Very Bad Dreams After Meditation - Advice Needed

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Well it can be one of two things. Your mind is now cleaning out the years of junk and information that you've been needlessly storing your memories.

Or, you aren't closing the connection after you meditations. Most people will be a bit more sensitive after a session and that is normal, but if you aren't closing all of chakras after they are opened, that could lead to discomfort and bad dreams

Well i've never "closed my chakras" as i don't believe in them and i have never had trouble ever before even though i've been doing it for years. I do use a chakra meditation sometimes but that's simply because it gives me something to concentrate on, not because i believe i'm opening chakras.

And it can't be years of stuff because i've only stopped meditating for 6 months, before that i did it everyday pretty much and a few times i did it for several hours.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I would suggest perhaps not going to sleep immediatly after a session, try staying up a bit, perhaps do some exercise and then ease yourself into bed.

If it's just the clean up process, it should go away after a few months of meaningfull sessions.

~Keeper

Well i'm not sure what a meaningful session is, however i thank you for your advice and will give some things you suggested a go.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I find it a bit strange you would not believe in any form of higher power or energy. Mind you my beliefs are outside the box when it comes to whatever governs this place.

I'm not sure why you find it strange. Meditation has proven, scientific benefits. Brain scans show what happens during meditation for example. So that is why i have practiced it for years, it helps completely relax me, makes me calmer in the day, life is far more easy to deal with, even the pain i suffer lessens with meditation as the focusing exercises helped me train my mind to block out the pain.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I could be mistaken, do you believe in cosmic energy? The belief that we are light and energy makes up all of what we see. Do you believe in the soul?

Cosmic energy? Well we live in the cosmos and everything is made with energy, that's simple physics. If you mean it in a more spiritual way then no i don't believe in that and i most certainly don't believe in a soul.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Meditation is a bit pointless if you refuse to believe there is anything else but the material world you were presented with.

~Keeper

Read above, it is far from pointless. It has many benefits in my life which i can put down to simple biological processes. I think you are being a little harsh because of your beliefs. Read above again about how it helps my life, only recently after a few months of a break have i had issues with it. In my original post i said i had been doing it for around 6 years, this i now realise is incorrect, it's more like 8 years and i can tell you that it has real, verifable benefits.

[edit on 13-5-2009 by ImaginaryReality1984]

Originally posted by SpacePunk
Are they dream state nightmares, or are they nightmarish out of body experiences that you think are nightmares?

They're standard bad dreams, just very intense ones. I just never suffered from bad dreams before and i was concerned meditation may be actually harming my mind instead of improving it as i've read some bad stories about people going a little funny because of meditation. The responses here have helped ease that fear, i'm still getting the dreams atm, they're never the same dream but still bad.

Originally posted by theindependentjournal
I have had three back surgeries and have taken lots of meds and narcotics (prescribed) for pain. Only one made me have the worst most vivid violent nightmares. Once I woke up screaming and had to heck on my son, I dreamt I killed him with an axe, IN COLOR. I was flipped out, my son was fine it as a dream but I called the doctor and have not eaten one oxycontin since that day. They control my pain trough Valium, Morphine, Dilaudid and fentanyl. Never had a nightmare since...

Glad alls good and hope your feeling better.
That was a horrible dream....

Dreams can be scary...

Just thought i'd update this. I carried on having various nightmares, however for the last two days i haven't had any I even spent two full hours in meditation yesterday and absolutely no nightmares occured when i went to sleep. So to the people who said continue and they would go away, you were very right. I am grateful as well because i considered stopping in case i was actually doing damage to myself, either psychologically or neurologically.

Anyway yep, it's cleared up and i am very grateful for the advice given.

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984

One of the common metaphores for spiritual development is the 'refining of gold.'

The process of refining gold requires heat. When sufficient heat is supplied, then the impurities separate from the gold.

So also it is, according to the metaphore, that we, in our 'worldly condition' are like 'unrefined gold.'

Our own 'Spiritual practice' ( or 'effort' ) supplies the 'heat.'

About 6 months ago i stopped ... About a week ago i started again.

Sounds to me like you got a pretty good 'cleaning out.'

Just a further update. I still haven't gotten any bad dreams after continuing with my meditation. I spent nearly 3 hours in deep meditation yesterday and no side effects or bad dreams. So again a big thanks to those who told me to stick with it. You were quite right, maybe i just needed a mental "clearign out" as it were.