The Empty Floor of Dreamscapes: Entering the Endless Expanse

Every dream arises from and returns to the void, the space between the dreams. The space between dreams, which is really the space between the REM cycles, is NREM (non-rapid-eye-movement sleep) and is divided by N1, N2, and N3 with increasing depth of sleep and loss of awareness. The greatest depth of sleep, in N3, actually is reached at the beginning of sleep with lower frequencies of N3 when REM cycles continue. The mystics of the past lacked a medical vocabulary to describe the conditions explored in their sleep yoga and contemplative traditions; there has still not been a reconciliation of the scientific and spiritual traditions on the nature of experiences reported over the millennia about the imageless awareness that can be found in the interim space between dreams. Therefore, in this piece I will be exploring mythologies, mystical teachings, and scientific terms to describe the dream void while sharing guidance on how to enter into the void state. The void between dreams provides an opportunity for the expansion of consciousness beyond the ego and for a better understanding of the illusions that emerge from nothingness in the real world and in the dream world.

The Wuji and the Great Inception: Everything Floats in the Nothing

The Wuji posture in TaiChi welcomes "complete emptiness," and Wuji (無極) is the representation of the limitless void and still silence permeating the infinite unmanifest. The Wuji is the unmanifest before the One containing the Yin and Yang duality comes into existence. The Wuji is that which is before the polarity of dissonance and which is before all the elements. Emptiness is represented in the open circle of the wu chi, the unmanifest Tao in Chinese traditions. The Wuji creates the Taiji in Taoist creation, which is reminiscent of how dissonance of object awareness in the dream void results in polarity and return to the dream realm. The dream void is that infinite space, holding every dream which comes into being.

The dark world before creation can also be seen across cultures, representing the realm of deep sleep between dreams. The dark "mists of increase" emerged outward from the Sky Father according to Zuni myths. The Navajo believed the Earth started in darkness, Nihiodihil, the First World. The Dark World was the land before the dawn of creation, a floating island surrounded with endless mist and waters. The abyss beneath the Earth of the Greeks, Tartarus, is described as misty darkness with the Night pouring down "encircling his neck". The dark misty air around Tartarus was the essence of their god Erebus. The dark world corresponds to Niflheim, the cold, dark misty realm of the Norse myths. The void space between dreams is described in a similar way as bottomless, experienced as falling through the floor of the dreamscape into a misty realm of darkness.

The modern myth of the Matrix also plays a role in the description of the void between dreams as a "loading space." The Matrix is a computer-simulated dreamscape, similar to how the brain produces dreams through integrating information from daily life in the waking world. The Construct in the Matrix is a loading space to run simulations, a dimensionless blank space, a white void. The white void between dreams is also often described as a "loading space", the empty whiteness that exists in-between dream worlds.

The Empty Void-Space of the Mystic Traditions of the East

The ultimate reality in Buddhism is called sunyata, the emptiness, which is the Prime Mover, unoriginated and changeless. Every phenomenon according to the doctrine of sunyata is empty of essence. Everything in Buddhist teaching is a mirror of everything else in creation. The illusory nature of the dreamscape sits upon the base of sunyata, the emptiness of their existence.

The dream world in Hinduism can also be revelatory for how the material world, praktri, is an illusion created by the supreme self, purusha. The supreme Vishnu is the sleeping God who awoke at the time of creation to bring everything into existence through the demiurge creator being Brahma. The witnessing deep sleep is a peaceful state free from delusion in the practice of Yoga Nidra of the Brahmins, which according to the Vedas is the contemplation of the inner animating force creating and destroying through Maya, the force of illusion. The mind is divorced from sensory awareness in deep sleep, which facilitates a deeper understanding of the true nature of the self.

“The Lord dwells in the womb of the cosmos, The creator who is in all creatures. He is that which is born and to be born; His face is everywhere. ”

— ŚVETĀŚVATARA UPANIṢAD, 11.16

The Deep Sleep of the Dream Void: Medical and Pharmacological Knowledge

The level of consciousness in deep sleep is a matter of debate in both ancient medical texts and modern scientific literature. Lucid dreamless sleep has been investigated for the perception of a clear light in dreamless sleep in Dzogchen texts. Lucid dreamless sleep allows for perception of a non-dual awareness without thought and concepts. The sense of time is also lost in dreamless sleep, resulting in awareness of the present. The essential nature of the Self in Advaita Vedanta is pure awareness, the consciousness of all beings in the universe.

The beginning of deep sleep is associated with the GABA receptor and delta waves, which are also involved in anesthesia and deep unconsciousness. The inhibitory GABA receptor when activated helps to promote slow-wave sleep in the intervals between dreams, the N3 sleep state. The drugs for anesthesia also result in the loss of conscious awareness by targeting GABA receptors in the hypothalamus. The anesthetic drugs can directly activate GABA receptors. The induction of anesthesia and slow-wave deep sleep both result in an increase in delta-wave (0.5-4 Hz) oscillations, which are the slowest oscillations in the nervous system and associated with the void state of relaxation rooted in peacefulness rather than wakefulness. The experience of dreams is also linked to a reduction in 1-4 Hz oscillations compared with contentless dreams.

The measures of complexity, differentiation, and integration are reduced in deep sleep and anesthesia, measured by the perturbational complexity index. The Lempel-Ziv complexity is lower in non-REM sleep in rats and the EEG signal diversity decreases with increasing depth of NREM3 sleep. The increased EEG slow oscillations in N3 state sleep are associated with improvements in cerebrospinal fluid transport and flow, which is believed to be the physiological function of NREM sleep. The brain is 80% water and moves cerebrospinal fluid by brain-wide pulsations. The activity of the delta waves in sleep is also associated with convection of cerebral blood into ventricles. The brain produces 25% less entropy in deep sleep than when awake. The spectral entropy of EEG signals is reduced in NREM sleep, especially in the visual cortex. The experience of the void between dreams could be related to the loss of senses in the NREM sleep state, especially that of sight, resulting in a purely black or white void.

The Entrance Guide to the Void (Lucidity in Dreamless Sleep)

The void in lucid dreaming can be entered through the shutting off of visuospatial awareness in dreams and through affirmations and mantras that solidify the centrality of awareness over the contents of experience. The development of lucidity in the dreamworld has to be maintained for the awareness of the void-space beyond the dreamscape to be sustained, which is most reliably supported by affirmations of the dreamer.

The easiest, yet also the most potentially ineffective technique, is closing one's eyes within a dream and thus dissolving the dreamscape. The dream has to be stable for the dreamer closing their eyes to open up the void, because often the shutting of eyes in a dream merely causes awakening. The closing of the dream eyes for an experienced lucid dreamer, however, can produce darkness without visual imagery allowing for the cessation of bodily awareness and the experience of the void-space. The closing of the dream eyes seems to allow for the experience of lucid NREM sleep/sleep paralysis. The entrance into NREM sleep being characterized by a strong reduction in the activity of the visual cortex supports the conception that eliminating visual perception in dreams could allow for the experience of the void. The closing of the eyes is a motif in Buddhism with most sculptures of the Buddha showing his eyes shut. The closing of the eyes to worldly vision is believed in Buddhism to open up the enlightened person to the knowledge of the essence of the mind (nous) and to allow them to "master the self." The closing of the eyes during meditation and prayer represents inwardness and introspection of the self, allowing for connection with the divine.

Escape from the dreamscape can also allow for an experience of the void between dreams. The experience of leaving the dreamworld can be initiated through flying out of the boundary of the world, falling into a bottomless abyss, and imagining a portal to the void. The experience of flying upwards has been said to allow the scene of the dreamscape to dissipate and leading the dreamer across a boundary into a boundless space or black void. The void has also been entered through dreamers entering into a hole/abyss which emerges underneath them, with a "rainbow-colored vortex" sucking them in, followed by death of the ego in a boundless and formless realm. Emergence of a portal to the void often takes the form of an abyss bringing the dreamer into imageless dreaming and a state of pure awareness.

The dreamer can lastly enter into a void state through combining the escape from the dreamscape with mantras centering them in awareness of the pure observer witness-consciousness. The affirmations of "I am" and "I am pure consciousness" were found by one lucid dreamer to return them to the darkness with "nothing around me," "pure consciousness floating" in the void evoking the darkness within darkness motif. The affirmations can keep the dreamer grounded and prevent them from waking, which is useful because the need to disturb and dissolve the dreamscape can also bring the risk that the disruption will result in a return to waking consciousness. The affirmations are, therefore, especially important upon achieving lucidity to maintain awareness during the decomposition of the dreamscape.

Conclusion

The dream realm is often the beginning and end of the exploration of lucid dreaming, however, I hope this article encourages and enables more lucid dreamers to explore the boundaries of their own minds and constructions to see the void-space between every dream, that state of potential beyond their creations. Every void is a place to create a new dream and a new vision, to more thoroughly explore our consciousness and our own being.

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