One comment I appreciate is this one from Denis Postle: "I've been doing TM off and on for decades. A key thing to appreciate about it is that it is a reliable way of taking us to the hypnogogic and hypnopompic junctions between sleep and awake and keeping us hovering there. With very tangible results . . . " David Lynch says something similar in his book Catching the Big Fish. To those who wonder what "transcending" is like, Lynch says that everyone has already experienced it. When you're lying in bed at night waiting for sleep to come you occasionally have a sudden sinking feeling as your awareness dips towards unconsciousness. It feels rather disconcerting and actually jolts you awake. Lynch claims that TM is essentially training you to bounce around at that level as a regular routine.
Ramana Maharshi recommended his followers to try a similar practice: when waking up in the morning keep your consciousness at the point where you've just emerged from sleep into conscious awareness but *before* any thinking kicks in. Maharshi claimed that learning to balance yourself at this razor's edge would enable you to see the true nature of the Self. Anyone want to claim Denis, Lynch and Maharshi are talking nonsense?
