This is an interesting paper from a few years back..the sample size is really tiny (only 8 people), but it is comparing inexperienced and experienced Zazen meditators and how they experience consciousness, both during meditation and their day to day lives, and it makes for pretty fascinating and inspiring reading if people are wanting a little motivation with regard to making meditation a regular practice.

Abstract

This phenomenological study into Zen practitioners’ experiences of zazen meditation is based on eight semi-structured interviews with four experienced and four inexperienced zazen meditators. The respondents’ descriptions were analysed using a five-step Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) process into thirteen super-ordinate themes. The phenomenological analysis revealed differences between the two groups. Some experienced meditators reported differences that might be interpreted as trait changes due to meditative practice. These included the ability to remain conscious in the dream and deep sleep state as well as greater clarity, greater serenity, and more compassion in the waking state. Supplementary quantitative data gathered by a questionnaire indicated that inexperienced meditators perceived a greater difference between meditation and a normal waking state than did experienced meditators. This finding might indicate that the experienced meditators have integrated the meditative state into their daily life as a normal state, an area warranting future inquiry.

Selected Highlights:

Dream states of consciousness

Inexperienced meditators. As a result of meditation, the respondents have had fewer dreams and more shallow dreams. In addition, the need for sleep is less marked than it previously has been.

Experienced meditators. It is possible to meditate in lucid dreaming as well as to continue working on Zen koans. The deep sleep state is experienced as a deep relaxed dreamless sleep.

Developing stages of consciousness

Experienced meditators. After many years of meditation, the state of consciousness has permanently changed towards a feeling of limitless clarity in mind and body. Meditation has become a way of life. A state freed from previous, different states or stages of consciousness.

Altered states of consciousness

Experienced meditators. Out-of-body experiences and lucid dreams at night were reported by all in the experienced group. One respondent experienced contact with dead people in his lucid dream state.

The effects of meditation on personal development

Inexperienced meditators. The respondents state that they have noticed several changes in their own development and view of the world, and their environment including the quality of social interactions.

Experienced meditators. These respondents state that they have noticed a number of personal changes through the process of meditation. Openness, expansiveness and non-attachment to the material world are examples of qualities and affects that have developed over time.


It is interesting to note that the inexperienced meditators all felt that the state of mind induced via meditation differed more from their mind state during waking life than the experienced meditators, which suggests the meditative state is becoming part of normal baseline consciousness, and it seems like this a long term change among experienced meditators.

The paper and a Zazen meditation guide are attached.

Kjellgren, A. & Taylor, S. (200 Mapping Zazen meditation as a developmental process: Exploring the experiences of experienced and inexperienced meditators. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 40, (2) 224-250.

I hit the cushion for a year now, that half hour in the morning is really worth it.

Thx for the paper, Puma. This was my favorite part:


Short supplemental video to the Zen Meditation in Plain English.pdf

Hey dude, my pleasure, I'm glad it was of interest to you too, and thanks for sharing that clip. And yeah I think that was my favourite part too! An OBE author and teacher Graham Nicholls I know of recommends Zazen meditation above other practices, in his experience they have a positive synergy with his OBE's, increasing the quality, clarity and length of time of his experiences so he considers daily practice of 20 mins highly advantageous for OBE practice. This also relates to OBE author Jurgen Ziewe, and that clip I shared in your thread on William Buhlman discussing OBE's and other things...all of Jurgen's OBE's came as a life changing side effect of his daily meditation practice. Tom Campbell also places a strong emphasis on the importance of a daily meditation practice.

It's worth bearing in mind, Zen, more than other meditational practices perhaps, is rigorous and sober, in that it places no importance in any cognitive phenomena, experiences or siddhis that arise during meditation, one simply observes in a detached fashion and continues their meditation (you kinda get that impression with the case report you quote). Still though, I think it's the attachment or distraction of these experiences that is the main folly, and if Zazen allows one to maintain conscious awareness in sleep and allows one to access to regular lucid dreams and OBE's when they are asleep, I see that at as no bad thing, and in fact this is a way of extending your conscious awareness over your life span dramatically which I think is pretty cool, and those lucid dreams and OBE's could form a sound platform for further practices and explorations.

Interesting stuff I think! It definitely seems like a worthwhile practice to incorporate into one's life, for many reasons. That Zazen guide I attached was just a sample, I apologise peeps, I've attached a short, sweet and accessible guides.

What I find fascinating is the open secret that meditation facilitates OBEs and lucid dreaming. When I started reading about meditation in 2008, nobody mentioned it. I mean even today, you read a mainstream article in the newspaper about yoga or meditation, all they mention is stress reduction and work/live balance. But going out of your body? Never happened or at least I'm not aware of it. The same goes for lucid dream techniques. Even up to now, I rarely see the lucid dream/meditation correlation mentioned (except the - imo esoteric - dream yoga).

But I think that's THE 'selling argument' for meditation. Going out of your body and talk with dead relatives, I mean how cool is that?! The term "enlightment" is too wishy-washy for my taste, but talking to dead relatives is something concrete. I must confess, it didn't happen to me yet, but papers like yours keep me going. It seems to me that all (anecdotal) evidence points towards it: if you want OBEs and lucid dreams, meditate moar.

It is interesting in that the vast majority of OBE and lucid dream teachers and authors I've had communicated with all emphasise the benefits of a regular meditation practice, although said meditation can take many different forms. I have definitely read a fair few case reports and know of a few people practicing meditation and yoga who started to notice an increase in lucid dreams or OBE's, when they otherwise weren't expecting or seeking such experiences. Remember that with the Buddhist approach to meditation, one is instructed to observe any experiences of the mind in a detached fashion, so people may be under-reporting such experiences, as while interesting not much value is subscribed to them by those on the Buddhist meditation path (for the most part), unless they are pursuing Tibetan (or Taoist) dream yoga.

It is worth keeping in mind that one of the main lucid dream induction methods...via repeated reality checks during the daytime...is essentially a form of mindfulness, nudging one towards a state of awareness emphasising being in the present, and away from acting on autopilot, which is what mindfulness meditation practice is also doing via a different technique. So it seems that the mindful state induced by a daily meditation practice spills over into the dream state while asleep, increasing chances of lucidity.

It seems though that the access to OBE's, conscious sleeping awareness or nightly lucid dreams only comes with regular, sustained, long term practice (most likely years of daily practice), so the long term discipline and motivation required here may make achieving this trickier for some.

It was interesting in that paper the subject describing contact with the dead through their nightly OBE's...this is actually a pretty commonly reported component of OBE's, lucid dreams and of course NDE's, of which an OBE tends to be a core component. This is interesting to me, as I had an experience a year or so ago where I had a very vivid dream/OBE like experience where I met a family friend who had died a few days previously, and whom I tried my best to soothe in the experience (he seemed confused and disorientated)...this is when I was actively practicing OBE techniques and doing some nightly meditation practices. My sister is good friends with the daughter of this guy, and described my experience, and apparently he had been like this a week prior to his death (maybe not that strange), although interestingly she also had an experience with him the following week after his death.

But yeah, it seems to me that a regular practice of meditation makes for a strong foundation for these kind of experiences (and more), seems to me perhaps a more all-encompassing and well-rounded approach than just trying out a few techniques alone (not that there is anything wrong with that, and likely a synergy using techniques alongside a regular meditation practice). Lucid dreams and OBE's aside, I really like the sound of the conscious awareness during sleep, and having that extra third of your life time accessible to you, seems like that could really have some tangible benefits to one's life.

This is worth a read on the subject of mindfulness, meditation and lucid dreaming, and I've attached a paper that may be of interest.

https://www.psychologyto...ation-and-lucid-dreaming