Question: Why do people walk or talk in their sleep?

Sri Chinmoy: You will be surprised to know why people walk in their sleep. When the restless, agitated, uncompromising mind asks the body and the vital to move forward into uncharted land and they do not listen, at that time the mind uses its mental power to create a false body and a false vital. The mind then enters into the false body and false vital and compels them to do what it wants them to do — that is, to move about aimlessly. Again, sometimes one of the inner beings, a divine being, inspires a man to walk, so that it can bring the message of Eternity’s journey to the physical body, vital and mind. This, however, is a rare experience.

For various reasons people talk in their sleep, but there are a few main reasons. One reason is that they are defending themselves in the battlefield of life. Another reason is that they have become victims in the battlefield of life. A third reason is that when they consciously or unconsciously become instruments either of brooding ignorance or of illumining light, their ignorance master or their knowledge-light master train them so that they, too, can recruit more soldiers for their side.