# Development of a Deep Sleep Simulating Silence Technique for Discovering Peace Dr. Ritu Sharma Abstract-An investigatio n was carried out to find out the conditions conducive to deep sleep and to work out a deep simulating technique for discovering peace in waking state. The r esults showed that till the element of I-ness and my-ness along with an effort to sleep exists, sleep does not come. The moment these elements disappear on their own, sleep sets in. In the deep sleep, one is in extreme peace state as his association with the body and its associatio ns with the world is completely cut off. Besides the sleeper also goes beyond time, mind and sense of doership and enjoyership. The experience of the deep sleep showed that the peace is inside us but needs to be discovered. The deep sleep simulating technique is worked out to discover peace even in the wak ing state co nsisted of sitting in utter silence for ten to fifteen minutes to start with, in a nobody state without any sense of ownership of body and its associatio ns or relations at a belief level. While sitting in silence, one does not do anything nor does he expect anything to get or lose and accepts the happenings as such with an open mind without any reservation , in o ther words with an indifferent attitude, thus paving the way to go beyond likes and dislikes of mind. This silence technique was tested on twenty adults in a yoga class conducted during 2018 and 2019 in the morning hours. The results showed that all of them experienced rest, co ntentment and peace. # I. # Introduction very human being goes through the various conditions such as waking, dream and deep sleep. One experiences happiness as well as miseries during the states of waking and dreaming but experiences sheer happiness and peace in deep sleep. In the waking state, both the body and mind are in active state while in dream state only the mind is active. In contrast, during deep sleep both the mind and body are at rest or dormant as though they are in an inactive state. After getting up from sound sleep, one always says that he was very peaceful during the sleep and he was not aware ab out his own body, its associations and any connection with anything around him showing thereby that he was completely disassociated from the world. This suggests that the peace lies within him and not outside in perishable materials. Now the question arises as to whether one can achieve such deep sleep peaceful conditions even when one i s in waking state. Thus investigation was carried out to critically analyse the process of deep sleep and in turn, a deep sleep simulation silence technique was worked out and was duly tested. The results obtained are presented in this paper. # II. # Materials and Methods Humans were selected as a laboratory for doing this piece of research. The experience during the waking and deep sleep conditions was analysed and formed as the basis of this investigation in order to work out the deep sleep simulation technique. Twenty adults were selected during 2018 and 2019 and deep sleep simulation technique was tested on them by asking them to sit for ten to fifteen minutes as per the steps detailed in this paper. # III. # Results and Discussions When we feel tired, we want to take rest and invariably go to sleep. Before the sleep begins, one unknowingly withdraws his attention from outside world towards hi s own self. Till the element of I-ness cum Myness prevails and effort to sleep exists, sleep does not set in. When these elements disappear on their own, it is observed that sleep sets in very smoothly. Thi s shows that sleep is a natural effortless process. When the sleeper wakes up , he says that he was extremely peaceful and happy during the deep sleep. Further analysis of deep sleep reveals the following experiences -1. Going beyond space: During deep sleep, the sleeper does not know whether he was sleeping in bed or on floor, at home or outside. Thi s shows that he had gone beyond space. # Going beyond time: The sleeper does not know as to when or how much time did he sleep? It is only after waking up that he relates that he was not aware of the time. This again shows that he had gone beyond time. # Going bey ond body: The sleeper loses awareness of his own body and its relations and possessions. He does not know whether he is male or female; young or old; healthy or unhealthy; father or mother; brother or sister. Further he also loses his identification with possessions, whether he is rich or poor; literate illiterate or any other consideration etc. When the sleeper is without body and its possessi on and relations, his state is termed as nobody state i.e absolutely free from my-ness as well as I-ness 4. Going beyond mind: When the sleeper does not think and has no desires. The desire is the function of mind and comes only when the sleeper i s in waking state. Thus he is beyond the mind and its desires also. # Going beyond actions: When the sleeper has no desires or expectations to get or lose, he does not do any actions. So he is also in action free or nondoing state. In the deep sleep, peace is there but the person experiencing the peace is not there. The above experiences of the sleeper in deep sleep show that he is free from my-ness of the body, its possessi ons and relations, and al so free from desires and actions. Freed om from b ody leads to freed om from attachment, hatred, anger, greed, illusion and eg o etc. The freedom from desires leads to sel f dependence, equanimity, generosity, and contentment (Gita 2/55). While the freedom from actions leads to rest thus making the sleeper, peaceful and full of energy. The results suggest that happiness or peace of the person does not depend on the body and worldly accumulations but lies within one's ownself, and this needs to be discovered. The teachings of Gita also underline the truth that the freedom from myness and ego is a pre-requisite for getting peace. However after the sleeper wakes up, he gets again identified with the My-ness of the body and acquires a somebody state with the belief of owenership of body and its possessi ons etc. As a result he continues to feel happy or disturbed depending on the conditions he is facing. The essential differences in the feelings of a sleeper and a waker are given in Table 1.Simultaneously, a technique to maintain a peaceful nobody state even in the waking state was worked out and is described below: It is submerged or bound with the worldly actio ns and materials as well as their possessions. 5. It is very happy and peaceful independent of wordly achievements and accumulations. It is sometimes happy and sometimes peaceful. Its peace is dependent o n wordly achievements and accumulations. 6. It is not subject to any change and does not undergo the process of birth and death It is subject to change and undergoes the process of birth and death # IV. Deep Sleep Simulation Technique It consi sts of different steps which are aimed at withdrawing one's attention from outside to inside of one's ownself. 1. Sit in silence in a comfortable posture, may be in cross-legged position on a carpeted floor or chair. The posture of sitting should be very comfortable and should not require any efforts. Otherwi se the attention of the person will be drawn towards that effort (Dashora, 1977). For this one should keep both his hands in the lap with right hand palm on the left hand palm (Siddharth and Puri,2014). Body should be fully erect with smile and cheerfulness on the face while spinal cord straight. 2. One should decide to change his belief that he is in a nob ody state and physical body does not belong to him. Therefore one should not exercise his ownership rights on the body and its p ossesions as none of these accompany us during the death. Moreover, while living also, these possessions do not ever say that they belong to the person. All these things are given to us for serving humanity. Ones decision of disowning the body and possessi ons etc to remain in nobody state leads to our diversion of attention from out side to innerself. (Gita,3/18). It is easy to stop physical actions but to stop mental actions it requires understanding. In this context it is very essential to differentiate between doing s and happenings. Doing is in our hands as it involves sense of doership while happenings do happen without our consent of doership. For instance, while sitting in silence the thoughts are coming on their own when we do not want them to come. 5. Before such thoughts could be handled it is important to find out their origin. Such thoughts are outcome of impressions imprinted on the mind by future worries. These impressi ons cause abnormalities and agitation in the mind which want to become normal by emitting them in the form of thoughts. Such thoughts find time to come out while sitting in silence when one is not engaged in any working. So one should not get frightened but needs their handling with care. 6. Handling the thoughts-When the thoughts come in mind, one should not start fighting with them as to why and how are they coming. The fighting will complicate the problems causing more disturbance as they will come more vigorously. Instead of fighting one must accept them without any judgement because the judgement leads to their categorisation into good and bad ones thus creating positive and negative emotions. This will attract our attention and make us move far away from our innerself toward s judgement. It is said and believed that judgement is opposite to acceptance and should be avoided. One should adopt a letting go attitude (let the thoughts come and go without any ob struction from our side). So do not either oppose or support or hold on to them, be open to accepting them as they are without any reservation with an indifferent attitude (Gita,6/25). This attitude leads to our freedom from the thoughts and consequently results in peace and rest. Besides thi s, d o not merge with the thoughts or get identified with them. The thoughts come and go and may affect only the mind. Like the body, the mind also does not say that I do not belong to you. Remain simply a knower of the mind. The knower is always separate from the object, mind being known (Gita 13/1). So by accepting the thoughts as such and remaining as a witness to them one will be free from their association thus remaining within one's own self. After five to ten minutes of sitting in silence, the thoughts start receding and soon a stage may come when mind becomes thoughtless and the intellect becomes equanimous. In the starting, this state of remaining within oneself may stay for a few seconds but with practice it may stay for longer periods providing peace. Again caution should be exercised that one does not enjoy the peace but remains in an indifferent attitude. Thi s way the peace will increase in intensity. If the person enjoys this peace there is danger of his falling asleep. One should, therefore, not enjoy this peace. Let it come or let it go and one should not bother about attaining it. 7. How t o handle the external noise-While sitting in silence, the noi se occurring in the environment al so disturbs. The external noise i s also not under our control as the incoming thoughts. Such noi se could also be handled as we handle the thoughts. We should not oppose or support the noise and simultaneously not get identified with it. We should remain indifferent to noi se and maintain separation from it. By this way, the noise if any experienced while sitting will lose its disturbing effect. While sitting in silence one should not insist or desire or become impatient for attaining stillness of mind. Rather such desires again attach ourselves to other objects, thus reinforcing someb ody state and in turn the process of stilling the mind. If some desires do arise, do not get frightened by them and do not pay any attention or adopt letting go attitude also towards them. All the above steps aim at bringing us from somebody to a nob ody state. A comparison of the deep sleep with the simulation technique shows that the sleeper while experiencing the peace is in unconscious state whereas the person experiencing the peace in the waking state is in conscious state. # Testing of technique: The results of the persons who underwent this technique showed that all of them experienced extreme rest and peaceful state. Some of them lost their body consciousness entirely, not being aware of their body, or arms or hands. But the degree of losing of such awareness of the body and attaining stillness of the mind varied from person to person. Persons were aware about the happenings occurring in the mind or out side but such happenings did not distract their attention from their own self. They remained within themselves in an equanimous state (Gita13/31). This state was full of love but divide of duality, judgement and criticism. (Robert , 2007). V. # Conclusions and Suggestions From the results it can be concluded that deep sleep is an effortless, natural process consisting of withdrawal of attention from outside to inside and brings the person free from body, mind and actions resulting into discovering peace showing thereby that peace is inside us and not a subject of out side. Accordingly a technique of simulating deep sleep conditions involving various steps to bring the person from somebody to nobody state, was tested and the results found were quite promising. The same technique can be used for students so that their study habits can become better and their competence at cognitive abilities goes up . 1 * NLDashora Sadhana Pad in Patanjali Yog Sutra Randir Prakashan, Haridwar 1997 46 * BhagwatGita Sadhak Sanjeevani, A commentary in Hindi by Swami Ramsukhdas Gorakhpur Gita Press 2014 * Travelling Light in Happiness Now RobertHolden 2007 Hayhouse Inc. New Delhi 230 * Mudra Healing, Osho Dhara PuriRSiddharth 2014 Nanak Dham Publications Sonipat, India