MEDITATION AND SLEEP
Almost every great thinker in the history of mankind has concluded that the universe is composed of a physical part and a spiritual part.
The spiritual part is the foundation for the world’s religions.
Almost everybody concludes that they are part of the physical universe, although some thinkers maintain that the entire universe is spiritual and that what is called “physical†is in reality an illusion.
From the point of view of science, the physical universe is readily accepted as real, and the spiritual universe is in an area of doubt.
However, absolutely no one, scientist or religious believer, doubts that humans, and probably all animals sleep. This need for sleep is so great that humans deprived of sleep die. Animals that have been studied also die if deprived of sleep.
Whether animals, such as worms, with rudimentary nervous systems, sleep is not known; although, we can presume that they do sleep since all nerves require periods of time when their metabolism works slowly so that the toxic by-products can be eliminated.
WHAT IS SLEEP?
Sleep has been studied by medical scientists thoroughly yet very little is known about it. Scientists can describe the activity of the brain and the body during a period of sleep. They know from electro-encephalograms that the wave patters of the brain change during sleep. They also know that humans, and most higher mammals, dream during sleep.
We know, also, that the sleeping human has a different form of breathing and that the muscles of the body change their form of contraction and relaxation.
When we study the use of general anesthetics, chemicals used to induce sleep and lack of sensation, we know that the brain responds differently as the nerves are prevented from functioning.
We also know that if the nervous system is completely closed down, the human or animal dies.
What we do not know is what the brain experiences during sleep. The only evidence we have is the remembrance of dreams.
DREAMS
Sigmund Freud was the first scientist to try and explain dreams. Dr. Freud believed that dreams had a relationship to the problems of the dreamer. This has never been proven to be true.
DR. SIGMUND FREUD
Another famous scientist, Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, felt that dreams represented forms of universal human problems. This idea was never proven.
To date, no one knows what dreams are, nor what their function is in life. Yet, everyone knows that they experience dreams when they sleep.
Some philosophers have even questioned: What is the “real†world? Dreams or the world when we are not sleeping? No one can answer that question because it is too fundamental. Mankind does not have an answer for how we know anything.
One thing we can presume is correct is that the dream world and what we call the real world are different.
Since we conclude that our existence occurs in two different universes, there is no problem in calling one universe the Spiritual Universe. This is the basis for all religion.
MEDITATION
Mankind, throughout history, has made an attempt to leave the physical world and enter the spiritual world. Attempting to make this passage is called: Meditation. There are a zillion definitions and descriptions of this process, since there have been a zillion number of people trying.
Many of these people, from the most primitive societies to the most complex modern societies, have used drugs to make this passage.
The fact that people will use such unnatural and, frequently, dangerous means, implies that the passage from the physical world to the spiritual world is very valuable.
Almost every religion has a method of making this passage. Methods of meditating are found in Eastern and Western religions.
WHY MEDITATE?
The answer to this question is quite simple: Life is full of problems which induce fears. It is also full of situations where the individual wishes to go into the spiritual land of sleep.
Scientists studying people training in a form of meditation called “Transcendental Meditation†have noted that many of them end up falling asleep. People who meditate do so to escape from their fears or to induce sleep, again escaping from an uncomfortable situation, or to feel some form of spirituality which is pleasant.
The methods used generally involve deep breathing, frequently making special sounds, concentrating on specific ideas or visions or using drugs.
We know that the use of drugs is commonplace today—especially in Western society. This need to escape reality is so strong that many westerners use it as a slow form of suicide. Emergency room doctors see people arrive daily bearing all the marks of slow suicide on their skin filled with puncture marks and their faces and bodies obviously half dead.
In Asia, such scenes are rare, since the Asians have used meditation for thousands of years and choose their religious methods over the use of drugs.
CONCLUSION
Meditation is a method that humans use for leaving the physical world, which is frequently very uncomfortable, to enter the spiritual world where there is peace and security.
Sleep is apparently a natural way to enter the spiritual world. We know practically nothing about sleep except that it is essential for life and that during sleep we dream.
We can conclude that we are part of two universes: A physical universe and A spiritual universe.
We frequently try to leave the physical universe to enter the spiritual universe. Sleep, meditation and drugs are the three methods used to accomplish this feat.
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