Only when driving or operating other machinery!!
It may, however, be challenging and extremely uncomfortable when confronting ‘stuff’ that has slumbered peacefully. And I don’t need to remind you that it should only be practised under the supervision of a qualified teacher.
This is interesting. I just sent an email to my meditation teacher about the yoga nidra enigma. Sometimes when I practice yoga nidra, or deep meditative/restorative yoga, I get in a foul and angry mood for a day or so. Not the case with my regular ashtanga practice, in which, afterwards, I’m the sweetest person you would ever meet.
I’ll rephrase…
Why do you cite an article/source on the dangers of “relaxation therapy” as an entr? to posing a question about Yoga Nidra?
Do you consider yoga nidra to be a subset of “relaxation therapy”?
Thanks for all your replies. I don’t know if yoga nidra needs a qualified teacher to practice it with …we I suppose after practicing it for 25 years , I’m ok on my own.
I won’t try and confuse yoga nidra with relaxing exercises because both are great for me. I have just got into doing more muscle relaxation exercises and they are good too.
I’ve just put up a free download to my ‘yoga nidra’ …called [B]‘Relaxation with Music’[/B] so if you want it or listen to it go to my Youtube.
Yoga nidra is highly powerful meditation technique and helps in elimination of root cause of all negative thoughts. So if you are suffering from anxiety , Yoga Nidra will help you.
@Albert thanks for share video :).
Albert,
I looked at the link you posted and I don’t think it was saying that Yoga Nidra is dangerous. It pointed out that for some, it may not be effective or could make it worse. The website is about depression and if someone is suffering from severe depression, they should be seeking professional help, not doing yoga nidra on their own hoping for results. And of course, yoga nidra could be added as part of a treatment program, but again, under the guidance of a professional.
Thank you for the post!
[B]Philosophical and Medical Notes related to Yoga Nidra:[/B]
There is repeated emphasis on detaching one from the body and becoming an observer. As Ramdev explains, the moment you become an observer you become detached. You become buddha, you become liberated. He goes on the explain that the body is the chariot, intellect is the charioteer and the mind is the reins with which the charioteer controls the body.
This clearly makes the Mind body connection .
We are the lord of our own body and the mind. One needs to enter in yourself; this knowledge, this commitment, this feeling that i am conscious will remove y(our) tensions, (y)our sorrows. All the tensions, all the fear and all the illusions, all worries, all distress, all sorrows, will quieten/shanti. Many things, such as stress, hormonal changes, medical or emotional problems, and certain medications, can cause insomnia. While there is no solution to this complex and highly individualized problem, the practice of yoga can be helpful to you. Just resolving to do this practice can be beneficial as there is power in resolution. It leads to action.
yoga nidra in padmasana : 
Nidra (sleep) is a state and obviously not dangerous unless staying awake is the required state at any given moment. Sleep has deep and shallow patterns of brain’s disengagement with mind and memory that otherwise keep it busy. Ordinary sleep is nature’s blessing to us to deliver a fresh brain for the new day. But, modern lifestyle doesn’t allow enough deep sleep for a complete rest and the mind-memory play the ‘dream’ mischief.
Yoga allows a conscious control over mind’s disengagement and thus, brain is rejuvenated quicker in Yoga-induced sleep. It is a meditation of a slightly different variety. There could be failure to achieve nidra, but can’t think of any danger.
A lot is also been written about the inner guru using the Yoga nidra state for advanced training, starting with the disappearance of dreams and mainly out-of-body experiences. But by then one is in such able hands that there is no perceptible risk. Sage Patanjali mentions one risk. The further states are so blissful that once out of the body some seekers are reluctant to return to mortal life. But this has nothing to do with Yga nidra.
Theory without practice is useless, practice without theory is dangerous.
We must learn about the origins of yoga to see if a type of yoga is autentic or not.
The real yoga is the yoga that includes all yoga, it must be studied in all its aspects to be on track, (the study of sutras, breathing, postures, observances of life, refrained, etc… …)
Hey everyone,
Does anyone know whether there are any dangers if an uncontrolled conscious mind gives the subconscious/unconscious mind negative suggestions during yoga nidra? For example, if someone gave themselves a negative sankalpa.
tomtom, giving a negative suggestion is more likely to create a negative effect. The point of the practice is to consciously give yourself a positive suggestion. The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a positive or negative suggestion, it will take any suggestion you give it as true and process it accordingly.
It is a special state where you are neither asleep or awake but in-between these states. Whilst in this special state you are then able to journey to the place where you find the inner guru seated and waiting for you. You can fully ‘wake up’ during the journey, open your eyes and then immediately slip back into the in-between state instantly. Nothing is interrupted, the journey is not disrupted.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;73306]tomtom, giving a negative suggestion is more likely to create a negative effect. The point of the practice is to consciously give yourself a positive suggestion. The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a positive or negative suggestion, it will take any suggestion you give it as true and process it accordingly.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the reply.
Sometimes in the early stages of yoga it’s hard to control the mind and it occasionally goes wild with all kinds of nonsense. I was wondering how sensitive the unconscious mind is, i.e. whether it is more affected other things such as the will and desire of the person who’s mind has made the suggestion. Is it possible that the mind could make a negative suggestion that’s not will not take effect due to the suggestion not being in accordance with what the person truly wants?
[QUOTE=tomtom;73304]Hey everyone,
Does anyone know whether there are any dangers if an uncontrolled conscious mind gives the subconscious/unconscious mind negative suggestions during yoga nidra? For example, if someone gave themselves a negative sankalpa.[/QUOTE]
No, there are no dangers because you are entirely conscious of your thoughts in order to deal with what you are presented with.
[QUOTE=tomtom;73308]Thanks for the reply.
Sometimes in the early stages of yoga it’s hard to control the mind and it occasionally goes wild with all kinds of nonsense. I was wondering how sensitive the unconscious mind is, i.e. whether it is more affected other things such as the will and desire of the person who’s mind has made the suggestion. Is it possible that the mind could make a negative suggestion that’s not will not take effect due to the suggestion not being in accordance with what the person truly wants?[/QUOTE]
During Yoga Nidra you are awake through all the stages of the practice. If you fall asleep, then it is no longer Yoga Nidra, it’s just regular sleep. The practices I have done begin by stating the suggestion at the beginning of the practice and then in the last stage of the practice. You repeat the suggestion three times each time. So you have full control over what suggestion you want to give the unconscious mind.
Now, it is debatable whether this really works. Hypnotherapy is strongly based on this assumption that suggestions given during a hypnotic state have more power to influence, but actual clinical studies done on it shows that its effects are no better than a placebo and some people are more open to suggestion than others. I have tried hypnosis and several hypnosis CD’s in the past, and nothing has happened.
Absolutely correct Surya, you have full control.
[QUOTE=Albert;67923]I came across this web site yesterday and saw this quote;
I thought it was the silliest thing I have ever seen or read.
So with that in mind has anyone heard that Yoga Nidra might be dangerous?[/QUOTE]
Albert, i’ve seen and heard this warning many times. Can tell you from experience that for some people with mental problems these techniques do not work:(
donno if they can be dangerous though… assuming that they do not work…might be dangerous…
[QUOTE=Albert;67955]Thanks for all your replies. I don’t know if yoga nidra needs a qualified teacher to practice it with …we I suppose after practicing it for 25 years , I’m ok on my own.
I won’t try and confuse yoga nidra with relaxing exercises because both are great for me. I have just got into doing more muscle relaxation exercises and they are good too.
I’ve just put up a free download to my ‘yoga nidra’ …called [B]‘Relaxation with Music’[/B] so if you want it or listen to it go to my Youtube.[/QUOTE]
albert, relaxation, listening to the music and yoga nidra, are three different entities… thought i think yoga nidra is not possible without relaxation, and yoga nidra facilitates relaxation… i would think that music just draws attention away from the object of meditation and keeps the mind busy processing input of sounds
The problem might be that whenever you are dealing with an unfolding of the unconscious mind, there might be surprises that might shock you and more when you are dealing with the astral plane. Perhaps if someone is feeling a little unstable or has depression or serious mental problems, this might not be the best practice for them unless guided by an expert and even then you may still have fear about you. It is fear that needs to be mastered.
I encountered the aspect of fear myself. I stopped practicing my particular technique for a while until I felt I could Master the fear aspect, until I could hold my thoughts calmly and steady, unwavering no matter what.
Examples…if you had an army of fearsome looking warriors coming towards you, how do you think you would respond???
If you saw deceased relatives, how would you respond??
If you saw a demon like face in front of you, what then?
If you were aware of a horrible death you once had…what then?
When Buddhists draw over and over again (in sand) ugly demons, these Demons are the sights they will encounter in the death process. They do this so that they are fully familiar with the sight of these demons. They have pictures of them, carvings etc so that when they encounter them they can calmly dismiss their presence. Any holding on to these sights with fear will alter the outcome.
Hindu temples are adorned with dancing girls…these dancing girls are the ones you will see when your desire for sex enters the stream of meditation, when the need for sex is your weakness they will appear to tempt you…(the need for sex is a powerful one in our nature so it is a common sight)…the temples have ugly demons too. Basically,they are adorned with the sights of the unconscious minds deeper parts and the astral planes sights. The most common ones everyone will encounter.
A beginner in Yoga Nidra (and not just Yoga Nidra) may be unaware of these facts. A partially trained person may be aware but may not have encountered anything too disturbing.
If you hold a strong steady calm presence , there is nothing to worry about, but you may not know how you will respond until you are in this position. This is why I took time out to master this problem.
There is a drug in South America which I cant remember its name. The Shamans take it.
Two guys went out there to try it. During the experience, one of them was confronted by a figure that was part human and part animal. It sat next to him and looked directly at him. This guy commented that he was so scared he brought himself immediately out of the experience. He said he was going back there again but was now aware that he may see things like this and could then try to hold steady to stay with the experience longer to see where it takes him. The Shamans of course are very experienced in these matters…generally, we are not.
The weird beings seen in drawings on Egyptian tombs/pyramids are of this process.
On something else…The great Edgar Cayce used this technique. The thoughts were that he was practicing self hypnosis. He/they didn’t know the actual practice was this.