language internally.
      Step 2 should be practiced as long as it takes (months even) for you to start recognizing the very earliest part of your brains workings that lead to a formed thought.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:22 AM.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      Do steps 3-5 in a meditation state or while falling asleep, until you have developed confidence, then try them while external stimuli is happening (such as riding the bus.)

      Step 3: Repeat a simple mantra that has a basic meaning to you inside your head. I often use the phrase “Thank You” or “I am dreaming.” Attempt to stay focused on the mantra. If a thought forms, see how quickly you can interrupt it by refocusing on the mantra.

      Step 4: Take away the advantage of suppressing a thought with a concept. Sit and try not to think at all. When a thought arises, attempt to interrupt it with a non-sense sound in your internal voice. Use a sound that is completely meaningless to you. Examples are the sound of your tongue clicking, the sound of a single letter such a ‘s’ or ‘p.’ Any sound can work as long as it has virtually no meaning to you.

      Remember that in the end you cannot stop thinking, by thinking about it!

      Step 5: Remove the advantage of using your internal voice to interrupt the emerging thoughts. Do this by learning any of the intermediate lessons and using a simulated sensory experience instead of your internal voice. If you can get to a point where you can simulate motion or the flow of energy, it can be used to suppress the forming thoughts. I can create a sense of pressure gently pushing from the inside of my head out. When a thought attempts to form I can use the sensory experience of gently applying pressure to the portion of the brain that seems to contain the bud of the thought. Another method would be using the simulation of energy flow. You can pulse energy out your palm to cause enough sensory experience to interrupt the formation of the thought.


      Step 5 is very advanced and may take decades to perfect. I do believe some yogi or monks may be able to reach a step beyond suppression of thought. Perhaps they can reach a point where they just shut down the process that forms thought. However, I have never met anyone who claims to be at that level, and considering it has taken me 30 years to get kind of good at level 5, it is likely beyond attainment for most people.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:26 AM.
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      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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      Do not worry about reaching any given skill level. Just reaching a point where you can witness the earliest stage of thought formation will allow you to avoid irritating DCs and random events more often than not.
      Last edited by Sivason; 01-03-2013 at 05:26 AM.
      Peace Be With You. Oh, and sure, The Force too, why not.



      "Instruction in Dream Yoga"

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