Okay,
Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.
And as you begin to comfortably relax,
I'm just going to tell this sleep meditation in the background.
And while I tell this sleep meditation,
I don't know whether you'll drift deeper to the sound of my voice or to the spaces between my words.
And while you begin to drift comfortably asleep,
I'm just going to tell a story about a woman who wakes up one day.
She leaves her apartment in the middle of a large city,
Heads outside,
And she can see the cars flying overhead in multiple lanes of traffic above her.
And above those cars,
She can see drones carrying items which head across the sky,
Drop down through gaps near the cars to head to specific locations.
And down here at street level,
She can smell the fresh smell of flowers.
She can see the way the grass moves in the breeze.
And she can hear that gentle hum from the traffic overhead.
And occasionally she walks into sunlight and other times she's in the shadow of tall buildings.
She can see butterflies flying from flower to flower,
Bees foraging.
She can see a little hedgehog roaming around digging its nose into the grass.
And occasionally she'll notice other people out walking around.
And she wonders what it must have been like before they moved the traffic into the sky,
When all of these spaces were filled with roads and were probably noisy.
But now these open spaces are quiet,
Just the sound of nature with that hum of those flying cars overhead.
And she prefers to walk to work rather than jumping into a car and flying to work.
She finds that this helps her to relax deeply and comfortably and helps her to be more centered by the time she arrives at her work.
She likes the feeling of the breeze on her face,
The sounds of nature.
And on arrival at work,
She heads into her office,
Enters into a lift,
Which takes her up that building,
Walks to her office room,
Which is surrounded by glass walls,
Allowing plenty of natural lighting.
And from sitting at her desk,
She can see the traffic silently whizzing past the windows outside.
And she stands and looks down the street,
Before sitting behind her desk and beginning her work.
And as she sits behind the desk,
So she puts a pair of glasses on.
And the glasses allow her to see an augmented reality around her.
And she moves her hands around,
Moving items around in the augmented reality,
Moving messages from people from one location to another,
Opening things,
Reading things,
Closing the messages.
When she wants to reply to a message,
She just talks the reply,
It types it out for her and sends it off.
And she finishes work and decides it's time to take a bit of a break.
And to take a break,
She asks the augmented reality to show her a beach.
And then a beach superimposes over her reality as she stops being aware of the office that she's in and in all directions.
All she can see is this beach.
In front of her,
She can see the waves lapping gently on the shore,
The blue sky,
The occasional cloud drifting through that sky.
Below her,
She can see the sandy beach.
As she looks behind her,
She can see the sand all the way up to grass and beyond the grass,
She can see some woodland.
And she can hear the sounds of being on this beach.
She can hear the sounds of birds flying overhead,
Sounds of that water lapping on the shore in front of her.
The sounds of birds in the trees behind her and the slight rustling leaves sound.
And she can just take a moment to relax and enjoy the experience.
And in front of her,
She can still see a variation of her desk.
The desk fits the environment,
But it allows her to see specific items on her desk.
And she knows where to place those items when she places them back down because those bits of desk are there,
So she can see her drink resting on a table in front of her.
And she reaches over,
Picks up that cool refreshing drink and drinks some of that drink and can fill that cool refreshing drink flowing down her throat to her stomach.
And she can place that drink back down.
And while she is in this augmented reality in this way,
She can begin to totally buy into it.
She knows it's just augmented reality,
She's used it for many years,
But she can buy into this augmented reality enough to allow her to feel like she's taking a break away from things.
And then after a little break,
She asks for the reality to disappear and she finds herself back at her desk.
And she carries on working for more of the day.
And then later in the day,
When it reaches her lunchtime,
She decides to go for a walk.
So she heads out of the office,
Heads down a floor to the recreation floor.
In the recreation floor,
Everyone's wearing their augmented reality glasses.
And the floor looks very bland,
But everyone will be in their own experience.
And there are some exercise bikes,
Walking machines,
Climbing machines,
Chairs,
Tables.
There are some open spaces specifically to be able to roam around in.
And she can see some people roaming around in those open spaces.
And she places on her augmented reality glasses,
Walks into one of those spaces,
Asks for it to create a specific reality for her,
Of a country walk.
And then around her,
She sees a footpath through some countryside,
A little bit of woodland.
She hears the sounds of that countryside,
Of that woodland.
She can smell the smells of the flowers,
Hear the rustling of leaves in the trees.
She can hear each footstep she takes,
As if each footstep is on that grass,
Rather than the hard floor she's actually walking on.
And because her brain can hear that slight crumpling of grass and the noises associated with walking on grass,
Her brain begins to interpret her experience as being that of walking on grass,
Even though in reality she's actually walking on a hard floor.
And other people who happen to be using the same space end up showing within her reality in some form or another.
It could be that somebody has stood still in their experience.
And so the augmented reality intelligently interprets them,
Perhaps,
As being a tree,
So as not to interfere too much with her experience.
Perhaps they're walking along.
And so the augmented reality will have them walking along looking suitable for her reality,
As if they're someone else walking in the countryside.
And if the person wants to be alone in their experience,
The augmented reality will find ways to facilitate this.
So it could be that as someone's walking along,
In the augmented reality,
Perhaps they look like an animal walking past,
So that the person avoids them and doesn't bump into them.
And so there are certain rules that you can't pet the animals in the experience.
You can just look at them.
In fact,
The way the augmented reality works is that unless you're wearing a full augmented reality suit,
Everything is pretty much visual and auditory,
Just transmitted through those glasses.
So you can't touch the flowers.
You can't touch the trees.
But the augmented reality can introduce certain static objects into the reality.
So if there's a table that's specifically going to be used,
The augmented reality can create a version of that table in the experience that fits the experience.
And so you can then place a drink on the table.
Chairs can be incorporated so that you can sit down on a chair.
And so she roams around this countryside walk.
And the augmented reality simulates the brightness of the sun,
Helping her to have this feeling almost like that sun is on her face.
The augmented reality allows her to hear the birds,
The rustling leaves,
The sound of the breeze,
And she can see different insects,
Butterflies.
She can see those birds walking around on the grass,
Flying in the air.
And so she takes a 20 minute walk through the countryside.
And yet actually she's in a room that's bland and drab and is just walking around a specific section of the room that's designed to work with this experience.
But there are certain ways,
Certain tricks used by the augmented reality to make it so that you change direction before you reach a wall.
But as you change direction,
It subtly shifts how much you've moved so that your brain perceives it,
That you've just turned very slightly.
And yet in reality you've turned much more than you realise.
So your brain feels like you've just been following a slightly curved path,
Despite actually heading back almost the same direction as you were travelling.
And so you navigate this area without realising the size of it,
With that feeling like the area is so much larger than it really is.
And this augmented reality is capable of auto-generating content,
So you can keep on making twists and turns and following the path,
And the reality will keep guiding you in specific directions,
And making it so that you feel like you're walking further and further away from your start point,
When in fact you're weaving around,
Following paths.
And as long as you don't just ignore everything and walk straight through the augmented reality to keep yourself in a straight line,
You don't notice that you're really just moving around this same area,
And yet you can have this feeling like you're walking further and further.
And the augmented reality auto-generates more reality for you,
So that you can feel like you can just walk on and on and on and on,
Without ever hitting a boundary.
And after this woman has enjoyed her lunch break,
Eaten some food while she's out on this country walk.
She heads back out of this area,
Takes the glasses off,
Heads back to her office.
She carries on her job.
And then at the end of the day,
As the sun begins to set outside,
She leaves the office and begins that walk home,
And while she's walking home as the sun is setting,
She can see the lights of the cars overhead,
Hearing that hum of those cars up there.
And the silence of the countryside down here between the buildings.
And down here between the buildings are some low lights,
Just to light the way,
That have shades over the top,
To try to reduce how much light rises up towards the sky.
And so although there is some light pollution from these low lights,
And from this location,
There'd be a lot of light pollution from the buildings,
From the cars.
It just adds a more natural feel to the environment,
Than higher overhead lights.
Because it means as all the offices close,
And the buildings turn their lights off,
And the traffic dies down as the night moves on,
Some areas can get really quiet,
And you're able then to look up through the buildings,
Or above the buildings,
You're able to then see the night sky,
And enjoy that night sky.
And she finds her way all the way home,
And once home,
She makes herself dinner,
And settles down with a book for the evening,
And she reads that book for a while,
Until she decides it's time to go to bed.
And she heads to bed,
And she's curious while falling asleep,
What people used to think of the world in the old days,
When cities were full of smelly traffic polluting the environment,
When cities were noisy and overcrowded,
When the only way that people could enjoy countryside,
Or enjoy the outdoors,
Was to actually go outdoors,
Which although is still the preferred option,
They couldn't do this if they worked in a city on their lunch break,
And yet,
Nowadays,
She can enjoy whatever environment she wants on her lunch breaks,
And although she still likes to go out to different places,
She can appreciate those places from her office,
And she gradually floats and drifts,
And relaxes asleep,
And while she falls asleep,
So she starts to dream,
And she dreams about an old time,
A time long before technology,
Where she's living in a small village,
On the edge of a wood,
Next to a river,
And she's going out on her daily trip,
Gathering berries,
Heading to the river,
Catching some fish,
Foraging for a few other bits and pieces,
Heading back to a small village,
And then as a community,
They cook up the food,
And as a community,
They enjoy eating that food,
And the children interact with each other,
Looked after,
By selection of the adults,
And the adults willingly take on different roles,
And life,
Although busy,
Is uncomplicated,
Every day there's a similar routine,
You feel a deep connection with nature,
With the world you're living in,
You understand the world you're living in,
You get to enjoy that world,
Even when you're catching dinner,
And foraging,
You still get to enjoy taking in the environment,
And seeing how you're a part of the environment,
There is no work to go to,
Only the work of doing your role within your community,
And enjoying being a part of that community,
And sometimes,
Because not everyone needs to do everything all the time,
You get to have a day where you can do whatever you want,
While others are doing foraging and gathering food,
But it doesn't feel like work even when you are doing that,
Because you can go out on your own,
To gather bits and pieces,
Or you can go out with a few others when you're gathering other bits and pieces,
Nobody gets paid,
Everyone just mucks in and does their own thing,
Taking on a role,
And different people in the community have different skills,
Some will be very obsessive about trying to improve things,
And so they're given the task of doing that role,
Others are perhaps good with their hands,
And making things,
And as she drifts and sleeps and dreams through this dream,
She begins to learn what it means to appreciate these aspects of life,
That it isn't all about money,
Or wealth,
Or living in the largest home,
But about working together in a sense of community,
And how her society is beginning to work towards that,
Through technology,
And yet at the same time,
There is a tendency in this new society for people to absorb themselves in technology alone in their own augmented realities,
And for people to sometimes only interact with characters created by an augmented reality,
Rather than genuine people,
And so she finds herself regularly pondering these thoughts about the positives and the negatives of becoming increasingly advanced with this technology,
And whether there's a way of encouraging people to maintain that connection back to the past,
Back to the way things were,
And while she has these thoughts,
She drifts deeper and deeper and more relaxed asleep,
Knowing that she'll awaken in the morning,
Still with some of these ideas going around in her mind,
Pondering these questions because of the time that she lives in,
But enjoying pondering these questions,
Enjoying the philosophy,
And the curiosity,
And the wonder,
And what things all mean,
And knowing when she awakens,
She'll awaken feeling so refreshed,
Revitalized,
And ready to enjoy the day as she relaxes and floats and drifts deeper and deeper asleep.
