Ep305: Neuroscience of Dream Yoga - Dr Michael Sheehy, Dr Tawni Tidwell, Dr Julian Schott
This trialogue is the first in a series exploring the latest interdisciplinary research into tantric completion stage practices such as yogas of dream, sleep, and death.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Dr Michael Sheehy is the Director of Research at the Contemplative Sciences Center in the Department of Religious Studies in the University of Virginia.
Dr Tawni Tidwell is a biocultural anthropologist and doctor of traditional Tibetan medicine.
Dr Julian Schott is an Indologist, Tibetologist, and assistant professor at the University of Vienna.
Dr Sheehy shares his cutting edge research into the tantric completion stage yogas of dream and sleep, reveals the implication of new directions in neuroscience and micro-phenomenology, and warns of the danger of esoteric practices becoming extinct.
Dr Sheehy proposes a two-way split in the future of religious practice, Dr Tidwell reflects on the decline in the number of spiritual masters, and Dr Schott considers the real meaning of secrecy in Tibetan tantra.
00:00 - Intro
01:22 - Current research about yogic practices of dream and sleep
02:46 - Overview of Tibet and Indian dream and sleep practices
04:15 - Michael’s scientific studies of yogic lucid dreaming practice
07:53 - Opening a 2-way channel of communication between dreamer and scientist
08:46 - Rigorous micro-phenomenology
10:04 - Comparisons with classic descriptions and prescriptions found in Tibetan dream manuals
11:34 - Dreams are unpredictable spaces
13:53 - Understanding lucidity
16:27 - Psychological flexibility, imaginal simulation, and somatic awareness
22:28 - The impact of dream yoga on daily life
23:59 - 6 similes of reality and dream yoga
26:26 - Lucid waking practices & the illusory body
29:45 - 2-fold practice curriculum of day and night
31:16 - A devastating pitfall
32:07 - New ways to amplify practice
35:38 - Designing virtual reality simulations for dream yoga exercises
39:49 - Intersections with psychedelic research
42:16 - 2 ways to approach contemplative practice
47:05 - Generating interdisciplinary hypotheses
48:14 - Utilising VR meditations as practice supports
52:37 - Drawing on traditional expertise
53:27 - Bringing traditional practice categories into neuroscience research
55:27 - Neuroscience as the next level of translation
59:40 - Michael challenges ahistorical perspectives; Tibetan tradition has been highly experimental
01:02:32 - Community-based partnerships
01:05:02 - What does it mean that a practice is “secret”?
01:07:01 - The body in tantric traditions and secularising tantra
01:09:33 - A 2-way split in the global culture of religious practice
01:12:10 - Esoteric traditions are in danger
01:16:56 - Bold experimentation is historically consonant with the tradition
01:18:23 - Great masters are decreasing in number
01:23:17 - Esoteric practices have a coherent logic
01:26:22 - Traditional practices have undergone evolution and change
01:28:36 - Ethics of scholar-practitioners
Previous episodes with Dr Julian Schott:
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Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James