Yoga nidra
A state called yoga nidra is mentioned in the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, while a goddess named Yoganidrā appears in the Devīmāhātmya.
The modern form of the technique, pioneered by Dennis Boyes in 1973,[1][2] made widely known by Satyananda Saraswati in 1976, and then by Swami Rama, Richard Miller, and others has spread worldwide.
The Hindu epic Mahabharata, completed by the 3rd century CE,[3] mentions a state called "yoganidra", and associates it with Lord Vishnu:[4] [The Ocean] becomes the bed of the lotus-naveled Vishnu when at the termination of every Yuga that deity of immeasurable power enjoys yoga-nidra, the deep sleep under the spell of spiritual meditation.The Devīmāhātmya, written around the 6th century CE, mentions a goddess whose name is Yoganidrā.
In the Shaiva text Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya (7.164), yoganidra is called "peace beyond words"; in the Mahāmāyātantra (2.19ab) it is named as a state in which perfected Buddhas may access secret knowledge.
"[2] By the 14th century, the Yogatārāvalī (24–26) gives a more detailed description, stating that yoganidra "removes all thought of the world of multiplicity" in the advanced yogi who has completely uprooted his "network of Karma".
[2] In the book, Boyes makes use of relaxation techniques including the direction of attention to each part of the body:[8] Dirigez votre attention dans le front de votre visage... Sentez bien le front... Descendez un peu jusqu'à l’œil droit... Guidez votre attention dans l’œil... Eprouvez la forme sphéroïde du globe oculaire... Essayez de bien sentir, doucement... directement, sans utiliser la pensée ou l'image mentale...
The person thus imperceptibly moves to a stage where relaxation becomes meditation and can remain there once the mind's obsession with external objects or thoughts is removed.
[2] Yoga nidra in this modern sense is a state in which the body is completely relaxed, and the practitioner becomes systematically and increasingly aware of the inner world by following a set of verbal instructions.
A second exercise, shithali karana, is said to induce "a very deep state of relaxation", and is described as a preliminary for yoga nidra (in a narrow sense).
[17] Miller worked with Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the United States Department of Defense studying the efficacy of the approach.
[18][19] According to Yoga Journal, "Miller is responsible for bringing the practice to a remarkable variety of nontraditional settings," which includes "military bases and in veterans' clinics, homeless shelters, Montessori schools, Head Start programs, hospitals, hospices, chemical dependency centers, and jails.
[21][22][19] The Surgeon General of the United States Army endorsed Yoga Nidra as a complementary alternative medicine (CAM) for chronic pain in 2010.
They invite practitioners and teachers to learn about the history of yoga nidra outside organisational boundaries and to work without "trademarked versions" of the practice.
"[25] The cultural historian Alistair Shearer writes that the name yoga nidra is an umbrella term for different systems of "progressive relaxation or 'guided meditation'.
[26] Shearer writes that other teachers have defined yoga nidra as "the state of conscious sleep" in which inner awareness is maintained, without reference to Satyananda's method of progressive relaxation by directing attention to different parts of the body.
