What is the Void?
In philosophy, the void is the manifestation of nothingness. What is the void in meditation? It is something meditators may experience spontaneously, especially when practicing to let go of the ego. It not only happens while meditating but quite often happens in out-of-body or near-death experiences.
My first void experience:
“Surrounded by infinite darkness, my consciousness awakens in the void. It is not the same as thick-veil of darkness one experiences in the absence of light—in this experience, I can see infinitely, yet nothing is there to see.
My mind soon starts to panic as I try to grasp where I am and what I am ‘seeing.’ There was no sense of being anywhere nor even a sense of my body. It came to me to think back to my last memories, and as my panic continued to accelerate, I remembered that my last memory was that of going to bed. This was somewhat comforting to me to have a starting point of figuring out what was happening. I quickly realized that if I was sleeping, then this must be a dream. “I’m dreaming!” I exclaimed. The thought was so exhilarating, but “how could this be possible? How could I be fully conscious within a dream?”.
As my excitement built up, the experience soon started to fade, and I found myself lying in bed again—staring at the back of my eyelids in utter amazement.
” Entering the Void for the First Time — Joel Durant.
Void Meditation
There are quite a few void meditation practices; they may require you to breathe a certain way, visualize life force entering you, or focusing your attention on your third eye. They might be effective ways, but for me, however, whenever I’ve experienced being in the void, it was when using standard meditation practices—things such as quieting the mind, not only in meditation but throughout the whole day. My techniques were to use deep meditation, and sometimes it happened when having out-of-body experiences.
Techniques
Quieting the Mind
The mind is often filled with constant chatter. It may be about your next meal, worries, annoyances, or about work, etc. Practicing to let go of the chatter can lead to a more relaxed state of being. When your mind is quiet, you may begin to experience being ‘the observer’ as you go about the day; this is when you start to feel dissociated from your body and merely observe life through your eyes. It doesn’t mean you don’t have any thoughts or desires to do things, necessarily, but it is as though you are watching your life from afar.
Naturally, this may start to play out in meditation sessions; or out-of-body experiences while sleeping, such as lucid dreams and astral projection.
Deep Meditation
During meditation, letting go of life’s anxieties, emotions, desires, and thoughts can bring you into the void experience. It is the most challenging way to achieve it! And it may take days, weeks or even months of daily practice before it happens. Meditation is more effective when practiced throughout the day, even as we go about our daily tasks. We can live meditatively.
If you’ve ever experienced a deep meditative state, your thoughts and even the discomforts of your body can fade away. As the meditation gets deeper, the sensation of your limbs or the entire body can disappear.
Astral Projection
Using techniques to achieve astral projection/out-of-body experiences is highly effective. The techniques are essentially the basics of focusing on your breathing, quieting your mind, etc. Another way is to imagine energy flowing from your naval chakra up through your third eye chakra as if it’s a flowing circuit. You do this as you lay in bed or while sitting in a recliner.
The goal is to get into a deep state of relaxation while maintaining consciousness. Once you’ve reached the stage when you feel the vibrations all throughout your body, you’re almost there! Sometimes the experience of leaving the body is being hurled through a wormhole that travels through a void. Sometimes the destination can be the void, where there is nothingness all around you, or it can lead to an astral experience.
For a guide on meditation, you can read my article here: Learn to Meditate the Hard Way.
Conclusion
Entering the void through meditation may require significant effort and patience. Or it might just happen spontaneously! Although when meditating, it’s usually better to have no desires or expectations for a particular outcome. Work by quieting the mind and body, and over time you may experience the void.
What is the void to you? Have you tried a void meditation before? You can share your experience in the comment section below!
