From Unreal to Real!

 From Unreal to Real!

In the recent past, I have experimented with an Indian variant of acupressure – It’s a Holistic Approach, combining the best of Ayurvedic remedies with traditional Acupressure. This method of acupressure relies on parallel pressure points on the back of palms. By applying pressure using small diameter metallic rods with blunt serrations on knuckle joints, the affected area is activated into an auto correction mode. In order to keep the pressure on the acupoints for a minimum of 2 to 4 hours, the doctor uses various combination of seeds, namely green gram, Black pepper, Wheat etc. places these seeds on these acupoints and wraps a surgical bandage around. This is a very effective way of keeping the pressure intact and it can get pretty painful by the time we are ready to unwrap the bandage.

While I am not sure if it helps build the protective tissues, it certainly helps reduce or eliminate the pain. And all this without any internal medication! I commenced my treatment with this doctor from 7^th July 2021 and have been asked to visit his clinic for a sitting each day for one week initially. Later it will probably reduce to twice a week for a certain period. This alternative therapy promises to be a long term solution. From my visits so far, it is quite beneficial and I would certainly recommend this approach to all those suffering from similar issues and looking for a lasting solution.

Although the following is an unrelated incident, in my mind the dots seem to be connected…

This strange incident occurred on the night of 8^th July 2021. Usually, I am a very light sleeper, the slightest of noise can wake me up instantly. However, during most part of my life, I do not recall having dreamt in my sleep…and this is counter intuitive. Dreamless sleep is when a person goes into a deep slumber and I certainly don’t belong to this category. All doctors have been trying to convince me that this is an impossible case. They claim that I do dream, but do not recollect or remember and this means that my dreams are not stored in the prefrontal cortex, which plays an important part in processing short term memories.

On nights when I get 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I consider myself very lucky. On 8^th night it was different, I felt my eyelids getting heavy around 9:30 PM and decided to shut down my laptop and retire for the night. I was instantly in deep sleep. However at 10 minutes past midnight, I heard a loud scream (it was my wife!) and then I heard a heavy thud. While her screaming woke me up, it took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was I, who had fallen from the bed. While falling the entire brunt of 75 Kilos of my body was taken by my left hand and leg. I had fallen backwards and my left hand had protected my head from hitting the floor and that’s how I was saved from a catastrophe.

This is my version of what happened to me, as I heard my wife scream… However, my wife’s version brings out the strangeness in this incident. Apparently I was standing on the bed and both my legs were quivering, as if I was trying to release the cramps in my calf and thigh muscles. This has been a problem for quite some time and I’ve found an easy method to release these cramps by stretching my ankles or drawing them inwards. My wife initially thought I was trying to release the cramps. But she later realized that I was doing it in my sleep and was about to step backwards. Before she could stop me, my left foot had gone over the edge of the cot and then gravity took over.

I landed with a big thud and this was the time, when I became conscious of what was happening around. Fear of the unknown made me scream out loudly and scared the wits out of my wife and son. It was pitch dark and I was pretty sure that I would have a couple of broken bones from the fall. To my surprise, I was able to sit up and discovering that no bones were broken, involuntarily started laughing very loudly – I found the entire incident so weird and unbelievable!

I must admit that I was lucky on many counts. During the fall, my head was in safe hands – in fact it was my left hand that took the brunt and protected the same! Both my legs were at 90 degrees but this did not damage the pelvic bone. The left leg softened the fall and probably my spinal column escaped serious injuries. However, what beats me is I just don’t remember dreaming! The doctor, who I am visiting presently for acupressure treatment categorically stated that his treatment was in no way connected to the hyperactive muscles in both my legs. He assured me that it was probably a bad dream of sleep walking gone wrong!

Subsequent acupressure treatment was on removing the joint pain from my fall and to a great extent, he seemed to have done wonders because I’ve survived thus far without any pain killers.

I was reminded of the Sanskrit word Turiya. We are all familiar with the three common states of consciousness: Waking state, Dreaming State, Deep Sleep State or the dreamless sleep state.  As per our Hindu Philosophy there is this fourth state called Pure Consciousness – Turiya or Chaturtha, which is the background witness that underlies and pervades all the three common states. For a fraction of a second did I drift into Turiya – I was a witness of myself being in deep sleep state and was also a witness to the accident that was happening to me! 

Is this just a figment of my imagination? Or perhaps effects of watching too much of Swamy Sarvapriyananda, Shri M and many episodes of Buddha at the Gas Pump! From Unreal to real!!