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One night, when I was 15, I woke up and looked at my clock, it read 2:30. I fell back asleep, but woke up yet again, realizing I could only open my eyes; my whole body was unable to move. Hundreds of numbers and symbols begin to flash before me, on brownish, tan colored backdrop, non of it i could quite understand. I heard a couple voices, shifted my eyes to the right and saw two or three shadowed figures next to me. I seemed as though they didn't realize I was somewhat conscious, so i lay there still mesmerized by the numbers and symbols. I looked towards my clock and saw it was still 2:30, and finally fell back asleep. I'm not sure if it was just a dream, or if what i saw was true, but I woke up this morning thinking about it, and am very curious. If anyone here has knowledge on the subject, I would greatly appreciate it.

Recently there was some good discussion on OBE and astral travel, and Seth posted about very good free ebook at obe4u.com with good methods. I found a really good article by a Tibetan teacher which talks about dream yoga, the purpose, how the dream state is very effective for dealing with psychological problems and spiritual practice, the steps or stages of dream yoga, and the eventual goal. I think everyone will find this not only interesting but fruitful, whether Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, or whatever. http://www.spiritwatch.ca/abuddhis.htm A Buddhist Perspective on Lucid Dreaming excerpt:

Hi guys, I recently bought the book Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light. Great book by the way. Well I have a question about something that happened to me. Last night I was lying on my back visualizing a letter "A" on my heart chakra that was glowing white light. I felt my self going through depths of consciousness and I got to this one point to where my back arched and my chest puffed out. The more intense I visualized the white light glowing from my heart the more my chest would bring me upward and forward. I got to where the point to where my torso was arched and forward as much as it could go and then my body was shaking intensely. I am 100% sure this was physical and not like some astral body event as I could still feel my bed against my body. Can someone explain what was happening here?

Wondering whether any bums have experience in dream yoga or sleeping qigong? I did dream yoga a couple of weeks as per "Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep". I managed to remember almost all of my dreams and when I think back now I can see my nighttime activities somehow made everything feel more connected. However I couldn't manage to get into a lucid dream, probably because my awareness without the monkey mind chatting is still too weak. Also, I didn't get enough sleep which was tiring overall. What are your experiences? Also, have you tried to fall asleep in a qigong state and maybe getting to a lucid dream? This thread was originally started in the Training Goals thread.

Although most religions view wet dream as unclean or even evil ,they all view it as something insignificant and never give it any important place in their religion . It is only in Taoist alchemy that its importance is identified. As we all know , the cornerstone of Taoist cultivation is qi; yet without having accumulated certain jing ( essence), the refinement of jing into high quality qi is unlikely . However, even a very self-disciplined guy who can behave himself well in daytime, he can't get rid of nocturnal releases in midnight once or twice a month . Because of this , the accumulation of essence in his body seems unlikely , and the upgrading of the quality of his qi is also repeatedly interrupted, seems hopeless. In fact, not all nocturnal release are accompanied by wet dream, but most of them do. From Taoist point of view, wet dream is just a not- yet- purified qi grasping our shen (" spirit") as a means to attain its goal . And, viewing it in a much bigger framework , as an individual had taken a lump of qi from the universe so as to be born and living as an individual , the universe is eager to take it back secretly (from his dream ).So , there is always some flow of qi , some balance between them ; the universe is never in a status of lack of qi .. so somehow immortality is unlikely to come true in any individual case.. Although Western people seem never pay attention to the time that wet dream happen , TCM and Taoism do notice it and carefully study it . They discover that the time most nocturnal release happen is when yin and yang of the day intercourse ...Qi in our body just responds to that much bigger stream of intercourse and sadly be manipulated to do its job.

Hi there, I was just meditating again and my arms starting rising, third, or fourth, time now. This time I called my husband in the room and said "look" and stayed calm and relaxed. It stopped rising but held there about a minute or two and slowly lowered again. My husband doesn't do these meditation with me, he didn't know what to think of this... We had a talk about it, And we where saying if it wasn't for the ridged organized religions that are ran by our governments. Where could we be as human beings, it is a shame. We should all be talking to each other with our minds by now... I just have started my journey. I have along way to go. I have had one OBE, and now this. And some other things. I will not talk about at this time. But this is exciting we should all be excited for humanity... I know there are those of you out there who have advanced your selfs way beyond this. I would love to here some of your experiences, if anyone would like to share. I can say since I have started my work, I feel more together, and calm, and centered. I am an empath, and sensitive. So I took in a lot, and my thoughts would be scattered... This is just what I needed, I am so thankful to God for leading me to this website... So Thank you in advance to each and every friend, and person for your advice, and guidance, that has and will be given... Take care Melanie

I was going to sleep and i imagined i did not have a body or a mind , I stayed a "witness" through the whole time , My entire body began to shake ,I was fighting to stay awake , the more awake i stayed the more stronger the vibrations got .. I felt my body shift to the right but after it went back to the body , when it went back to the body i realized i was dreaming , after i got lost into my fears and anger inside the dream . I woke up again , i tried going back to sleep and i felt my entire body shake. Right now i feel my lower chakra vibrate" I was awake the entire time , even while going to sleep , I want to know why my entire body felt vibrations? ohhhh man i wish i can conquer my fears, one day i will lol!!!!!! I was reading Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche book on dream yoga , And it said nothing about strong vibrations . He just said to remain conscious while going to sleep . He says through strong practice i might attain "clear light dreams"

I'm almost finsihed reading Dreamscape and have also been recording my dreams for the last couple of days. -Was wondering if anyone who records dreams would be willing to share their experiences and the benefits that they recieved from recording and interpreting their dreams?

Anyone out there does sleep time practise traditional/nontraditional,self-tailored?What is it? I want to start awaking in the sleep more ,as i feel it has so much potential and is annoying me to waste too much time in slumber . So if there is anything that works for you,something you found out and dont mind sharing? What about sleeping qigong ,whats that about?Anyone practises it? Thank you, Sun

featuring Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche - one of the monks involved in the groundbreaking project conducted by the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at Wisconsin University to examine the effects of meditation on the brains of advanced meditators. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=793eUxsxOOM&feature=related

So I have been reading a book regarding the Tibetan practice of dream yoga, or what they call 'clear light dreams' which is equivalent to what western psychologists call lucid dreams. I have been interested in the subject of lucid dreaming for awhile, but with only a few books published on the topic directly, I am having to deal with the religious thinking of Tibetan Buddhists to get a concise understanding of dream yoga by adepts. Aside from the Tibetans, I was wondering if this idea of lucid dreaming has been included in the Taoist, Hindu, or other inclusive spiritual practices besides that of the Tibetan.

I read varjahdiya saying that his teacher entered the jhanas when doing dream yoga and I have recently read that one can stay "awake"/aware not only during dreams but also dreamless sleep. Does meditating during sleep give the same benefits as during waking hours? Say that I have already mastered the first jhana awake could I then master the rest only through sleep practice and be able to enter them when awake? If so then that would be amazing because I could add about 7 hours of daily practice. Is it also possible, and if so not unhealthy, to do other stuff when awake in dreamless sleep, like say thinking through what my lecturer said in class that day and repeat french verbs or stuff like that. If so mylearning abilities would undergo a revolution. Just for fun I would then "write" an essay in my head and then write it down the next day. When awake I have sometimes more or less done that with speeches and op-ed pieces and it would be hilarious to have "written" essays in their entirety during sleep just as an experiment. I have noticed that practioners like Santiago and JA MU only sleep about three hours a day and I have seen others here that have cut sleep time by many hours because of cultivation. Is this safe and healthy? Is it like you just don`t sleep anymore if you practice this much or is it like you actually kinda feel like sleeping but if you do some extra rounds of qigong or spend half an hour in Damos Cave you can still manage well? I plan on doing KAP at some point in the future. What normaly happens to sleep time when you practice KAP over several years?

Namaste Friends! I posted this on the AYP forum this morning and thought I would post here as well to get some more "well-rounded" advice. Thanks in advance! Last night I had one of those seemingly "all-nighter" dreams and it brought to the surface some issues for me that I believe need to be addressed. I had a difficult social life for a lot of my childhood....I grew up (for the most part) in a very small farming town (total pop. 3000) in which almost everyone living there had been born there. I moved there halfway through grade 1 and left halfway through grade 9. Because of this (moving into a new town halfway through the year) and the fact that everyone had been friends since birth, I was very much "the outsider" and spent most of my effort trying to "fit in" and feel "accepted". This never really happened for more then a few months at a time. I had "friends" who would plan together to hurt my feelings by doing things that took a co-operative effort and would very much make me continue to feel like the outsider. This pushed me in the direction of trying to fit in in whatever way I could....which ended up causing me to become a bit of a "bad boy" just so that others would not screw with me. I would get into really really violent fights, I became the town drug dealer (even to many of the adults), started having sex at a REALLY young age, etc etc etc..... But this "trauma" has never really been fully dealt with I don't think. It has left me with a near constant need for acceptance, even from those who don't have any influence in my life, and has left me with a predisposition towards being embarrassed. The other side of this is my disposition towards feelings of "inadaquacy". For the most part this is mainly sexually related, but not always. I was fully sexually active from the age of 4. This has caused (probably obviously) some trauma for me (and others as well). By about the age of 12 I had had sex with several different girls, some younger, some older, and I was beginning to get a bit of a reputation as being quite good in bed. This caused the most popular girl in school (at least to me) to decide she wanted to have sex with me. This was completely disasterous for me. I got so mentally excited over this that I ejaculated very very quickly and was unable to satisfy her. This obviously got around my school/town very quickly and from that point on I have had a problem with feelings of sexual (at least) inadaquacy. Well, last night as I said at the beginning, I had a disturbing all-night long dream. This basically was a dream that could be considered my "personal nightmare" combining all the "faults" I feel I have, into one big episode that left me feeling very troubled upon awakening. What I have realized from this is that these are the next two big issues I have to start dealing with. So, my question is this: Do you have any specific suggestions on ways to go about dealing with deeply imbedded childhood trauma? Love, Carson

Consciousness can be very tricky. I saw a movie in which somebody explained how to find out that you are dreaming, in order to control the dream. The clues were unreadable details like the time on the clock or non-functional light switches. Also in the movie, the protagonist later talked to a person in his dream about how it is like to be a dream character. One or two days later, I had a dream. I think it was in a classroom, but unconventional. I talked to the teacher about how my watch is very blurry and unreadable and how this is a clue of being in the dream state, and his clock was blurry, too. But then I tried to switch off the light and it worked ... I think ... not 100% sure. I then woke up and realized I have had a lucid dream. ... But then I woke up and realized that I had been fooled. Pretty weird, isn't it? Not having a lucid dream, but a dream of lucid dreaming. It took me a few minutes to completely realize what had happened. I analyzed my dream and realized that after the dreamt waking-up I thought: "OK, this time I realized that it was a dream, next time I'll try to really gain total control.", so there was no control, thus not really a lucid dream, just typical uncontrollable acting in a dream. P.S.: Hm, this topic might belong to the Tao forum. Admin, please move if you read this!

Hello all, I know there are some folks here who read about Tibet, and other things more than I do. So I just have to ask. I had a dream a while back, at a time when I was focusing on external Iron Body conditioning (Pai Da Gung). I would do a couple of the postures/excercises I was taught for internal Iron Vest, the rub in a little jow, then whack myself, then more jow, and end with a little more standing. Well, I realized that whacking myself into 'Iron' would take forever, and likely be dangerous, as well as possibly futile. But during this time in which I realized what was wrong with my practice, I had a dream in which someone guided me, and showed me some things. Or at least I feel that someone--someone I've never met, was telling me what I needed to look for and do in order to acheive what I was looking for. Basically, in my dream, I was in a place outdoors and there was a man there- He looked like he was of Tibetan descent-with a black mustache and full head of hair. He was chanting--it made no sense, and didn't really seem to be any actual language--it sort of sounded like the way water sounds when you pour water into a half full bucket. It was like-'yodiyodi yodi odi yodl odi' like a sort of blabbering, but purposeful. It had a deep sound to it, and a slight but noticible reverberation. He held his hands in a configuration of sorts. He was communicating with me through his mind-without words. I was aware that he did not speak my language-english. He had me feel his solar plexus, which felt as hard as steel. He was telling me that in order to achieve the skills I was after with Iron Body and Iron Palm I would have to do serious internal work, refining my energy and mind. And that what I was doing was the wrong way, and would get me nowhere. He was wearing a medium toned brown long sleeve shirt and matching pants, no shoes. He then walked over to what resembled a charcoal pit made of stone-no charcoal in it though. It was about 4 feet long, 1&1/2-2 feet wide, and about the same depth. Going across it lengthwise was a central metal collumn, which had sharp spines coming out of it in all directions--they resembled huge thorns. He then hopped unto it with his bare feet, continued his chanting, and after taking a step or two in the huge spikes (each was probably 13 inches long or so) he assumed a horse stance and clasped his hands together in front of himself as if in prayer-eyes open, chanting. He was showing me his lightbody skills-which were rather unbelievable. Then the dream ended. Doe this mean anything to anyone? Have I been contacted by some master in Tibet? Was this my intuition and subconscious mind telling me I need to recconect with myself in order to regain the forgotten power of the mind? Did anything I described sound like something any of you have seen or heard of? Or was it just a cool dream? Thanks- N-

Hi, anyone here knows if there is a Taoist version of Dream Yoga? Just asking. (Maybe we can compare notes; I'm into Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist spiritual practice)

Hello all, I am new here and have just started meditation. Yesterday, I had a vivid dream where I went to the toilet to urinate and as I was standing I began to pee dark thick blood. Anyone else had this one? This was a first for me. ps. I am a man.

Hello all I had a dream describing how you could intesify the big draw practise if doing it in a group of quite many people. If you have people at the same level of practise in a row. Then in front of them another row of people that had reached a higher level in the practise. Then having alot of rows with people at different levels. When doing the big draw toghether the energy from the head should project into the sacrum of some of the people infront of you, shaping a bigger field of energy, and strengthening ewerybody in the group. Could this possible work? Regards Fire Dragon

What would it be like if this forum were to serve as a nidus to help people to feel the spark that causes them to turn the light inside and find their source? What would it be like if that gradually spread, little by little, across the world; liberating tens then hundreds then thousands? Creating a vast revolution or mutation as some have called it, of the mind leading to real and meaningful change! I doubt that I'm the first to have this thought (or even post it) but... How cool would that be?

Hello All, I wonder if anyone has done this Lama's Tibetan Yoga and dream practice? Also maybe Max or Lama Surya Das may know each other or run into each other during there studies in Tibet? This guy seems to have been around for a while teaching Vajrayana and his Tibetan Yoga, is he the real deal seems to be very knowledgable!? WYG http://www.surya.org/ http://www.dzogchen.org/index.htm http://www.dzogchen.org/library/bios/dzogchen-lineage.htm

Hey all, I had an interesting dream last night, and thought it would be cool to start a thread where people could share their dreams and dream experiences. So here goes. Last night before falling asleep I quietly asked to meet any masters that could help me in my spiritual development. Just before waking I had a pretty vivid dream. I met a young middle eastern looking man (younger than me at 32) and instantly we recogmized each other. He said "you probably recognize me from the forums" (I believe he meant tao bums ), "I was the boy who stood all day long.". The standing was standing meditation and I somehow understood that this meant he was naturally talented with meditation from a young age. He said said he had a party to attend but invited me stop by giving me only a street address. I asked which number and he said to just listen for the party. I walk up and down this street in a not so good part of town and find a house with a party, but he is not there and I am not sure if I am at the right party or not. And then........well and then someone knocked on my door and woke me up So there it is. Much better than the dream I had last week where I experienced someone else getting murdered. Maybe more on that another time.

Dream work has been on my to do list for a long time. Unfortunately when I get serious about it, I end up with insomnia. Its also a mountain I'll have to climb one day. Ultimately it can become a portal to another world. Whether that world is 'just' internal or external I don't know. What are you guys doing and how advanced? Michael

In my final semester, I am studying and engaging in dialogue with Taoists, peace activists and educators. I am also keeping a journal of these interactions and studying journal learning. All of this is being studied in relation to my undergraduate work (in holism, peace studies and holistic medicine, or progressive education). So my questions for Tao bums are: Do you keep a journal? If so, briefly explain your experience/s? Resources about this topic? Same for dialogue. Do you engage in effective or global, or inner dialogue (well everyone uses inner dialog, I guess the question, then, is: How often is it conscious?) and what are your experiences of this? How do you feel about dialogue in general? Here is a good one: What are some of the greatest dialogues you have experience or participated in? What are your thoughts about these questions? Thank you for helping my project!!!