[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.
yes, sometimes subconscious mind manifests itself during yoga nidra. it might be scary, strange, enlightening…etc.
i do explain to student that they might encounter something like that, and that they should not fear.
one time during the yoga nidra one guy suddenly jumped off the floor to the end of the room bulging his eyes…he had something going on he could not explain… next time the sensations were less intense. and the problem he came with has faded away too…
i do not see any danger in manifestation of subconscious mind. IT IS DANGEROUS when those problems just SIT in the subconscious, and yoga nidra helps to release it.
A very enlightening post CityMonk!
Yoga nidra rocks
Yoga Nidra as a technique has the power to flush out and purify many negative samskaras held in the body/mind. Rarely this clearing of negative vibrations can be uncomfortable and can trigger negative reactions in people outside of the yoga nidra practice. This however is very rare, as the vast majority of people can deeply benefit from its effects.
unpleasant and uncomfortable does not mean hurtful:)) dental work and surgery is not pleasant neither… but helpful
Hello, I have some questions concerning your post on Yoga Nidra.
Will you feel rested when you wake up or do yo need to properly sleep after Yoga Nidra?
Who is the "inner guru" you mentioned?
Could you please recommend some books on Yoga Nidra I can read?
Thank you.
Yoga nidra is a form of meditation in which you're guided into a state of deep relaxation. It's also sometimes called "yogic sleep," as it involves a series of visualizations that help you to let go of your everyday thoughts and stresses, and reach deeper into your subconscious. Yoga nidra is practiced in the lotus position, and is usually done for about 20 minutes—you lay on the floor with your eyes closed, and once you've been guided through the visualization process, you spend the remainder of the time in silence. Afterward, you can feel refreshed and ready to face the day.
In short, yoga nidra is a beautiful thing. Done properly, there's no reason to believe that it could be dangerous in any way. The practice has been used for thousands of years in Hinduism and Buddhism to help people unwind from stressful situations and get back to their natural state of happiness. The meditation involved in yoga nidra is similar to other forms of mindfulness meditation; it's no less common for one to find oneself focusing on their breath or on sounds during yoga nidra than during other types of meditation.