Meditating In Dreams

[Justin Evans]

This topic came to me by accident, because I accidently had two profound experiences (a taste of enlightenment) within three weeks! I have to give the credit to the dreams. There is something powerful about dreams that allows your mind to be more open and sensitive to meditative exercises. However, there is always the posibility of dillusion.

What do you think? Do you think that it's legitimate or is this an easy trap to believe that dreams could be a catalyst for meditation and for experiencing samples of enlightment? I want to share two of those profound experiences to you and would love to hear your opinions or your own dream experiences.

1. (The first and most profound one)

I had a dream about a classroom exercise. It sounds pretty lame haha. Basically it was like a game of tag, but when you get tagged, you had to label your sensations and surroundings, and you have to speak whatever comes to your mind. Basically it was like accidently doing Leo's mindfulness labeling. I got tagged, I started yelling things like, soft, tree, my teacher's cute, grass, warm, then I spontaneously said out of nowhere "I created everything." As soon as that happened. My body felt like it was moving at the speed of light, I "woke up" (probably was still in my dream state), and all of my sensory was amplified to a level I couldn't handle. I usually sleep with my head under the covers, but I could see through the covers, I KNEW through the covers. I felt like something other than me was making me sit up, with the covers over my head in shock, all I could do was stare down my living room hallway. I could see the end of the hallway, but it felt like between me and the end, there was an endless degree of distance. Our white noise fan sounded equivalent to a jet engine, but take that contrast and apply it to every sense in my body and senses I didn't even know I had. I felt like I had an intuitive feeling of knowing everything without explanation.  I also had some strange visual effects like what you would think of like a "line box reality" in the matrix, except it was like particles flying past me. It was amazing, but also horrifying, it felt like I was choking on the sensations of reality and because of that I woke up. It was a dream, but felt more real than reality has ever felt for me in my life. As soon as I woke up, I grabbed my phone to record sound of the fan in my living room and edited it with garage band to the best match I could to the amplification of my dream. I listened to it and cried for half an hour. 

Interpretation:  it is possible that I watch so many of Leo's videos that it was just manifested into to some dream. However, I believe this is my first possible "sample" of experiencing the absolute infinite, totally has taken my meditation to the next level of seriousness and motivation, and finally getting that tangible subjective evidence of turning the theory of enlightenment into practice. 

 

2. (Less profound and happened today)

I was in a dream that was trying to achieve/solve some insanely difficult and imposible problem or task (which I unfortunately can't remember specifically). It caused me a lot of emotional suffering and frustration in the process, I couldn't solve it. A man told me basically to "let go" in order to solve the problem.  I took it with a grain of salt at first, but finally entertained the suggestion and totally let go of the problem. As soon as this happened, my body began to feel like I was traveling the speed of light again, however this time it was in the context of traveling through a wormhole. This experience was much more visual than the first dream. The wormhole was made up of daily objects that you would usually see, however there was millions of the same thing. Pretty strange! The biggest example of this was that I saw my own face, but there was trillions of my own face. I was in shock, the only thing I could say was "walk into the light," over and over and over. I was in this state for a long time, just observing and repeating walk into the light. I eventually thought to myself, remember this is only phenomena, as soon as I said that, that feeling of the "speed of light" travel slowed down to an eventual complete stop and stillness, which I then woke up.

Interpretation: although the visuals of this dream appears to be very odd and limited in meaning, there was an indescribable intuitive feeling that this wormhole must of had something to do with different realities. The trillions of my own face as an example I think had to do with the fact that there are trillions of different possible versions of me that exist or could exist at this very moment. I didn't feel like God, I didn't feel like I created all of those possibilities, but it felt like another taste of the infinite regarding all possible realities in a more visual manner. 

 

Conclusion: I am definitely going to try consciously meditating in my dreams by setting an intention every night before I go to sleep to experiment with this new arsenal of tools. And I will share my results with y'all in the future

What do y'all think? Is it legit or dillusion when it has to do with your dreams? Have you had any experiences with this?

Edited June 4, 2017 by Justin Evans

[starsofclay]

@Justin Evans I have had "astral projections" within a dream. The sensations are kind of hard to describe, but include being ripped from my body and thrown several feet or long distances. These dreams aren't lucid so I always end up thinking "Oh my god, I'm actually doing it! I finally had an OBE!" But it always just turns out to be just a dream. 

I had a question, do you lucid dream? I think being lucid in a dream and then intentionally sitting or laying down to meditate within the dream would be an interesting experience. I feel like the mind would open up way more than what we are used to experiencing. Although what you have described which came spontaneously in your dreams is really cool too. 

I think dreams are pretty mind-blowing. Our own little pocket-reality where we literally create everything we see. Once you realize that, it kind of puts a new light on this waking reality. 

[Justin Evans]

@starsofclay Thanks for sharing your experience. I have had so many new unbelievable experiences in the last couple of months and they have became so common that I have at least 2 a week, and hopefully from these experiences I can answer your question.

So, lucid dream, regular dreaming, OBEs? They really begin to blur together, because you start question if "reality" is as temporary and shifting as your dreams. The common pattern I have discovered is that meditation experiences in dreams are like lucid dreams, but take it up about 10 notches. So instead of realizing you are in a dream. You learn insights in your dream that apply exactly the same as it would in "reality." When you learn that insight, you instantly get in an extreme meditation state, you can feel vibrations, reality crumbles, feels like your going through a wormhole, or you cease to exist. Here are a couple of other factors that I noticed have resulted in such experiences:

Going out of my way to help a friend for a whole day, maybe its something about letting things go that effects your dream later.

Being out in the sun for a long time.

Talking about it a lot, forcing yourself to articulate it, getting excited about it, etc. 

The most important: Questioning reality via self inquiry when you are awake and especially doing it an hour or two before bed. Learning to self inquiry and be mindful will create a habit, which eventually will bring that same habit to your dreams. 

Here is an example of one that happened last night:

Basically, I had a dream I was hanging out with all of my friends, we where chattering, talking about drama, etc. Instead of realizing I was in a dream, I had a realization (intuitive) that every voice that I heard was actually being created by me, and that every argument I was hearing or interacting with was all me. From that insight, I instantly shifted into a meditative like state, which it feels like you are going through a wormhole. Until eventually I woke up after a while. 

Lastly, I agree with you that dreams makes you open minded. I would love to hear what ends up arising for you in the future.