Ep305: Neuroscience of Dream Yoga - Dr Michael Sheehy, Dr Tawni Tidwell, Dr Julian Schott
Freitag, 9. Mai 2025 · 1 h 32
Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin
Shownotes
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.
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.
Video version: www.guruviking.com
Topics include:
- Intro
- Current research about yogic practices of dream and sleep
- Overview of Tibet and Indian dream and sleep practices
- Michael’s scientific studies of yogic lucid dreaming practice
- Opening a 2-way channel of communication between dreamer and scientist
- Rigorous micro-phenomenology
- Comparisons with classic descriptions and prescriptions found in Tibetan dream manuals
- Dreams are unpredictable spaces
- Understanding lucidity
- Psychological flexibility, imaginal simulation, and somatic awareness
- The impact of dream yoga on daily life
- 6 similes of reality and dream yoga
- Lucid waking practices & the illusory body
- 2-fold practice curriculum of day and night
- A devastating pitfall
- New ways to amplify practice
- Designing virtual reality simulations for dream yoga exercises
- Intersections with psychedelic research
- 2 ways to approach contemplative practice
- Generating interdisciplinary hypotheses
- Utilising VR meditations as practice supports
- Drawing on traditional expertise
- Bringing traditional practice categories into neuroscience research
- Neuroscience as the next level of translation
- Michael challenges ahistorical perspectives; Tibetan tradition has been highly experimental
- Community-based partnerships
- What does it mean that a practice is “secret”?
- The body in tantric traditions and secularising tantra
- A 2-way split in the global culture of religious practice
- Esoteric traditions are in danger
- Bold experimentation is historically consonant with the tradition
- Great masters are decreasing in number
- Esoteric practices have a coherent logic
- Traditional practices have undergone evolution and change
- Ethics of scholar-practitioners
To find our more about the panel, visit:
- michaelrsheehy.com
- centerhealthyminds.org/about/people/tawni-tidw…
- stb.univie.ac.at/en/about-us/team/julian-schot…
For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- guruviking.com
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James
