Last night I was trying some things to relax myself to sleep.
I was lying in bed, on my back, with my left leg straight and my right leg slightly curved at the knee. My hands were crossed over one another and resting just below my navel. Then I started conciously controlling my breathing, while concentrating first on my toes and imagining a glowing blue light in that area of my body. With each exhale I shifted my attention to the next part of my body (the legs) and imagining the blue light extending up through my legs. I kept going until I got to my stomache. Then I actually felt my breathe coming into the lower part of my lungs. I kept going up, concentrating on my lungs, and became very aware of all the breathe coming in and out of the lungs. Then I concentrated on my spine and the blue light going all through my spine.
Then I concentrated on my heart, and imagined it as a flame. I kept this flame in my mind from this point, thinking of it flickering.
Then my shoulders and my neck. Now at this point I was actually surprised that most of my body was relaxed. So I started some really deep breathes, and found I could breathe deeper than I realized I could. With each exhale I felt my whole body relax.
Then something rather odd happened. Somehow I lost concious control of my breathing. I started breathing very deeply but also very quickly. While I was aware I was breathing this way, my breathing seemed to be out of my control. I felt my face getting really hot. This passed after about a minute or so and my breathing started to slow down.
Soon I was aware of my body getting really heavy. I felt the weight of my hand against the other hand and the weight of my eyes.
Then I found myself looking around in complete darkness. It was like an infinitely large box, but there was absolutely nothing in it. There’s a fantasy series called the “Wheel of Time.” I don’t know if any of you have read it. But there’s a lot of use of lucid dreaming in the series (although it’s rather different). There’s also this idea of a “flame and a void” where you imagine a flame in your mind and feed everything into the flame to form a void.
Well I had thought I had formed a void now, the infinitely large, empty box. But I couldn’t keep the flame in my mind. I also realized my sense of sound had become rather pronounced, and I heard all the noises that were going on downstairs, the ones I hadn’t heard the whole time I had been lying in bed until this point. So I started losing concentration, and then someone turned a light on and I lost all concentration. I realized over an hour had passed since I first started the relaxation. But I couldn’t go back to sleep so I just got up and watched some TV.
Just thought I’d share this. Has anyone else experienced something like this? What is it really? What was the deal with the heavy, quick breathing and my face getting hot? And why was there absolutely nothing in that void I had found myself in?