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BY SARAH JANES
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
Sarah Janes is an author, researcher and educator specialising in dreaming and Ancient Greece.
BY SARAH JANES
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
Sarah Janes is an author, researcher and educator specialising in dreaming and Ancient Greece.
BY SARAH JANES
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
Sarah Janes is an author, researcher and educator specialising in dreaming and Ancient Greece.
BY SARAH JANES
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
LA PETITE MORT: The Little Death as Dream Portal
“Poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism — to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death, and through death to continuity. Poetry is eternity; the sun matched with the sea.”
― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality
At the tail end of orgasm it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self-awareness. This is romantically referred to as La Petite Mort (the little death)— and it can provide an ideal portal into a lucid dream. This unique trance state has been tapped by prophetesses, seers and wise women for oracular insight since time immemorial and I think it is an especially good way to cultivate serene dreams too. A dreamscape is often pregnant with the feelings and ideas that were present just as you are drifting into sleep.
Orgasm is known to alter consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic. It has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some of these regions are responsible for modulating perception of reality (feels to me like skewiffing time). In the deep sense of timeless tranquility that enfolds the post-orgasmic body, we find ourself in a unique position to enter a state of lucidity without falling asleep.
Depending on the individual and circumstance, one might experience significant activation of certain brain regions in the build-up to orgasm. If lots of mental fantasy is taking place — as is often the case with masturbation - there is an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The activation in the right angular gyrus and operculum is also significant in the comparison between build-up, orgasm and post-orgasm. The right angular gyrus has been implicated in altered states such as out of body experiences.
One study, in which subjects in a fMRI were brought to orgasm by their partners — the orgasmic state corresponded with activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) region of the PFC. This region is related to the feeling of letting go, pleasure and surrender. It indicates a release from self-reflection and referential thinking.
The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is also activated during orgasm and this is a brain area associated with pain relief, emotional awareness and conflict resolution. Pain thresholds can increase over 100% during orgasm - likely as a result of activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (releases serotonin) and the nucleus cuneiformis (major brainstem components that mediate endogenous analgesia). This could be considered the neural signature of La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort Dream Portal Guidance:
You can easily deepen and expand La Petite Mort experience into a dream. Use it as a way to enter lucid awareness without fully falling asleep (Wake Induced Lucid Dream — WILD technique). Go with the flow of your mind.
Sensorially, you may experience a floating sensation of being beyond or outside of your body. This can also be used to induce an OBE - in which case you choose to go outside of your body rather than inside.
You are in an extremely relaxed, somewhat fuzzy trance state. It is easier if you lie on your back. Imagine your body has turned to still water.
Keep a gentle awareness of what is happening as you begin drifting through deeper and deeper levels of relaxation.
Your senses may begin to overlap in a synaesthetic way. You may hear colourful snatches of music, doorbells, your name being called. You may feel the warmth of the sun upon your body.
Take your awareness to the very edge of sleep.
This technique can be an especially useful practice for lucid dreaming. In the dream realm, super-subtle, subconscious, multi-sensory perceptions of your inner world and immediate environment, converge to create elaborate visual dreamscapes.
Hypnagogic imagery may appear more vivid. You may experience myoclonic jerks — the sensation of a sudden jolt that rouses you from trance. Myoclonic jerks are sometimes accompanied by a visual cue — such as tripping up the pavement in a hypnagogic reverie.
Keep going, resist turning over, resist getting more comfortable and resist falling asleep proper.
Eventually you will increase the period of time you can spend in hypnagogic visualisation and as dream scenes coagulate before your eyes, you will recognise how your intent and attention build dream worlds.
Become aware of the images coalescing in your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to travel through them, as if you are moving through a tunnel.
Imagine yourself as Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. Keep a gentle, softened gaze and be aware of keeping an onward motion, keep moving through space. The mind seems to fall through inner space to arrive at a lucid dream destination. Movement keeps the dream momentum going.
Do not focus too closely on any specific aspect of the visualisations until you are in a full dream.
Identify yourself with the element of water, imagine yourself running through an interconnected matrix of cells, blood vessels, veins and neurons. Recognise yourself electrifying the filaments that weave themselves together to create your physical manifestation on Earth.
Follow the pattern of this net of life, travel through the threads of your consciousness to the All - to the incandescent divine spark that merges you and Cosmos.
Image Credits: Hedy Lamarr in the Czech erotic film Extase (Dir. Gustav Machatý 1933)
Sarah Janes is an author, researcher and educator specialising in dreaming and Ancient Greece.