I woke up, then had a nightmare. That’s when things got weird

Let me tell you about a recent trance experience I had. It was stronger, wilder and a whole lot weirder than my usual fare. When this sort of thing happens, it’s too great to keep to myself.

When talking to me about meditation and self-hypnosis, a lot of folk wonder about falling asleep during.

It’s easy enough to do when you relax and focus.

Generally, it’s not a problem. My philosophy is if you need sleep more than you need to focus, then your body will tell you.

But I get it. If you’re meditating, it’s nice to meditate. If you wanted a nap, you’d do that instead.

There are simple solutions to this. The easiest ones are to meditate while standing, walking, maybe even jogging. It’s a tougher mental workout, which creates better results. And you certainly won’t fall asleep doing this.

Anyway, I was a little rundown when I entered this trance. My body needed sleep, so I let it. The fact I could doze with such loud meditation music playing only shows how much I needed it.

I drifted off for who knows how long.

Then I woke up.

Sort of.

Because here’s the strange thing about deep hypnotic states – you can be wide awake yet feeling like you’re dreaming. Having tranced, slept and woken up in such a short time, I was straddling that wonderful state of consciousness where everything is intense and nothing seems quite real.

Lying there like this, with the music blaring, I had a nightmare.

I was awake, lucid and able to move.

And I was hallucinating.

The nightmare wasn’t anything scary. It wasn’t like a monster was chasing me (my monsters are scared of me these days – hence the name of my premium product). It was far more abstract, confusing and terrifying than that.

I rolled with it. With apologies to Mr Roosevelt, fear itself is nothing to fear.

It passed, as intense emotions like to do.

And then…

I started laughing.

Not chuckling or giggling. I’m talking belly laughs. Deep, booming, eye watering, breath impeding laughter.

And it didn’t stop.

I laughed for an embarrassingly long time.

Then it became a concerningly long time.

Then it was painful – there’s only so much laughter your ab muscles can take.

That was in the first five minutes. I swear I laughed for another ten or fifteen after that.

What was so funny?

I could explain the joke, but it barely makes sense to me.

Laughter is a release of tension. If you fall off your bike but don’t hurt yourself, you laugh. It lets everyone know to stop worrying.

That’s what this laughter was all about. I had a lot of worry and tension I needed to let go of. This is how my unconscious chose to do it.

Hey, I’m not complaining. It sure beats crying.

If you know self-hypnosis, you can do the same. It’s usually not so dramatic, but it’s often this cathartic.

And if you want to learn advanced self-hypnosis from scratch – and a whole lot besides – then I’ve got the link for you:

/monster