Yin-Yang: A Step onto the Unknown

Yin-Yang
A Step onto the Unknown

It gets crazy up there sometimes, I mean in my brain, the more you stick with me the more you’d realize that. Having said that, some of my thoughts would not make sense, some of them are incomplete, and some, like this topic, cannot be proven. I will do my best to grind the gears of my rusting gray matter as best as I can. I have been reading some Chinese light novels lately (wuxia/xianxian). While their content is entertaining within itself, the common philosophy within them inspired and intrigued the idea of this discussion. See, Yin-yang as a concept have three branches in Chinese philosophy (Wang, 2016). Our theory combines all three to show that through meditation and unison with nature we could potentially control the content of our dreams, and use it within the conscious realm.

You are still here and didn’t call a mental asylum to get me into a straight jacket, good, let us continue.  First, we'll explore dreams, Sigmund Freud once said that dreams are a window into our unconscious. There is no doubt that our dreams are often influenced by our conscious, but does the flow works both ways? I would argue yes, there are plenty of physical evidence supporting that. Examples, how many times did you dream that your falling just to find your physical body jolting? People who experience sleep paralysis (Watch The Nightmare, 2015), people who sleepwalk, I for once almost committed suicide as a kid while sleep walking. I’ll take it a step further, people who daydream, yes daydream, mobs could surround you, and you’d still find yourself lost in your own world, not blinking, not moving, just staring into the abyss of reality and you do not see.

Wakeup! Saw you drifting off there. Why the concept of being able to control our dreams useful? Depending on what type of a person you are, we spend between 5-9 hours sleeping every night (12 if you are a lazy fucker, yes, you know you yourself). While we all exhibit REM (rapid eye movement) sleep (McNamara, People who Do not Dream, 2012), it does not necessarily mean we are within the dream world, however, it does mean that our brain is cognitive. Furthermore, during sleep our sympathetic nervous system activity rises dramatically (McNamara, The Very, Very Strange Properties of REM Sleep, 2011). Before this turns into the scientific journal of Wacky Koko, let me tell what I want by all of this. Unlike reality where we are limited by 24 hours cage, the unconscious realm frees us from these constraints. You could experience days in a matter of hours, minutes, or even seconds.

Do you know what’s common between boxers, professional race car drivers, and high caliber surgeons? They all perform shadow versions of their profession. They imagine themselves doing their operations repeatedly until they are 100% sure of success. What if we can access this function in our subconscious (dreams) and retain the experience in our conscious (reality). Throughout history, Asian martial artists have paid special attention to meditation and the growth of Qi*pronounced Chi or Kee* (Vital Energy), coherent fabric of nature and mind, exhibited in all existence (Wang, 2016)….Yin-Yang. Through this processes of harmonizing with nature, we reach a pinnacle of blank state, or more accurately a calm state of mind.

Imagine your mind as an ocean, the thoughts is a storm, and you are a ship. A calm state of mind is like a summer wind in clear ocean. Years of meditation and dedication could make that ship sail calmly and see beyond the storms that ravage the mind. The possibility to navigate between the conscious and unconscious then exist. Whenever I wanted to write a song or complete a poem that I get stuck on from time to time, I would keep myself up after my regular bedtime just so I can experience drifting into the creative side of my brain (this might, of course, be just my imagination and be complete bullshit, but it works for me).

 

This theory of mine is limited, I see a lot of flaws in it. For example, in my theory, we can only experience what we know in real life and build upon it. Meaning, the physical sensation that is unknown to you remains unknown. You can’t read a book that you’ve never read, you cannot taste a flavor that you never drank. You can master your craft, review your studies, reach new theories, or rediscover known theories, and practice techniques. It will better the memory, and strengthen the character. I do not know how technology, electricity, cell phones, and all these things affect our life. I do feel however that staying away from technology during meditation and sleep is necessary for reaching a pure state of mind. The support for this believe, is that nature gives you mental fortitude. Whenever we were in training camp my coach would tell us, it’s not so much the physical benefit that you are gaining, but mental fortitude. Look at most physical campaigns; you’ll find it either in mountains, resorts, snow filled areas, or desert filled areas, just connecting with nature in general.

So, How do we test this is real? We have the hypothesis, we need to put it to test, but there is one unknown factor in my theory! Time. I do not know how long we need to do this to see results. Also, I do not think we have resources for a proper scientific experiment with a control group and experimental group. Also, with anything that deals with the unconscious, we would have to worry about the placebo effect. How often do we hear about people following a cult, I fear if this experiment implemented it would meet a similar effect of polar opposites. So for now, I through the thought to the ground. Whether the seed would grow or not, well, only time could tell.

References

McNamara, P. (2011, August 13). The Very, Very Strange Properties of REM Sleep. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dream-catcher/201108/the-very-very-strange-properties-rem-sleep

McNamara, P. (2012, April 21). People who Do not Dream. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dream-catcher/201204/people-who-do-not-dream

Wang, R. R. (2016, December 22). Yinyang(Yin-yang). Retrieved from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/yinyang/