So,
Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.
And as you begin to comfortably drift to sleep,
I'm just going to count down from ten.
And while I count,
You can imagine a healing light.
Just gently passing through your body,
Healing and softening the muscles,
Calming the mind.
From ten,
Relaxing the muscles around the top of the head,
Around the face,
Around the jaw,
The muscles around your temple and your forehead,
Smoothing those muscles out,
Calming,
Softening,
So peacefully.
Nine,
With that relaxation,
Working its way slowly around the back of your head,
And carefully relaxing down the back of your neck,
Perhaps tingling gently with a sense of peace and comfort.
And with each out breath that you take,
You can find yourself relaxing deeper and deeper asleep.
And as you relax deeper,
I don't know whether it's the sound of my voice or the spaces between my words which help you drift deeper and deeper asleep.
Eight,
And as that relaxation moves with the next out breath,
Down your neck,
Around your neck,
Deep within you,
Drifting,
Floating deeper,
And more peacefully relaxed,
That's it.
Seven,
The relaxation,
Moving down those arms,
Around those shoulders,
Around the shoulder blades,
Softening and relaxing the muscles,
Perhaps making those arms begin to feel heavier and heavier,
Just as the eyelids can feel heavier and more relaxed as you drift deeper and deeper asleep.
Six,
With that relaxation,
Moving down those arms,
And it can begin to reach the fingertips,
Bringing comfort and peace to those fingers.
Five,
Relaxing down around the chest,
The upper back,
And deep within you,
And that relaxation can move to your stomach,
To your lower sides and your lower back,
Softening,
Relaxing so calmly as the mind and body.
Four,
With the relaxation,
Moving down around your bottom and around your legs,
Slowly and carefully,
Moving down towards your feet.
Three,
Moving all the way down those legs,
Deeper and deeper down,
Bringing a deep sense of peace and calm,
Taking you to a place in your mind where you drift deeper and deeper asleep so easily and effortlessly,
Where your mind is so calm and peaceful,
Where sleep seems to just draw you in,
Where the mind slows right down,
That's it.
Two,
As that relaxation spreads around the lower legs,
Around the ankles and down into the feet,
And one,
Feeling that relaxation through your whole body,
Like a wave of peace and comfort,
And you know the process of sleep involves the body relaxing fully as the mind begins to drift,
Almost into its own reverie,
Before passing into pleasant dreams.
And as you continue listening to this and we move slowly into the story,
So you can continue to drift into the process of sleeping deeply and sleeping well all night long,
And as you relax and sleep,
So you are sitting in a classroom and it's sunny outside and the teacher is writing on a blackboard and you can hear the smooth sound of the chalk and the echoey taps when the teacher taps dots on the chalkboard,
You can smell that chalky scent and see some of the chalk dust dancing in the sunlight that shines in the windows,
And a part of your mind is focusing outside,
On the trees,
How green they are,
The gentle movement of those trees,
And as your mind focuses on those trees and thinking about being outside,
So your ears seem to close off from what the teacher is saying,
Until the bell goes and jolts you back to the classroom,
And as you are all leaving the classroom,
So the teacher stops you while you walk past,
They comment on how your mind seemed to be elsewhere,
And you share about how your mind was out in the grounds of the school,
You are thinking about those trees and the movement of the trees,
And the teacher hands you a book,
And it's a curious old book,
And they tell you that they want you to read this book before the next day of school,
And it's a school holiday for a couple of weeks,
And so you know you'll have time to read the book,
The teacher says they're not going to explain why they want you to read the book,
But they just want your promise that you'll at least give it a go reading that book,
And you agree that you'll give it a go,
And you leave the class,
Yet outside you feel the warmth of the sun on your face,
The sounds of other people around leaving the school at the same time,
You make your journey home,
And once home,
You head out to a nearby park,
You settle down in that park,
Underneath the grand oak tree,
Resting your back against the tree,
Feeling that bark against your back,
Hearing the rustling of those leaves overhead,
Seeing the way light dances through the canopy,
And the shadows move and writhe around the ground,
You gaze out across the park,
And can see the grass undulating as the wind softly blows a breeze,
You take that book from a bag,
You rest it on your lap,
You run your fingertips softly and carefully over the spine,
You feel the pages,
And the cover has an ornate and curious pattern on it,
That almost looks like a spider's web,
Such an intricate woven design,
That's embedded into the fabric of the cover,
And your fingers carefully follow the pattern,
You remind that those moving strings are humming gently with magic,
And then with the slightest sound of creaking,
You open the book,
You smell the gentle waft of the old book smell,
You feel the texture of the page as you handle that first page,
The almost crinkly sound of turning the next page,
Reading the title,
The fire tree in the blue crystal,
By Imahere,
And you turn to the first page of this novel,
And you begin to read,
Once upon a time,
There was a curious person,
Who lived in a land far far away,
And their name was somebody,
And somebody enjoyed living in this land,
They lived in the heart of nowhere,
And one day,
Somebody set off from the cabin in the heart of nowhere,
They walked from that cabin,
Listening to the reverse squawks of birds,
The curious rustle of trees,
Walking down by the lake,
Seeing the way the water lapped back from the shore,
They watched as a frog jumped out of the water backwards,
Landing on a lily pad,
Doing a reverse croak,
And the sun continued winding itself back across the sky towards morning,
And they continued on their journey through nowhere,
And eventually,
Somebody came to the edge of nowhere,
And at the edge of nowhere,
They saw the sign pointing down the different paths they could follow,
There was the sign pointing back to nowhere,
There was the sign off left to somewhere,
There was the sign off right to anywhere,
And they decided to go off left,
Have a little wander to somewhere,
And so they set off on that path,
Heading somewhere,
And as they walked along heading towards somewhere,
Somebody looked around,
They enjoyed the feeling of that warm sun on their face,
The way the warmth radiated off their face and back out towards the sun,
But the closer to somewhere they got,
The more the environment shifted,
There was a crossover point where halfway between nowhere and somewhere,
Time gradually slowed down,
Stopped,
And then began going the other way,
And the sun in the sky began moving back towards midday,
And the warmth of the sun could be felt being absorbed into the skin,
And birds sung outward rather than inward,
And while somebody walked towards somewhere,
They could hear the gentle chink,
Chink,
Chink,
Chink,
Chink,
Of carving on stone,
And they got closer to that noise,
And as they walked,
They could see a slight cloud of stony dust,
Bellowing gently in the breeze,
And the person carving that stone,
And as the person saw somebody walking towards them,
They stopped what they were doing,
Turned and smiled,
And as somebody got closer and closer,
Nobody said hello,
They waved and introduced themselves,
And nobody said this was a good place to go,
That they really think you'd enjoy visiting somewhere,
But that what you wouldn't perhaps want to do just yet,
Is to veer off and head anywhere,
They said it's so easy for people to get lost anywhere,
And so it's best to just stay on track,
Continue your journey somewhere,
And they handed over a small model of the large sculpture they were carving,
And they said this will come in handy when you get somewhere,
And so somebody put that in their pocket,
They continued their journey somewhere,
The chinking on that stone gradually fading into the background,
The sun stretching across the sky,
Working it's way gently towards evening,
And as they approached somewhere,
So they see the lights of the town,
And they walk into the town,
They find themselves a place to stay for the night,
They check themselves in to that place,
They head to bed,
Relax down,
And drift peacefully asleep,
And while they drift and gently dream,
They begin to dream of exploring tunnels in the strangest of lands,
They wander down a tunnel,
Finding the tunnel blocked by a giant button,
And there are four holes in that button,
And they feel in their bag,
Trying to find something to help them pass this button,
They find the book in their bag,
They unweave some of the thread from the cover of the book,
Weave it carefully,
Almost automatically in a certain pattern through those four holes,
And the weaving is still attached to the book,
And holding the book when it's fully weaved,
They pull the book back which pulls the button,
And the button unblocks the passage,
And they unwrap the weaving,
Wrap it back round the book,
They don't quite know how to do such a good job of wrapping the weaving back round the book,
So they just wrap it round the best they can,
And pat it down,
And with a gentle sparkle around the book,
The book lights up,
And then the light softly fades,
And all the weaving is back in place,
And they continue on exploring one tunnel after another,
Hearing the gentle echo of their footsteps,
The occasional distant drip of water,
Until eventually deep in the tunnels,
They come out in a large chamber,
And they notice many tunnels lead to this chamber,
And in the heart of this chamber is a spring of water,
And around the spring are ornaments and designs making it look like this holds some kind of special significance,
And they head over to that spring,
Smelling the freshness of the water,
Hearing the sploshing of that water as it bubbles away,
They touch the water and feel its coolness,
They drink a bit of that water,
And then begin to feel compelled to rest down on a stone near to the spring,
As they rest on that stone and get comfortable,
They begin to drift into a meditative state,
It's almost as if the frame rate of time changes,
Like the spring bubbling away begins to change,
Almost like a slightly long exposure photograph,
Watching that changing,
Watching the bubbling spread out and become more of a blur,
And then within the blur,
The bubbling begins to bubble light,
And the softest light begins to form within the spring,
And then that soft light begins to emanate from the spring,
As they drift deeper and deeper into this meditative state,
And as that light spreads around them,
It feels like it's giving the most comfortable hug,
So soothing,
So safe,
So satisfying,
Almost like a loving hug from the light,
And they think about how delight is hugging them,
As their mind seems to drift deeper and deeper into the experience,
As that water they drank passes through them,
Spreads out within their body,
Activating specific cells throughout the whole body,
To help them have an even deeper experience,
A profound experience connecting with universal consciousness,
Here in this dream,
Connecting from one dream to all dreams,
Where they suddenly see threads of light,
Like a giant cobweb of light spreading out from themselves,
Incredibly fine threads,
As thin as individual hairs,
Spreading out in all directions,
As their environment totally vanishes and fades away,
And the spring fades away,
And the light fades away,
Leaving just the light of each individual thread,
And what's left is just their awareness of seeing the threads from themselves spreading out in all directions,
And patches of more dense threads where other beings are within the universe,
Seeing trillions and trillions of these patches of threads,
These little bundles of threads,
Where threads meet and mix and spread from,
And pulses of light traveling along the threads between one being and the other,
Pulsing at the speed of light,
And recognizing how,
While they are all stationary,
And all connected on this universal consciousness level,
Time stands still,
And in this state,
There is just consciousness,
Shared among all beings,
And they can feel that consciousness within them,
Almost like they are aware of everything else,
But not in an overwhelming way,
But almost like they are just a small part of some greater brain,
Almost like what they look across is them being one single neuron,
In a vast universe sized brain,
And so it doesn't feel overwhelming,
It just feels like they have their place,
And they feel the connection,
And intuitively and instinctively just understand the connection with all other parts,
And they feel a deep stillness,
And this lasts for a timeless amount of time,
They have no concept of exactly how long this lasts,
All they know is that at some point,
The whole experience fades to blackness as they drift from dreaming sleep,
Into deep recuperative sleep,
Where their body heals fully and thoroughly,
And prepares itself for future days,
And they don't even notice at first that moment the dreaming ended,
And they wake up the next morning,
As some of that sunlight creeping its way through the curtains of their window,
Dancing across their face,
Creating gentle patterns of light in front of their eyes,
And they awaken feeling so refreshed and revitalized,
Feeling like they have had the best nights sleep ever,
And they were told that somewhere is a really good place to get a good nights sleep,
And after waking and enjoying breakfast,
They decide to set off from somewhere,
And keep on their journey in the same direction,
Following the path,
The sun gently rising in the sky,
Continuing its journey,
Birds flying high,
Wildlife dancing from flower to flower,
The meadows brimming with life,
A family of deer enjoying a snack in the middle of a meadow,
And while walking,
They see someone down by a riverside,
Looking like they are washing something,
And they head along towards that person,
And the person appears to be washing some clothes in the water,
And then hanging them up to dry out in the sun,
And anybody introduces themselves,
And somebody finds anybody friendly,
And anybody enjoys talking to somebody,
And for a little while they discuss nobody,
And then anybody asks about someone,
And somebody says they've not met someone,
They've met nobody,
And now they've obviously met anybody,
They've not yet met someone,
And anybody says that someone is the person to meet,
And perhaps you should hand that model,
That small sculpture from nobody to them,
Maybe they'll give you something in return,
And anybody continues washing their clothes,
And somebody continues walking along the side of the river,
And they walk past a large waterwheel,
Sloshing its way through the river,
Hearing the grinding turning of the wheel,
They head over a stone bridge,
Continue following a path the other side of the stone bridge,
Finding their way round and into some woodland,
And once again the sun is now heading into the evening,
And while they continue,
They see lights in the distance,
And as evening sets in,
So the crickets come out,
Rubbing their legs together,
Filling the woodland with sound,
And they find their way to where the lights are coming from,
It's a cabin deep in this wood,
And they pass the sign for the cabin,
And the sign just says here,
And they head up to the door,
They knock on the door,
Someone answers the door,
And invites them in,
And says welcome here,
Here is the best place to be,
Take a seat in front of the fire,
Relax down,
And listen to me,
As I tell you a story,
About a scrappy little scamp,
With ears like a daffodil,
And a nose like a clamp,
And a memory as wise as an elephant,
And a tale as long as a story,
That sits people down,
And sings its songs,
Of sand dunes,
Rain and glory,
And in a slight sense of confusion,
Somebody sits down with someone,
And listens to someone talking,
While also enjoying the gentle crackle of the fire,
And someone starts talking about how they enjoy going out camping,
And how they went out camping with their scrappy friend,
And one day while they were out camping with their scrappy friend,
They found something really interesting,
They awoke during the night to a curious sound,
They went to explore,
And what they found was a fairy flying through the woodland,
And they followed that fairy,
Until the fairy disappeared into a mushroom,
They went to the mushroom,
And on the mushroom it just said eat me,
And so they obliged,
They consumed the mushroom,
And it tingled and danced inside them,
It fizzed and popped in their mind,
And they found themselves turning to fairy dust,
And then sinking into the ground,
Following a mycelial network of that mushroom they'd eaten,
That weaved and connected all things,
They found they were instantly somewhere and nowhere and everywhere all at once,
And they felt a connection with all things,
And they found that this seemed to be connected to a spring,
And the spring was part of a stream,
A stream of consciousness,
And they had accessed this stream of consciousness,
And the spring was just the mushroom in another form,
And someone told somebody this story,
And they said they were told one day somebody would come here,
And they'll come from somewhere,
But their journey will have started nowhere,
And when somebody comes here,
They'll bring something along that nobody gave them,
But the thing that nobody gave them is something that someone would want,
Because if somebody gives someone that thing,
Then that thing will allow them to imbue it with the magic that they learned from their experience,
And handling that thing in the future will trigger that deep connection to universal consciousness,
And so somebody gave someone that small little sculpture,
And someone sat there in the middle of here,
They held the sculpture,
They closed their eyes,
They absorbed themselves in the experience of channeling something through themselves,
And somebody thought they could see fine threads of light appearing,
Connecting,
Interacting with someone there,
Almost like billions of threads attached to a marionette puppet,
And someone became a being of light for a moment,
Before that light channeled through them into that small sculpture,
And then the experience faded,
And they handed the sculpture to somebody,
And they said that you can now meditate while holding the sculpture,
And you'll be able to access that all on your own,
But in the meantime it's getting late,
So why not eat and stay for the night,
And you can make your journey back home in the morning,
And so somebody stayed for the night,
And they had a very similar dream to before,
Only this time it meant more,
And the next morning they awoke,
They set off on their journey home,
They left here,
They passed somewhere,
They made the journey all the way back,
Until they arrived home,
They placed that sculpture on a shelf,
They learned the skills to be able to use that sculpture,
To be able to access that universal consciousness,
To begin their journey of inner discovery,
And once you've read this book,
While resting under the tree,
And reached the final page,
Discovering you've read the whole book in a single sitting,
You notice the sun looking so large,
As it gently tucks itself away behind distant trees,
As the sky begins to go to sleep,
And the temperature begins to cool,
And so you begin to make your journey home,
And once home,
You place the book down,
You think about what it is you've been expected to learn from the book,
You're only on your first day of holiday from school,
And you've already learned so much and finished the book,
You think you'll probably read the book again,
And as you sit in a chair,
With the book on your lap pondering the contents of the book,
Your hand resting on the surface of the book,
You feel the weaves of thread around the outside of the book begin to weave and intertwine around your fingers,
As if the book is holding your hand,
To hold you and it together,
You gaze down at your hand,
You see this happening,
You see the threads begin to glow and fizz,
And begin to merge with your hand,
And you realize,
The contents of the book and the story you've read,
And the insights you've gained,
Weren't a work of fiction,
But an explanation that was going to help you understand how to access the same thing for yourself,
And you feel yourself relaxing back in the chair,
As if the book's connection with your hand is guiding you deep into a meditation,
You feel your head relax back,
Your limbs get heavy,
Your breathing slow down,
Your consciousness expand,
You see the threads stretching out as you had in the story,
Almost like infinite threads in infinite directions,
Stretching out and connecting,
Like a universe of neurons,
Where you're just a part of a whole,
Of beams of information,
Traveling from neuron to neuron,
Where you instinctively and intuitively understand each other,
Feel that deep connection,
Begin to develop an inner wisdom and understand why the teacher saw what you were doing,
And decided you'd benefit from the wisdom of this book,
And as you drift into this experience,
So you feel yourself going deeper and deeper,
Then you recall the character in the story doing,
And you see the light spread out,
You see a meadow form before you,
But in the heart of the meadow,
You see that spring,
And that spring of consciousness bubbling before you,
Begins to shift and change shape and form the blueness of the water,
Crystallizes and formalizes into the most beautiful blue crystal,
Gently spinning where the water was once moving,
With light from somewhere unknown,
Sparkling and illuminating the sides of the crystal as it moves,
Light dancing gently around,
And then the base of the crystal slowly lowers itself down,
Gently into the ground,
You hear a gentle crack and crunch,
And see threads of light stretching out from the base of that crystal in all directions,
Like roots deeply embedding themselves in the ground,
Reaching down,
Reaching out in all directions,
A bit like the mycelium network from the story,
And then carefully the top of that blue crystal cracks and crumbles,
As a tree begins to form from the top of the crystal,
The trunk creaking as it rises up,
Shaking,
Jerking slightly,
Forcing its way up higher and higher,
A dense dark bark that begins to spread out and get wider than the crystal,
Leaving tiny specks of broken crystal around the base of the tree,
The roots continuing to deepen and spread out,
Some thick,
Some thin and wispy,
The tree growing taller and taller,
Before branches begin to erupt off the tree,
And golden leaves begin to form on those branches,
And yet the tree continues to grow and light dances around the tree,
Until all of a sudden,
The tree stops growing and seems to have reached its full height,
And you watch on,
With the silence of this land,
The stillness,
And then you see wispy light,
Like threads of silk weaving their way around the trunk,
Wrapping themselves and weaving themselves around that trunk,
Climbing the tree,
Stretching out across the branches,
Reaching a thread to each single leaf,
And then once each leaf is touched by a thread,
There's a moment's silence,
Before suddenly,
The tree bursts into flames with the sound of a torch being set on fire,
And you can feel the warmth of that fire tree,
And see the way sparkles dance and emit from the fire,
How the golden leaves are transformed into those sparkles and lifted in the column of hot air,
And how those sparkles spread through the atmosphere,
Spread out in all directions,
Touching all things within the world around them,
Imbuing them with a little bit of that tree,
And where they land,
New consciousness forms,
You see tiny dots of those golden leaves,
As they touch random places and then form into their own little threads,
Forming the seed of new consciousness,
With the threads weaving out,
Set to reach out and connect these new consciousnesses with the universal consciousness,
With part of this universal brain,
And the experience continues on,
Until there's stillness once more,
And a certain lightness passes through your mind and body,
A certain serenity,
A deep sense of wellbeing,
And a knowledge that you'll spend your time before going back to school,
Learning and exploring what this means for you,
For your education,
For the future,
Knowing its profound significance and yet not fully understanding that,
And when you head to bed,
You find it so easy and effortless to close your eyes and drift peacefully and relaxed asleep into slumberland,
