There have been a couple of papers [1] that can induce this process while awake using particular image patterns as confirmed in an MRI. I think the NIH confirmation is running behind in the science, independent research is quite a bit ahead of them. I came across the paper on this last year and implemented a very simple page with the parameters they used [2].
There is a number of disease models that show reduced or no glymphatic clearance and as such these people need treatments to clear out their brains and these image routines seem to help. A lot of people find this pattern extremely taxing to watch especially for the recommended number of cycles, you can feel the effect on the brain its hard to describe the sensation its a bit numbing and the image has the sensation of changing as the cycle runs like its a visual trick. You might get left feeling like you have been clubbed over the head the first time.
I find it interesting this is one aspect of disease research I am looking into and is related to Long Covid and ME/CFS.
FYI I'd skip the Tao of Pooh if you're trying to learn more about Taoism; it's more of a pop-culture, western philosophy inspired by eastern take then actual Daoism.
Otherwise, my recs are:
First find good translations of the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi. For the former I recommend Victor Mair or Thomas Cleary. For the latter, Brook Ziporyn.
There's also the Lieh-tzu, which is often considered to be "authored" by Laozi as well, though isn't talked about as much. I've only read AC Graham's translation but liked it well enough.
Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper is a fascinating look into Taiwanese Taoism. Kristofer was even ordained as a Taoist priest, one of the few Westerners to do so.
Early Daoist Scriptures by Stephen R. Bokenkamp is borderline a textbook but I found it gave a great historical understanding of how Taoism has developed through the ages.
Original Tao by Harold Roth is actually a translation and commentary of a text that pre-dates the TTC and was very interesting to me.
Taoist Meditation by Thomas Cleary is another neat collection of translations that cover a broad range of Taoist thought with decent of annotations to help you understand.
And finally, I'd recommend grabbing a copy of the I-Ching (I like David Hinton's translation) and some Taoist T'ang dynasty poets (Li Bo or Li Bai is a good one to start with) to round it all out. I've found that reading relevant poetry helps me put the philosophical stuff into a real-world context without falling into the trap of re-contextualizing it into Western culture.
> But he could understand so much more than he could say. If you asked him to point to the vacuum cleaner, he would.
Perhaps worth noting that it is possible to teach infants (often starting at around 9 months) sign language so that they can more easily signal their desires.
Some priority recommended words would probably be:
* hungry/more
* enough/all done (for when they're full)
* drink (perhaps both milk/formula and water† gestures)
These are not (AFAICT) 'special' symbols for babies, but the regular ASL gestures for the work in question. If you're not native English-speaking you'd look up the gestures in your specific region/language's sign language:
† Another handy trick I've run across: have different coloured containers for milk and water, and consistently put the same contents in each one. That way the infant learns to grab a particular colour depending on what they're feeling like.
There is a number of disease models that show reduced or no glymphatic clearance and as such these people need treatments to clear out their brains and these image routines seem to help. A lot of people find this pattern extremely taxing to watch especially for the recommended number of cycles, you can feel the effect on the brain its hard to describe the sensation its a bit numbing and the image has the sensation of changing as the cycle runs like its a visual trick. You might get left feeling like you have been clubbed over the head the first time.
I find it interesting this is one aspect of disease research I am looking into and is related to Long Covid and ME/CFS.
[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...
[2] https://www.paulkeeble.co.uk/posts/cff/