The Garden

The garden around you is gorgeous, with bright sunshine from the clear blue sky warming your face and body through the light cotton shift, the only item of clothing you are wearing, soft short grass luxurious beneath your bare feet and the scents of a hundred different flowers and plants in the air - soft, herbal scents from the fragrant herbs along the border; lavender, pineapple sage, basil. Shrubberies nearby add their fragrances - gardenias, lilacs ...

Birdsong calls to you from the bottom end of the garden. A blackbird, calling from the top of a tree in the forest just past the border of the garden. You go towards the forest, following the musical sound of the bird, your body warmed by the sun, the smooth fabric of your cotton shift gently brushing your skin, the cool grass caressing the soles of your feet ...

You pass close by the pergola, and the sound of the bubbling water as it flows along the channel, trickling, chuckling, gently relaxes and cools your body as you continue to walk slowly towards the forest and the birdsong. Wind gently rustles the trees, adding to the trickling sound, the birdsong, the scent of pine from the wood you are closing in on, the aroma of lilacs and lavender, grass underfoot, cotton shift, bare feet, warm sun, bare skin, cool shade, relaxed body, sage scent, woodpecker rattle from the tree line, rustling branches, cool breeze ...

Your shift slides from your body, a gentle final caress of your goose bumping, trembling skin, lying behind you in a graceful pile as you take the next few steps towards the cool shade of the woods ...

And now you enter the woods, warm air between the trees, shade as the tree trunks close in protectively around you, rough bark of oaks, papery flaky bark of silver birch, brushing low branches of elder and ash caress the top of your head, the trickling and chuckling of water nearby, your hair as the wood teases your nose with a hundred woodland scents and aromas, borne to your nose on a gentle woodland breeze rustling between the trees, caressing your face and sweeping your hair back and teasing your skin as ahead, the wood goes darker, the warm air grows still as the ground begins to slope lower and you feel smooth, cool stone beneath your feet and you realise that this is a path you are walking along, a path through the woods ...

The path is smooth and cool and wide and you follow it as you start to go along it, down sloping sloping down as you go lower and deeper down the grassy side of the wood, deeper and sloping, overhanging willow branches caress your face, head and shoulders, the warm wood is so welcoming, so inviting, sound of running water still nearby, and you are going lower, lower, deeper, so deep, and nearing the birdsong, so close, you hear it just ahead, warm, safe, deep, take a deep breath in, woodland aromas, breathe out, keep walking as you round the corner past a gently curving stand of copper beeches and just ahead of you is the bottom of the valley in the heart of the woods, rustling grass and undergrowth, moonlight silver shining in a column straight down through the trees ...

And right there, at the bottom, at the end of the path approaching, in a natural bowl, is a pool, a pool of reflecting clear water, and the trickling waters course down and fill that pool, and you reach the end of the path and approach the pool, and you put your toes into the rippling waters, disturbing the full moon relflected in the surface, and the waters are warm, so warm, and you allow yourself to step into the waters, smell so cool and clean and clear, like settling into a warm bath and relaxing, the waters buoying you as you recline and listen to the trickling waters, the rushing waters, the bubbling waters as they carry you gently, drifting, so peaceful, beautiful, drifting, carefree, at peace, and now draw a deep breath in, and hold it, and when you let it out you sink into a deep, gentle, peaceful sleep.

And relax as the clouds suddenly clear and let yourself go, the only way ahead is down, further and further down, deeper and deeper, more and more relaxed, and to go there is really easy because you just drift down gently, like a leaf on the wind, and let it happen as you let your unconscious pay attention and drift lower and lower, as you see a sign before you that says “I will count backwards slowly from 10,” and when you get to 1 you will be there, in a deep place where no memories can form and nothing happens here, and you can and will forget.

10.

And you are so tired, now, and your head feels heavy on your shoulders. So heavy.

9.

And you can't move your arms and legs, you're so tired and they are so loose and heavy. Try them.

Your arms are so heavy that try as you might you cannot lift them. So you can give up now.

And as you give up, you sink further back and let go, and ...

8.

Drifting, now, as you let go and your body sinks back into the couch, and take a deep breath in and let it go and ...

7.

You are down, now, so very deep, and there is just the here and now, and nothing to forget and remember to forget, and deep breath in, and as you let your breath out you forget some more and ...

6.

So tired, now, so heavy and sleepy and exhausted, and all you can do is sink lower and lower, deeper and deeper you go, and ...

5.

And halfway down, so sleepy and drowsy and floaty and it's wonderful, warm, just going down, deeper and deeper, breathe in, and as you breathe out ...

4.

Your whole body is so heavy, sinking down further and further, deeper and deeper, and ...

3.

And you are so close, now, with memory melting away and so tired and wanting so much to let it all go, and breathe in, and let it go, and ...

2.

And you're almost there, so close you can taste it, smell it, touch it and it's finally time to take that one more step and breathe in, and when you let it out ...

1.

And you're there. You have nothing to forget and nothing to regret and nothing to expect and it's all gone and faded like warm summer mist and you are so warm and sleepy and drowsy and you only need to do just one more thing, and that is to let the last little bit of your mind go, and let go now, and go into a deep ...

deep ...

deep ...

SLEEP.

I have an instruction for you.

Whenever I say "Secret sleep" to you, you will immediately fall back into a lovely, deep trance, as if you've never left trance. Whenever you receive an email from me with "Secret sleep" in the subject line, you will return to this deep trance again, as if you never left the trance.

Each time you come back to read this post, it will trance you deeper and deeper each time. Each return visit, this post will trance you more and more strongly.

Now forget that you have been reading this post. Remain in a trance, and go to this page now.