Theos-Talk Archives (January 1994 Message tl00082)

Arvind.

< in fact I got the impression that 'those who pass
through sleep every night essentially dreamless will pass
through Devachan also in that same state, being unconscious'. >

Yes. That is what HPB says.

< My question is this: if I want to have a conscious devachan,
how do I go about changing my sleep state into one of
conscious activity? >

According to Tibetan Buddhism (which I agree with) to have a
lucid bardo (between death and rebirth, or devachan) you begin
by developing lucid dreams. If you have lucid dreams, you will
probably have a lucid bardo. An excellent text on this is
DREAM YOGA AND THE PRACTICE OF NATURAL LIGHT
by Namkhai Norbu (Snow Lion Pub., 1992). There are several
techniques to develop lucid dreaming. First, keep a record of
your dreams by writing them down as soon as you wake up.
Second, and most important, is resolve to do it just before
falling asleep. The last thoughts that we have before going
to sleep will effect our dreaming, so if our last thoughts are
about remembering our dreams and about knowing that we are
dreaming, this will make it happen. Don't get discouraged, but
keep trying. It can take days, months, or years, depending on
the person.

<I know of the hints in AAB books on 'continuity of consciousness'
during sleep>

The idea of maintaining a continuity of consciousness after death
has been a well-known magical goal in western magic. You can find it
the Book of the Dead of ancient Egypt, for example, as described
in my COMING INTO THE LIGHT (Llewellyn). Also, see my article
on Opening the Mouth that I uploaded to the library (John Meade was
to have put it in the library - is John OK? I haven't heard from him
in awhile). If you can dream lucidly, and know that you are dreaming
to the point that you can consciously control your dreams, then
you can also control your devachan -  but you may find that you skip
devachan altogether, much like sometimes when you are having a
lucid dream you will wake up. G de P says that we can skip the
devachan once or twice, but sooner or later we will need the rest. I
know a lot of people who have lucid dreams, including myself and my
wife. She comes by it naturally, whereas I worked at it for many
years.

<The only discussion by HPB of dreams that I am aware of is the one
that I saw in Sylvia Cranston's biography of HPB (it is  2 or 3 pages
long). >

HPB gives a detailed description of dreams in TRANSACTIONS OF
THE BLAVATSKY LODGE.

Hope this helps. Jerry S.