The Magic Of Counting Sheep: Bedtime Tale

This is a bedtime story about you being asleep, dancing and jumping around on a cloud. You notice that each jump on the cloud made small bits of cloud fall from the bottom, which turned into sheep as they reached the ground. You try to count the sheep, but keep losing count. You rest back and drift deeper asleep, finding yourself drifting out of your body and following a path to a river.

You meet an alligator and an owl. The alligator is knitting while playing backgammon with the owl. They invite you to have a drink, a tea cake, and sit by the fire. You drink the drink and rest in the chair, finding your consciousness drift off to a land where you go in search of whatever is at the end of a treasure map.

You encounter a unicorn and later, a wolf cub as a companion. You talk with a hedgehog fairy and visit a cat. You explore a beach and get given a magical book before heading back to the you are sleeping on the cloud and drift sleep to Slumberland.

Transcript

So as you close your eyes,

You have a sense of drifting peacefully into a dream and as you comfortably drift into a dream,

You find yourself jumping on the softest,

Fluffiest clouds on the darkest of nights and the top of the clouds is illuminated by moonlight,

Almost making the clouds seem alive with brightness,

With the most comfortable,

Peaceful glow,

As the stars overhead twinkle,

Almost as if they're dancing in the distance themselves,

Jumping softly around in the sky and as you jump up and down on that cloud,

You notice the way the cloud cradles your feet as you land,

The spongy texture of the cloud,

The soft feeling of the cloud against the underside of your feet,

Like walking on the softest wool and noticing how springy the cloud is as you jump higher and higher into the sky,

Sometimes managing to jump so high you can spin in the air and then land on your bottom and then bounce back up again as if you're on the softest of trampolines,

Doing different somersaults and each time,

You strike the cloud,

So you notice yourself going a little deeper and deeper into the experience,

At first in a way that goes unknown to you and you feel so full of energy when you start jumping on the cloud but find that with each bounce,

A little energy seeps away into the cloud,

As a little sleep seeps in to your senses and so your jumping softens and relaxes with time and you notice as you bounce on that cloud,

How peaceful it is up here in this sky,

With that blanket of cloud stretched out beneath you and eventually,

Sleep begins to settle in to the point that you feel it's time now to stop jumping and you head to the edge of the cloud,

You sit on that soft cloud dangling your legs over the edge and you notice a curious sight that where you've been jumping on the top of the cloud,

Small puffballs of cloud have been separating from the underside and you can now see all those little puffballs gradually,

Slowly drifting down to the ground below and what you notice as you watch those puffballs drifting to the ground,

Is that the closer they get to the ground,

The more they're developing legs and a head and a short fluffy tail and as the puffballs land on the ground one by one,

You notice that they land as sheep and the sound of each one bowing,

Takes time to rise up from the ground to your ears but you watch as each puffball gradually settles into a field below and they naturally begin to huddle closer together,

As if realizing they all came from the same place and so they want to be in the same field and in your mind you look down and begin counting those sheep,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

7 oh no,

Some have just moved,

Let's start again,

1,

2,

3,

4,

Deeper and deeper absorbed,

5 and you try focusing on counting those sheep but every now and then,

A sheep will cut through the sheep finding a new place among the herd and you'll have to start counting again as you lose your place but you're determined to focus really hard on counting those sheep,

Trying really hard to count all of the sheep because you know if you can count all of those sheep,

You'll be aware of how many bounces you did on the clouds and you're curious,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

Counting those sheep,

Losing count,

Starting again each time you restart counting,

You drift a little deeper and deeper into the experience and you know that you'll eventually succeed at counting those sheep but the more you count the heavier your eyelids seem to get,

As if the weight of each number settles in just above your eyes sitting,

Relaxing on those eyelids,

Weighing them gently down be persevere,

Counting those sheep 7,

8,

9,

No 1,

2,

3,

4,

1,

2,

Deeper and deeper,

3 4,

And you keep counting those sheep until eventually,

As those eyelids get heavier and heavier you succeed in making it to that last sheep and as you count the last sheep,

So you lie back onto the cloud,

Feeling a deep sense of relief and satisfaction at achieving counting those sheep and that cloud under your back is so soft like the fluffiest,

Puffiest blanket you could ever lie back on relaxing back deeply,

Profoundly,

And while you relax back onto that cloud feeling the cloud under your lower back,

Your upper back,

Your shoulders gently resting your head like the fluffiest,

Softest pillow the sensation of the cloud on the arms,

The hands,

Under those legs you feel yourself beginning to drift and dream deeper and deeper into the experience and you have this sense of standing up while your body lies there and the more you stand up and move away from that body the deeper and more profoundly asleep that body becomes and while you walk away from your body you can see how deeply relaxed you look the softening of the muscles around the face the breathing so slow and steady and you walk along this cloud,

Only this time as you walk away from yourself sleeping deeper and deeper over there you find yourself following a path that's forming before each footstep and as you follow this path,

The path is slightly warm and comfortable a gentle road leading you through this cloud landscape as the rolling tops of the clouds move gently while you walk and in the distance you start to hear the sound of flowing water and you work your way in the direction of that sound and the path just seems to be going where you're going as you follow that path,

Curious where it'll lead and eventually you find yourself walking along the edge of the most beautiful crystal clear river the water gently bubbling and meandering along the cloud like a river through a white landscape and you see as you walk a building with a water wheel attached a little way off in the distance and you gently walk towards that water wheel and as you walk,

The water smells so fragrant so fresh,

So clean and peaceful the sound of that water filling your senses with a deep sense of peace and comfort and then you hear the gentle sound of the water wheel turning and you notice that in the distance where the water wheel is the river flows down a gentle waterfall passing the water wheel filling a small lake that seems very shallow and that lake is full of tiny eddies tens of thousands of small eddies each gently whirling around in the water and you notice that beneath each one is a tiny hole and that as this cloud you're on is passing over the landscape below so the water flows fills this small lake and then filters through those holes creating rain beneath the cloud and you can hear the clunky sound of that water wheel as it turns the sloshing sound of the water the gentle splashing of that water and you head into the building and inside the building you see an alligator sitting in the most comfortable armchair knitting a multi-colored scarf and next to the alligator is a backgammon board and sitting next to the backgammon board is an owl with some glasses perched gently on the tip of their beak and the alligator and the owl seem to be deeply engrossed in that game of backgammon while the alligator is knitting at the same time and a fire is gently crackling away in the fireplace and with a hoot the owl invites you to go to the kitchen and grab yourself a tea cake perhaps take down the mug on the shelf and if you like you can make yourself a warm drink and so while they continue playing you head over to the kitchen area and you grab the large mug you mix yourself a drink with the ingredients that are right there beside you you smell that sweet scent of the drink you add a little honey to the drink and you take one of the tea cakes and you head back over to the owl and the alligator and you thank them for the drink and the tea cake you take a bite of the tea cake and you feel the sensations of that soft fluffy cake the sweet taste and a slight appley taste to the cake and you can smell that gentle appley smell and you munch your way through the cake you wipe the crumbs off your mouth you brush your hands together then move on to drinking the drink and as you begin to drink that drink so you feel the warmth of the drink passing in your mouth the vapor from the drink tickling your nostrils almost as if that vapor is tingling around the inside of your ears and the roof of your mouth and up behind your eyes stimulating your brain before the warmth of the drink massages your tongue,

Your throat,

Bringing peace and calm down through your body like a warmth radiating out softening your shoulders softening the muscles down the arms relaxing the hands massaging the shoulders,

The upper back bringing peace down through your sides,

Your stomach,

All the way down into your legs and the owl notices that you look like you want to sit down that you're becoming deeply relaxed and so the owl invites you to sit in the chair opposite the alligator beside the fire and so you sit down deeply into that chair as you continue to drink and the owl tells you that you can rest one hand on the arm of the chair and that'll let the chair know you want to relax deeply and so you rest your arm on the arm of the chair,

The palm of your hand touching the raggedy material,

The worn fabric and it's almost as if the chair comes alive and begins to softly scratch your back in the calmest,

Most pleasant way and you can feel your back being gently scratched with the most pleasurable back scratching as you continue drinking that drink and from time to time you notice that the table the backgammon is resting on seems to glitch,

As if glitching in and out of reality and the owl notices you noticing this and explains that the table is a periodic table,

Sometimes it's there sometimes it's not there's a rhythm to the periods of existing here and not existing here but the essence of the table remains so even when the table isn't here everything on the table remains where the table should be and as you begin to finish that drink you can really begin to feel your mind drifting as if you want to close your eyes and sink into an experience and so you decide to close your eyes a moment and the alligator says that's fine they'll be just sat there playing you can drift asleep and relax and dream and so you find your consciousness drifting asleep passing through a fading dream and you start to have this sense of grass tickling your cheeks and the backs of your ears and the back of your neck and the faint sound of rustling grass in a breeze the delicate warmth of a sun massaging your face,

Warming your cheeks,

Your forehead,

The tip of your nose that gentle red glow through the eyes the feeling of grass under your arms and your hands the delicate sound of songbirds the occasional coolness and dimness of passing clouds and as your consciousness settles in here so you begin to open your eyes and you sit up and look around and you find you're lying near an oak tree in the middle of a meadow with rolling hills songbirds flying around bees and butterflies flitting from plant to plant and beside the tree is a folded piece of paper and you open that piece of paper and it seems to be a treasure map when you stand up,

You twist around that bit of paper gazing around you,

Trying to match up what you can see on the paper with the landscape around you you can see the way the sunlight makes a distant river glisten so you can see where that river is and you line the map up to match the orientation of the landscape you look on the map you can see where x marks the spot out of curiosity,

You decide to go and investigate and so you start to walk through this meadow on this beautiful warm summer's day taking your time to walk,

Enjoying the environment and as you walk,

You're curious what will be at the x from where you are,

You can't see where the x is you can't see the exact location and so you can't work out exactly what will be there and you try and work out what you think will be the best route to get to that x based on the rolling hills and that distant river you feel that perhaps,

If you walk over the hills to the river you can follow the river as close as it gets to the x and then cut from the river over to the x rather than try and push in a straight line going up and down hills endlessly and so you head over towards the river heading down the hills and weaving your way among those hills without having to walk up each one and down each one weaving your way towards the nearest point of the river as the clouds gently drift across the sky the more bulbous clouds already passed by the wispy clouds,

Dancing along very high in the sky easily dispersing barely blocking any sun and eventually after about half a day's walking you arrive at the river you splash some of that water on your face you grab yourself a drink of the water you sit down for a moment by the river to rest just enjoying the environment before heading along the side of that river the sounds of the reeds rustling weaving through the landscape until you reach the point that looks like it's probably the location where the river is nearest to the x and at that point you cut away from the river you head up a hill walk through the meadows at the top of the hill descend the far side head up another hill walk through the meadows descend the far side as the sun begins to set over the horizon and eventually you arrive at the edge of some magical woodland and at the edge of this magical woodland with the sun now fully set you can see you've still got quite a way to go so you decide to camp here for the night you gather up some firewood you light a small fire you sit near the warmth of that fire as it crackles gently before you the light dancing around shadows leaping from point to point the evening sound of crickets the occasional evening bird just resting your back against a tree watching the stars pass across the sky the occasional shooting star almost fizzing its way past you before finding yourself relaxing off of the tree curling up on the ground the fire burning down to embers as you drift and float into the most pleasant deeply relaxed dream and the next morning you awaken to head into the woodland and as you walk into this magical woodland you notice the morning mist wafting around your legs the occasional ray of sun dancing through the canopy slicing along the path ahead the gently rustling leaves of the trees the echoey sound of songbirds through this woodland and with all that you continue following that map and deep in the heart of this woodland you come out to a well-lit clearing and in that clearing you see a pure white unicorn drinking from a pool of water and you slowly approach that unicorn you can hear the unicorn moving its feet on the shore sound of it drinking you can see the way the light seems to glisten on its back and sides and in its mane and the unicorn gazes over at you as you are walking towards it and it begins to walk towards you and it bows its head down as if to signal for you to climb on its back and as you climb on its back so the world around you seems to shift and change as if the unicorn was crossing dimensions and existed between dimensions no longer did the woodland look like it did a moment ago now the landscape around you takes on a mysterious hue with multicolored flashes of light passing through the grasses and the trees the sky a deep pink the water an electric blue dots of light flying among the trees and the trees are taller as if this is some kind of a forest and light in the landscape seems to pulse and undulate and gradually shift from one color to another like watching oil move slowly on the surface of water and the more you find yourself absorbed in the experience the more there's a detachment from the world as it was moments ago and the world you find yourself in now seems to become more psychedelic and in this psychedelic world the unicorn continues to glow with the most pure white and you ride on its back unsure where it's taking you still referring to the map and hoping that you're still following that path to where X marks the spot and the unicorn heads into the forest and as it does you notice that in this forest what at first you thought were trees are actually tree-sized mushrooms with stalks of leaves towering high up into the sky and then the mushroom stretching out like a canopy of mushrooms overhead and the spores of the mushrooms gently raining down glistening,

Sparkling like glitter wafting through the wind weaving around through this forest of mushrooms as psychedelic colors pulse up through those mushrooms from the ground as if they're sucking up magical energy processing that magical energy and their spores are tiny fragments of magical energy escaping and spreading through the landscape and yet you continue on following that map and then you start to notice that around you are ancient ruins that you seem to have passed into what looks like ancient ruins of temples of old pyramids of statues and other structures and the glittery particles from the mushrooms have settled all over your clothing and your hair glistening and sparkling and you're aware as you've been breathing in those spores that it seems to have been raising your consciousness helping you begin to see this world for what it is so that when you dismount from the unicorn the world doesn't fade it continues to exist powered by the mushroom spores and you notice that you're getting close to the X and you can see a ruined structure in the distance it looks like a collapsed pyramid and it seems to be right where the X would be and you head over towards that collapsed pyramid you walk around the base of the pyramid trying to work out what was here and whether there's any way to explore this location and around the far side of the pyramid you find a small entrance with some steps seemingly leading down beneath the structure and you wonder whether the structure above ground has collapsed but perhaps whatever's beneath the pyramid is perfectly fine once you decide to investigate you descend those steps 10 9 6 5 4 3 deeper and 1 all the way and you step into a corridor under this structure all sound,

More muted,

No longer being really able to hear the sounds of the environment above this space just the very slight dull sound of walking around down here in the dim light noticing the mycelial network has infused down here as the mushrooms are taking back this landscape that was once probably a thriving city and the mycelium network down here is gently pulsing and glowing letting out a gentle green glow through this tunnel you're walking along and at the end of the tunnel you find a door you carefully open that wooden door and this chamber is where x marks and you see in the center of this room what looks like a chest you head over to that chest you carefully open the lid of the chest and inside that chest you find a wooden mask you hold that mask facing you out in front of you and it has the calmest friendliest face to it and you feel compelled to place the mask over your face as you turn that mask mask around you can feel the weight and the texture of the wood of that mask you can notice the gentle pulsing of the psychedelic colors within that wood you carefully begin to move the mask closer and closer to your face and as you do you start to hear the distant sound of drums not coming from any place specifically just seeming to be everywhere all at once getting gently louder and louder as that mask gets closer and closer to your face until eventually the mask reaches your face and you close your eyes for a moment as you fit that mask onto your face and when you open your eyes you experience silence you find yourself standing on a bed of grass on a misty moor wearing a tweed jacket and a curious hat and on this misty moor you can hear the sounds of sheep within the mist grazing on the grass and you can see gray clouds overhead you can feel the damp air on your cheeks and when you look down beside you you notice a small wolf cub looking up at you with puppy dog eyes looking so friendly with its silver fur like a little puffball in the moist air and you start to walk through this moorland noticing the way the ground is slightly squidgy and squelchy and as you walk you see small areas of light flying in the low fog and you walk around exploring this landscape and while you explore one of the small flashes of light begins to move over towards you and it flies out of the fog and introduces itself as a fairy and you notice that it's a very unusual looking fairy it explains that it's a fairy hedgehog it looks like a hedgehog but with butterfly wings that are translucent,

Sparkling and rapidly flapping and as it hangs there before you its little legs dangling its small face bobbing before you and this fairy tells you that by wearing that mask you've passed through space and time into this landscape,

This magical moor and that it's been a very long time since anyone wore the mask and came visiting here but the landowner would probably like to meet you and they tell you to head through the moor,

They give you directions they tell you to keep to the areas of more dense grass and so you walk through this moorland keeping to the more dense grass as you go the moisture in the air running through your hair tickling the back of your neck and your cheeks and in the dense fog you can see the distant glow of light at windows and so you head towards that building and the building as you get closer looks like a stately home surrounded by a large brick and iron fence and a large wrought iron gate and with a creak you open the gate feeling the coolness of the metal close that behind you,

Walk the long driveway to the front of this home knock the large knocker and then after a few minutes of waiting someone comes to the door and opens the door and they let you and the wolf cub in and it's a cat wearing a long long purple robe made of soft heavy material and they invite you in and you explain where you've come from the adventure you've been on finding that mask and although you don't feel like you're wearing a mask you're assuming that you still are and they invite you through to the coziest of drawing rooms with a large crackling fire beneath a tall stone chimney and they tell you that this home is at the heart of the realms and they show you through to a magical room and you see in this magical room multiple doors and they tell you one door leads to a land of elves and dwarves and fantasy creatures another door leads to a land of talking animals where everyone can understand everyone else and another door leads to a land of portals and time traveling and another door leads to the most incredible calming beach on the edge of a vast underwater landscape of incredible underwater creatures and they guide you through to that beach walking out of the door onto the softest white sand and along the beach a little way is a pirate fishing who greets the cat the cat says that they regularly visit this beach and the pirate regularly fishes here and the water is lapping so gently onto the shore almost as if it's just tickling the edge of the sand and the cat invites you to walk into the water to feel how comfortable this water is and you walk into that water feeling the warmth of the water and while standing in the water the weather gradually changes a few gentle rain clouds pass overhead and for a moment there's a warm gentle shower of rain and as those clouds pass and the sun graces the sky once more with its warmth comfort a rainbow stretches across the sky following that cloud the water continues lapping onto the shore and you rest on the sand for a while with a little wolf cub resting on your lap accepting a gentle stroke the cat sits beside you and shares with you some knowledge about the experience and tells you they'll go and grab you a book that will explain more and that if understood will help you to access even more than you've done here today they walk off back into their home and while they're gone you rest back on the sand just listening to the water lapping on the shore feeling the warmth of this environment occasionally and faintly hearing the sound of that pirate fishing and then the cat returns and hands you an ancient book that smells as old as it looks and you leave this beach with the book you head back in through the grand house you ask the cat how you leave this place and they tell you you just have to take the mask off and as you think about taking the mask off so you see the way that wolf cub looks up at you you ask what happens,

Why was the wolf cub there?

Are you here taking on the role of someone else?

What happens when you take the mask off in relation to the wolf?

And they say that you'll just disappear and so you pick up the wolf as you take off the mask and you find that the wolf has remained with you as you find yourself back before that chest and you're holding the wolf and you're holding the book and you're holding the mask and you place that mask back down in the chest you sit for a moment looking through the book exploring that book learning that letting yourself drift into a dream in a special kind of way that allows you to pass from one reality to another and you learn the secrets of reality shifting dreams and you learn how it's possible to begin to select the reality you want to go to and to have the most pleasant night's sleep and dreams and with your new companion you find your way out of this chamber and back out through the forest and that unicorn takes you back to the lake and back at the lake you wash yourself off and as you wash off all the particles that you've been caked in all the spores from the mushrooms overhead you find this reality beginning to fade and as it fades you can't see it you pick up that wolf cub again make sure you've got hold of the book and you find yourself standing in the heart of that woodland that unicorn before you by that small lake you find your way back through the woodland back along the river and strangely and unexpectedly you find that you understand as you rest and sleep in that meadow again how to awaken in that chair bringing with you the book and the wolf cub and when you appear to awaken that wolf cub appears with you and you seem to have that book with you the alligator and the owl don't seem at all phased they just glance up welcome you back they ask you if you'd like another drink you say you think it's time now to go and you head off back the way you came you find your way all the way back to yourself you see yourself there sleeping looking so peaceful so calm and relaxed and as you awaken yourself there so you find yourself integrating with that you awakening on the cloud and then stepping off the cloud and finding yourself at home in bed opening your eyes momentarily and seeing that wolf cub sitting on your bed curled up as a new companion to support you through the future the book resting beside you on the bedside table and with a deep sense of peace and comfort you wrap yourself back up in your blankets you snuggle your head back down into the pillow and with a sense of curiosity of where your mind will now explore you drift and float back asleep back into slumberland

Reviews

Loved counting the clouds/sheep could see them forming as the meditation went on thank you. After a busy day needing an early night this was just the tale to get me to sleep. Thank you x

I will bookmark, me back to sleep a couple times… thank you!🙏🏼