The Magical Mirror: Bedtime Story

So as you take a moment to listen to me,

You can allow your eyes to close and begin to drift comfortably asleep.

And as you drift comfortably asleep,

I'll talk in the background,

And while I'm talking in the background,

I don't know whether you'll drift asleep faster to the sound of my voice,

Or whether it'll be to the words that I use,

Or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.

And as you comfortably drift asleep,

I'm just going to tell you this story.

A story about a man who finds himself in a grand room,

And it's a palace room.

There's marble arches,

There's a grand ceiling with paintings.

And over on the far side of the room is an enormous mirror.

And so the man walks across the room towards that mirror.

And as he walks,

So he can notice the echoing sound of each footstep,

Stepping across that floor,

Striding towards that mirror.

And he strides towards that mirror,

And as he gets closer,

He can see himself in the mirror.

He can see the reflected room in the mirror.

As he walks past a marble pillar,

He runs his fingers along the pillar while walking past,

Feeling that cool,

Smooth marble at his fingertips.

As he continues confidently striding towards that mirror.

And on reaching the mirror,

He stops and stands.

With the mirror about arm's length away,

He can see his reflection.

He can see the golden frame around the mirror.

And he reaches forward to touch the mirror with his fingertips.

And as he reaches forward to touch the mirror with his fingertips here in this palace,

His hand passes through the mirror.

And so as his hand passes through the mirror,

He decides to walk forward.

And he walks forward toward the mirror.

He steps up over the base of the mirror,

Placing his foot,

His knee,

And then his whole body in through that mirror.

And as he steps through the mirror,

So he notices himself stepping down into a palace.

Only everything is in reverse.

He turns around and looks back through the mirror.

And he can notice it shimmering slightly where he stepped through.

There's a slight high-pitched ringing in that mirror as the mirror shimmers.

And he can see that room he just stepped out of.

And he turns around and he can see the palace he's just stepped into.

He can notice that it looks the same,

Just everything is in reverse.

And he's curious about this strange land,

Curious about what's through this side of the mirror.

So he walks through the palace.

He notices the different sound of each footstep to before.

The way the footsteps almost seem to have the sound going backwards or being slightly muted in some way.

And he walks through this grand room.

Walks through the door at the end of the grand room out into a corridor.

And the corridor looks different to the corridor to the grand room that he entered.

And he walks down that corridor towards the exit of this palace.

And this corridor has rugs down it.

And so as he strides down this corridor,

He can hear the sound of his footsteps on the marble floor and then the muted sound of his footsteps on the rugs.

And the way that the rugs take away some of that echo.

And he can see the different pictures down both walls as he walks toward the end of this corridor.

And at the end of the corridor,

He finds himself exiting through the main door of the palace out into the land.

And he discovers that this land is nothing like the land where he's come from.

As he looks around,

He discovers that this palace is high up in mountains,

In lush green mountains,

Covered in forests,

Covered in trees.

He can see all around,

High peaks,

Steep sides,

All covered in trees.

And a bridge from the palace,

Stretching from one place to another.

Between peaks,

Before entering a cave in a peak in the distance.

And the man climbs on a white horse within the palace grounds.

Nudges that horse.

And the horse starts trotting.

As the man leaves the palace grounds and starts heading across those bridges.

And as he heads across those bridges,

He looks around,

He can see how high up he is.

Hear the sound of the horse's hooves on the ground.

Feel the breeze on his face.

Watch as the clouds pass through the sky.

Hearing the rustling of the leaves of all the trees.

And he trots along the bridge to the first peak.

Passes the first peak,

Continues along that bridge towards the second peak.

And then the third peak.

All the way to where the bridge ends at a cave into a peak.

He dismounts from the horse,

Pats the side of the horse.

And enters the cave.

And just inside the cave is a wooden torch.

And it's lit and it's in a little holder on the wall.

And he takes that torch out of the holder.

He can see the way the light is dancing on the walls.

Hear the sound of the fire as it moves while moving that torch.

See the way that fire dances and twirls around the end of that torch.

And he can feel a breeze passing into the cave and flowing through the cave.

And so he walks deeper into the cave hearing drips of water.

As it gets darker and darker walking into the cave.

With just the light of the torch flickering on the walls.

And he finds a staircase.

He starts to follow that staircase down deeper.

And deeper in this cave.

Following that staircase down deeper.

And the staircase spirals round and he walks down.

Following that staircase as it spirals round and round.

Going deeper and deeper.

Finding himself going deeper and deeper.

With each step he takes down into that cave.

And after quite a long walk down into that cave.

Going deeper down that spiral staircase.

He finds himself in a deep cave.

That's so wide the torch light can't reach the sides or the ceiling.

And so he walks through this cave.

Following the breeze that seems to be flowing through.

He can hear his footsteps echoing.

So he knows the cave is quite large.

And he crosses that cave.

And after some time.

He finds a thick solid wooden door.

He runs his fingers around that wooden door.

And finds a latch.

He opens that latch.

And is surprised by how easy that heavy wooden door swings open as he opens it.

And as he opens it his eyes have to adjust to the daylight flooding into the cave.

And so he leaves the cave.

Finds himself in a valley.

With such dense trees he can't see anything above the canopy.

He just sees the occasional dancing shard of light on the path in front of him.

As the sun shines through.

And he walks along and through this dense forest area within this valley.

He pushes his way through and he heads deeper and deeper into the valley.

Still descending slightly.

Until he starts to hear some running water.

And as he hears that running water.

He heads towards that water.

And notices a stream running through the centre of this valley.

And so he follows that stream.

He has a drink of some of that cool fresh clean spring water.

Then he follows that stream.

To a waterfall.

And he looks out over the waterfall.

Watching how the water pours over the edge.

And flows deeper down that valley.

To a lower part of the valley.

He can see a rainbow down there as the light glistens in the water.

And see the white water.

And the spray at the bottom of the waterfall.

And he climbs down beside the waterfall.

He can feel the spray of the water on his face.

The dampness of the greenery and the rocks.

While he climbs down beside the waterfall.

At the foot of the waterfall.

Is a lake.

And he follows around that lake.

And after a little while of walking.

So the sound of the waterfall begins to fade into the background.

The water begins to become calmer,

Stiller.

And he decides that as the sun here is setting.

He is going to settle down for the night.

So he sets up a camp,

Lights himself a fire.

And he settles down for the night.

And while he settles down for the night.

He gazes up at the stars.

Noticing how the constellations seem different to how he is used to seeing them.

And he gazes up at the stars as he drifts off asleep.

And while he drifts comfortably asleep.

So he begins to dream.

He dreams about someone writing an ancient text.

And he watches them writing that text.

And he watches them hiding that text away.

And he is unsure what is on that text.

But he is deeply curious.

And after he has watched them hide that text away.

He then sees the destruction of this civilization.

And on seeing the destruction of this civilization.

He awakens.

Knowing he has got to find that text.

Knowing the dream wasn't just a dream.

That the dream had meaning.

And so just as the sun began to rise.

He continued to follow his way round that lake.

And at the far end of the lake he continued to follow a river.

Following that river deeper into forest again.

And as he walked and explored.

He didn't know where he was going.

What he was going to find.

Or how he was going to know when he found it.

He was just driven by this dream.

And so he followed that river.

Deeper and deeper into the forest.

And after some time walking through that forest.

He saw a fork in the road.

He had to decide whether to continue following the river.

Or to turn down this new route.

And see what's down there.

This new route led back towards the foot of the mountains.

He decided to follow the new route.

And unlike the route along the river.

Where it was easy to traverse.

This new route had areas that were deeply overgrown.

And he had to break his way through and push his way through.

And struggle his way through this new route.

But he knew that there would be a reward.

And he knew that this is a more fulfilling journey.

And so he carried along this new route.

Until it started rising back up again.

Into the mountains.

And he followed the new route up.

Into the mountains.

Winding around a mountain.

And after a while.

He reached a point that was above the tree line.

And he turned and he looked back.

Over the trees.

And he looked off in the distance.

He could see where he came from.

He could see the waterfall.

He could see the higher tree line.

And further off in the distance.

The bridge back to that palace.

And he entered a cave.

High in this mountain.

And at the back of the cave was a solid wall.

And he was curious because he wasn't expecting a solid wall.

In this cave.

Why would someone have a path going to a solid wall in a cave?

And so he ran his fingers over the stone of the cave.

Feeling for any possible buttons or switches or levers.

And while he was feeling around the walls.

So he stepped on a stone.

And the stone depressed.

And then he heard the sound of a stone door.

Sliding and moving.

And the door opened up.

There was a rush of air.

He walked in through that door.

And in through that door he could suddenly hear the sounds of birds.

Suddenly it looked like.

There was this vast land hidden here.

Almost like it was trapped underground.

Or trapped inside these mountains.

And yet.

It was light here.

Like daylight.

And in the middle of this land.

He could see circular rings of water.

Circular moats.

And a bridge going across all the rings of water.

To a ringed wall.

And in the centre was a castle.

And so he headed all the way to that castle.

He crossed the bridges to the centre.

Opened the door in the wall.

And walked towards the castle.

And at the castle.

He noticed there was something unusual.

He recognised this castle as being the one from his dreams.

But he was unsure why this castle was fixed.

When he saw the land destroyed.

He started exploring the castle.

And in the centre of the castle was a room.

And in that room on a plinth.

Was a red crystal.

And he leant forward and he picked up that red crystal.

And as soon as he touched the red crystal.

So the castle,

Everything around him.

Seemed to dissolve.

Like turning off a hologram.

Suddenly he was just surrounded by ruins.

And a wizard or some kind of magic person standing there.

Wearing purple.

Who explained to him.

That once there was a vast civilisation.

But due to a natural disaster.

That they had foreseen but couldn't stop.

The civilisation was destroyed.

And this civilisation was from a time when magic existed.

From a time when people would be born with the ability to do magic.

To be able to imbue crystals with magical powers.

And he had survived and cast an eternal spell on himself.

To be able to keep this place alive.

Until an explorer would arrive.

Who would be able to share the knowledge from this land.

Because all knowledge would be lost if they all died.

This wizard was projecting out psychically.

In the hope that somebody one day would get close enough.

To receive that psychic message and act on it.

And then would remove the crystal.

To see reality for what it truly is.

And the wizard handed.

The man an ancient script.

An ancient text.

That was the one that the man had seen written.

And the man didn't know how to read the text.

But somehow when he looked at it.

The wizard helped the man to be able to read it.

Somehow as he looked at it.

It seemed to translate itself.

And he realised that this text contained all the knowledge.

Of the ancient race.

Of these ancient people.

And he was tasked by the wizard to take the text.

And the wizard said he would no longer be alone.

And then vanished.

And then the crystal crumbled.

And the man was stood in the ruins holding the ancient text.

Just looking around himself at these ruins.

And he followed his route back out of this area.

Out of the cave.

And he started to find his way back.

With this knowledge.

And he was still curious.

About the fact that this.

Land is almost like a mirror land.

And wondered what it all meant.

And how this mirror land is connected to the land he came from.

And he found his way back to the lake.

Back to the waterfall.

Climbed the side of the waterfall.

Followed the stream.

And found his way back.

To the cave and up the spiral staircase.

And along the bridges.

And he eventually found his way all the way back.

To the mirror.

And he reached his hand out.

And his hand went through the mirror.

And he followed.

And found himself back in that palace.

And he turned around.

And touched the mirror.

And he could feel that cold glass.

Under his fingers.

This mirror.

Was now just a normal mirror.

And he pushed on the mirror.

And he moved his hand around on that mirror.

And it was just a normal mirror.

And he looked down into his other hand.

He could see that ancient text.

Still in his hand.

It had survived.

And he was unsure what he would do with the ancient text.

What significance it would have.

He decided it was now very late.

He went and found a room.

Lit the fire in the room.

And rested down by the fire.

With the glow of the fire.

The warmth of that fire.

He started reading through that text.

And somehow despite the text.

Not being in a language he could understand.

As he was looking through it.

It seemed to translate itself in his mind.

And he started reading through that text.

And while he read.

He began to drift off asleep.

Comfortably dreaming about that ancient civilization.

Almost like the knowledge in the text.

Was inside his dreams.

And was teaching him from that text.

Through his dreams.

To educate him about that ancient civilization.

To educate him about that ancient civilization.

To fill his head with the knowledge of that ancient civilization.

And so he drifted asleep.

Dreaming of the ancient civilization.

Filling his head with wonder.

Curiosity.

And a desire to share knowledge for the future.