Some say, as I've noted here before, that the purpose of sleep is to give the soul a respite from the prison of the body. (I've encountered the idea in the works of Rudolf Steiner and in the _Conversations with God_ books of Neale Donald Walsch.)
If this hypothesis is true, it would make sense that liberated people can do with less sleep, as they often seem to do. I've also noticed that people who are doing what they love seem to get by on less sleep, not because they must, as is the case with soldiers at war and others under pressure, but because they're so stoked by the joy of their activity. Such a case may corroborate the "soul freedom" hypothesis, for the soul would not feel caged by waking state activities. I've read that scientists don't really understand why we need to sleep. Maybe Stokes can add something to these thoughts from a medical angle. - Patrick Gillam --- In [email protected], "Irmeli Mattsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Amma goes days at a time - some say weeks - without sleeping. And it's > > verifiable because she's in full public view, giving darshan round the > > clock. > > *** > I don't believe in this. Maybe three or four days one can do it, but > even that is not good for your health. This can happen if you get > energetically over geared. > > > I every now and then feel I'm not at all sleeping during the night. > Instead I'm all the night in deep meditative states and experiences. I > can feel very energetic the next day, but in the afternoon I also > often start to observe some subtle signs of sleep deprivation, and for > example while driving a car, I observe that my attention span is more > limited. So it is not quite safe to drive in that state. Also the > system feels too high geared and focused attention and rest is needed > to get to normal pace again. I clearly prefer to sleeping a few hours > every night. I feel much better in daily activities the next day. > > My son when he was in the army in the scout troops, spent a lot of > time in the forest. > They had often three days battle exercises, during which they were not > allowed to sleep at all. All the scouting they did during the nights. > So this is possible, but I don't think it is good for anyone's health. > > Irmeli To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
