Dreaming Oneself Awake: Psychological Flexibility, Imaginal Simulation, and Somatic Awareness in Tibetan Buddhist Dream Yoga

Contemplatives in Tibet understood dreaming to be a powerful expressive domain in which novel and disparate worlds can be experienced, from which new knowledge can emerge and new skills be cultivated. Buddhist practices of dream yoga (rmi lam rnal 'byor) consist of practical methods to learn how to lucidly perform specific contemplative techniques while asleep. Such contemplative sleeping practices are designed to extend insights achieved during dreaming into perceptual shifts during waking life. To better understand the underlying mechanisms operative in Tibetan Buddhist dreaming practices, this article translates and interprets excerpts from historical Tibetan dream yoga manuals from the 14th through 17th centuries in the Nyingma Seminal Heart tradition of Dzogchen and the Shangpa Kagy & uuml; tradition of the Six Teachings of Niguma. Specifically, we are concerned with discerning three discrete experiential dimensions prescribed in dream yoga manuals: operations of (a) perceptual plasticity; (b) imaginal simulation and use of mental imagery; and (c) somatic awareness of what Tibetans call the "mental body of dream" (rmi lam gyi yid lus). Each dimension references discourses and analogs in contemporary philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and cultural psychology about meta-awareness, imagination, reflexive awareness, and enhanced cognition and embodiment.