So as you listen to me and you comfortably begin to fall asleep,
I don't know whether you'll find yourself drifting comfortably asleep to the sounds of my words,
To the spaces between my words,
Or just listening along to my voice in the background as you fall asleep.
And while you fall asleep,
I'm just going to tell you a story about a man who enjoyed going out to sea.
Every year he would go on a trip on a boat.
His favorite thing was to swim with humpback whales.
And so every year he'd go out on a boat.
He'd go out to sea on that boat.
And he'd sit on that boat in diving gear and wait.
And he'd wait patiently and quietly,
Listening to the water lapping on the side of the boat,
Feeling the gentle rocking of the boat,
As he just gazes out over the water,
Feeling the sea breeze on his skin,
Noticing what the sky looks like,
Gazing out towards the horizon,
Scanning around the horizon,
Scanning the water for signs of the humpback whales arriving.
And every year those humpback whales seem to arrive in this location.
And so he just sits calmly and patiently and waits.
And not only does he like diving with the humpback whales,
But he finds the entire experience calming and relaxing,
Just having patience,
Nothing to think about or worry about,
Just waiting and relaxing.
And then after some time,
As the sun passes across the sky,
He sees a little cloud appear from the ocean,
And then the dark back of a humpback whale slide just above the surface of the water and back under again.
So he gets in the boat to drive it closer,
Moves the closer towards the whales,
And the closer he gets,
The more he sees a bit of what's there.
He notices there's an adult humpback whale,
And a juvenile humpback whale,
And he sees how calmly they're just swimming through the water.
He drops the anchor,
And he drops into the water,
And he can feel that water filling his wetsuit.
As he dives down under the water in his scuba gear,
He can see the size of those whales,
Seeing their slow,
Graceful movements,
Hearing the whale call,
Just watching as those whales gracefully swim past and watching how the whale's eyes appear to be so inquisitive,
Such curiosity,
And how the juvenile whale wants to come over to him and explore him,
And the adult whale just keeps that juvenile at a bit of distance while assessing the diver.
And only after some assessing does the adult allow the juvenile and themselves to move closer.
And they swim close enough for the diver to reach out with their hand,
And while their hand is outstretched,
The juvenile swims in and rubs itself against his hand.
And like all his past experiences,
He feels this experience as an incredible experience,
A moving experience,
Showing such intelligence in these whales,
Such love from the whales.
And he turns himself around weightlessly in the water to keep tracking those whales as they swim comfortably around him.
And he enjoys this time in the water,
Where being in the water weightless with these whales,
Time seems to stand still.
And after a while,
The whales take a deep breath and dive,
And he watches as they swim deeper and deeper and disappear out of sight.
He then goes back to the boat,
Gets back on the boat,
And drives the boat back to shore,
Loving the experience he's just had.
And back on the shore,
He goes back to the caravan that he's staying in.
He always drives down here in a VW campervan.
So he goes back to the campervan he's staying in,
Sits down and keeps a journal of his experiences.
Not just a journal of the acts that he did and the behaviours,
But a journal of his feelings,
How the experience made him feel,
And what that means to him.
And then after writing his journal,
He sets up a camp just outside.
Just somewhere he can have something to eat on the seashore,
A little campfire.
And he enjoys the evening setting in,
Hearing the waves lashing on the shore,
On the sand,
Birds off in the distance,
Just sitting there,
Enjoying the evening,
Seeing the last of the sun's rays disappear,
And the stars in the sky.
Then as the evening draws on,
He puts out the campfire,
Goes back into his campervan,
And settles down for the night to sleep.
And as he drifts comfortably asleep,
So he begins to dream.
And while he begins to dream,
He begins to have a dream of himself,
Sitting on a rose,
Sliding down a rose petal,
Towards the center of the rose,
And feeling the waxy feel of the petal under his hands as he slides,
And finding this feeling comfortable,
And safe and secure,
With a beautiful scent,
The soft feeling of the waxy petal.
And he knows this dream has something to do with his daily experience.
And he goes with the dream.
And then he pops through the center of the rose,
And finds himself sat at a desk,
In a chateau,
Surrounded by woodland,
And mountains,
And finds that his hand is automatically writing as he gazes down at it,
And sees himself writing something unusual,
Sees that he's writing some kind of a story.
And he has this sense that he's writing a novel,
And he's at a point where he gets drawn into that novel,
Into a scene where somebody's on a motorbike,
Going off-road,
Going around the outside of a mountain,
Following a mountain pass,
Following a dirt track,
Riding that motorbike higher and higher up into the mountains.
He continues with this scene,
And there's a few areas where the motorbike skids,
And then catches the ground again,
And speeds off even faster,
And jumps at some areas,
Under full control of the cyclist.
And that motorbike travels all the way to the top of the mountain,
And the person on the motorbike is like a treasure hunter,
And they're hunting for a treasure somewhere here on the mountain.
He continues to write.
And as he continues to write,
So he continues to be absorbed and drawn into this story,
Drawn into this story as this character discovers a temple high up here in this mountain,
And he picks a lock on a door to get into the temple,
Walks into the temple,
And goes from the windy mountain's edge to silence in the temple,
And lights a torch,
And begins to explore in the temple with the torch.
And while he's exploring in the temple with the torch,
So he can hear his footsteps echoing,
And he searches down one corridor,
And he lights some torches on the walls as he goes,
Then searches down another corridor,
And then another,
Noticing the way that his shadow flickers on the walls,
The light flickers on the walls,
Searching corridor after corridor,
Until eventually he comes to a dead end,
And at that dead end,
He sees what looks like a trapdoor on the ground.
He prizes open the trapdoor,
Climbs down a ladder,
Going deeper and deeper under the temple,
And as he climbs deeper and deeper under the temple,
So he realizes he's climbing down deeper and deeper into the mountain,
Until eventually he comes out in a cave,
And it appears to be a natural cave,
It's not a man-made cave,
And that maybe the temple was built over the cave on purpose,
And he continues to explore this cave.
And then while he's exploring the cave,
He starts to hear dripping water,
Then gradually he starts to hear the distant sound of a waterfall,
And he continues exploring the cave.
And while he's exploring the cave,
He's looking for some sign of a huge lost diamond,
A legendary diamond,
And everything led him to this place,
And so he continues exploring,
And while exploring,
He finds a tunnel from the cave that looks man-made,
So he follows that tunnel,
Goes deeper and deeper,
Until it comes out in a room,
And at the far side of that room,
There's a huge locked door,
And he picks that lock,
Enters the room,
And in the middle of the room is a pedestal with a huge diamond sitting on it,
Lit up by the natural light that seems to be channeled to the center of the room,
Through ice from the outside,
And he goes over to the diamond,
And his plan is to take the diamond,
And then sell it,
Make some money,
But as he reaches the diamond,
He sees a book,
And so he picks up the book,
Starts reading,
And as he starts reading,
So he learns that this diamond is placed here to bring peace to the land,
And that there's darkness that will be unleashed if this diamond gets removed,
And that anyone who discovers this diamond has to look inside themselves,
And decide what's more important,
Peace across the land,
Keeping the darkness at bay,
Or having the diamond and money,
And he thinks about it,
He doesn't know what this darkness is,
He can't imagine a real darkness,
That would just be the thing of legends,
Myths,
So it must be a legend or a myth,
It can't be real,
And the book ends by saying that he's to put his hands on either side of the pedestal,
Where there's two symbols,
And to close his eyes,
And that'll teach him that everything in this book is true,
And he thinks to himself that it all sounds ridiculous,
But it takes no effort to put your hands on the side of something,
And close your eyes for a moment to prove that it's ridiculous,
So he puts his hands on the symbols either side of the pedestal,
He closes his eyes,
And initially he doesn't feel anything,
And then he starts feeling a tingling at his hands,
That starts in his fingers or perhaps his palm,
But eventually starts moving up to his wrists,
His arms,
To his shoulders,
Into his body,
And a warmth,
A comfort,
Then he has a sense of a light,
A purple light,
As if it's given off by the diamond in front of him,
And he can see it with his eyes closed,
He can sense that purple light shining on his face,
Passing into his head,
Through his body,
Absorbing into him this purple light,
Passing through him and filling him up with this purple light,
And he starts to have a feeling of serenity,
Of peace,
Of love,
Of wonder and curiosity,
A sense of a connection with the world around him,
A sense of what's important,
And he finds it a powerful,
Emotive experience,
And then he removes his hands from the pedestal,
And in a moment,
The experience passes and he opens his eyes,
And he's just there in front of that pedestal with that diamond,
And he realizes that diamond needs to stay where it is,
And needs to be protected,
And he leaves and seals the entrance to that room,
And he leaves and seals every entrance behind him,
And leaves that mountaintop temple,
Seals the door,
And he takes the motorbikes back down the mountain with that serene feeling,
That learning,
That knowledge he gained,
That will stay with him forever,
And the writer had this feeling that the story was coming close to an end,
As the man found himself with the petals falling down around him,
Gently floating down to the ground,
While he was sat in the middle of these giant rose petals,
Just falling around him comfortably,
Calmly.
He drifted from this dream into a deeper,
More comfortable,
Healing,
Relaxing sleep.
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