Is Yoga Nidra key to evolution of mind? I am definitely not the man to answer this question but I was amazed to see the texts, experiments and practices when I was going through the book Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. It sounds completely magical when you go through the book. Honestly, I have yet to finish it myslef but I would like to share some bits to ignite the fire in the readers interest. Follows an excerpt from the Introduction of the book.
Experiments with yoga nidra
Since devising the practice, I have carried out many experiments to validate these ideas. First I tried it on myself and then on different people. I even succeeded in training an Alsatian dog. Later on I experimented with some of my disciples and with many children, giving them knowledge, experience and instruction while they were sleeping soundly.
One of my most interesting experiments was with a little boy who presented himself at my ashram for sannyasa. I wanted to send him to school, but he flatly refused. He was a very naughty boy, an absolute monkey. All day long he broke things, harassed visitors and caused accidents. Finally he became such a liability for the ashram that I decided to try yoga nidra on him.
I began by chanting the 15th chapter of the Gita to him about three minutes after he had fallen asleep. Then when he got up in the morning I would have him read through the chapter, which he would do, of course, mindlessly. After one week he was able to recite the whole chapter by heart. When this succeeded I went ahead with other texts, and in this way I managed to teach him Srimad Bhagawatam, Upanishads, Bible, Koran, English, Hindi, Sanskrit, all that I knew, while he was sound asleep.
Now that boy is twenty-one and I have sent him to the USA. He speaks eleven languages, and writes and lectures in English better than I do, yet he has never been to school. All of his studies and learning took place within that two year period when I gave him yoga nidra, and he does not even remember it.
Soon afterwards I made another experiment. Thirty people were practising yoga nidra and about ten of them were snoring loudly. At that time I instructed them, ‘When I say Hari Om Tat Sat, you must get up.’ I repeated it twice. When the yoga nidra was finished I said ‘Hari Om Tat Sat’ and everybody sat up, even those who had been snoring throughout. I asked them how they had awakened. They said, ‘Suddenly’. They did not hear the last Hari Om Tat Sat or even the one in the middle of the practice, but somehow they had still followed my instruction. Now, this is a very significant factor. It means even when you sleep, your self is awake and aware.
From these experiments I have drawn my own conclusions. Deepest sleep may not be sleep at all. Perhaps when you are in deep sleep at night, you have more awareness, more potential, than when you are in the dreaming state. This means you can learn more when you are sleeping than when you are awake, and this is how we are utilizing yoga nidra for the evolution of the mind.