Mind-awake body-asleep trance (Psychism)

In esoteric yoga practices it is claimed that the body can be put into a special condition of yogic sleep at any time. This may be akin to self-hypnotizing techniques developed in the West. One purpose of yogic sleep, however, is said to allow the adept of this practice to leave his or her body safely for limited periods of time. The American clairvoyant healer Edgar Cayce entered a kind of yogic sleep trance in order to diagnose illnesses.