Yoga nidra is a scientific method of achieving state of pratyahara. It is withdrawal of senses from the outer world. It is a state of mind achieve after withdrawal of senses from the outer world. It is best suited for everyone who want to be relax from hurdles of daily life. It is best suited for concentration. It is best suited for depression.
What is Yoga Nidra?
Before we start a discussion on yoga nidra I would like to recall Patanjali 8 limbs of yoga. This are-
Yama – These are rules of moral codes that and include ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), bramacharya (sexual restraint), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
Niyama – are rules of personal behavior including saucha (purity), santosha (contentment), tapas (discipline or austerity), svadhyaya (spiritual studies), and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to God).
Asana – These refers to certain yogic postures just to prepare body and mind fit for meditation.
Pranayama – These special breathing techniques developed by Indian Spiritual Scientists; ancient Indian sages.
Pratyahara – Withdrawal of the senses from realm of outer world.
Dharana – Concentration of mind.
Dhyana – Actual Practice of Meditation.
Samadhi– Where one lost into the divine attributes.
Yoga nidra is deeply concerned with Pratyahara limn of Patanjali Yoga Sutra. Pratyahara is fifth limb of Patanjali Yoga Sutra. As said above ‘Pratyahara’ means withdrawal of senses from the realm of outer world.
So, Yoga Nidra directly takes you to the practice of 5th limb of Patanjali Yoga Sutra. It didn’t mean that you don’t need to practice first four limbs of Patanjali Yoga sutras, but practice of yoga nidra could give a direct fruit.
Yoga Nidra can be written as yogic sleep or psychic sleep. It is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, like the “going-to-sleep” stage. It is a state in which the body is completely relaxed. It is just like a guided meditation. Yoga nidra can bring the deepest possible states of relaxation within you while still maintaining full consciousness.
It has been used to help soldiers from war cope with posttraumatic stress disorder.
In present scenario, Yoga nidra was experienced by Swami Satyananda Saraswati of Bihar School of Yoga, when he was living with his guru Swami Sivananda Saraswati in Rishikesh. He began studying the tantric scriptures and, after practice, constructed a system of relaxation, which he began popularizing in the mid-20th century. He explained yoga nidra as a state of mind between wakefulness and sleep that opened deep phases of the mind, suggesting a connection with the ancient tantric practice called ‘nyasa’, whereby Sanskrit mantras are mentally placed within specific body parts, while meditating on each part (of the body and mind). The form of practice taught by Swami Satyananda includes eight stages (internalization, sankalpa, rotation of consciousness, breath awareness, and manifestation of opposites, creative visualization, sankalpa and externalization).
Swami Satyananda used this technique, along with suggestion, on the child who was to become his successor, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, from the age of four. He claims to have taught him several languages by this method.
Scientific Evolution
Experimental evidence of the existence of a fourth state of unified, transcendental consciousness, which lies in the yoga nidra state at the transition between sensory and sleep consciousness, was first recorded at the Menninger Foundation in Kansas, United States in 1971. Under the direction of Dr. Elmer Green, researchers used an electroencephalograph to record the brainwave activity of an Indian yogi, Swami Rama, while he progressively relaxed his entire physical, mental and emotional structure through the practice of yoga nidra.
What they recorded was a revelation to the scientific community. The swami demonstrated the capacity to enter the various states of consciousness at will, as evidenced by remarkable changes in the electrical activity of his brain. Upon relaxing himself in the laboratory, he first entered the yoga nidra state, producing 70% alpha wave discharge for a predetermined 5 minute period, simply by imagining an empty blue sky with occasional drifting clouds.
Next, Swami Rama entered a state of dreaming sleep which was accompanied by slower theta waves for 75% of the subsequent 5 minute test period. This state, which he later described as being “noisy and unpleasant”, was attained by “stilling the conscious mind and bringing forth the subconscious”. In this state he had the internal experience of desires, ambitions, memories and past images in archetypal form rising sequentially from the subconscious and unconscious with a rush, each archetype occupying his whole awareness.
Finally, the swami entered the state of (usually unconscious) deep sleep, as verified by the emergence of the characteristic pattern of slow rhythm delta waves. However, he remained perfectly aware throughout the entire experimental period. He later recalled the various events which had occurred in the laboratory during the experiment, including all the questions that one of the scientists had asked him during the period of deep delta wave sleep, while his body lay snoring quietly.
Such remarkable mastery over the fluctuating patterns of consciousness had not previously been demonstrated under strict laboratory conditions. The capacity to remain consciously aware while producing delta waves and experiencing deep sleep is one of the indications of the third state (prajna) out of the total of four states of consciousness described in the Mandukya Upanishad. This is the ultimate state of yoga nidra in which there are no dreams, but only the deep sleep state with retained consciousness/awareness. The result is a single, semi-enlightened state of consciousness and a perfectly integrated and relaxed personality.
In 2006, Kamakhya Kumar was awarded a PhD by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (former President of India) for his work “Psycho-physiological Changes as Related to Yoga Nidra. He observed six months of effects of yoga nidra on some physiological, hematological and some psychological parameters on the practitioners and he found a significant change on above mentioned parameters.
Indian clinical psychologist Sachin Kumar Dwivedi (2009) found in his research that yoga nidra decreases levels of anxiety.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
- Relieve one from tension scientifically
- Its train the mind in the way you want
- Its relaxes the mind fully
- Its clears up the unconscious mind
- Its awakens the creativity in the practitioner
- Its enhance the memory and the learning practice
- Its counteracts stress
- Its helps to manage the psychological disorders
- Its helps to manage the psychosomatic diseases
- Yoga nidra can be adopted as a therapeutic model in the treatment of cancer.
Conclusion
In our present modern lifestyle, where psychological and psychosomatic problems are on the rise, the technique of yoga nidra may serve as a real help for mankind.
The technique of yoga nidra has preventive, pro-motive and curative value. It prevents stress and stress-related disorders. As a pro-motive science, yoga nidra awakens the inherent creativity and promotes the learning and memory abilities of the practitioner. Researches also indicate that yoga nidra can be used as a therapeutic technique to cure psychological disorders like anxiety, hostility, insomnia etc. and psychosomatic diseases like asthma, coronary heart disease, cancer, hypertension etc.