This method is madness with a method: a conscious, contained storm that clears the inner sky. It invites you to go mad voluntarily so that the hidden madness can be thrown out rather than acted out. By releasing repressed anger, grief, and laughter in a safe container—and maintaining a thread of witnessing throughout—you unburden the system of its poison and come to a quiet that is not forced, but earned.
Osho often praised William James’s insight into the “oceanic experience”—the dewdrop dissolving into the ocean and the ocean into the dewdrop. This practice prepares you for that dissolution. First, you empty: shake, cry, roar, speak gibberish, laugh, dance wildly. Then, you simply stop and watch. Out of total release and total stillness, a new quality of being appears—weightless, clear, and vast. The path is paradoxical and precise: choose your madness consciously, and you discover the sanity that cannot be disturbed.
Phase Instructions
First Stage: Preparation and Containment
Create a private, safe space where you will not be disturbed. Remove fragile objects; have a pillow or cushion to strike or scream into. Dim the lights; keep a blindfold handy if helpful. Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees soft, jaw loose. Set a clear intention: "I choose to go mad consciously, and I remain the witness." Close your eyes. For 2–3 minutes, breathe naturally and scan your body from feet to head. Sense accumulated tension, unspoken words, unfinished tears and laughs. Let these energies be welcome; do not analyze them.
Second Stage: Voluntary Catharsis (Go Mad Consciously)
For about 20 minutes, allow total, chaotic expression while keeping a thin thread of awareness that "I am choosing this." Let the body lead: shake, jump, stamp, flail, dance erratically. Give sounds full permission—cry, roar, laugh, growl, sigh, wail; pour them into a pillow if you must be discreet. Speak in gibberish to discharge thought-energy without feeding old stories. If anger arises, beat a cushion; if grief comes, sob deeply; if laughter comes, let it roll. Keep your eyes closed or blindfolded. Do not harm yourself or others; do not direct your storm at real people—express the energy, not the narrative. If you feel numb, exaggerate a small movement or sound until it grows. Ride waves to their peak and let them break. Maintain about five percent witnessing: as everything explodes, keep quietly knowing, "I am the one who watches."
Third Stage: Sudden Stillness and Witnessing
At the height of the energy, stop completely. Freeze in whatever position you find yourself, or gently sit upright with a natural spine. Be absolutely still for about 15 minutes. Do not adjust unless there is real pain. Let breath find its own rhythm. Watch sensations ebb, hear the after-sounds within, feel space opening. Do nothing—no mantra, no control. Simply witness. If thoughts appear, notice them as clouds. If an impulse to move comes, first watch it for a few breaths, then allow a minimal adjustment if truly needed. Invite the "oceanic" sense: feel as a small dewdrop relaxing into a boundless sea; feel the sea relaxing into you.
Fourth Stage: Rest and Integration
Lie down on your back, arms open, palms up. Soften the tongue; let the belly breathe. For 5 minutes, feel the ground holding you. Sense the contrast between the storm and this clear sky. Let gratitude arise naturally. When ready, curl to one side, sit up slowly, and open your eyes. Stay silent for a few minutes; drink water. If helpful, jot a few lines about what left your system and what remained as the witness.
Core Benefits
- Clears the inner sky by releasing repressed emotions.
- Encourages voluntary madness to safely express hidden madness.
- Unburdens the system of poison through a cathartic release.
- Leads to a quietness that is earned, not forced.
- Prepares for an oceanic experience of dissolution and vastness.
What Osho Said About This Technique
SOMEONE HAS SAID THAT THE MEDITATION WE ARE DOING HERE SEEMS TO BE SHEER MADNESS. It is. And it is that way for a purpose. It is madness with a method; it is consciously chosen. Remember, you cannot go mad voluntarily. Madness takes possession of you. Only then can you go mad. If you go mad voluntarily, that's a totally different thing. You are basically in control, and one who can control even his madness will never go mad. You can go mad at any moment because you have accumulated everything that is necessary to become mad. Everyone is just on the verge of madness. I am reminded of one incident: One of the greatest psychologists of this century, William James, once went to visit a madhouse, a mental asylum.Read the full discourse →
Then, after ten minutes, when energy is stirred, throw it outward by any route it wants to take. Let the body jump, leap, dance, cry, shout, make sounds — even if you begin to look totally deranged, do not stop. Let go utterly and cooperate. If the body wants to go completely mad, allow it to go completely mad. Why? Because who knows how much madness is accumulated within. Do not do it now — I am speaking for the morning. In the morning — let there be total madness. And total means you keep no fear: What am I doing? I am shouting? But I am a college professor — what am I doing? I am a doctor — I am hopping and skipping — what am I doing? What if a patient sees me! Doctors fear patients; teachers fear students; shopkeepers fear customers.Read the full discourse →
A friend has asked, Osho, will jumping around like monkeys make meditation possible?
Because you are a monkey, there is no getting rid of the monkey within you without some jumping around. It’s not that jumping is needed for meditation; it’s needed because of your monkey-ness. Whatever is hidden inside you—suppress it for lifetimes if you like—you won’t be free of it. It has to be shaken off, thrown out. Burying garbage brings no liberation; it must be swept out. There are two ways to quiet the monkey. One is to force him to sit still with the fear of a stick: don’t move, don’t sway, don’t dance, don’t jump. On the surface the monkey will control himself—but what about the monkey within? Outwardly he may restrain himself, but inside even more energy will build up. And if you suppress the monkey like this, he will go mad. Many people have gone mad in just this way. The madhouses are full of them.…Read the full discourse →
Osho, in the experiment you are speaking about these days, what physical and psychic difference is there between doing it sitting and doing it standing?
When you are in anger, in a sense you are in a momentary madness. At that time you do things you would never do in awareness. You abuse, you throw stones, you can break things, jump off a roof—anything. If a madman did it, we would understand; but when an ordinary person does it in anger, we say, “He was angry.” But it was the same person. If these things were not inside him, they could not come out; they are within. We are just holding them down. My understanding is that, before meditation, all this must be released. The more it is released, the lighter your consciousness will become. Therefore, what took years in the old methods where you sat in siddhasana can be completed in months by this process; what took lifetimes can happen in days. Because even in that approach, expulsion had to happen—only, the movements had…Read the full discourse →
How do you bring about the catharsis that you are talking about?
Modern man -- the modern mind and the modern body -- is so involved with sex that unless that center is hit, nothing can be done with man. The sex center can be hit in two ways: from without or from within. Sex is the only energy in you; it is the source of all energies. If it moves out, it becomes biological reproduction. If it moves in, it becomes spiritual transformation -- a rebirth of yourself. In the third step, you are to just go on crying, screaming, "HOO!" and hitting the sex center. Soon, within a few weeks, you will begin to feel an uprush of energy starting from the sex center and moving up through your spine. You will feel a warmth, you will feel that a new path has been opened inside you. And once this energy begins to move from your spine toward the head,…Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
The purpose is to clear the mind by releasing repressed emotions, leading to a calm and unburdened state.
By choosing madness consciously, hidden madness is expressed in a safe environment, leading to deeper sanity.
The meditation involves a cathartic release through shaking, crying, roaring, gibberish speaking, and wild dancing, followed by stillness and witnessing.
It is a state where the individual feels as if the dewdrop dissolves into the ocean and the ocean into the dewdrop, symbolizing a profound sense of unity and vastness.
Through total release followed by total stillness, one attains a state that is weightless, clear, and vast.