For the past year I have been doing a different meditation then what I started out with.
Laying fully down, not counting breath. I clear my mind and wait, no expectations, no set “goal”.
That seems to take me deeper then either sitting or “mindfulness” meditation. Though it is still a form of mindfulness, in that I am just paying attention to consciousness itself.
It feels like I am in-between sleeping and waking consciousness… in between consciousness and unconsciousness. In that twilight consciousness, which is what I call it, I get what can only be described as visions, dramas, feeling-tones, that play out seemingly on their own. And this is also where “active imagination” can take place. There is a second voice, seemingly a different personality that speaks, which is both me, and not me. My inner voice, but not.
I did not know this was an actual “technique” of no technique. Both in Eastern and Western Meditation (called Incubation). When I started doing this I started getting tinnitus, it started as I was meditating and lasted a big afterwords, and I can bring myself to “get it” even when not meditating now. This seems to be a “sign” in both eastern and western traditions that the meditation/numinous powers, whatever you call them, are taking you on the right path.
In Eastern practice the Buddha called it “Dibba-Sota”:
What the Buddha called “Dibba-sota” (Pali) is generally translated as “Divine ear” which is clairaudience. Clairaudience is primarily a hypersensitivity of the brain lobes that are related to hearing. This hypersensitivity can give someone uncanny hearing ability, it can also produce meditation induced tinnitus, as well as meditation induced vertigo.
In the Western Practice it is described differently:
Peter Kingsley tells us that “Ancient Greek accounts of incubation repeatedly mention certain signs that mark the point of entry into another world: into another state of awareness that’s neither waking nor sleep. One of the signs is that you become aware of a rapid spinning movement. Another is that you hear the powerful vibration produced by a piping, whistling, hissing
In The Dark Places
sound. (p. 128)
of Wisdom
255 pages
The Golden Sufi Center (1999)
Paperback
ISBN 189035001X
In Hindu practice this is called “Turiya”, which is a fourth state of consciousness. The other three being “waking consciousness, dreaming, and dreamless sleep.”