Hanging Out With The Elephants | Hypnosis For Better Sleep
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This offer ends August 19th. I'll see you over there at Sleep Magic Premium. Tonight, get sleepy with the elephants. So I've had the great good luck of seeing elephants lately. Elephants. In the part of India that I was in, there are apparently 6,000 wild elephants roaming in the forests. When we were driving up into the mountains,

Where here you might see a sign that says, caution, deer crossing, there were signs that said, caution, elephants crossing. It was very exciting. So I decided to write a hypnosis script for tonight based on the idea of coming across a group of elephants in the forest. I hope you like it. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently.

and just bring your awareness to your breath. It may feel simple, even boring, to rein your awareness in after a day of activity, but your mind can only focus on one thing at a time. So when you bring your awareness to the simple movement of the breath, everything slows down and you come back home to your body. Come back home to yourself. Good.

Now I'd like you to bring your awareness up into your eyelids. Just imagine your eyelids are feeling heavy, sleepy, relaxed. Just imagine that they're feeling heavy and they begin to feel heavy. Good. Now I'd like you to accept the suggestion that your eyelids are in fact so heavy that they will not open. And in a moment I'm going to ask you to test your eyelids to make sure they won't open by wiggling your eyebrows and keeping your eyes closed.

And this is just a little trick. I know you could open your eyes if you really wanted to, but we're just pretending. So now test your eyes to make sure they won't open by wiggling your eyebrows. Good. Well done. Now this lovely heaviness you have around your eyes, this lovely relaxation, this is the same quality of relaxation that you will soon have throughout your entire body. So let's

Imagine this relaxation now. Let's imagine it's like a light blue mist moving back into your brain. It feels sort of cooling, cool mist moving through your mind like a cool fog on a spring day. And that cool misty fog is taking over every single cell of your brain and everything is slowing down.

And as your mind is slowing down, your body is slowing down. And as your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. And as your mind is relaxing, is relaxing. Just hearing the sound of my voice for many of you is already taking you deeper and deeper. By practicing with sleep magic, you've developed a response in your body and mind

that causes you to release a cascade of relaxing chemicals from your brain down into your body, like a waterfall of relaxation. Feels automatic, easy, luxurious, as that blue mist of relaxation down into your shoulders and arms, everything becoming soft and cool and relaxed.

As you imagine that cool blue mist moving deep into your torso now, circulating inside of you, making everything feel light and cool and expanded as the sounds going on around you, sounds in your environment take you deeper and deeper. They're just vibrations and as you relax, they just pass through you, taking you deeper

and deeper as you allow that blue mist to move down into your legs, all the way down into your feet. Everything feeling cool and light and relaxed. And as your body is relaxing, is relaxing, and as your mind is relaxing, your body is going deeper and deeper, releasing and relaxing as you give yourself permission to let go

into rest. Imagine that you're standing high in a tree fort in the canopy of an Indian forest. You are high up on the top level of the fort, so you can see far into the distance. And as you look down upon an opening in the forest, a wide swath of green separating huge areas of trees

You see a small gray against the green. Is that what you think it is? You take out your binoculars, and as you focus them, you can see her properly now. An elephant. Asian elephant. She has the two distinctive head bumps of the Asian elephant, and smaller, thinner ears than her African cousins. She is walking leisurely,

with the graceful locomotion her species is known for. She seems to be taking her time, sniffing and poking at different plants on the forest floor with her probing, curious trunk. You look up from your binoculars. The late afternoon sun is setting over the treetops, but it will be a while before it's dark. The sounds of the birds and the trees vibrate,

like a symphony of tweets and trills and chirps. The air is warm and comfortable, and you have just seen an elephant. What a day. As you look back at your new friend, you see that the rest of her herd has pulled up the rear to join her. There are four very large elephants, two others roughly her own size,

and three babies, all sticking close to their mothers. The first one you saw is on the small side and has no tusks, so she's probably a young female verging on a teenager, a permanent member of this matriarchal herd, but not old enough yet to be a mother. She may be 12 or 13. You decide to call her Daisy.

You move down now to the middle floor of your treehouse so you can see from a better angle. The elephants are moving in your direction now. You have a great view. The four adult females are definitely in charge of this menagerie. They are enormous, each of them weighing more than 8,000 pounds. You look closely at one of them. She is immense.

with the crisscross wrinkles on her tough gray hide, her huge head and wide expanse of skin at the top of her trunk, and little stubby tusks, which aren't technically tusks, but a different kind of tooth called a touche, because female Asian elephants don't have tusks like the African ones do. You watch her for a moment in awe.

As you go deeper and deeper, she seems to be holding down the northern side of the herd, protecting her baby. With her inner flank, she seems calm and relaxed. You decide to call her Ellie. You sit down on the floor of the tree fort and relax. Ellie slows down and begins to kick the dry earth with her enormous cylindrical foot.

to loosen the grass and any bugs within it for a late lunch. After liberating a handful of grass, she picks up the dry tuff with her trunk and shakes it to release the excess dirt within. You watch as she carefully brings the tip of her trunk, using it like a hand, and pops the grass into her mouth. You take a nice, deep breath.

She chews and chews and chews. She seems to have all the time in the world. Hers is an efficient method, a kicking, shaking, lifting and chewing for a four-ton herbivore. And as she chews, you go deeper and deeper into relaxation. And you look more closely and you see her eye

It's an orangey-gold color, sitting within an accordion of thick, gray wrinkles. And as she blinks, her lashes, all four inches of them, wave down and up. Even her blink seems slow. Ellie is probably in her thirties, and the other adult elephants are most likely her sisters or cousins.

and one is probably her mother. Ellie may even be the mother of Daisy, but she has a new baby next to her, and it looks like a sturdy one-year-old trying to sneak between its mother's front legs to nurse as she shoos it away. She needs to collect several hundred pounds of food to eat today. It can be hard to tell if a baby elephant is male or female,

So you imagine this one is male, standing just a few feet high. His skin is loose and wrinkled, and he's got bristly hairs all over his back and head. His ears look paper thin, yet they're big and floppy compared to his relatively small head. You decide to call him. For every step his mother takes, little takes two.

and he doesn't walk exactly. It's more of a jaunty stumble. Although he's rooting around in the grass, mimicking his mother, his trunk is so small and clumsy, and it lacks the dexterity that she's developed over time. Although he doesn't have his tusks yet, he will. And this baby boy, when he reaches his early teens,

will be overtaken by hormones that push him to leave the herd in his fierce pursuit of a mate. And left behind will be his sisters, his mother, and other female relatives, waiting for males from other herds to find them. By leaving home, little will keep the species healthy and growing, and the world needs more elephants.

As they get closer, you come down to the lowest level of the tree fort. The herd is moving past your tree to a swimming hole nearby. And even above the ground, you feel the vibrations from their footfalls as they rumble up your tree. And you're not the only one feeling them. The vibrations made by elephant steps travel up to five miles

and communicate important information to other herds or to rogue male elephants in the area. And as you watch Ellie, you realize she is listening for vibrations as well. Through her feet, dozens of touch receptors in her enormous flat feet send rumbles from the earth up into her brain. Elephants love a good bath.

and the teenagers enter the water enthusiastically. Daisy swims out into the depths for a bit, her trunk held high like a snorkel. She's a good swimmer, as most elephants are, and she even floats for a while. Meanwhile, Ellie and the other mothers nudge their babies with their trunks to get closer to the water. Ellie dips her trunk in the water

taking in over two gallons of it and sprays it onto Little, who shudders with delight at the sensation. He's having fun, and it feels good to watch him have fun. Everything in the forest has slowed down for the late afternoon, and after the babies are washed, the mothers wade into the shallows and stand knee-deep in the water.

Ellie relaxes in this break from the heat. She sucks water up into her trunk, raises it high, lets it curl over her back, and sprays herself in her own personal shower system. The water spreads over her thick, wrinkled skin, causing the dust she collected today to turn dark brown. The water trickles down her sides,

In rivulets created by her wrinkles, she trumpets with pleasure. Meanwhile, Little plays, rolling, jumping, getting close to his mother and then straying just a little to experience the world at a tiny distance from her. And then he returns. He, like all the babies, is still very attached to his mother. Still nursing. Still sleeping.

near or with her, still entwining his trunk with hers in an elephant cuddle. As you watch Ellie continue to bathe, you notice the elegant movement of her trunk. It is an appendage that feels, explores, lifts, smells, and procures. It is an arm, finger, and nose all in one.

Her trunk is made of 40,000 muscles containing no bones nor joints, and it can lift up to 600 pounds. Allie comes out of the water now and stands at the side of the watering hole, dripping with. She begins to root around in the dusty soil, and suddenly she lifts her trunk to flick a layer of dust on her back.

And then another, and another. Little comes around for his dust bath and she kicks some dust onto him. This coating of dirt will protect them from bugs and keep them cool. One by one, all the other elephants get out of the water and finish up their day with a dust bath. Dry and powdered, Ellie gazes out over the water.

She has been in this herd her entire life. She has come to this watering hole every spring for decades. She has complex relationships with her mother, aunts, and sisters. She has the largest brain of any land mammal, containing three times the neurons of a human brain. Ellie is at least as intelligent as a chimp.

or a dolphin, and she knows things. She remembers where to take the herd, all the available sources of water and food, and she remembers the places to avoid. Ellie is cautious with strangers and warm with her friends when she bumps into them, even after years spent apart. Ellie's mother approaches her. She's probably 50 years old.

You can tell she's an elder because her trunk has pink spots and patches, a loss of pigmentation that comes with age, especially in Asian elephants. Her ears, too, have pinkish spots. She strolls up to her daughter and aids in the dusting of the baby. You are on the lowest level of your treehouse, about eight feet above the ground.

and the young female, Daisy, approaches your tree. She seems relaxed and curious. You take a deep breath and look her right in the eye. As you relax, going deeper and deeper, you have prepared for this moment. You take a handful of oats and wrap them in a small pile of straw. You've seen elephant handlers do this.

You wrap it so tight it becomes the perfect snack for an elephant the size of a small loaf of bread. Daisy reaches her trunk up to your treehouse, sniffing and exploring. And as you reach out, she lets you touch her trunk. It feels both rough like sandpaper, but it also seems soft as she moves it like rubber. At the end of her trunk are two nostrils,

divided by a pink septum, and the tip of her trunk is probing like a pair of tweezers. She smells the oats. You look in her eye and reach out your arm. She sniffs the loaf, and suddenly she wraps the tip of her trunk around the loaf, and then the trunk itself curls up to place it in her mouth. And she stares at you as she chews.

shoes and shoes, nodding as she chews. She likes it, and you relax, going deeper and deeper. Daisy walks proudly back to the herd, some of whom have been watching your interaction carefully. The sun has set and the stars are coming out, the elephants spread out between your tree and the others nearby. Daisy lies down, as do most of the others,

But Ellie sleeps standing, just in case she needs to move quickly in the night. She will listen with her feet while she sleeps. Little is so tired that he flops down near his grandmother and snoozes. As night falls, the crickets chirp, and it's time for sleep now. The forest. The elephants will be gone by the time you wake up, but they'll remember you. You pull out a sleeping bag.

and curl up into it like a trunk as you listen to the elephants breathing together as you drift and float and dream.