Hypnotic Bedtime Story: The Wizard Of Oz
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Hi everyone, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Thank you everyone for being here. We've gotten some really great feedback lately, so thank you everyone for leaving messages, reviews, ratings, etc. And someone wrote recently, quote,

For 15 plus years, I always went to bed with the TV on and genuinely thought that would never change. That is, until I discovered sleep magic. I've been practicing for about a year now and have not looked back since. Well, thank you for that. What a great review. And I just want to say the operative word for me in there is practice. This person says, I've been practicing for about a year now. And I just love that.

Because that's what we do. That's all we do in life is just practice stuff. We just repeat, rinse and repeat. And one hopes that one's repetitions are positive. And with sleep magic, because I've trained in hypnotherapy, I know that by going to relaxation, by practicing relaxation, you're discovering a deeper part of your mind. And it's like, why not have your mind work for you?

And what you're practicing is using your mind for you, effectively, to take care of you. And guess what? That's what it wants to do anyway. It's not like you have to retrain it. It's just you have to relax and let it do what it likes to do, which is very positive things. Before we get started, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible.

So this is always practice. It's practice for me. It's practice for you. You have to practice to learn how to walk and talk. You didn't give up. So let's just keep practicing. And you don't have to practice sleep here or hypnosis. We're practicing relaxation. You will find everything good in relaxation. And that's easy to practice and fun. So thank you all for being here.

And if you're in a position to subscribe, please do. You know, by subscribing, you get all the back catalog, you get bonus episodes every month, and you get no ads. So if I subscribed, well, I would subscribe if I were you, but I don't listen to my own voice. It freaks me out. Okay, so tonight, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Now, most of us grew up with the movie.

But I'd never read the book, so tonight we meet the original work by L. Frank Baum. Published in 1900, the wonderful Wizard of Oz went on to sell a whopping three million copies before going into the public domain in 1956. And the Library of Congress has declared the work to be America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairy tale.

Now, Baum was extremely prolific and went on to write 13 more books in the Oz series, as well as 41 other novels, not including four lost, unpublished novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. Wow. The stuff people got done before TV and the internet. Know what I'm saying?

Now, whether the movie version lives in you or not, I hope you enjoy the literary version. The writing is simple and crisp and offers clear descriptions, so it's easy for the mind to follow quite fluidly, even dreamily. Baum believed that stories for children shouldn't be lessons in morality or infused with heavy teachings. He thought children should just be children and let their imaginations rip.

And maybe that's why The Wizard of Oz is a great classic. You can feel the freedom of the author's imagination in it. So as always, we will begin with some hypnosis tonight before I read some of the story. Remember, you're here to fall asleep, which you may be doing already. So just let your mind settle on my voice as your guide to taking you deeper and deeper.

So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Just allow your eyes to close easily and gently. Bring your awareness to your breathing. Just let your breath be normal. But your awareness, your awareness which has been outside all day doing stuff, figuring things out on screens, talking to people, just pull your awareness back now to your breath, to your body.

to this moment of your life. How cool is it to be alive? So now bring your awareness up into your eyelids and imagine the little muscles of your eyelids feeling heavy and relaxed and just imagine them relaxing and they relax. Good. And now I'd like you to accept the suggestion that the muscles of your eyelids are so relaxed they will not open. And I know that sounds crazy and I want you to just pretend that they won't open.

And now test that they won't open by wiggling your eyebrows and actively faking yourself out. "Look, my eyebrows are wiggling but my eyes won't open. Oh, Dorothy." Now this relaxation that you have around your eyes is the same quality of relaxation that you will soon have throughout your entire body. In fact, you may already have it. So let's imagine that relaxation around your eyes moving back into your head,

like a warm mist of relaxation taking over every single cell of your brain. And now your head's feeling heavy and your scalp feels relaxed as your head sinks into the pillow and the muscles of your face are softening and the mask you wear in the world is dissolving. If you need it tomorrow, you can put it on again. As that mist of relaxation moves down through your neck, down into your shoulders,

Shoulders are letting go, your arms are becoming nice and heavy. Heavy on the bed, like they're made of marble. As the relaxation moves down into your hands and fingers. As you let go, let go. Open your hands and let go. Now allow that mist of relaxation to move into your chest now. As you imagine a mist of relaxation spiraling around your own heart. Feel that mist of relaxation.

circling your heart and just allow to relax. Any emotional tension that may have built up during the day is disappearing as that mist moves down deep into your belly, releasing and relaxing you from the inside. And now your lower back is letting go, your buttocks relaxing, that mist of relaxation moving down all the way down into your legs. And now your legs are feeling very relaxed.

very heavy on the bed. As the mist moves all the way down into your feet, your toes, you're very good at this. As you bring your awareness to any sounds going on around you right now, you let those sounds carry you even deeper into relaxation, carrying you deeper into yourself. Great. Chapter 1. The Cyclone Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies.

with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor, and a roof, which made one room. And this room contained a rusty-looking cook stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner,

and Dorothy a little bit in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar, except a small hole dug in the ground called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark,

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass with little cracks running through it.

Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. When Aunt Em came to live there, she was a young, pretty wife.

The sun and the wind had changed her too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray. They had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child's laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart

whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears, and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at. Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn and rarely spoke.

It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray. He was a little black dog with long, silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny wee nose. Toto played all day long and Dorothy played with him and loved him dearly. Today, however, they were not playing.

Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes. From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass moved in waves before the coming storm.

There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also. Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. "There's a cyclone coming, Em," he called to his wife. "I'll go look after the stock." Then he ran towards the sheds where the cows and horses were kept. Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand.

"'Quick, Dorothy!' she screamed. "'Run for the cellar!' Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed, and the girls started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trapdoor on the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt."

When she was halfway across the room, there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor. Then a strange thing happened. The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

The north and south winds met where the house stood and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In the middle of a cyclone, the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher until it was at the very top of the cyclone.

And there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather. It was very dark and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently like a baby.

in a cradle. Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly. But Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen. Once Toto got too near the open trapdoor and fell in, and at first the little girl thought she had lost him, but soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole.

for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trapdoor so that no more accidents could happen. After an hour, she passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright. But she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf.

At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again, but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed and lay down upon it, and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swaying of the house,

and the wailing of the wind. Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. She was awakened by a shock, so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt. As it was, the jar made her catch her breath and wonder what had happened. And Toto put his cold little nose into her face and whined dismally. Dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving, nor was it dark.

for the bright sunshine came in at the window, flooding the little room. She sprang from her bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door. The little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sights she saw. The cyclone had set the house down very gently for a cyclone in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty.

There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.

A little way off was a small brook, rushing and sparkling along between green banks and murmuring in a voice, very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long in the dry, grey prairies. While she stood, looking eagerly at the strange and beautiful sights, she noticed coming toward her a group of the queerest people she'd ever seen.

They were not as big as the grown folk she'd always been used to, but neither were they very small. In fact, they seemed about as tall as Dorothy, who was a well-grown child for her age, although they were, so far as looks go, many years older. Three were men and one a woman, and all were oddly dressed. They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads,

with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved. The hats of the men were blue, the little woman's hat was white, and she wore a white gown that hung in pleats from her shoulders. Over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds. The men were dressed in blue of the same shade as their hats.

and wore well-polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops. The men, Dorothy thought, were about as old as Uncle Henry, for two of them had beards. But the little woman was doubtless much older. Her face was covered with wrinkles, her hair was nearly white, and she walked rather stiffly. When these people drew near the house where Dorothy was standing in the doorway,

They paused and whispered among themselves as if afraid to come farther. But the little old woman walked up to Dorothy, made a low bow and said in a sweet voice, "You are welcome, most noble sorceress, to the land of the Munchkins. We are so grateful to you for having killed the Wicked Witch of the East and for setting our people free from bondage." Dorothy listened to this speech with wonder.

What could the little woman possibly mean by calling her a sorceress and saying she had killed the wicked witch of the East? Dorothy was an innocent, harmless little girl who'd been carried by a cyclone many miles from home, and she had never killed anything in her life. But the little woman evidently expected her to answer. So Dorothy said, with hesitation, you are very kind, but...

"'There must be some mistake. I've not killed anything.' "'Your house did, anyway,' replied the little old woman with a laugh. "'And that's the same thing. See?' She continued, pointing to the corner of the house. "'There are her two feet, still sticking out from under a block of wood.' Dorothy looked and gave a little cry of fright. "'There, indeed!'

Just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes. "'Oh dear, oh dear,' cried Dorothy, clasping her hands together in dismay. "'The house must have fallen on her. Whatever shall we do?' "'There's nothing to be done,' said the little woman calmly. "'But who was she?' asked Dorothy.'

"'She was the Wicked Witch of the East, as I said,' answered the little woman. "'She has held all the munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day. Now they are all set free and are grateful to you for the favor.' "'Who are the munchkins?' inquired Dorothy. "'They are the people who live in this land of the East, where the Wicked Witch ruled.' "'Are you a munchkin?' asked Dorothy.'

"'No, but I'm their friend, although I live in the land of the North. When they saw the Witch of the East was dead, the Munchkins sent a swift messenger to me, and I came at once. I am the Witch of the North.' "'Oh, gracious!' cried Dorothy. "'Are you a real witch?' "'Yes, indeed,' answered the little woman. "'But I am a good witch, and the people love me.'

"'I'm not as powerful as the wicked witch was who ruled here, or I should have set the people free myself.' "'But I thought all witches were wicked,' said the girl, who was half frightened at facing a real witch. "'Oh, no, that is a great mistake. There are only four witches in all the land of Oz, and two of them, those who live in the north and the south, are good witches.'

"'I know this is true, for I am one of them myself, and cannot be mistaken. "'Those who dwelt in the East and the West were, indeed, wicked witches. "'But now that you have killed one of them, "'there is but one wicked witch in all the land of Oz, "'the one who lives in the West.' "'But,' said Dorothy, after a moment's thought, "'Aunt Em had told me that the witches were all dead, years and years ago. "'Who is Aunt Em?'

inquired the little old woman. She is my aunt, who lives in Kansas, where I come from. The witch of the north seemed to think for a time, with her head and her eyes upon the ground. Then she looked up and said, I do not know where Kansas is, for I have never heard that country mentioned before. But tell me, is it a civilized country? Oh, yes, replied Dorothy. Then that accounts for it.

"'In the civilized countries, I believe there are no witches left, nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians. But, you see, the land of Oz has never been civilized, for we are cut off from the rest of the world. Therefore, we still have witches and wizards amongst us.' "'Who are the wizards?' asked Dorothy. "'Oz himself is the great wizard,' answered the witch.'

sinking her voice to a whisper. He is more powerful than all the rest of us together. He lives in the City of Emeralds. Dorothy was going to ask another question, but just then the munchkins, who had been standing silently by, gave a loud shout and pointed to the corner of the house where the wicked witch had been lying. What is it? asked the little old woman, and looked and began to laugh.

The feet of the dead witch had disappeared entirely, and nothing was left but the silver shoes. She was so old, explained the Witch of the North, that she dried up quickly in the sun. That is the end of her. But the silver shoes are yours, and you shall have them to wear. She reached down and picked up the shoes, and after shaking the dust out of them, handed them to Dorothy.

"'The Witch of the East was proud of those silver shoes,' said one of the munchkins. "'And there is some charm connected with them. But what it is, we never knew.' Dorothy carried the shoes into the house and placed them on the table. She then came out again to the munchkins and said, "'I'm anxious to get back to my aunt and uncle, for I'm sure they will worry about me. Can you help me find my way?' The munchkins and the witch first looked at one another.'

and then at Dorothy, and then shook their heads. "'At the east, not far from here,' said one, "'there is a great desert, and none could live to cross it.' "'It is the same at the south,' said another, "'for I have been there and seen it. The south is the country of the quadlings.' "'I am told,' said the third man, "'that it is the same at the west.'

and that country where the Winkies live is ruled by the Wicked Witch of the West, who would make you her slave if you passed her way. The North is my home, said the old lady, and at its edge is the same great desert that surrounds this land of Oz. I'm afraid, my dear, you will have to live with us. And then the little old woman said,

She took off her cap and balanced the point on the end of her nose while she counted one, two, three in a solemn voice. At once the cap changed to a slate on which was written in big white chalk marks, "Let Dorothy go to the city of Emerald." The little old woman took the slate from her nose

and having read the words on it, asked, "'Is your name Dorothy, my dear?' "'Yes,' answered the child. "'Then you must go to the City of Emeralds. Perhaps Oz will help you.' "'Where is this city?' asked Dorothy. "'It is exactly in the center of the country, and is ruled by Oz, the great wizard I told you of.' "'Is he a good man?' inquired the girl anxiously.'

"'He is a good wizard. Whether he is a man or not, I cannot tell, for I have never seen him.' "'How can I get there?' asked Dorothy. "'You must walk. It is a long journey. However, I will use all the magic arts I know to keep you from harm.' "'Won't you go with me?' pleaded the girl, who had begun to look upon the little old woman as her only friend. "'No, I cannot do that,' she replied.'

But I will give you my kiss, and no one will dare injure a person who has been kissed by the Witch of the North." She came close to Dorothy and kissed her gently on the forehead. Where her lips touched the girl, they left a round, shining mark, as Dorothy found out soon after. "The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick," said the Witch.

so you cannot miss it. When you get to Oz, do not be afraid of him, but tell your story and ask him to help you. Goodbye, my dear." The three munchkins bowed low to her and wished her a pleasant journey, after which they walked away through the trees. The witch gave Dorothy a friendly little nod, whirled around on her left heel three times,

and straightway disappeared, much to the surprise little Toto, who barked after her loudly enough when she had gone because he'd been afraid even to growl while she stood by. But Dorothy, knowing her to be a witch, had expected her to disappear in just that way and was not surprised in the least.