Discovery On Titan (Long Meditation Bedtime Story)

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

As you begin to relax,

I don't know whether you'll relax deeper to the sound of my voice,

Or to the spaces between my words.

And as you begin to comfortably drift asleep,

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

It's a meditation about a woman who has gone away to a woodland retreat,

And outside the cabin that she's in,

She can see the snow falling down in large flakes,

And she gazes out of that window,

Just watching those large snowflakes falling down,

Watching the snow gradually building up on the windowpane,

While she sits there with the sound of a log fire beside her,

Crackling away,

The warmth of that fire that she can feel on her cheeks,

And the sound of a clock ticking on the mantelpiece.

And she almost begins to have this sense like the ticks are gradually getting further away from the tocks,

Like somehow time between those ticks and the tocks is slowing down,

Starting off and tick,

Tock,

Tick,

Tock,

Tick,

And then gradually tock,

Tick,

Slowing,

Tock,

Right,

Tick,

Tock,

Down,

Tick,

Tock,

And she starts to have this sense,

Almost like there was a pause,

As if it had stopped before it would tick.

And while she looked out the window,

As that ticking and tocking slowed right down,

She could see that the snowflakes were slowing down,

Until eventually she noticed the snowflakes falling outside the window just seemed to be hovering in space.

And the sound of the crackling fire had stopped crackling and popping,

And the flickering light from the fire had stopped flickering.

And yet,

Despite everything seeming to have stopped,

She was still able to be thinking,

And she stood up and was still able to be moving,

And it seemed that everything had frozen in time,

Except her.

And she found this a curious experience,

And she went and got her coat,

Grabbed a torch,

And decided to head out into the snow.

And she opened the door and closed the door behind her,

And as she closed the door,

She realized it didn't make a sound.

Her footsteps didn't make a sound,

And she walked out into the snow,

And she could feel her feet crunching through the snow,

But she couldn't hear her feet crunching through the snow.

It was as if the sound had stopped,

As if there was no movement.

The air was incredibly still,

And as she walked,

So she realized she was walking through the snowflakes that were hanging in the air,

And they would brush past her face,

Tickling her cheeks,

But they wouldn't fall to the ground,

And she was aware of how silent it was out here.

She's used to it being silent when it's snowing,

With the way that snow dulls sound.

But this was different.

This wasn't just silent from the snow dulling the sound.

It was as if everything had frozen,

As if this moment had frozen,

And she walked over to the edge of the woodland.

She picked up a large branch out of the snow on the ground,

And she swung it with all of her strength at one of the trees,

And as it struck the tree,

So she could feel the sudden halting of that stick,

But there was no sound from the strike.

There was no reverberating down that stick to her hands.

No snow fell from the branches,

And she placed that stick back down on the ground,

And she wondered about something,

Something she was curious about,

So she rolled up a snowball,

And she threw it in the air,

But all that happened was that at the point that she let go with her hand and moved her hand,

The snowball was just sat there in the air.

It didn't rise as if given any momentum,

And it didn't fall.

It just froze in the air,

And she walked down to the lake,

And down at the lake she could see waves,

And at first glance she thought,

Well at least the water on the lake is working correctly,

But at second glance she realized that the water was stationary,

The waves had frozen in position,

That what she thought looked like a small wave gently breaking on the shore was frozen in position,

Mid-breaking,

And she wondered whether this experience is happening everywhere,

Or whether it's localized to just here,

And she walked around the cabin,

And she closed her eyes and listened,

And tried to hear the slightest sound to see if there was any sounds off in the distance,

Any evidence that things are different elsewhere,

And yet she couldn't hear anything,

And then just at that moment she heard a slight hum followed by a light beginning to glow over the woods,

And that glowing light seemed to be coming down from above the trees,

And spreading out wider and wider,

And she wondered why she could hear that hum,

When she couldn't even make a sound herself,

And she started heading through the woods towards the light,

And while heading through the woods she could see the way the light was shining and dappling through the trees,

And as she arrived near the light she could see that above her,

Above the trees,

Was some kind of a spaceship just hovering there,

And so she watched,

Unsure what to do,

And then it started lowering itself down,

Before landing in a clearing in the middle of the woods,

And she was still curious why she could hear this,

And why it was that she should be unfrozen when everything else seemed to be frozen,

And what looked like a door opened on that ship,

And she snuck over to the door,

Snuck into that ship,

And once in the ship,

Sounds seemed normal.

It was as if time on the ship was running normal,

And no sooner had she boarded the ship,

The door closed,

And that ship rose off the ground,

And she walked through the ship trying to find whoever was on board,

And she found what looked a bit like a bridge of a ship,

And in this room was one single person,

And they looked as human as she did,

And they welcomed her aboard.

They said they'd been waiting for her,

They knew that she would come,

And as she looked out the screen in front,

She saw that this ship was rising up through snow,

And she couldn't tell whether the snow looked like it was moving,

Because the ship was moving through it,

Or whether the snow actually was moving,

And then almost in a blink of an eye,

The ship darted through the clouds,

And in a fraction of a second,

She could just see stars,

And she felt no movement,

And she asked what was going on,

And they explained that they know that she comes here regularly every single year,

Same time each year,

That she sees in winter solstice here,

And that this year she's to make a discovery,

And this discovery is important for the future,

But the only way for it to be important for the future is for her to go on a journey,

And that in the future they're far more advanced than in the past,

That not only have they created these ships,

But they've also created ways of connecting through time,

Effectively creating portals,

And the portals aren't particularly big,

They take a lot of energy,

And so they have to transport through the portal piece by piece,

And then rebuild things like this ship on this side of the portal,

And so the ships can't travel through time,

But the people who fly the ships can travel through the portals,

As can everything that goes into making the ships,

And so at important times they can send through all the relevant equipment for making a ship,

And they have nanotechnology that's programmed,

And it just builds the ship for them rapidly,

They just have to wait for it to be done,

And some things they can use resources from back in the past,

But generally they send everything through from their time,

And they can't create portals to go too far into the future,

Or too far into the past,

They're trapped in a period of a few hundred years either side,

But this one event was important,

That a discovery is going to be made here tonight,

But the only way for this woman to give it the relevant significance is for her to have this experience,

And no sooner had this person finished talking,

She realised that she was no longer looking at just stars out of the front of the ship,

She could see the moon Titan,

And she could see that it was upside down,

And that the ship had obviously gone into orbit around Titan,

And she asked why they're here,

She recognised Titan,

But she didn't know why they would be here,

And they explained that in about 30 years there'll be probes here on Titan,

Which end up discovering that there's unique life living here,

That they'll be sending probes that will drift around in the oceans on Titan,

They'll have probes that will fly in the skies of Titan,

And at first they won't realise that there's life here,

They'll detect plenty of organic matter,

But they won't necessarily conclude it's definitely life,

And then they're going to discover a cave,

And when they first explore that cave they won't expect to find any life in it,

But in that cave eventually they'll realise that just as on earth,

Where molten lava rises up through volcanoes,

Here liquid water rises up through volcanoes,

And in that liquid water is life,

And deep enough under the surface where that water remains liquid is life,

And there are pockets in caves where they're protected enough and deep enough from the outside that they remain that bit warmer,

And they're going to discover that the life here is advanced,

Not technologically advanced,

But not just bacterial or single celled life,

And that for the discovery you're going to make you need to see this yourself first,

Not so that you pass that information on,

They told the woman,

But so that you are able to see the life of the woman,

And that you are able to see the life of the woman,

They told the woman,

But so that you understand what you've discovered,

So that you give importance to your discovery,

That will help shape the future,

And the woman asked about paradoxes,

Saying that if they're coming back to tell her this,

And that this is what's going to make her give the significance that's going to lead to change in the future,

Then does that mean that if they didn't come back and tell her this,

She wouldn't have given it the significance,

And so they wouldn't come back and tell her because she wouldn't have given significance,

And they explain that it's happened,

And the fact that it's happened means it'll be successful,

It's a part of this timeline,

Whatever way you look at it,

And they guide her to a small little pod,

And the two of them enter this pod,

And the pod launches,

Dropping out of the bottom of that ship,

And guiding its way down to Titan,

And down on Titan,

It automatically steers its way to where it needs to go,

Parks its way up.

This person tells the woman to change into the suit in the cupboard beside her,

The two of them change into their suits,

Before heading into an airlock space at the back of this pod,

The door closes behind them to the rest of the pod,

And then door in front of them opens up,

The two of them walk out onto Titan,

And what they walk out onto is slightly slushy water,

Only it's not water,

She's told that it's liquid methane,

And so she slushes through that,

And she watches as these bizarrely large raindrops seem to be slowly falling from the sky,

Warping and moving around as they fall,

Almost like large bubbles blown by a child,

And the two of them walk over to a tall mountain,

And the woman can hear the person's voice through a headset into her suit,

And they say that this is a volcano,

And they're going to be heading into a cave,

And they head in to that cave,

And as they do,

The slight sound from outside fades away,

And she notices,

Although the picture of the sound is different,

That it has a vaguely familiar sound of being in a cave on earth,

And the lights on their suits illuminate the way,

And lights that point at angles illuminate the walls around them,

And they walk deeper and deeper into this cave,

And she notices the air pressure changing as they descend,

As they follow that cave round and down deeper and deeper,

Until they find what almost looks like a hole in the ground,

And she goes and has a look at that,

And sees that it's at a slight angle,

And they attach a little hook just outside that hole.

They both throw some wires attached to the hook down the hole,

And then lying on their backs,

And I'm sure you've seen this before,

They attach to the hook down the hole,

And then lying on their backs and holding onto that wire,

They descend,

And almost like being on a slide,

They slide down that hole at that angle,

Almost like a water chute,

Before suddenly having their lights illuminating a vast cavern,

And they see stalactites hanging from the ceiling,

And they hear splashing in what turns out to be water below.

They find themselves almost stood on the edge of a vast underground lake,

And then the woman hears an almost familiar sound,

And she turns to the person with her,

And says it sounds like there are dolphins down here,

And she sees the person through their suit smiling,

And she turns back towards the water,

And she tries to look out across the water,

And then she sees a little cloud puff up above the water,

And catches the slightest glimpse of what looks like the back of perhaps a dolphin-like creature,

And the person with her gets out an inflatable raft.

He has a small little canister with him,

Attaches that to the raft,

And then he sees a small little canister,

And the raft rapidly inflates.

He puts it on the water.

The two of them climb on that raft,

And start paddling out into the lake,

And the person talks about how this is like a lava chamber in a volcano,

Except this one is water,

And that there are networks,

Interconnected tunnels,

Some with some air,

Some with no air,

But the air wouldn't be breathable to a human,

But it just allows a bit of circulation,

And as they move out towards the center of the lake,

The woman sees that dolphin-like creature break the surface and come and investigate,

And as it does,

And it gets nearer and nearer to that inflatable raft,

And nearer to that inflatable raft,

She notices that it looks a lot like a dolphin.

His proportions are slightly different,

But it definitely looks like a very similar creature,

And the person explains that they're actually an incredibly advanced race that came here,

That an ancestor of whales and dolphins were some of the first to seed different places in the universe with advanced life forms,

But as time has gone on,

They've become more accepting of being at one with their environment,

That the original creature that came here many,

Many millions of years ago would have been focused on technology,

On exploration,

But gradually as time went by,

They spent more time in their environment and enjoying their new home,

And less time focusing on feeling apart from their environment,

And over millions of years on different planets,

They've gone on to change into something that's just more suited to their environment than the environment they started suited to,

And the woman found this fascinating,

And they were told that these suits protect you from the elements,

These suits protect you from the elements,

And so we can dive under the water,

And there's something to show you,

And they drop off the sides of that inflatable raft,

They descend under the water,

Their lights illuminating that water,

They see under the water that's a thriving ecosystem,

That there's many different fish-like creatures,

And sea-like creatures,

And they get led into an underwater cave,

They travel along this underwater cave,

And the woman follows this person out of that cave,

Up into another cave,

And as she comes out in this other cave,

She's surprised by what she sees,

She sees what looks like dwellings and monuments,

And the person explains that these are relics from that old time,

From that civilization that came here millions of years ago,

And as she looked at them,

She noticed that there were some symbols that seemed to be on a lot of the monuments here,

That there were some symbols that seemed to be on a lot of the monuments here,

And the person explained that those symbols are like a map that explains where they came from,

That the symbols mark out the planets and the star of their own system,

A mark out the galaxy and a point in the galaxy where that star system is,

That it seems that they wanted to save this and have this stand the test of time.

In case anything in the future reached a point where it was advanced enough to understand,

And the woman and this person explored this area,

And she asked how often others had visited here,

Because this person knew where they were going,

And they said that no one was going to be here,

Where they were going,

And they said that no one at this time has visited here.

They are the first,

But in the future it's been regularly visited,

As many monuments have,

And after they leave that cave,

Climb back up that hole,

Pulling themselves up with the wire,

Find their way back out of the volcano,

And back to that pod,

And they enter the first stage of the pod,

And the person tells them to put their arms out,

And they get sprayed down within the pod,

And then they get a blast of hot air in the pod,

And then a light changes,

The other pod door opens,

And they walk through to the main part of the pod,

Take their suits off,

And the person explains that the main reason that that's necessary is partly for the risk of contamination,

But also because you've walked through liquid methane to get back onto the ship,

And the temperature on board the ship,

Once you're beyond that first stage in the pod,

Is a comfortable temperature for humans,

Which isn't a temperature you really want all that liquid methane to be at,

Not with all of the electronics and everything,

And the woman understands,

And they take off from Titan,

Pass through the clouds,

Pass back up to the ship,

Circling Titan overhead,

And the pod docks itself with the ship,

And then the ship leaves the orbit of Titan,

And the woman says,

So what is it I'm going to find?

What is it that's so important?

What am I supposed to have learned?

The person says,

It'll be a long journey,

But what am I supposed to have learned?

The person says,

It'll all make sense once you find it,

But you needed this experience to understand the finding,

And then that ship takes her back to where it found her.

She asks about why everything seemed frozen,

Why time seemed to have stood still,

Other than her,

And the ship,

And them,

Why she was able to hear the ship,

Why she was able to see the light from the ship,

When time seemed to be stood still,

And they explained that part of the technology they've got not only lets them create portals,

But their ships,

When powered,

Send out a pulse that can seem to create a ripple through space and time,

That within a certain area will freeze time,

And then as you get further and further away from that,

Gradually time will seem to run slower,

But generally people don't notice when the time is just running a bit slower,

Because the ship isn't around for that long.

So by the time you're thinking,

Is something different,

The ship has already passed by,

And that they can target an individual,

Or select individuals,

Including themselves,

With almost like a force field that protects them from the effects,

In the same way that you can be in a faraday cage to protect yourself from electricity,

And so that can be projected onto an individual like her,

As well as it being built into the ship,

So that the time changes don't affect anything on the ship,

And that this technology is too advanced to really be explaining.

And those affected by the time changes are part of the time changes,

And rarely notice,

Because you have to be outside of the time changes to really notice that something's different,

And she leaves that ship as it arrives at the woods,

And then after a little while,

While she's walking back out into the clearing,

The snow starts to fall again,

And that snowball suddenly splats down next to her,

And she can hear the sound of the water lapping on the shore,

She can feel the coolness on her cheeks of the air,

She knocks one of the trees with her hand,

As some snow falls from the branches,

And she heads back to the shore,

As some snow falls from the branches,

And she heads to the cabin,

Walks into the cabin,

She can hear that crackling fire,

And with everything seeming so normal again,

She starts to doubt her experience,

Because it seemed so surreal,

Even though she experienced it with her own senses,

And she recalls stories of people claiming UFO abductions,

And how fantastical they can sound,

And unbelievable,

And wonders whether people then knew what they were doing,

And wonders whether people then end up not believing themselves,

That on some level they think,

I'm sure I had this experience,

While on another level they're doubting whether they had the experience because of its fantastical nature,

And then,

As the fire is burning down to embers,

She heads to bed,

And begins to drift,

And float so comfortably asleep,

And the next morning,

She is asleep,

And the next morning,

She awakens,

She looks out of the bedroom window,

She can see the glistening blanket of snow,

As the sun shines down on it,

She can see how still everything looks,

She goes and has breakfast,

Leaves the cabin,

Crunches out into the snow,

And she can't see any trace of her experiences the night before,

And she goes walking into the woods,

And begins to explore in the woods,

And today is the winter solstice,

And so she finds that perfect spot in the woods,

There's a monument in a clearing in the woods that's been there for many years,

That's thought to have been placed by an old culture many years ago,

And it's often reported that the arrangement of the stones is specifically aligned for the winter solstice,

And so she comes here every year,

Heads to this monument and this stone circle,

And observes the winter solstice,

And once she arrives there,

She sets up a little camp,

Sets up a tent,

A campfire,

She plans on spending the night out here,

And she gathers some firewood,

Clears away some of the snow,

Reinforces her tent with snow and snow,

Around the tent,

Also adding some extra protection from the elements,

Almost like having an igloo built around the tent,

And as she has done many times over the years,

She goes over to the monument,

Touches it with her hand,

Feeling that cold stone under her fingertips and her palm,

And she walks around the monument,

And there are no noticeable features to the stones,

They just look like shaped stones,

But then she notices something glisten slightly off in the distance,

And she heads over to that glistening in the distance,

And it's near the water's edge,

And it's near the water's edge,

Where a river from the lake flows around and passes by the back of this monument,

And she realizes that the river is a lot lower than it normally is,

And she had noticed that up by the lake,

That the water was lower than normal,

And she hadn't thought about how that means it's probably lower than normal at the river,

But because it was lower,

Something just slightly sticking out of the mud was visible,

Catching the sun and glistening,

And it was near enough to the water's edge that there was no snow right here,

Because the water would flow along the shoreline and would lap on the shore,

And as she dug around this thing that she'd found,

She then rose it up out of the mud,

And it was a small stone,

Tapping,

And it was a small stone tablet,

And on this tablet was that same pattern that was on Titan,

And this confirmed to her that it wasn't a dream,

And she realized that perhaps this entire space,

This whole monument,

Is more than just something made by an old civilization,

To mark the solstice and other significant times of the year,

That's been assumed to be to do with farming,

And tracking best practices,

And tracking best times to do certain things,

That maybe it's a lot older than that,

Or built on something that's a lot older than that,

Because there's this bit which seems to point to it being similar to what was on Titan,

That's showing that star,

The planets,

And its location in the galaxy at that point in time,

And so the woman took that back to her tent with her,

And it was just the size of a large book,

What she'd found,

Something that she probably wouldn't have thought much of it,

Would have just assumed it was part of this monument,

And that these markings weren't really relevant had she not seen the other monument,

And she had something to eat as she carried on with the day,

As the sun rose to its peak,

Before beginning to set again,

Then after the sun began setting,

She could see a hawk flying overhead,

She could hear it,

Occasionally letting out a lot of noise,

And wondered what that meant,

Whether it was signaling its territory,

Perhaps signaling to other hawks,

But her mind kept on coming back to that slab,

And as it started getting darker,

The temperature began to cool,

And so she wrapped herself up in the most comfortable blanket in this tent,

Feeling that warmth from the fire near the tent,

Hearing the breeze pick up slightly as the sun sets lower and lower,

And she realizes the importance of this moment,

That things for her may never be the same again,

That she's going to be sharing that slab,

And that scientists will investigate,

And they'll try and figure out what it all means,

And she'll be able to explain what she thinks,

But won't be able to say how she knows that.

And she doesn't feel anyone would believe her if she said that humans from the future came back and told her,

And that she'd been to Titan,

But she could say,

Doesn't it look a little bit like this,

And pose the idea,

And start to get scientists to understand that she's not the only one who knows where that takes the future?

Doesn't it look a little bit like this,

And pose the idea,

And start to get scientists exploring the idea,

And she knows where that takes the future.

She knows that it'll lead to them discovering that humans aren't alone in the universe,

And that humans are the first technologically advanced race,

And it will lead to that future that that person came back from,

And once the last of the light had left the sky,

And she was able to look up at that blanket of stars while listening to that campfire crackling near the tent,

And seeing the slightest sight of an aurora in the sky,

The occasional shooting star overhead.

She drifted and floated,

So comfortably asleep,

And that night she dreamt the most incredible dreams,

Before awakening the next morning,

Clearing everything away,

Heading back to that cabin one last time,

Packing everything away in the cabin,

And heading back home,

And once home she started the process of sharing that tablet,

Sharing where it was found,

And her ideas about it,

And she was sat at home with her dog sat at her legs,

And a cat sat on her table beside her laptop while she was typing messages to different people,

Sharing images of that tablet,

And occasionally that cat would walk across the laptop and lie straight across her hands and the keypad while she's trying to work,

And would just lie there and purr,

And she would have to then pick it up and hold it on her lap,

And stroke that cat for a little while to give it enough attention that it would let her work for a little bit longer before it would come back,

Plop itself down beside her on the table,

And then after a few moments of not getting the attention it wants,

It would move back to her hands again,

Rest itself across her hands and the keypad,

And that cycle would go on all day long.

And then feeling a sense of excitement about her role in the future,

She went to bed,

Settled down,

And found herself drifting so pleasantly,

So relaxed asleep,

Knowing that she was going to awaken,

Feeling refreshed,

Revitalized in the morning,

As she rested there drifting and floating comfortably asleep.