Tag Archives: Andrew Holecek

Vajrayana Buddhism for Westerners with Andrew Holecek

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jun 4, 2026 Andrew Holecek was trained for decades within the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, and having completed the traditional three-year retreat. He is the author of numerous influential books, including Dream Yoga, The Lucid Dreaming Workbook, Preparing to Die, Dreams of Light, and his newest work is Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing and Transformation. His website is https://www.andrewholecek.com/ Andrew explores Vajrayana Buddhism as a living transformational path for modern Westerners, drawing from decades of Tibetan Buddhist training, dream yoga, sleep yoga, and dark retreat practice. He discusses lucidity, the dreamlike nature of reality, the states of consciousness associated with waking, dreaming, dying, and deep sleep, and how these experiences can cultivate wisdom, compassion, and awakening. Holecek also examines emptiness, non-dual awareness, the bardos, lucid dreaming, and the integration of psychology, spirituality, and consciousness studies into everyday life. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:44 Andrew’s journey into Vajrayana Buddhism 00:06:42 Three-year retreat and meditative discipline 00:11:03 Consciousness, contraction, and openness 00:19:05 Dream yoga and spiritual practice in daily life 00:25:56 Lucid dreaming and the nature of reality 00:31:31 Sleep yoga and deep dreamless awareness 00:42:28 Dreamers, perception, and non-dual awareness 00:49:07 Bardos, death, and ritual phenomenology 01:02:10 Conclusion New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on May 18, 2026)