#620. Night School: How to Meditate While You’re Asleep | Andrew Holecek
This is a fun, weird, extremely interesting and inspiring episode.
It’s about lucid dreaming, something that people might perceive as hippie nonsense, but is actually deeply woven into ancient and time-tested Buddhist traditions.
Our guest today has been studying and practicing Buddhism and what he calls nocturnal meditations for more than four decades. And he has remarkably simple and down to earth tips for doing this in your own life. He argues anybody can do this. And the proposition is pretty compelling. We’re asleep for a huge percentage of our life, and from a perspective of contemplative development, or training your mind, that’s a huge stretch of land that is lying fallow.
Andrew Holecek is an expert on lucid dreaming and the Tibetan yogas of sleep and dream. He is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and the author of scientific papers on lucid dreaming. He has also written many books on the subject, including: Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep.
In this episode we talk about:
- The Five Nocturnal Meditations, which include: liminal dreaming, lucid dreaming, dream yoga, sleep yoga, and bardo yoga
- Why bother with these nocturnal practices in the first place?
- How these nocturnal practices might be the next phase of human evolution
- The problem of wake-centricity
- Practical tips for trying this stuff yourself
- And if lucid dreaming is meant for everyone – including those of us with sleep issues
Where to find Andrew Holecek online:
Website: https://www.andrewholecek.com/
Book Mentioned:
- The Lucid Dreaming Workbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering Your Dream Life
- Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep
- Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming
- Reverse Meditation: How to Use Your Pain and Most Difficult Emotions as the Doorway to Inner Freedom
Other Resources Mentioned:
- Night Club
- #523. A Masterclass in Handling Yourself When Things Suck | Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Daniel Goleman
Names Mentioned:
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
- Carl Jung
- Matthew Walker
- Bruce Lipton
- Eben Alexander
- Tony Bossis
- Stan Groff
- Chris Wallace
- Jennifer Dumpert
- Paul Tholey
- Stephen LaBerge
- Khenpo Rinpoche
- Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche
- Tsoknyi Rinpoche
- Thomas Metzinger
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