Scientists study rare objectless dreams: people reach "nirvana" without any spiritual practices

Some people are able to experience lucid dreams without specific content or images. This rare condition may be the key to understanding the very concept of consciousness.

In this regard, a researcher in the philosophy of consciousness and cognitive science at the University of Edinburgh Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez and her colleagues conducted a series of studies to discover, what people experience during lucid dreaming without specific dreams or images. 

Eastern philosophical schools in India and Tibet have long described similar practices of lucid dreaming. For example, the indian philosophical school of Advaita Vedanta, based on the interpretation of the Vedas — one of the oldest texts of Hinduism — understands deep sleep or “sushupti” as a state of “only awareness” in which we simply remain conscious.

A similar interpretation of deep sleep is given by the Dzogchen school of indo-tibetan buddhism. According to its teachings, various meditation practices can be performed both during wakefulness and during sleep to comprehend the “essence” of consciousness. 

As part of our own research Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez and her colleagues surveyed 573 people about unusual forms of sleep, including simpler, minimal forms of sleep awareness. For example, realization after the dream has ended or the simple realization, that you are sleeping soundly.

Next, the researchers conducted an in-depth interview with 18 participants, who claimed to have experienced some form of object-free lucid dreaming. During this interview Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez and her colleagues used a protocol, inspired by micro-phenomenological interviews. It is a research tool, designed to help people recall and describe subtle aspects of their experiences in minute detail.

Based on the results of the research, scientists have identified a range of experiences, they call the “experience of objectless sleep” — a state of consciousness apparently devoid of an object of awareness. In all cases, participants reported having an episode during sleep, that was devoid of sensory content, and which consisted only of a sense of awareness of what was happening.

The experience of some participants corresponded to the descriptions of lucid dreaming in eastern philosophical traditions: without object and ego, without a residual sense of self. According to the participants, their selves seemed to dissolve and disappear, reminiscent of the narcotic state experienced after taking the psychedelic DMT or in deep meditation. 

Other feelings of the participants included a faint sense of being in an uncertain state or a sense of insignificance and emptiness. Some people had remnants of rudimentary forms of dreaming, the feeling of being in a certain world, even if it seemed, that this world was seemingly absent. 

Research has also demonstrated, that even people, who did not practice meditation or yoga, experienced similar lucid, object-free dreams. In fact, the results of the online survey showed, no connection between meditation practices and the experience of objectless sleep.

However, the results of the survey showed, that the experience of lucid dreaming (when you realize you are asleep but continue to sleep) seems to correlate with the experience of non-REM sleep. It should be noted, however, that many participants, who experienced lucid dreaming, did not report experiencing non-recurrent sleep.

Since objectless dreams are a fairly rare condition, they are somewhat difficult to study. For a better understanding, appropriate training is needed to induce these dreams. As part of the study Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez and her colleagues tested a new induction protocol, that combines meditation, visualization, and lucid dreaming techniques.

The four participants learned to maintain awareness while falling asleep and to signal the achievement of awareness with a pre-arranged eye movement. Portable EEG recorders, which measure electrical activity in the brain, confirmed, that some objectless states occur during slow wave sleep — the phase in which there are no rapid eye movements. 

According to the researchers, this slow wave sleep phase lacks complex conscious states characteristic of dreams, although some other forms of sleep, including simpler ones, may occur. Currently, scientists around the world do not have a consensus, on what underlies consciousness. Some common views state, that consciousness arises when information is transmitted to the brain. Nevertheless, there is a debate about what kind of information the brain needs for cognitive processing.

The fact, that people can be aware of “nothing” during sleep, can tell us more about the mind, than any dream. Minimal forms of consciousness, such as those found in objectless sleep, can pave the way for refining our theories of consciousness. Their existence indicates a form of awareness that is completely devoid of content.

Sources: The Conversation; ScienceAlert