Gnosis in a Hundred PagesPage 50 of 100 · Part IV

Part IV

The other half of life

You sleep a third of your life. These fifteen pages are about that other half: what happens there, how to remember it, and how, slowly, to wake inside it.

The last four pages turn to the deepest sleep, death, and to what returns. They are written to make life lighter, not darker.

You sleep a third of your life

About a third of every life is spent asleep. The tradition of Gnosis calls it the other half of life, and most people miss all of it.

Read to me

0:00 / –:––
A third of every life is spent here, with the eyes closed.

By the age of thirty, you have slept for about ten years. For most people those years are a blank. You lie down, and the next thing you know is the alarm.

The tradition of Gnosis teaches that the night is not empty. While the body sleeps, you go somewhere. You meet people, face fears, feel joy and dread. Some of it comes back as dreams. Most of it is gone before you open your eyes.

This part is about that other half of life. It shows what happens there, how to remember it, and how to wake inside it, little by little.

It begins where Part I began. You are asleep. By day you are lost in thoughts; by night, in dreams. It is one sleep with two faces.

That is good news. The work you have already begun by day also works at night. Watching yourself, catching a self, the evening review: what you practice awake follows you down into sleep.

One thing matters before any method: the wish. A mind that lies down with an intention behaves differently from a mind that simply collapses. Tonight you only need to begin with that.

Try this

  1. Tonight, as you lie down, say quietly three times: I will remember.
  2. Say it slowly, as if you mean it, and then let it go.
  3. Sleep as you normally would.
  4. In the morning, before you move, ask yourself: Where was I?

Words on this page

The other half of life
The hours of sleep, when your consciousness lives outside the waking world.

In the old words

“The key is in setting intention to become aware before sleeping”

Beyond DreamingGene Hart
On the next pageWhere do you go when you sleep?51. Everyone goes out at night