Discovering The Tree Of Life (Long Bedtime Sleep Story)

Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.

And as you begin to relax and begin to drift comfortably asleep,

I'm just going to tell this story in the background.

And while I tell this sleep meditation in the background,

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

And as you begin to comfortably drift asleep,

You can have a sense of a young girl walking through a zoo and she's walking through the zoo with her parents and she excitedly runs up to the different enclosures and looks on at the different animals.

She looks at the lions just resting there,

Noticing the way they're breathing so calmly and deeply.

The way they stand up slowly and pad their way around in such a measured and calm way.

She looks in at some monkeys and notices how some of them are incredibly active,

Jumping around,

Climbing things,

Swinging,

While others are just relaxing next to each other,

Grooming each other and that grooming seems to almost help them relax deeper.

And she walks into what's a bit like a shed in the zoo,

Where it's darker and slightly cooler and behind glass she sees snakes and spiders and all different animals in this little shed and she walks through with fascination and she notices that in one of the rooms,

Which is even darker,

There's a purpley glowing light and around the walls there's fluorescent colours illuminated by that glowing light.

And she notices that the scorpions are glowing behind the glass.

She's fascinated by how they manage to glow.

And she walks out of that shed,

Out of that building and carries on exploring the zoo.

And after visiting the zoo,

The girl heads home.

They've got a long travel ahead of them and she sits in the back of the car and she keeps bombarding the parents with questions about the different animals,

About where they all live and what these ones are doing in the zoo.

And the parents explain about these animals being rescue animals,

That the majority of the animals in the zoo are rescued and looked after.

Some of them are rare and help to breed.

And she asks about the different places they come from,

Different countries.

And the parents politely answer all of her questions and yet more questions come.

Until eventually it begins to rain and she can hear the sound of the windscreen wipers on the windscreen.

And while she's talking she notices that her voice falls into a rhythm with the windscreen wipers and that sound of the rain.

And she has the window open just very slightly.

She can hear the wind outside,

The rain on the road.

She can feel the coolness of the breeze and the sensation of breathing in that cool breeze.

And that sensation of resting on that back seat,

Breathing in the cool breeze,

Hearing the sounds outside the car,

The sound of the rain,

Sometimes heavier,

Sometimes a bit lighter.

On the outside of the car,

On the windscreen and the windscreen wipers,

She finds that each time those windscreen wipers lower down and make the noise of lowering down to the bonnet.

Her eyes blink shut for a moment.

And then each moment her eyes blink shut lasts longer and longer.

Each time the windscreen wipers lower down and gradually she finds the muscles around her mouth,

Around her cheeks and around her face begin to soften and relax.

She finds herself beginning to drift and float asleep.

And as she drifts asleep so she stops asking questions and begins to drift into a reverie and then into a pleasant dream,

Drifting and floating,

Resting on that back seat,

Floating into a pleasant dream.

She imagines that she's walking through a vast open space where she can see buffalo roaming around.

She just wants to bury her head into the fluffy overcoat,

Wants to run her fingers through the hair,

Feel the warmth of resting against them.

And she watches the way they walk and eat and stand still and lie down and yet appear vigilant of the world around them.

And she has this sense of walking amongst them,

Of them not paying her any attention,

Being totally comfortable with her presence.

She walks down to a lake and some of them come to the lake and are drinking from the lake.

She puts her hand in the water,

Feels the coolness of that water,

The sensation of that water touching her hand.

That slight tickling sensation as the waves gently roll in and out.

And while she rests her hands in the water,

So she sits down on the edge of the lake and just watches and gazes out over that lake.

And she sees across the other side of the lake a small tree and a slight glistening on the side of the tree,

Just catching the sunlight.

She finds her eyes locked on that glistening,

Sparkling speck of light over on that tree.

As she watches that,

So it's almost like a tunnel starts to form,

Like everything around her begins to fade away and turn dark,

As all her attention is just on that spinning,

Sparkling light on the tree.

And while everything begins to go dark around her,

Apart from that spinning light,

So she has this sensation of floating towards that light,

Almost like she's floating out of her body,

Drifting and floating over that lake,

Feeling deeper relaxed.

And as she notices herself arriving at the tree,

She sees this small crystal hanging down from a branch that's spinning in the breeze,

Catching the sunlight.

And up close she notices the way that the light twinkles and sparkles with some rainbow colors.

And she watches that up close,

Almost feeling her attention being drawn straight into that spinning crystal,

And she begins to have this sensation like multiple stars are sparkling off of the crystal,

As she gets closer and closer,

Until she finds her attention drawn straight into the crystal,

And from the inside of the crystal she notices a sensation like being in outer space,

Gazing on at planets and stars in every direction,

And the most beautiful and colorful clouds of gas.

And she can see below her a planet that looks similar to Earth,

Yet different.

And she has this sense of lowering down to that planet,

And as she gets closer to the planet,

So she notices that there appears to be life down here on the planet,

And that similar to Earth there's a lot of green,

A lot of colors.

She can see flowers in meadows,

She can see different birds in trees and flying in the sky,

None of which look exactly like they do on Earth.

But she starts to have this intuitive sense that if this planet feels a lot like Earth,

Then why wouldn't life evolve to be similar to Earth?

That the birds might not be birds,

But something that's this planet's equivalent of a bird.

That the insects might not be insects,

But this planet's equivalent of insects.

And she watches as some of the larger animals walk around this land,

And she finds her way through this meadow,

Where she can hear in the distance the sound of the ocean.

She walks to the edge of the meadow,

Where she's gazing down over a roaring ocean,

Seeing these long waves rolling in and gradually breaking on the shore,

Watching the way the wave breaks from one side of that long wave,

Gradually breaking all the way along to the other side,

Before pulling back and another wave rolling in,

Repeating that process.

And the way the sound from those waves can't be pinpointed to any one exact location.

It's kind of a rumbly roar coming from the whole location.

And she finds herself floating and flying through the air,

Floating down from that cliff,

Down to the seashore.

And down near those waves,

She can hear each part of the wave breaking on the shore.

She gazes out and watches the way this water moves and flows.

And she can see that,

A little way away from the shore,

The water is so much calmer,

A little way away from the shore.

These waves just rise and fall gently.

It's only as the shore begins to rise steeply,

As that sea floor rises steeply,

That the waves curl over and crash down.

And she has this feeling of drifting and floating above the waves.

She floats her way through sea spray,

Breathing the salty air,

Noticing the familiarity of this salty air on an alien world,

To salty air on Earth.

And she drifts and floats through the sky,

Away from the shore,

To where it's calmer.

She stretches her arms out.

She turns with her back to the water and she gently lowers herself down.

And she feels the water touching her clothes,

Soaking into her clothes a little bit.

She begins to feel that coolness of the water,

A comfortable coolness,

As she rests down,

Feeling the warmth of the star in the sky,

Of this planet's sun on her face,

While feeling the comfortable coolness of that water,

As she floats effortlessly and peacefully,

As the waves gently bob her up and down,

And she closes her eyes and relaxes to that feeling of bobbing up and down in the water.

And she has this sensation that she's aware she's dreaming and aware that she's lucid in this dream and that she's got some control over what's happening,

That although she doesn't have control over where her dream takes her,

She has control over her actions within the dream.

And right now,

She's enjoying that sensation of relaxing,

Floating,

Bobbing up and down on that water,

Hearing the distant sound of the waves breaking on the shore,

Feeling the warmth of the sun,

Feeling the way the water tickles around her neck.

And she rests there for a little bit,

Gazing up at the sky,

And then closing her eyes,

Feeling those inner sensations and the feelings of the water,

And then gazing up at the sky again,

And getting that contrast between being focusing externally on what she can see,

Clouds passing by,

The sight of the water at the corner of her eyes,

And then what she can feel when she closes her eyes and focuses inwardly on the sensations of floating and resting there.

And she notices how her breathing relaxes and deepens.

Even after a while,

She floats up into the sky and she can feel the weight of her wet clothes on her skin,

See the way the water drips from her clothes,

Glistening in the sunlight.

And she has this sensation of the water beginning to evaporate,

And her clothes drying in the sun,

And that coolness of the breeze blowing through the damp clothes.

And she flies back to shore,

Flies back to that meadow,

And gently walks through the meadow,

And walks barefooted through the meadow,

Feeling the equivalent of grass through her toes,

Breathing in the smells of this meadow,

Wondering where her experience will take her next.

And as her clothes dry,

So she begins to fly,

She flies out of that meadow,

Begins to fly up into the sky,

Higher and higher,

Surveying the land.

And she sees way off in the distance what looks like some kind of settlement.

So she flies over to that settlement,

Lands down on a muddy path,

Walks along that muddy path towards the settlement,

And sees what looks almost like humans going about their day-to-day lives.

She's a market stall,

People coming and going,

People smiling and laughing,

Seeming so happy.

And so she walks through this town,

And thinks to herself how it almost looks like medieval towns that she's read about in books.

And she can see that there's a river flowing near this town,

And there's a building next to that river,

With a waterwheel that's turning as that river flows toward the wheel and past the wheel,

And falls into the wheel as it flows.

And she wonders what it's turning inside that building,

And walks along the edge of that river,

Hearing it bubbling and trickling and flowing.

Sticks floating,

Spinning,

And racing each other down that river.

And then she arrives at a bridge,

And the bridge is up at the moment,

And she can see that there's a boat pulling another boat through the bridge,

Carefully navigating it.

And the boat that's being pulled under where the bridge would be,

Is loaded with what looks like logs,

And she assumes that maybe someone's going to build a house,

Or build something else out of those logs.

And she watches for what feels like a long time,

For those boats to pass,

So that that bridge can lower again.

And after the bridge lowers,

And clunks back into place,

A gate gets opened,

And she's allowed to cross the bridge.

She looks down at the water while crossing,

Before continuing to follow the road,

The other side of the bridge.

And she can see in the distance,

A white palace,

That seems to almost emanate light,

That almost seems to glow,

It's so white.

And she walks toward that palace.

And as she arrives at the palace,

She wanders into the palace gardens,

And she sees fairies,

Really tiny fairies,

Seeming to fly around,

Pruning,

Neatening them up the garden.

And then one of them comes over,

Flies in front of her,

Darting around,

Trying to hold itself in place,

Seeming to fly quickly,

Almost zig-zaggy,

While she tries to hold her gaze on it,

And it seems to be trying to talk to her.

And as its wings flutter rapidly,

Just like a blur on the fairy's back,

So what looks like sparkles of glitter seem to come off of the fairy,

And a slight buzzing sound from the fairy.

And the girl thinks to herself that this fairy reminds her of when she watches hummingbirds hovering around plants,

And she holds her hand out,

The fairy lands in her hand,

Reaches down and gently touches her hand with their hand,

And then begins to talk.

And while the fairy begins to talk,

She realizes that she can understand what the fairy's saying.

She realizes that somehow that connection seems to allow this,

And she doesn't understand why,

But she's aware it's her dream,

So there must be some process here.

And the fairy explains about the land that she's in,

And that this land has many different forms of intelligent life,

From the small to the large,

Working and living in harmony,

And that sometimes that intelligence may not appear so obvious.

And the fairy talks about this land containing an intelligent mushroom,

A mushroom that can't move around much itself,

But is actually one giant organism that's so large that it's almost like a brain under the ground,

And that it's seen the passing of many ages,

And that for most of its existence people just thought it was a mushroom without even realizing that it's one giant mushroom.

They would see all these individual mushrooms and think they're individual,

And would pick them and eat them.

And although this giant mushroom didn't mind,

It would mind if it was all eaten,

But little bits here and there it didn't feel,

And it was okay with.

It was part of the cycle of life of the planet.

And the fairy explained that it wasn't until they arrived and evolved,

Where they could touch other life,

And then pick up on the communication and consciousness from other life,

And communicate through that consciousness.

It was only then that people realized that these mushrooms were all one giant organism,

Like a giant brain.

And the girl was fascinated by this,

And by all this different life,

All getting on,

Working together.

And the fairy guided her around the garden,

And she met the different creatures in the garden.

She met the unicorn grazing around the back of the palace.

Notice the way the unicorn almost glowed white like the palace did,

And its horn glowed even later,

Noticing the imps,

And then noticing the gnomes that seemed to be fishing.

And at first glance,

She thought the gnomes were just garden gnomes,

They were so still,

Fishing in ponds,

Until the fairy took her towards those gnomes,

And then one of them looked up towards her,

Smiled and greeted her.

And that movement took her by surprise,

As she realized that they're alive.

And so she interacted with the gnomes,

With all the other creatures in the garden,

All playing their role.

But she wondered who lived in the palace.

And the fairy spoke about how everyone here tries to be cooperative,

Kind,

Helpful,

And that everyone just has a role.

No one is higher or lower than anyone else.

They'll just have different roles to play.

They've got different skills.

The gnomes are great at patience and fishing.

The mushroom is great at knowledge and wisdom.

The fairies are great at darting in and out of flowers,

Pruning things,

Cleaning things up.

The unicorn is great at keeping the grass short.

And so she wonders even more,

Well then,

Who's in the palace?

The fairy takes her to the front of the palace,

Opens the door of the palace,

And she's shocked by how bright the inside of the palace is,

How well lit the palace is,

The way the light shines in the windows,

Creating beams of bright light.

And the footsteps echoing as she walks into that palace.

And in the center of this palace she's surprised to see that it's entirely hollow.

There's an outer wall,

But there's no floors.

From the outside she thought it looked like a typical-looking princess palace,

A fairy tale palace.

She imagined grand staircases,

Multiple floors.

She imagined there'd probably be a high ceiling on the ground floor,

But she didn't imagine that she could walk in,

Look up,

And it'd be a vast,

Empty space.

But what she was surprised by was that in the middle of this vast,

Empty space was an enormous tree,

A tree that looked so old,

That looked so old that it almost looked like it was collapsing under its own weight,

Like a really dense,

Solid tree,

A really wide tree,

Stretching up high into the void inside this palace.

And the light from many of the windows was shining onto the leaves of the tree.

And she noticed,

As she gazed all the way to the top,

That there was a hole in the top at the narrowest point in this palace,

And that air seemed to flow in the door when it was opened,

And almost seemed to rise up with a noticeable wind flowing up and out the top of the palace.

And she could see in some areas that the river flowed under the palace,

And she was told by the fairy that the tree's roots go all the way down,

Deep underground.

And this tree drinks from that river.

And she asks why this tree is here inside a palace.

And the fairy explains that this is the tree of life,

That there was a time when nearly everything here had died,

When a previous civilization had got greedy,

Had decided it wanted more,

It wanted more land to do what it wanted.

It wanted to grow larger and larger.

It started to destroy everything.

And at first it thought it was making progress,

Making things better for itself.

And to a point it was improving,

It was helping itself.

It was using its knowledge,

Its technology to grow and expand,

And to be healthier and happier.

But then it reached a point where it fell out of sync with the rest of the planet,

Where the natural balance began to fade.

Until the only thing left was a few of that civilization.

And the only other thing left was a sapling.

And so one of that civilization realized that they should help and try and restore balance.

And so every day they watered that sapling and the sapling began to grow.

And they would tend to the sapling and they would sit next to it as it grew.

And they gave so much of themselves to that sapling.

Every day they sat down as it grew a sturdier trunk.

Every day they rested their back against that trunk as it grew taller and wider.

Every day they watered it,

Tended to it,

Protected it.

Until one day they didn't wake up from sitting under that sapling that was now a larger trunk.

They grew a tree.

And that was their last gift to this tree.

And as they gave this last gift,

So the tree became the tree of life.

Life started spreading out from the base of the tree.

Grass started growing.

More life started growing.

The tree's roots got deeper,

Spread out,

Reached the water for itself,

Connected with the mushroom,

Communicated with the mushroom.

Developed that relationship with the mushroom.

Then eventually life that sprung up developed more intelligence.

And realized the importance of this tree and its life-giving properties.

And early life began to create a slight wall around this tree to protect it,

As the tree was giving them life and protecting them.

And then as thousands of years passed,

More life would evolve and develop.

This new life would create bigger walls,

And would value this tree more and protect it more.

Until eventually all life everywhere knew this,

As the tree of life valued it so much,

That a palace was built around it,

Allowing the sun at different times of the day to shine in on its leaves.

To be somewhere that stood out from all angles.

That the palace was built to glow and shine,

To be a beacon on the landscape.

And all life that sprung up learned to work together,

To support itself,

And to value this tree.

And although the girl was aware that this was a dream she was having,

She found something profound about this idea,

Wondering whether it linked back to her experiences at the zoo,

And how her mind was creating this,

Or whether there was something more to it.

And she walked over to the tree and rested her hand on the bark of the tree,

And she could feel that bark under her hand,

The roughness of that,

The life that tree had led.

And she felt an emotional connection with this tree,

Despite thinking intellectually that this is just a dream,

As that fairy flew beside her.

And she sat down on the floor at the foot of the tree,

In the light of the sun shining through a window.

And she thought to herself about what this tree would have seen over those thousands and thousands and thousands of years,

How things would have changed whether the tree,

Digging for water with its roots,

Influenced the path of that river over those years.

And as she rested there,

So she closed her eyes just a moment,

To contemplate what she'd been told,

To contemplate this world.

She wondered whether anything like that could happen in reality,

Whether a civilization could come and go,

And then what would happen beyond that civilization.

How would a planet move on and progress?

And while she rested there,

Relaxing under that tree,

She started to hear the sounds of windscreen wipers and the rain on the car,

And began to be aware of being in that car again.

And she lazily opened her eyes a little bit,

Feeling so calm and rested on the back seat of the car,

Relaxing with that rain sound.

And then she noticed that rain beginning to ease off,

And the windscreen wipers were stopped.

And she could hear the sound of the car driving through a wet road,

Still feeling deeply relaxed on the back seat.

And she sat up and looked out and could see how they were moving into blue sky.

She gazed out the window and could see the rain passing off in the distance.

See wispy clouds,

They're approaching.

And her parents felt she was unusually quiet,

Resting in the back of the car,

Unaware of the dream she'd had and the contemplating she was doing.

And she carried on being that way for the entire journey home.

And once at home she was still quiet.

She went into the house.

She went up to her room.

She sat on a small wicker chair near the window in her bedroom,

The sun gently shining in on her face.

A cat came in the room,

Jumped up on her lap,

Flopped down onto her lap,

And she gently stroked her cat's belly while it rested on her lap,

While she gazed out over her back garden,

Still thinking about that dream,

Still thinking about all those intelligent creatures.

And she wondered about the intelligence of her cat.

And she had this sense that her cat knew she was wondering about it,

Because as she wondered it gazed up at her eyes,

And then curled around her hand,

And then wrapped its front paws around her wrist.

And she could hear it purring while it relaxed on her lap.

And while she looked out in the garden,

She thought she saw something,

She thought she noticed something,

A glistening coming from a tree in the garden.

Similar to the glistening she'd seen in her dream.

And she carefully put the cat on the floor,

Walked down to the back garden,

Cat walking with her.

She walked to that tree,

And hanging in the tree,

She could see a tiny crystal just spinning in the breeze.

And she wondered to herself how long that's been there,

Whether it's always been there and she hasn't noticed,

Or whether somehow it's new,

Whether maybe the reason she saw it in her dream was because it's been there and she's just not been aware of it before,

But somehow noticed it.

Or maybe it's new because of her dream,

And she gazed at it and watched it.

And the cat just sat beside her.

And then she reached out,

Took it off the tree and looked at it in her hand.

And she noticed the way the little crystal was on a piece of thread.

And that there was only a small knot holding that done up,

That it had been hung on the tree with.

And so she carefully undid that knot.

She crouched down onto the ground,

And she tied it around her ankle,

Having that crystal by her ankle.

And she was still curious where it came from and how long it had been there.

And she walked around in the grass,

Looking down at her feet to see what it looked like on her ankle.

And a cat began to weave its way between her feet.

And while the cat was weaving between her feet,

So she gazed around the garden.

She could see the pond in the garden and the little gnomes fishing.

But these little gnomes didn't move.

She wondered if she got close to them,

And said,

Boo,

It might make them jump.

And she chuckled to herself a bit about that.

She decided not to do that,

Because she thought she might look stupid.

And then she thought,

Who cares if you look stupid?

And she crept up on one of the gnomes,

Crouched down,

Peered around its shoulder,

And said,

Boo.

And the cat jumped,

And she smiled,

And the gnome just remained stationary,

Fishing.

And she sat down by this pond.

She could see the the frog jumping near the pond.

She could see some water boatmen on the surface.

She could hear the birds in the background.

And that sound of birds after rain has passed.

And she relaxed by that pond,

And then noticed that that crystal by her ankle began to sparkle again.

But this time it wasn't moving.

And as it began to sparkle,

So she noticed that the water of the pond began to swirl and move.

And then out of the center of a pond rose up what looked like a large fairy,

But made out of water,

Hovering in front of her.

And this fairy told her that it wasn't all a dream,

That there was more to your experience than you realize.

And that it'll mean something as you grow up and go through life.

That the experience that you can have can be profound on how you choose to live life,

And your role that you choose to take to the story that you live out.

That we're all just living out a story.

We just don't know how it's going to go and how it's going to end.

And we don't know how people are going to remember our story.

And this young girl was fascinated by this experience.

She wondered whether this was also a dream,

But this fairy told her it's not.

And told her that she'll know that,

Because when she goes indoors she's still going to have that crystal with her.

And she's still going to continue to think about this experience.

And then that water lowers back down into the pond.

Ripples spread out,

Touching all sides of the pond,

Before gradually calming and relaxing.

And she walks back towards her house,

Picks up her teddy bear from the chair outside the house,

Notices how wet it's obviously got in the rain.

She squeezes its little arms,

Squeezes its legs,

Squeezes its belly,

Squishes its cheeks,

To squeeze out some of that water.

Before walking into the house,

Hugging that teddy,

With the cat by her feet.

She sits in the living room for a little while by the fire,

Warming teddy,

Feeling the warmth of the cat,

As it warms itself next to her by the fire.

She eats dinner with her parents,

Still thinking about the experience that she's had.

She starts talking to them about the dream,

About what went on while she was in the car.

And they listen intently.

And they nod,

And they engage in conversation,

And they show fascination and intrigue.

And the more fascination and intrigue they show,

The more valued she feels as she talks about her experiences and her perspective on things.

And after a while,

She goes and sits in bed,

Reads a bit of her book,

Reads a bit of her book.

As a cat sat on top of her in the bed,

Snuggled down on the bed,

And feeling that comfort of the cat on top of her in the bed,

She turns off her bedtime light,

Begins to drift and float comfortably and relaxed,

Asleep into pleasant dreams,

Realizing that she's able to drift back to that land,

Just by focusing on the crystal,

That she can feel against her ankle.

And as she focuses on it,

So she has this sense of it spinning in front of her in her mind's eye,

And while seeing it spinning in front of her in her mind's eye,

That guides her into the crystal deeper and deeper,

Where she finds herself in the crystal,

Gazing down on that land in space,

And can lower down from space to that land.

And she realizes night after night,

Or any time she closes her eyes and sees that crystal spinning and sparkling in her mind's eye,

That she can visit that land,

And she makes friends in that land,

And visits often as she drifts and floats,

And relaxes asleep.