Yoga Nidra is a programme for giving relief from all types of tension namely muscular, emotional and mental. It induces a state of consciousness which is conducive for several types of learning. Several variants of it are extensively used in the so-called sports medicine where athletes improve their abilities without explicitly doing physical exercises or activities.
It is usually done in the early evening much before going to bed. The time duration is about 30 to 40 minutes. The most important requirement in this programme is, ‘Do not sleep during this period.’
It has been popularized during the last thirty years by Swami Satyananda Sarasvati of the Bihar School of Yoga and Swami Rama of the Himalaya Institute. Several persons in the West conduct workshops using related material v/ith catchy titles like, ‘lucid dreams’ without acknowledging the original masters.
Connection to the Alpha and Delta States
The activity of the brain is measured by an apparatus popularly known as EEG. When this device is applied to the brain, it gives the graph or waveform associated with the brain activity. The activity graph of all persons in the waking state (Jagrat) is similar and the type is called beta and those in restful, relaxed, meditative state (Dhyana) is alpha.
When a person goes to sleep, his/her brain activity goes through another state swapna labeled theta and finally ends up in the state delta. The delta state is the state of deep sleep (sushupti). We will consider here only the states alpha and delta. The delta state is usually called the state of restful sleep. If the frequency of the waveform in the alpha state averages 8 to 13 cycles per sec; that for delta ranges from 1 to 3 cycles per sec.
It was assumed by the neuro scientists that the alpha and delta states were mutually exclusive, i.e., the senses of a person in the delta state does not register the conversations or sights occurring in that room, i.e., a person in the wakeful state cannot recall any speech uttered by persons in the same room while he was in the delta state.
Swami Rama demonstrated for the first time to a Western audience in a laboratory setting at the Menninger clinic in U.S.A. around 1970 that he could attain a sleep state which, for the measuring instruments, looked like delta, but with the important difference that he could reproduce all the conversations occurring in that room during his sleep state. The significance of this achievement can hardly be underestimated. We call this sleep state as super delta or super sleep.
What is the connection of this episode to Yoga Nidra? A person who is proficient in Yoga Nidra attains this super sleep state. The relaxation offered by this state is only one aspect. The learning in this state has some astounding possibilities. If a person, in this super delta state, hears a page long chant or a poem, he can reproduce it when he returns to the waking state. How many persons can reproduce a chant after hearing it only once?
Procedure or Programme
We give here only an outline. You need the assistance of an audio tape or of a person. You should be in a relaxed mood during the entire programme. Obviously if you are trying to recall the various steps by memory, you cannot be relaxed.
1. Lie down on a mat comfortably in shavasana.
2. Become aware of the sounds in the street outside the house.
3. Then shift your attention to the space within your body and become aware of the breath, i.e., air going in and out of the nostrils. Breathe through nose only. Then become aware of the heart-beat.
4. Become aware of the parts of the body one by one directly in contact with the mat on which you are lying down. Imagine that the earth is cradling you.
5. Then become aware of the various energy centres in the body. Each hand, for example, has eight centres namely the top of the arm, elbow, the wrist, the tips of the five fingers. Similarly for the other hand and the two legs. On hearing the instruction, you have to shift your attention from center to center quickly without lingering at no centre. You begin with the finger tips and end with the toe tips.
6. Become aware of the breath flowing at your stomach, chest and nostrils.
7. Next step is called visualization. It is very popular in the healing of many apparently incurable diseases. It particularly gives relief from the mental and emotional stresses. The guide will talk with you and choose a large set of images which have happy memories for you. Then when you are ready for thisstep, he/she will go on to suggest the names of scenes without any connection to each other.
For example the list may be made of a blooming tree of champak flowers, sunset, walk in a beach, the crunching sound of leaves in a morning walk, the meditating trees, the hill top shining in the setting sun etc. You imagine all these scenes being projected on the ajria chakra, i.e., the psychic centre between the eye brows.
8. Then imagine that the vibrations of the sacred chant OM is coming out of the ajria-chakra center.
9. Rest peacefully for five minutes and get up slowly becoming aware of all the parts of the body one by one.
10. The whole procedure should take not more than 30-40 minutes.