Waking up in a Black Void

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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 7:51 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 7:51 PM

Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
So this has been occuring off and on for a couple of years now. As I've gotten older, being woken up in the middle of the night by my bladder has become more of an issue. Most of the time, I'll be dreaming and the dream will lead me to wake up and take care of business. Every once in awhile though, I'll wake up with the urgent need to relieve myself and find that I am staring into a black void filled with whispy white clouds that have random flashes like lightening (without any sound). You might say that its just a weird dream, but the void persists even after I get up. I can sit on the edge of my bed and see it with my eyes closed. I can walk to the bathroom sit down on the toilet and close my eyes and its still there. And when I come back to bed, lay down and close my eyes, I'm back falling asleep in the void. It feels almost like I'm wearing an invisible pair of VR goggles that turn on when I close my eyes.

At this point I'm more curious than distressed by this. I've been dealing with kundalini for a few years now, which also occurs a lot at night. I've actually been woken up out of sound sleep by the feeling of chakras spinning very violently in my body. And I've had other side-effects from years of Goenka practice but nothing that isn't already well documented around the dharmaverse. The void thing though, I've never heard mention of and I'm curious if anyones had this same experience or heard someone talk about it.

Thanks,
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 8:09 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 8:09 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 746 Join Date: 4/25/20 Recent Posts
Yup. I get something like that at night about once or twice a month. For me, it is an infinite black expanse with streams of brightly colored particles. When I open my eyes it is not there, but as soon as I close them again it reappears and, if I lay back down in bed it swallows me and I fall back to sleep. This can happen to me when I don't have to pee too. I'm just woken up by it. At first, it was distressing because it often feels like I am being pulled apart by the streams of particles but now I know that it is harmless. 

I have had a fair about of kundalini-esque stuff going on for the past couple of years. In particular, heat and, more recently, energy up the spine. I don't know what to make of any of it. I have looked around but I can't find any information that suggests that these things are either useful (except perhaps as indicators) or dangerous. 

​​​​​​​What kind of kundalini stuff do you have going on?
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Noah D, modified 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 8:59 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 8:59 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Look up the stages of dissolution in Buddhist tantra - signs of fireflies , smoke, red light, black light , etc. this process happens very quickly upon going to sleep & in reverse order waking up. Could be related , or not.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 6/5/22 3:09 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/5/22 3:07 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I have had it from time to time, pretty often. I quite like it. 
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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:02 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:02 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
Martin

​​​​​​​What kind of kundalini stuff do you have going on?


Martin, thanks for replying. I've had several instances of the big kundalini blast up the spine over the years but mainly I experience chakras spinning in the body. Oddly the chakras occur mostly at night. Sometimes I wake up and find them spinning away and sometimes they wake me up in the middle of the night. I'm not really all that bothered by them, I just see it as a side effect of my meditation practice. As far as the void goes, I'm not frightend by it either, I'm just curious what it is. I mean there are plenty of books out there on kundalini and people talking about experiencing it. But I've never heard anyone talking about the void.
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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:09 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:09 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
Noah D
Look up the stages of dissolution in Buddhist tantra - signs of fireflies , smoke, red light, black light , etc. this process happens very quickly upon going to sleep & in reverse order waking up. Could be related , or not.


Noah, thanks for the info. I'm not very familiar with trantra, I'm primarily a zen/Theravandan practitioner. It had occurred to me that the Tibetan schools might have some idea about it but yeah, I'll look into it. Thanks.
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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:15 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/7/22 7:15 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö
I have had it from time to time, pretty often. I quite like it. 


Yeah I have to say that next to the weird visions and disembodied voices talking to you on long intense retreats, this has got to be the strangest side effect of meditation I've experienced so far. For me at least, it really does feel like your looking into an actual place that exists somewhere. It is, kinda cool.   : )

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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 6/8/22 3:47 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/8/22 3:47 AM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I'd recommend looking into the yoga of dream and sleep in Tibetan Buddhism. As far as I know, this aspect is completely neglected in Theravadan Buddhism. 
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 6/9/22 3:26 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/9/22 3:26 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 746 Join Date: 4/25/20 Recent Posts
Wayne Conner
As far as the void goes, I'm not frightend by it either, I'm just curious what it is. I mean there are plenty of books out there on kundalini and people talking about experiencing it. But I've never heard anyone talking about the void.

Yeah, it's kind of odd that it doesn't come up more. How about this for a stab in the dark: meditation retrains processing of space and time (as shows up in the fifth jhana, and when spacial relationships start to change off the cushion, and as discussed by realized folks who say that space and time are illusions), and as a side effect, either we sometimes wake up in a giant fabricated void, or we sometimes wake up to find that the mind isn't bothering to fabricate space filled objects. I couldn't say which (if either) is right, but I'm pretty sure that the mind can do more with space than the standard-issue experience that most people have. 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 6/9/22 3:37 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/9/22 3:37 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
To jump in with a some elaboration - space and time are mind-constructed objects. Space allows for place/placement in our daily life and time allows for cause/effect and past/present/future. We need and use these constructs all the time. They're as real as everything else.

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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/10/22 5:28 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/10/22 5:28 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö
I'd recommend looking into the yoga of dream and sleep in Tibetan Buddhism. As far as I know, this aspect is completely neglected in Theravadan Buddhism. 
Yeah I've got two of Andrew Holecek's books sitting on the shelf right now gathering dust. I've been meaning to dip my toe in these waters but I just haven't gotten around to it. Sleep is something I struggle to get enough of, so I've been a bit hesitant to start a practice that wakes me up in the middle of it. I'll give 'em a read and go from there.
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Wayne Conner, modified 1 Year ago at 6/10/22 5:44 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/10/22 5:44 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 13 Join Date: 5/9/15 Recent Posts
Martin
Wayne Conner
As far as the void goes, I'm not frightend by it either, I'm just curious what it is. I mean there are plenty of books out there on kundalini and people talking about experiencing it. But I've never heard anyone talking about the void.

Yeah, it's kind of odd that it doesn't come up more. How about this for a stab in the dark: meditation retrains processing of space and time (as shows up in the fifth jhana, and when spacial relationships start to change off the cushion, and as discussed by realized folks who say that space and time are illusions), and as a side effect, either we sometimes wake up in a giant fabricated void, or we sometimes wake up to find that the mind isn't bothering to fabricate space filled objects. I couldn't say which (if either) is right, but I'm pretty sure that the mind can do more with space than the standard-issue experience that most people have. 

Initially I thought it might be some kind of Bardo realm but not having much more than a rudimentary understanding of Tibetan philosophy I figured that I was probably off base. And even if it were a Bardo, it doesn't have really any bearing on my current practice of Sattipathana and noting. It's just nice to be able to put some kind of name to these things and know that you're not the only one out there experiencing it.
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Dream Walker, modified 1 Year ago at 6/14/22 3:03 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/14/22 3:02 PM

RE: Waking up in a Black Void

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
Funny enough, the experience of popping into a 3D black space that was seemingly boundless and searching the internet for information about it was what made me stumble upon the Dho many years ago. It was after I'd gotten 1st path and then I read MCTB and finally understood that I had gotten 1st path, and the progress of insite explained the previous 18 years of cycling that I had never really noticed as cycles.
Ahhhh memories,
Good luck,
​​​​​​​~D