The Yoga of Sleep and Dreams: The Night-School of Sadhana

From the viewpoint of the yogic psychology of dreams presented in this book, one chief limitation of our present-day understanding of the nature of dreams lies in its lack of the distinction which yogic psychology makes between dreams and dream-experiences. Dreams, which constitute most of what we ordinarily bring back form sleep to our waking recollection, are products of what Sri Aurobindo calls the subconscient – that part of our constitution which lies between consciousness and total in conscience. Distinguished from these ordinary dreams are dream-experiences which are recordings of transcripts if actual events in supraphysical or inner (subliminal) realms of our existence which are as real and concrete as the physical world if not more so, and into which sleep gives us an entry. "In each we see senses, meet beings, share in happenings, come across formations, influences, suggestions which belong to these planes. Even when we are awake, part of us moves in these planes, but the activity goes on behind the veil; our waking minds are not aware of it." A dream-experience is a direct or symbolic record of what happens to us in these realms. Unlike the ordinary dreams which come from the subconscient and which are chaotic, confused and tiring, dream-experiences, especially those in the subliminal realms, are clear and coherent (though often mixed and distorted by the subconscient), and produce a deep feeling of insight or elevation. The three early dreams of the Mother in Appendix II are examples of such inner experiences during the dream state. The aim of the yoga of sleep and dreams in the beginning is to replace what is commonly a slumber of subconscious dreams with a sleep of inner experiences. Sleep then becomes as much a part of sadhana as the waking state. The key for being able to continue sadhana during sleep lies in becoming more and more conscious, not only during the waking hours but also during sleep. The fact that one can become conscious during sleep has been known to yogis since ancient times, but it is only during the past few decades that scientific psychology has been interested in the experience of consciousness during sleep. The interest has been aroused by the phenomenon of what are called "lucid dreams" -dreams in which one knows that one is dreaming.