Sleep Entry - The clever way Thomas Edison sparked his inventions. It’s in the way we fall asleep.

Tibetan Dream Yoga - Relax into becoming aware in the liminal.

Learning to Lucid Dream - First steps, reinforced with belief and techniques.

Just before our conscious-awareness burrows under senseless sleep, our minds access deep knowledge.

Yet it’s all too easy for that knowledge to slip away as we wake.

So how do we pull that knowledge from the dream realm, and keep it in this one before it vanishes?

Edison came up with a clever trick.

Metal balls.

He would hold them in his hands, sit at or lay under his desk, then go to sleep. At the moment his body relaxed enough, the magic happened.

His mind would wind down, moving from high frequency beta waves (active thinking & survival state) to slow, calm alpha waves (8-12 Hz). With alpha, think learning & flow state. Below alpha waves are the even slower theta waves (at 4-7 Hz). This is where Edison’s body would relent & he dropped the balls.

Theta, by the way, gets linked to profound meditation states like seeing angels, law of attraction methods, spiritual experiences, and daydreaming. In the Psalms it is said that God visits in visions and dreams.

For Edison, it was that sacred eureka moment. He hit the point of deep relaxation at the point of sleep entry, and the balls would drop. The loud clang against metal saucers would wake him. He snatched a pen and wrote whatever he was thinking about.

It was his path to manifesting new technology. To boosting creativity, and bypassing the walls he slammed against in his waking life. All he had to do was follow all these new nap-time realizations pouring into his mind. Edison had over a thousand patents.

He wasn’t the only one pulling genius from the aether. His technique was elegant and simple compared to the outright bizarre methods people have used (sensory depravation, breath work, South American snuff with sleep depravation, psychedelics & more). (I’m not saying I wouldn’t try it).

This liminal place between waking & sleeping has a name and a long history.

The hypnagogic state.

Countless examples of great art, wisdom, and invention have been born of this dream-like state throughout history.

Beyond boosted creativity, improved memory, rapid learning and other amazing & direct benefits, there’s also a mystical connection. The muses being touched. The angelic songs being heard. The pure lands being visited.

The Tibetans have studied dreams for as long as their history is recorded. And they’ve left instructions in their stories of Padmasambhava and Milarepa.

Out of the primordial realms, gifts were passed to humanity from beyond this realm.

Sacred teachings, encouraging mankind to be at harmony with nature, enhance their bodily vitality, and awaken within the dream to the true nature of reality.

It’s said that by the time the Lotus-Born Master, Padmasambhava, brought Buddhism to Tibet, he found a thriving culture practicing its dream yoga. Rather than attempt to destroy it, he wove the tantric practices atop it, thread by thread.

But the world was not quite ready for all of his teachings.

So the Lotus-Born Master hid his teachings (called “terma” treasures) to be found for when the world was ready. He hid them in caves, cliffs, and the minds of his students, whose reincarnations would slowly draw them out of the other realms, including from the realms of dreams.

And Padmasambhava was not the only master seeking to aid the spiritual liberation of sentient beings through dreams.

A wandering buffalo herder from Bengal sat in meditation. This was no ordinary shepherd, but a hidden master exiled from his monastary for taking a consort to practice union yoga.

As he sat in meditation, a transformational vision of the primordial Buddha Vajradhara appeared to him. The primordial buddha poured four streams of profound transmission into the seeker. Dream yoga. Illusory body. Radiant light. And inner heat.

This master, Tilopa, passed the teachings to Naropa after twelve excruciating years of near silence, stripping his disciple’s scholastic need for validation. When Naropa was finally ready, Tilopa finally gave the transmission. He sang what would become known as “the song of realization” on the bank of the Ganges and Naropa broke wide open.

In the final moment of this song, he slapped Naropa with a sandal. The student’s being cracked wide open. (I couldn’t believe I read that.)

From Naropa, the teachings were given to Marpa during three perilous journeys across the Himalayas.

And Marpa dreamt a buddha (enlightened one) was coming.

But it was a black magic sorcerer, who killed dozens by summoning a storm, who arrived at his doorstep. Refusing to teach him, Marpa instead had the man build a nine-story stone tower.

But the man was not ready.

He had him tear down the tower, stone by stone, and take each stone back to where they came from.

Then build it again.

After six years and eight months, he finally let it stand, complete.

Only then did he pass on his first teaching to the once-killer known as Milarepa, who then fully awakened. Milarepa intensely practiced his six yogas (including dream yoga and clear light) to transform sleep into a continuous state of awareness in stages.

First, become lucid. Then overcome all fear of dream content. Then transform the dream itself. And thread this expanding awareness through both day and night, in pursuit of profound & ultimate realization.

Milarepa’s songs are still sung today. The tower he built can still be visited. And his teachings live in the monks of the land, who have since brought them across the world.

These masters knew that the doorway Edison stumbled toward with steel balls in his hands was the same that the Tibetans had been mapping for centuries.

And their first instruction was always the same: learn to relax into awareness.

I’ll keep this short, so we can all start at home tonight. Remember, these are just the first steps. We are not in a rush to master this. And when we start here, it builds a great foundation for lucid dreams to happen more & more & more.

Here are a few approachable techniques to try that barely require you to change anything about your life.

Keep in mind, it can take a little time to navigate the entry to sleep & maintain awareness. That’s okay, fluttering between awake, almost asleep, and sleeping is good training.

First up, the kumbhaka breath. Do this just before sleep. Breathe in fully, hold briefly, and exhale slowly.

Second, bring this intention to your mind. “I will remember one dream tonight.”

If you’re a side sleeper, look up the lion position and give that a try too.

Now if you notice that you wake in the middle of the night, that’s prime time. Gently focus on what you were just thinking about or dreaming of. Imagine the dream again, and imagine continuing it. Or, if you’d rather not continue that one, imagine writing it down letter by letter.

These couple of practices can give you your first lucid dream.

And we can get this to work better.

We use the power of belief.

We increase belief in our own ability to relax and to eventually nurture a fertile environment for powerful dreaming. How do we increase belief?

Let’s make it super simple. Have you ever had a lucid dream? Know anyone that has if you haven’t? If yes, then you know it is possible for people to lucid dream.

It is possible for you to lucid dream.

But let’s start even simpler. Do you remember any dream from you life? Or even that you have had a dream? Then you know, and that echo of the dream memory is evidence, that you can remember your dreams. People do it.

It is possible for you to remember your dreams.

Or how about this, have you ever relaxed?

I hope you laugh and say, “Of course”.

Then you know it’s possible to relax. Remember, for just a second, how good that felt. Close your eyes and feel that for a moment.

Did you smile or sigh? It’s because your body knows that’s possible for you. It’s possible for you to relax.

I’m not saying you will, right this second. Just that it is possible. And since you’ve done it, you know that too.

Would it feel good (be exciting, pleasant, cool, etc.) to relax, remember dreams, or have a lucid dream? If yes, then trust that you can experience that again, at least one more time in your life.

Trust that you can and will experience it at least one more time in the span of your life. And let yourself smile about that. That smile, that feeling, nourishes the belief that it is possible for you in a powerful way.

This one’s long.

So, reply with one dream you remember. I read every one.

Thank you all,

Alex