Can one really ever totally shut their mind off?

pssst…try meditation :)

It’s called death, it’s basically the definition of death.

Christine O’Donnell does it when she’s awake.

Anyone see her Wednesdayt debate There’s your proof.

With enough Sailor Jerry, yes.

Personally, I find this impossible. My mind is always racing.

@lucillelucillelucille Even while meditating you still have to concentrate on calm thoughts or keeping the stress out

@Rollalong Tell me about it, I have not found anyway to stare blanlky at the ceiling and think of nothing at all or if I am even looking at the ceiling or laying on the bed.

I have always had the same problem. I find that my mind is completely quiet when I am listening. Try it.

I know that you can meditate and “clear” your mind. I had a psychologist teach me self-hypnosis for pain control but that’s distraction, you’re still thinking or dreaming. One person said it here, when you absolutely stop thinking, you’re dead. That’s also known as flat lining.

I don’t think so. It may be a part of my body, but it seems to control what is happening, even while asleep. There are too many examples of people in a coma or in sleep paralysis where the brain is like the Energizer Bunny.

@Hypocrisy_Central -Just let ‘em go by.With alittle practice it gets easier :)

I’m always amazed (a few times a year, maybe once every three months) when I can’t, and I end up spending the entire night awake. But most nights it seems to be like a gravity switch; my body gets horizontal, my head hits the pillow, and I’m out for the count.

I’m with @lucillelucillelucille: Meditation.

I’ve only managed to have a conscious mind perfectly absent of interference twice in my life.

and then of course it was promptly shattered because I perceived the absence, that perception itself being a thought and thus interference.

but it’s possible, even if just for the most fleeting of moments.

I don’t know how it feels for others, but when it happened for me I had to realize it; the silence was instantly overwhelmingly loud and the absence of image impossibly bright and vivid.

That, is weird.

Stephen Hawking unplugs his. Actually that’d make a great concert. Professor Hawking : unplugged :¬)

Nope….once the overactive overtired mind takes control, even meditation won’t work….in fact for me only makes it worse. I have found reading a book on quantum physics is the only solution…1 page and out like a light.

On further consideration of the question, there was one time when my mind shut off completely. I was working on a color television kit and managed to get across the 24,000 volt anode lead. I remember a feeling like I was hit in the back of the head with a hammer then complete and utter darkness. I was told that it looked like all the bones left my body as I fell to the floor. I woke up sometime after the guys put me on the couch.

I am pretty sure my mind shut off then because all I remember is the blackest black that I have ever seen.

@Ron_C Guess that was a shock (all puns intended)? :-)

Only with general anesthesia.

@Hypocrisy_Central yeah it was, It is also a problem explaining to doctors about the mark it left on my heart. No problems just embarassment with the explaination.

Of course it is. Deep meditation. Find the zone, and it takes a lot of discipline, work, and practice to get there. Out of the course of human history do you really think NO ONE on this earth had been able to “zone out” ? Of course they have. It’s just practicing and finding a calm, peaceful, tranquil, ground. Center yourself, let your mind go. The first times you’ve tried it, one minute will feel like an eternity.

Then the more you do it and practice, time will not be as of importance. You will look at the clock and seen so much time has passed by. But u were in the “zone”, so your mind doesn’t think about time… or anything…. you are simply, just….. “Being” :) :)

They have lots of information, classes on this. Start with small steps—like focus on your breathing…. The sound of breathing, then focus on the FEELING of breathing…. small things like that.