A World Of Possibilities (Long Meditative Bedtime Story)

Just take a moment to allow yourself to get comfortable and close your eyes and as you drift deeply and soundly asleep,

I don't know whether you'll drift deeper asleep to the sound of my voice or to the spaces between my words.

And with your eyes closed,

You can begin to have a sense of relaxing your mind and body as I count down from 20 to 1.

Becoming deeper absorbed in the experience with each number,

From 20,

Beginning to focus on the top of your head,

Noticing what your head is resting on,

How it's supported gently in place,

The comfort in and around your head as it rests there.

19,

Having a sense of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing deeper and deeper,

Drawing in peace and comfort with each breath that you take before moving your awareness around your face.

18,

Focusing on what it's like for that relaxation to spread around your face,

Your ears and your cheeks.

Having the muscles in these areas soften and relax.

17,

Relaxing the muscles around your eyes and across your forehead,

While the muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head begin to relax deeper and deeper.

16,

Noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all.

15,

And you can continue to allow that relaxation to spread down around your mouth,

Relaxing your lips and your jaw.

Relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck,

Around to the back of your neck and around your throat.

14,

And as your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose,

Limp and comfortable,

That relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and your upper back.

13,

And I don't know whether that relaxation happens fastest around your shoulders or in the upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders.

As that relaxation progresses around your back and your chest,

Softening and relaxing those muscles fully,

Deeply and comfortably.

12,

And as those muscles soften and relax while you rest there,

That relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands,

All the way down to the fingertips.

11,

And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest,

Whether it'll be the left arm or the right arm,

Or whether the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other.

10,

And as that relaxation continues through those arms,

It can flow down through your stomach,

Your sides and lower back,

All the way down to your bottom,

Before extending deeply down through your legs to the tips of your toes.

9,

And as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed,

While you drift into the most pleasant sleep,

So your mind begins to relax as a wave of healing light gently passes down through your body.

8,

You begin to have a sense of that healing light touching your forehead,

Enveloping your face and head with healing deep relaxation.

Absorbing comfortably and gently into you with each in-breath that you take.

7,

Filling you with peace and calm,

Spreading that healing,

Restorative,

Recuperative light down through your body,

Calming your mind.

6,

Breathing in healing,

Calm relaxation,

And breathing out any stress or tension.

5,

Aware of that healing light passing down your neck,

Softening and relaxing those muscles,

Spreading that healing light throughout the neck as it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders,

Around the back of your neck and down into your arms.

4,

Gradually continuing that flow of healing light all the way to the tips of the fingers.

3,

And with another in-breath,

The healing light can spread down through the body,

Softening and relaxing muscles,

Healing deep within the body,

Filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation.

2,

As the light journeys down around your stomach,

Your lower back and sides,

Into your buttocks and all the way down to the soles of your feet,

Perhaps noticing your whole mind and body filling with a deep sense of peace and calm.

1,

And as you allow that light to flow with each breath,

You can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper asleep as you drift comfortably into this story.

2,

And as you relax,

You find that you're sitting in a park and you're playing chess against a stranger,

And while you're sat there playing chess against the stranger,

So you can hear the sounds of birds in this park,

You can hear the sounds of people walking around holding conversations,

Children playing,

You're aware of the sounds of dogs occasionally barking in the distance as owners throw balls for them,

And where you're sitting is just in the shade,

But you can notice how beautiful the sunlit environment is beyond the shade,

And then it's your turn and so you study the chessboard with a deep sense of meaning,

Before deciding which piece to move,

And the feel of picking up that piece,

The weight of that chess piece,

The texture of that chess piece between your fingertips,

The way it moves and the way the weight distributes,

As you maneuver that from one point on the board to another,

And then the sound of placing that down on the relevant square,

Before sitting back and looking over at the opponent,

Who gives an approving reaction to the move that you took,

Before thinking about the move they're going to take,

And as this game of chess with this stranger continues,

You feel that this just helps absorb you in the moment,

Absorbing you in enjoying the peace of relaxing in a park,

Of not thinking about the past or the future,

But just being present in the here and now,

And as time ticks by slowly,

You continue playing that game,

The world moving past around you,

The shadows gradually creeping across the ground as the sun dances across the sky,

Until eventually you reach the end of that game of chess,

You shake the hand of the stranger you've been playing,

You say your goodbyes and you begin your journey home,

And as you walk through this park,

On your way home,

You stop off at a bakery that sells homemade baked goods,

And you can smell that bakery as you approach,

And the smell is part of the reason you're slowing down and stopping,

To grab something from that bakery,

You open the door as it trings on a bell,

Feeling the weight of that door as it swings open and as you close it behind you,

Before then,

Having a greater sense of the smells around you from the different produce,

The sounds of a couple of customers murmuring in the background,

And you look at the different baked goods and you decide on something to purchase to take home with you,

And you make that purchase and the server serves you with a smile and greets you,

And then offers you best wishes as you leave,

And you leave that bakery and continue your journey,

Continuing to walk on the way home,

And as you continue walking home,

You think about which route to take,

And in your mind's eye you kind of imagine it,

Like a vast web of different routes,

Of different possibilities,

Each one arriving at the destination,

But each one potentially shaping your future in a very different way,

As you walk down the first road,

You can have options of what route to take or which roads to turn off of,

But if you take a different first road,

You'll be presented with different second roads to turn down,

And the same if you take a different first road again and again,

You're aware that at this point in your journey,

There are four or five different routes which you can take,

And within each of those routes,

Are possibilities which will take around the same length of time,

And this is what gets you thinking,

That among these different routes,

There are possibilities taking the same time home,

So how do you decide which route to take,

When you can take any of these four or five routes,

And follow the fastest possibilities,

And you'll arrive home at the same kind of time regardless of the route,

And yet each possibility opens up new ways of experiencing the future,

You don't know how the future is different depending on the route you take,

Maybe there's a road that you cross,

That with one route you'd cross it two minutes earlier than with another route,

Maybe two minutes later than another route,

Maybe one minute different than another route,

And so how do you decide which route to take,

And each of those different routes you'd cross that specific road at a subtly different time,

What if one minute you go to cross the road,

And you bump into a friend you haven't seen for years,

And you arrange to perhaps catch up and have a coffee,

And in doing so,

You've made a change to your future,

Maybe another route at another time,

You reach that road and cross that road perfectly fine,

You don't bump into anyone,

And you get home and nothing has changed,

Maybe there are two or three routes where that's the case,

Where you get home at about the same time,

And so any of those routes,

If nothing eventful happens on the way,

Would mean that once you're home,

Any divergence which could have happened comes back to this focal point,

Where they all have this same spot at this same point of arriving home,

But then other times,

Maybe,

You bump into someone and it forms a friendship,

You bump into someone and they annoy you in some way,

Maybe you happen to find some money on the pavement or a wallet that sends you on a different adventure,

Maybe you help someone on the way home,

And you're thinking of how there are so many different possibilities,

And it could be that one of these possibilities is sitting there waiting for you to discover,

And you would never know it if you took a different route,

You would never know that on the same day,

At the same time,

Had you taken a slightly different route,

Even one that would take exactly the same duration of time to get home,

You may well have created a different future,

And you find this fascinating,

And you think about how you normally don't really pay any attention to the route that you take home,

You're aware of these different routes,

You're aware of which ones take about the same duration of time to get home,

You're aware that sometimes you like to vary the route,

For example,

Maybe sometimes you take a route that takes you down a tree-lined street that at a certain time of year is just the most beautiful sight to behold,

Maybe at other times of the year you like to take a route that takes you down a street of houses with nice front gardens with the most beautiful flowers and the different scents that you can smell as you walk down that street,

Maybe another time of year you take a route because there are some homes on a street which really go all out with Halloween decorations or Christmas decorations and you quite like to see those,

Maybe sometimes you take a different route because you know that at a certain time there's going to be works down a street or a street's going to be busy,

Or perhaps there's going to be rubbish collection down certain streets and you'd rather perhaps walk on a quieter route,

And so you know that almost instinctively at certain times you'll take some of these different routes,

But generally you don't really give it that much thought,

You just instinctively follow the same route home even though you know it's no quicker or slower than some of the alternatives,

And you find this very curious that by living life from a place of habit,

Living life from a place of automaticity,

You miss out on potential futures,

And so today you decide to take a different route,

Start off down the same usual first street and the same usual second street,

But down that second street you decide to walk past the turning you would ordinarily take and take a different turning,

And so you take a few different turnings on your way home,

And you find as you're walking that these streets are nice and quiet and peaceful,

The only real sound is the sound of the birds and the sound of your footsteps while you walk,

And by taking a route that's slightly less travelled than usual for you,

You find yourself looking around a lot more,

Really taking in your environment,

Absorbing yourself in that environment,

Whereas when you just walk the same as you've always walked,

You almost become blind to your environment,

Because it's the same old same old,

Nothing's changing,

But taking a different route stimulates your mind so much more,

And you just enjoy that walking in silence,

Walking through the silence,

Just those footsteps cutting gently through that silence with a dull thud,

Step after step,

And you notice as you continue to walk that down one road is a small park surrounded by a few houses,

And really it's no more than a public garden,

And you feel that you've never really been this route,

And it's been years since you've passed this park,

Even though you live very close,

You don't really have any reason to go here,

But as you pass,

You decide now's a good time to stop,

To open the gate,

Enter this park,

And this park has large oak trees rustling in the breeze,

Squirrels running up and around those trunks of the trees,

Chasing each other and jumping after each other from branch to branch,

From tree to tree,

And there are large,

Almost unkempt looking bushes,

Which look like they probably get tended to just a couple of times a year,

And so they grow out,

And they look unkempt quite quick,

And so you head into this park,

Closing that gate behind you,

You begin to follow a mud path around this park,

And there are some benches lining the mud path,

And the mud seems to have the thinnest layer of gravel on top,

Just to try to stop it being quite so muddy,

And fortunately it hasn't rained in some time,

And so as you walk,

There's a slight grinding sound of the gravel,

Mixed with the dull thud of the footsteps on the dry mud,

And yet you're walking gently and calmly,

And you head to a bench,

Which is near an oak tree,

You settle down on that bench,

And rest back on the bench just to take some time to watch the world go by in this park,

And the sun is beginning to set,

But it's not too late,

It's just early evening,

And you listen to the rustling of the leaves around you,

You hear some birds in the bushes,

Singing songs to each other,

Seeing the occasional bird flit into the bush,

Hearing a slight rustling as it moves around in the bush,

And then flit out of the bush,

An inquisitive squirrel descends the trunk of a tree,

Climbing down head first,

And scampers along the ground,

Standing with its front paws curled up in front of its chest,

Keeping a beady close eye on you,

With curiosity,

Perhaps wondering whether you have any food for it,

And as you gaze over towards that squirrel,

So it stops momentarily and looks around as if to look away,

And then as you look away yourself,

You see out the corner of your eye that it now moves a little closer,

And it gradually gains confidence,

That you're not any kind of a threat to it,

And it comes up quite close to you,

Just a short few steps away from the side of your leg,

And you look back at it,

Its tail flicking and twitching behind it,

It tilts its head and it looks at you in a kind of jerky way,

Before scampering off again,

Bounding almost like jumps of waves back towards the tree,

And then ascending that tree again,

And as you rest here in this park,

You close your eyes as you rest back on that bench,

To focus better on the sound of the rustling leaves,

The sensation of the breeze on your cheeks,

The feeling of breathing in that air,

And just breathing away any stress or tension,

And after a while,

You begin to notice that it's starting to get a little chillier,

And that you should be continuing your journey home,

And so you stand up from the bench,

You head back out of this park,

And you continue walking along the road,

Walking home,

And eventually on arriving home,

You settle down in a chair,

And you rest for a while in the peace of your home,

And the comfort of the chair,

And you're still thinking about possibilities,

About how possibilities play out,

Curious about what changes may occur,

What life you're currently on,

Based on the decisions you'd made to take those different roads,

To sit in that park,

To observe the squirrel,

To take this route home instead,

Even though you're currently home,

And on the surface it feels like many of the different routes that you could have taken would have led to this moment of you sitting at home,

The thoughts you're having are entirely based on the experience you've had,

And you don't know how those thoughts you're having may shape the future,

And then as night falls you settle down in bed,

And as you settle down in bed,

You close your eyes and begin to drift asleep,

So you begin to dream,

You dream about walking through a fantasy land,

You dream about being presented with a fork in the road,

And about making a decision on which path to take,

And then arriving at a crooked looking house,

Knocking on the door,

Being invited in by a green fairy,

And inside this crooked house,

Is a crooked bookshelf,

And the green fairy notices you notice the crooked bookshelf,

And gestures for you to go over to the bookshelf and take a look,

And so you head over to the bookshelf,

And you see a glowing emerald book on that bookshelf that catches your eye,

And you take that book from the bookshelf,

And you begin to read through that emerald book,

And it talks about a cat that lives in a barn,

And this cat that lives in a barn,

Goes out exploring its land every day,

And when it enters dark locations,

It navigates using its whiskers,

Its whiskers gently touching the sides,

The ground,

Sending signals to the cat,

Of where it is in relation to other things around it,

And the cat explores the barn,

The cat explores a farm,

The cat creeps through a field of corn,

With the corn towering high over its head,

That to the cat is like pushing through a bamboo forest,

It has to navigate using touch and sound,

And the different smells around,

And the cat begins to head towards a beacon,

A pulsing sound in the distance,

And the cat comes out of that corn,

Finds itself walking through the most comfortable grass meadow,

Ascending some hills,

Heading towards that pulsing beacon sound,

Heading into and through a vineyard,

And continuing to walk,

Now so far away from that farm,

And from that barn,

Until eventually mixed with that pulsing sound of that beacon,

The cat begins to hear the sound of the sea,

Of the waves of the ocean crashing against the base of a cliff,

And sitting at the top of the cliff,

Is a wise sage,

They have a fire in front of them,

And they appear to be so relaxed just sitting here at the top of this cliff,

And the cat approaches them,

And the sage asks,

Freckles,

As the cat is known to the sage,

For its gingery spots around its face in its fur,

What brings you here so far from the barn,

And freckles looks in the direction of the sound of the beacon,

And the wise sage picks up on the body language of freckles and understands,

Ah you're here,

In search of that sound,

Curious what it is and where it's come from,

Well you'll never make it to the sound because it's actually coming from out over the ocean,

And freckles understands what this wise sage is saying,

And they look out from the top of the cliff over the ocean,

Curious where over there the sound is coming from,

And the wise sage says to freckles that they can help them to find out where that sound is coming from,

And then they tilt their head up towards the sky,

And they let out a loud squawk that sounds like an eagle,

And moments later an eagle flies down and lands on a log near to the sage,

And the sage performs a ritual,

Gestures the hand around the eagle's head and around the cat's head,

And the sage says the two of you will now be connected,

And then tells the eagle to fly to the sound of the beacon,

And with that the eagle launches into the air,

Flaps its powerful wings,

And soars off the cliff,

Spreading those wings,

Dropping for a bit,

Before being caught in the air and rising and rising,

Ascending higher and higher,

Spiraling around,

And then heads in the direction of that sound,

And while the eagle's doing this,

Freckles is taken aback a little,

And they realise that what they can see with their eyes,

Is what the eagle is seeing,

As if seeing in a virtual reality headset,

And the sage says just sit calm,

Be motionless,

And let your eyes observe,

And so freckles rests down,

Feeling the gentle warmth from the fire,

Gently tickling their fur,

Feeling so deeply calm and relaxed,

And after a little while of that eagle exploring and flying in the direction of the beacon,

It spies a small island off the shore,

And on that small island is what looks like a lighthouse,

Except this lighthouse doesn't have a light on,

But it still looks like a lighthouse,

It's a tall looking tower,

Very sturdily built,

But from the top,

Is a tiny red light flashing gently,

And a strong sound of that beacon,

That low frequency pulse,

And so the eagle swoops down to investigate,

Spiraling down around the structure as it descends,

And near the base it can see some people,

Stood outside of that building,

And it looks like something's happened here,

And the people don't seem too concerned,

They're just stood around,

And then all of a sudden,

As the eagle begins to fly away from this location,

There's a pulse of electric blue light that expands out from within the structure,

Spreads across the ocean,

Spreads past the eagle reaching the shore,

Pulsing across the land,

And the other side of that pulse,

Reality seems different somehow,

And the eagle flies back to that wise sage,

The sage ends the connection between the eagle and the cat,

And is now stood up,

Curious what's just happened,

And aware something is very different here in the land,

And the sage descends the cliff,

And gets into a small boat,

And seems intent on reaching that island,

With a deep feeling that something's happened,

And that they may be able to help in some way,

And they row on that small boat,

Across the slightly rough water,

With a matter of urgency,

Eventually reaching that island,

Realizing this island,

Is a military island,

Mooring their boat up,

And walking across the island towards the structure,

Seeing all those people,

Now a bit more frantic than they were before,

And from time to time,

Noticing just glimmers or flashes,

As if there's a different reality,

Like a fracture between the two,

And they ask one of the people what happened here,

And the person's surprised,

Saying you shouldn't be on this island,

Where have you come from,

And they say that's not important right now,

They can ask questions later,

What's important is fixing whatever's happened,

And the person says that this location is actually a vast dish,

The tip of what looks like a lighthouse,

Is the receiving tip of the dish,

And under the ground,

Is the vast dish in this location,

And they just turned it on for the first time,

And it let out a pulse of energy,

And it's energy at a frequency that can pass through matter,

And it focuses with the tip,

As energy beams back,

And unexpected to them,

Rather than measuring some properties of the universe,

It seemed to disrupt the fabric of the universe in this location,

And it turns out that there are multiple universes overlaid on top of each other,

Just a thin fabric slice of universe apart,

And so now they need to stop the dish,

And repair the damage,

And that's what they're trying to work on,

And they manage to stop the dish,

And turn off its power,

And yet,

There are still these cracks in the universe,

These glimmers of an alternative universe,

Seeping into and out of existence,

And so the sage ascends to the peak of this structure,

Sits at the focal point of the structure,

Channels the energy within him,

And beams that down and uses the dish to focus and amplify his energy,

And with a large pulse,

His energy spreads out,

Almost glossing over and cementing and repairing the rip in space and time,

And then he claps his hands together,

Almost like the sound of a thunder crack,

As he sends another pulse of energy out,

And he does this two or three more times,

Until the damage seems to be repaired,

And the people working here want to know who he is,

And they try to stop him as he navigates through them with the intention of just leaving the island,

And because they're persistent trying to stop him leaving,

He turns and casts a spell on them,

Momentarily creating confusion within them,

And a selective amnesia,

Where they'll selectively erase memory of him from their minds,

And in its place,

Through conversations trying to understand what went on here,

As a group they'll form a new memory,

Like a group memory,

And this false memory will fill in the gaps of what they think really happened here,

And so with them experiencing that confusion,

He finds his way back to the boat,

And rows away from the shore,

Back across the water,

Back to the mainland,

Where he ascends that cliff again,

The cat is still waiting,

The eagle long gone,

And he sits down as if nothing at all had happened,

And continues to relax by the fire,

As the cat,

Now not hearing that beacon,

Returns back the way it came,

Back to its farm,

Back to its barn,

As you find yourself drifting,

Thinking about webs of reality,

The choices we make and the paths we follow,

And the alternative paths that are closed to us once we've made a decision,

And the opportunities to follow different paths,

And thinking about that,

You drift from the experience into a deeper,

More profound sleep,

A deep and recuperative sleep,

Drifting,

Floating so deeply and peacefully into slumberland,