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Using Yoga to Cure Insomnia, by Thomas Polkinghorne

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

You are in bed, trying to get some sleep before you leave for work tomorrow morning. You know that if you do not get any sleep tonight, then tomorrow you will come into work drowsy and unfocused. Glancing over at the clock, you notice that it is 4am, and you are still awake. You need to get at least a couple of hours sleep now, yet the more that you think about sleep, the harder it is to switch off. The idea of going to work tomorrow deprived of sleep stresses you out even more. This becomes unavoidable, because you simply cannot sleep.

The above situation is probably as familiar to you as it is to me. Going to work after a sleepless night made it harder for me to maintain focus on my work, and a reasonable manner towards my co-workers. The idea of arriving at the office the next day resembling an extra from Night of the Living Dead was enough to keep me awake throughout the night. Such thoughts would turn anxiety into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At first I thought that it was simply parts of my diet preventing sleep, as I had a taste for coffee and any other drink loaded with caffeine. I did not realize that the same substance keeping me focused throughout the day prevented me from switching off at night. Alcohol was another bad habit. I am not a binge drinker, but all it would take is a couple glasses of wine in the evening and I would be unable to sleep.

I corrected the above habits by simply cutting down on both caffeine and alcohol. I only drank one cup of black coffee in the mornings with breakfast, and replaced it with tea during the day. I would cut out caffeine in the evening altogether. I would also make sure that alcohol was also cut out during the evening if I wanted to get up early the next day.

Yet the problem remained. Even without the alcohol in my bloodstream, or my heart pounding from the excess caffeine in my system, I still had trouble sleeping. My mind would not allow me to relax.

I found the solution to my problem when I picked up a copy of Dr. Jonn Mumford's book, A Chakra and Kundalini Workbook. Admittedly I did not buy it with the intention of finding a cure for my sleeping problems, I bought it because of my interest in yoga and Tantra. Mumford had been recommended to me as an authority on both subjects. The book is full of yogic relaxation techniques that I found useful as daily practices. It was in practicing these techniques that I discovered ways in which I could properly relax before turning in. One technique in particular, known as "shavasana," served me well in this respect.

Shavasana means "corpse pose"—a reference to the deep state of relaxation that it elicits. This is most probably a reference to the way in which it has the Yogi lying supine on his or her back, like a corpse on a morgue trolley. As a pose it does not demand you to be a contortionist. It is a relaxation technique, in which the practitioner is more conscious of their body after having concentrated on certain vital zones. Like many of the poses in Hatha Yoga, it involves holding yourself still in that position and blocking out all thoughts, making it ideal as a cure for sleeping difficulties.

Shavasana can be performed on the floor as a meditation, but if your goal is to fall asleep, perform it in bed. Many authors who write about meditation advise you not to meditate while lying on a bed, as it can induce sleep, thus breaking your meditation. Since falling asleep is the goal of this exercise, we can safely ignore that rule.

Shavasana can be performed as follows:

• Lie on your back in a supine position with your arms at your sides and your palms facing upwards. Make sure that your legs are slightly parted. Close your eyes.
• Focus on your right arm. Visualize it in your mind's eye as best as you can and simultaneously feel the sensations that go through your skin, muscles, and bone in that arm. Feel the blood flowing through your veins. You do not have to spend too long doing this.
• Inhale and clench your right hand into a fist, lifting your arm slightly from the floor or bed. Hold it, and then drop it on exhaling. Relax your arm completely and let it lie, as though it were dead.
• Go through the same routine for your left arm, your right leg, your left leg, and then your torso from the base of your spine to the top of your skull. Tense, and then relax every part of your body in this order. When it is done, your whole body should feel completely relaxed. Take notice of the bed or floor below you, and how it makes contact with your body. Imagine yourself melting completely into the floor. Let the weight of your body surrender to gravity completely. Empty your mind of any distracting thought.

The above technique is the simple version of the one given in Mumford’s book. There is a more advanced version of this given in his book that you can progress onto, once you have mastered this elementary version. It involves concentrating on sixteen points of the body based on the joints, known as the Marmasthanani zones. For the purpose of sending you to sleep, the elementary version above should suffice.

Eventually, one of two things will happen. Either you will fall asleep, or you will enter a state known as Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra means "Yogic Sleep." This form of sleep is more like a trance. It is a state between wakefulness and being asleep, known as the hypnogogic state. During shavasana it can last for around twenty minutes, and like any other form of trance, you do not know that you have had it until you wake up from it. After a while of practicing this technique, I would sometimes find myself glancing at the clock when my concentration had been broken, to find that half an hour or longer had elapsed without me even knowing! This was not a bad thing, as sleep came almost instantly afterwards. Those who practice this on a hard floor, simply for relaxation find that after waking from Yoga Nidra, find that they feel more refreshed than they would have done after an ordinary night's sleep.

Although shavasana is an effective technique for getting over a sleep disorder, it may or may not work immediately. If it does not help you get to sleep on the first try, keep on practicing for a few weeks. You may find that eventually your body, and simultaneously your mind since the two are both linked more deeply than you may realize, will get the message and slide into sleep more easily.

Mumford lists the advantages of shavasana. These include relaxation of the muscles, nervous system and the complete relaxation of the mind. It can also lower blood pressure. Like many Yogic exercises, it is an excellent means of ridding yourself of stress.

There are other yogic positions that have been known to aid people in overcoming sleep disorders, and you can practice them before turning in as a supplement to this exercise if you wish. These include the Plow Pose, the Seated-Forward Stretch, and the Downward-Facing Dog. Since Hatha Yoga is beyond the scope of this article, I will leave you to research it on your own.

Practicing Yoga in general can be a good way of helping you to overcome insomnia. Yoga exercises can help you beat stress, which is a common factor in sleep disorders. If you like you can start a routine at night before you turn in, which is the best time to do it if sleeping is difficult for you. You can find a decent book on Yoga from which you can read and learn to construct your own routine, or you can take classes, as best suits your lifestyle.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2005. All rights reserved.

Is it possible for anyone to develop psychic abilities like telekinesis? (To learn how to move objects with one's mind, like bending spoons, etc.?) Or are some people just born with that innate ability? If anyone can learn to do it, what would be the best way to go about doing so?

- Jonathan

Dreamchaser:

Jonathan, I believe we can teach our minds anything. We only use a small portion of our brains, after all, and there is SO much that is left untapped.

There have been many studies done on telekinesis. I believe it just requires a higher state of consciousness. To reach this state of consciousness, the first step is probably deep meditation. So if you really want to learn, I suggest you meditate for 15 to 30 minutes and get very centered. Then take the next 30 minutes to try to move something very small. Picture yourself building a tunnel of sorts between your mind and the object you want to move. Focus solely on the object.

Anything outside of this tunnel will not be visible to you. Imagine something coming out of your head, like hands or a rake or whatever you want to use. Then imagine those hands or rake or whatever pulling the object you are trying to move towards you. It will probably take you at least two to three weeks to actually move something for the first time, so do not give up.

Also, remember this is not a life and death matter, or something really serious. This is very much like playing a game with yourself. If you try too hard, you will get frustrated, and we don't want that! Also, do not give up. Continue to try even when you don't see results. Do NOT think when it does not happen immediately that you cannot do it. You have to have an "I can do it" attitude.

As far as spoon bending, I have heard that you must hold the spoon in your hands and meditate on it. Rub the spoon lightly with your fingers, trying to become part of the spoon. Imagine the spoon's atoms mixing with the atoms in your fingers so that you can't tell the difference between your fingers and the spoon. You may feel the spoon actually heat up in your hands. That is normal. Once you get to that point, then you can imagine the spoon melting like it is liquid. At that point, it should be bending.

The most important thing I am hearing for you is a question: WHY do you want to learn this? Are you going to be responsible with your newfound ability, or are you going to use it at parties to impress people, or to earn money in a carnival-like setting? You have to understand that when you are dealing with extraordinary abilities like this, you have an obligation to be extraordinarily moral and honest. If you use a gift or a learned ability for anything other than good, love and light, you will face harsh consequences either in this life or the next.

I wish you success with your goal!

*****

Astrea:

Probably the most famous story of telekinesis from our own times can be found in the Stephen King book Carrie. In that novel, a high school girl who is bullied by her classmates loses control over her very scary telekinetic power, and kills most of the people at the prom. While it's an exciting story, that's all it is - a STORY. Human beings are no longer designed to have the kind of energy it takes to move things with nothing more than mind power.

From time to time, some people DO get bursts of energy that SEEM TO move inanimate objects. The ability to CONTROL telekinesis is something that has been studied for a long time in some of the bigger parapsychology institutes, but with very little success. For the last century, all over the world various studies have tried to pin down what happens in our personal electrical fields to cause things to move "on their own." To my knowledge, no one has been able to prove this power really exists, much less master it.

Some people have an energy field that stops watches, so that they can't wear them, or runs the battery down in their car, so they constantly have to buy new ones. This condition is something innate - it isn't something that can be learned. These people are either born with this condition or it develops spontaneously, often as a result of a near death experience. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who was able to develop this ability on their own or with the help of experts. This is either something that human beings no longer have in our repertoire, or never had in the first place.

In the days of Atlantis, before recorded time, it's said that people were able to move mountains with the power of their minds. I've never known anyone who could consciously do something like that, however.

If you want to be able to present the ILLUSION that you can move something or change something with the power of your mind, take a course in stage magic. You can learn to fool people into believing that you're doing amazing things in a very short time. Visit your local magic shop or find a good book by one of the great illusionists who did this for a living. I believe Yuri Geller has several books that may be out of print, so look in your library under "Magicians" or "Stage Magic" for that information.

Yuri is the guy who bends spoons "with his mind" on talk shows. Magicians and Illusionists have been doing things like that for thousands of years, which might be where you got the idea it could really be done by plain old human beings.