What would happen if...

I have not tried this, but I don’t think it is possible to stop thinking, it is possible to focus on one thing but not stop the entire process again, and as technodreamer said, if you did you wouldn’t be able to think again and you would die

You have to see it as gaining FULL control over your mental processes, mainly thought. You have gained the power to switch your thoughts on and off. It’s hard to comprehend if you haven’t learned it yourself I guess. I don’t think you’ll die; as soon as you have the power to switch off your thoughts, at the same time you also have the power the switch them on again. It’s a weird feeling though: you feel totally empty and crystal clear.
But as Helcorax said, there are many belief systems (especially buddhist and taoist systems; I don’t know about TM though) in which controlling your thoughts is the BASIC requisite before you can do other exercises properly.

What if you were to decide to die in a lucid dream? I wonder if you can do that? I think that’d be pretty rad, because I always hoped that I would die in my sleep.

Sure it’s possible to die in a LD. Whatever happens then depends highly on your personal mental attitude towards “dying in a LD”.

There was a topic about this:

part I
part II

some interesting posts. I was more thinking like you’re lucid in your dream and you say

“Stop heartbeat now.”

and you die for real. I figure that would be a slightly easier shift into the after life than… say… a freak blender accident?

I have decided to die in dreams before. It was actually a peacful experience and becuase of this I can actually stay calm even in life threatening situations

If you are really, really far in controlling your own mind etc., I really think it is possible to experience an NDE, or even induce your own death. Only thing you have to do, is have control of your own mind.

JJJ

Hehe definitely yes :smile: Still, according to current insights in lucid dreaming this is impossible. A dream is simply a projection of mental activity. The only heartbeat you’re able to stop is the one of your illusionary dream ego. However, there are several theories which define a certain physiological impact of dream actions on the waking body. But those supposedly are only minor influences and the results are noticeable in the long term, through lots of LDs (otherwise LDs can become quite a dangerous experience if not treated properly). But even then, it’s only a theory and the possible physiological effects of LDing on the body is a highly controversial topic amongst traditional sleep scientists. Even if it would be possible, stopping your heartbeat irl through mental concentration during one LD needs an incredible amount of mental energy, strength and concentration. Perhaps yogis are capable of doing this. I don’t know…

Well, if it’s that easy, we’d be all gone by then. It’s not made that way to be easy for all of us. Of course. With an extreme trained mind like yogis, they can do it. It’s possible, I believe, but you have to really know what to do and have a strong mind like a yogi. Also it’s not a good idea to expire your life prematurely. :razz:

But anyways, it’s possible… yogis do that all the time, that’s for sure. They’re capable of doing it.

One purpose of dream yoga is in fact to stop dreaming. At first dream yogis develop LDing; they use LDs to realize the illusionary nature of dreamscapes. Then they transform and morph their dreams (including dream bodies) in every possible way, until they transcend them and the dreaming becomes unnecessary. In the end dreaming has become completely superfluous and can be stopped. I’m not sure, but they probably do this by calming their mind until it’s completely flat and empty.
I wonder how it feels, to stop dreaming. Jeff probably knows this :wink:

Well…controlling is one thing stopping the process is another.
Systems promoting yoga and all meditation stuff do it because “astral world” is a place where thought has a creative power.Therefore we better learn to controll it so we wont be getting lost in our thoughts projctions after we die.
I dont think thoughts are to be stopped and dont see much sense in it.I understand your post as about kind of nirvana which isnt quite same i guess.

ps.The closest to being thoughtless tho i was just few times when i overdid with weed,so im not real expert:)

If one FULLY controls the flooding of thoughts, shouldn’t one also be able to stop them then?

I just remembered there’s a nice buddhist tale about controlling your thoughts
.
.
.
.
thinking
.
.
.
.
darn can’t remember it :sad: It was something about not thinking about a monkey for one minute starting from NOW…

Stopping just for this sake?Its like saying u fully controll the car if you can produce one:)
hehe…please explain:)

The thing that doens’t make sense about the dream yoga thing is that if you were to not dream you would go insane and eventually die.

I once heard that if you stop engaging yourself in the dream, you start to wake up.

Yes, almost all of the time if you stop taking part in a dream you wake up. Essencially too little involvment = wake up and alot of involvement = wake up.

I think you’re refering to deeeeep level of sleep. It’s where you don’t dream at all. Your thoughts aren’t even there. I believe what they are trying to accomplish here is to be there in deep sleep with consciousness. Their goal is to be lucid in any level of sleep even to death sleep. I believe that they’re trying to accomplish thought-to-be-impossible-in-western-culture task of being aware of thoughtless and void stage. You don’t dream at all and thoughts aren’t even… a language there. It’s where you’re mostly unconscious in.

It can be an insighting experience once you’re there w/ your awareness. Only talented people and yogis as far as I know can do that.

Yes, that makes sense

Lol strange analogy… Thoughts are non-physical, and a bit easier to handle than physical objects like cars, don’t you think? :smile:

According to Western science yes. But dream yoga replaces the illusionary dreaming process with pure awareness, rigpa. This won’t kill you. On the contrary… :smile: Ofcourse this more spiritual view is not really acceptable for science.

Check out these books for detailed information:

Tenzin Wangyal - The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
Norbu Namkhai - Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light

I see what you’re saying Mystic, it makes sense I’ll try to look at the books