So I’ve been meditating before I go to sleep, lying on my back. Now when I do this after a bit my mind just goes silent. Literally…there’s just nothing… It’s the weirdest thing and I don’t know I’m doing it until I snap out of it, and when I do I feel like my body it nothing… just an extra weight, and I get really uncomfortable until I’m able to move again then I go to sleep.
Is this normal?
Perhaps not normal, but for some highly desirable and hard to get into. You seem to be able to do this pretty easy, which I think is something good. Good because being able to have total silence can be the goal of meditation (like in Zen stuff). The funny thing about all this to me is, that a silent mind doesnt know about itself being silent, else it wouldnt be silent anymore… 
That’s a relief. I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong because I know there an be some dangers with meditation if you do it wrong.
What kind of dangers are there to meditation? How can you do it wrong? Besides not clearing your mind?
K&C, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Not that I’m an expert in the field but I believe I read somewhere. That people who meditated deeply quite possibly put themselves into trances. IMO, I think that’s probably what happened in your case.
Keys, it depends on how you’re meditating. There are several methods. When observing thoughts, it’s possible that it could “freeze” them. IMO, there are no real dangers with meditating methods.
In buddhism, it seems that it could possibly be a “danger” for advanced meditaters, because they can confuse this state in which thoughts are slowed down with another state they try to reach, which is called the “natural state”. Thus, if they think they’ve reached the natural state while they haven’t, they don’t do efforts any more.
But it’s better that I keep quiet, cause I don’t know a lot of things about that. 
How are you meditating?
what kind of meditation do you do keys? I have only experienced once an empty mind and it was great! That one was in a group meditation setting though, and i have never been able to have a complete empty mind since then. I’d love to be able to silence my mind as my thoughts are driving me crazy sometimes 
Here Here Q, I would love to silence my mind. The thing is going non stop 24/7.
I’d like to know what type of mediation you do as well.
my meditation is a breathing meditation. I start with that for about half an hour, and then i do a guided medtation to ground, clear my aura, or something else that i feel i need at that time.
the breathing meditation is a yoga technique, it helps me getting in balance and quiets my mind.
It goes like this:
You put your hand on your nose so you can close one nostril with your thumb, and the other one with your pinky and ringfinger (is it called like that in engish?)
Then you open left nostril, breathe in for 2 counts.
close left nostril (so both are closed)hold breath - count 8 counts.
open right nostril - breathe out - count 4 counts.
then right after that breate in through right nostril - count 2 counts.
close right nostril - count 8 counts
open left nostril - breathe out - 4 counts.
breathe in through left nostril - 2 counts - etc.
start off with 10 cycles and build up from there.
the other part is what i learned in my intuition/healing class. It is built up around 10 finger positions, each one is something. I don’t get around doing all of them, mostly i only do the grounding, cleaning aura, filling it with light, clearing out old stuff etc. I’ll post the 10 points later, maybe in the healing topic. It’s now way past my bedtime.
I lie down on my back, put on some music that’s like nature sounds and stuff, then I breath in and out slowly as I usually would, but I pay attention. After that I pretend I’m filling my body up with sand of ocean water that’s moving like waves. Then I breath in “positive energy” I just visualize I’m breathing in white-blue-green mist, then I breathe out “bad energy” I vizualize as dark-black-purplish mist, and as I breathe out I vizualize the positive energy spreading out in my body. I do that until I’m out of it. Sometimes it doesn’t take much… like from 5-15 minutes for me. I’m probably a lot younger than you guys too, I don’t know if that has anything to do with it though.
Hi Keys!
There is no danger at all with your practice. I learnt quite the same thing you do in yoga course. 
only ‘danger’ i can think of is cultivating the wrong mental state
…but then again its not so easy to know what’s proper and towards what ‘goal’
my answer to this is to keep at it, take different approaches, experience different states, and study your own Self. over the years you’ll inevitably gain experience so you can consult with the system/teacher that you feel is right. I’ve done this and it’s brought me closest to the Taoist Way.
good luck!
Lately when I’m meditating I have almost a silent mind. Or something like that.
I’m sitting in lotus and breathing slowly and at the beginning I’m concetrating at my breathing. Lately I feel after a while different than normally, different than other times I meditate. I would almost say it is a silent mind, but it isn’t. Not yet. But it’s a good feeling
Just reading the way you guys meditate makes me sigh. I can never relax enough to even consider it. Even when I’m laying in bed I have a hard time relaxing. I don’t even remember falling asleep.
I was trying to visualize what Q was saying but I couldn’t
Iluminada you dont need to start with visualising things if you have trouble with that. There is a kind of meditation for everyone! If you have trouble relaxing and a mind that wanders easy, try for example to focus your attention purely on your breathing. If your mind wanders, dont get upset but gently focus back again on breathing in and out. Also, try to do this not late before bedtime or so but after waking up or somewhere in the morning when you can focus much better. You dont need to do this for ages at a time to make progress either, start with 10 minutes a day and if you feel that you can relax and focus mostly on purely breathing, you can move on to longer meditations or different forms (like the one that Q explained). Hope this is some use to you, good luck .
Thanks Xetrov…the advice is appreciated. I’m going to continue to try. I just want some peace…
Yoga class starts tonight! It’s not the one I wanted because that was a morning class and I have to take my son to summer school. It’s hatha yoga which is supposed to be more physical but the teacher said they do meditation at the end. Wish me luck to learn a silent mind!
Good luck.
Oh and meditation I do recommend before you sleep. It increases lucidity.
However you may want to use purple if you feel too hot or yellow if you are feeling cold.
Try to learn some shengong methods (8 direction perception meditation cd is available from dr jerry alan johnson qigongmedicine.com
Advanced Shengong is very similar to tibetian buddist methods.
If you can get a chance and have the money go visit the mao shan school of daoist mysticism in China.
oh okay PhanthomSpectre… a trip to China. Pocket change. JK… being a wise guy today, i am.
I’m considering psych. meds or drugs to keep myself calm and try to relax and meditate.
Trust me you only wanna use them for the sort term I’ve been there you don’t really clear yur mind that way it’s just muffled and you don’t care as much. If your feeling tense really the best thing to do is to talk it out with someone who is payed to listen so you don’t worry about owing them support back. Especially when you come to a point where you can’t imagine taking on even one more thing. Just letting it out is amazing but it can be very draining too. I just got back from my yoga class and it was cool but I would have liked more meditation and I didn’t completely calm my mind but I had points of it just listening to the music it helped to be at the yoga center because there wasn’t any other thing to do there…I’m gonna make a space in the house for practice the same way…Yoga only! Or me time only! Whichever works best…I’ll let you guys know how it goes