What if sleep could be more than just crashing into your pillow at the end of a long day? What if it could be a portal to transformation and self-discovery? In this workshop, we’ll dive into the ancient Daoist art of sleep alchemy, where the Wudang Hibernating Dragon and Five Dragons Sleeping methods teach you how to transform snoozing into a practice of subtle awareness and metaphysical transformation.
Rooted in the Wudang Daoist Sanfeng lineage, these techniques harmonize body and soul, turning your nightly shut-eye into a discipline of deep peace. The cosmic journey would be incomplete without Daoist stories like Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream and Lü Dongbin’s Yellow Millet Dream, classic tales of metaphysical gaslighting that explore just how slippery the boundaries of reality and illusion can be.
We’ll also talk about practicalities within a Daoist framework, like how your food choices, lifestyle, and daily habits can affect your sleep quality. Expect to walk away with tools for cultivating transcendent rest, resilience, and an appreciation for Daoist cosmology. Along the way, we’ll keep it relaxed — the Dao is at ease. Sleeping in class is encouraged, though snoring will be punished with five hundred years in Daoist hell.
Participants will practice introductory Wudang sleeping methods to enter, sustain, and deepen sleep states. By the end of the workshop, you will be intimately familiar with practical techniques to deepen sleep, enhance well-being, and dream the dream of life more deeply and lucidly.


Simon Cox is a martial artist, scholar, and teacher trained at Wudang Mountain, the spiritual home of Daoist internal arts. A research fellow at Esalen’s Center for Theory & Research and visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, he’s collaborating with co-founder Michael Murphy on a new book.


Jeffrey S. Reid is a martial artist, author, and teacher dedicated to preserving and transmitting the Wudang Daoist tradition. He has trained extensively in martial arts, Daoist alchemy, and contemplative practices. Jeffery runs a Kung Fu school in Santa Cruz, California, where he helps students integrate these rich practices into the erratic rhythms of modern life.