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Meditation seems like a fundamentally different thing to me with different benefits. Kinda seems like apples to oranges. I think part of the problem is that the

Meditation seems like a fundamentally different thing to me with different benefits. Kinda seems like apples to oranges. I think part of the problem is that the whole mindfulness movement has sometimes sold meditation as a kind of self hypnosis. But I've always liked to think of it as just doing nothing on purpose. Active dreaming seems not so much like doing nothing.

superb-owl 4y ago
The "doing nothing" aspect of meditation is kind of paradoxical. On the one hand, many meditation instructions will explicitly tell you to abandon any intentions or goals, as they will almost certainly get in the way. On the other hand, nearly everyone who starts meditating does so with a goal in mind. They want to improve their mental health, achieve some personal insight, or access the strange mindstates described by expert meditators. Both Active Dreaming and psychedelics address those same goals. But the way they go about it is very different--there is definitely a lot more "doing" involved.
- CrypticShift 4y ago
  As I understand it, there are two phases in meditation that should be clearly distinguished to avoid confusion. - Phase 1. When you engage in it, you indeed need to "abandon any intentions or goals" and “do nothing on purpose" because your goal is that emptiness. - Phase 2. Once you attain that state of "emptiness", you are now (and only now) able to very sharply focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity. Active dreaming could be seen as one of those activities. You need at least a minimum degree of that meditative "emptiness" for unlocking the process you called "Active dreaming". I think "Active imagination" [0] is a term Jung used for a similar technique. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination
- aatd86 4y ago
  It's not doing nothing actually. It's about observing one's own thoughts (basically brain chatter and sometimes sensations, perceptions) from a distance. Meta-cognition. :)
  - superb-owl 4y ago
    This is definitely one form of meditation. There are plenty of others though!

superb-owl 4y ago

The "doing nothing" aspect of meditation is kind of paradoxical. On the one hand, many meditation instructions will explicitly tell you to abandon any intentions or goals, as they will almost certainly get in the way. On the other hand, nearly everyone who starts meditating does so with a goal in mind. They want to improve their mental health, achieve some personal insight, or access the strange mindstates described by expert meditators. Both Active Dreaming and psychedelics address those same goals. But the way they go about it is very different--there is definitely a lot more "doing" involved.

CrypticShift 4y ago
As I understand it, there are two phases in meditation that should be clearly distinguished to avoid confusion. - Phase 1. When you engage in it, you indeed need to "abandon any intentions or goals" and “do nothing on purpose" because your goal is that emptiness. - Phase 2. Once you attain that state of "emptiness", you are now (and only now) able to very sharply focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity. Active dreaming could be seen as one of those activities. You need at least a minimum degree of that meditative "emptiness" for unlocking the process you called "Active dreaming". I think "Active imagination" [0] is a term Jung used for a similar technique. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination
aatd86 4y ago
It's not doing nothing actually. It's about observing one's own thoughts (basically brain chatter and sometimes sensations, perceptions) from a distance. Meta-cognition. :)
- superb-owl 4y ago
  This is definitely one form of meditation. There are plenty of others though!