Remember that gag? “What do you do if you see a spaceman?”…. “Park in it man.”

Well today, we are going to use hypnosis to go into space. Well for what reason precisely? Let me explain…

I recall one of the first times that I had the age-old notion of ‘The View From Above’ shown to me with a meditation and I often use it in therapy sessions with my clients to help them get a sense of perspective.

Within the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius are a couple of references of that notion:

Plato has a fine saying, that he who would discourse of man should survey, as from some high watchtower, the things of earth.

And

Think of the totality of all being, and what mite of it is yours; think of all time, and the brief fleeting instant of it that is allotted to you.

There are a number of ways that the view from above notion can be used therapeutically, but the best and deepest way was shown to me and taught to me by Donald Robertson and is a great way to alter the perspective, not just in terms of stepping out of your usual perspective, but also in becoming aware of the vastness of the universe, the vastness of time, the massive diversity of life on the planet and where we sit within it all.

Today is not really going in to as much depth as that, but is a lesser, simpler version with a slightly different means of benefitting from it.  Here we are going to use self-hypnosis, go into space and learn some things while there.

Step One: Get yourself into a comfortable position and one whereby you are going to be undisturbed for the duration of this exercise. Make sure your feet are flat on the floor and your hands are not touching each other.

Then in that position, hypnotise yourself. You can do so by any preferred means. You can use the free session on my website to practice or read my book or some of the articles on my website to learn how to do so. (Get in touch if you need a hand finding them, though if you use the ‘search blog posts’ facility on my blog here, you’ll find what you are after with ease)

Once you are hypnotised, move on to step two.

Step Two: Develop a heightened awareness of yourself. Become aware of your body, the sensations within it, your breathing, and just observe yourself in this moment. Don’t try to change anything, just watch and observe yourself in this moment. Become so aware of yourself that you can imagine what you look like in that position that you are in.

Then imagine that you are watching yourself as you relax in that position. When you are aware of watching yourself as you relax in that position, as if you are seeing yourself from the outside, then move on to the next step.

Step Three: Now as you look at yourself start to float upwards and away from your body, leaving it there in the chair.

Leave the building your body is in and as you float up, imagine going deeper inside your own mind and all the time going higher. Start to notice the surrounding area, notice the life going on and the movements of traffic.

Then start to notice more of the landscape as you travel higher. Start to see the larger land mass and even the coastline as you travel higher, you see less detail of the streets and more of the general surrounding area.

As you float higher, move through the clouds and beyond the atmosphere and take all the time necessary to float up and into space until the entire planet Earth is there is front of you that you can look at in all its beauty and magnificence.

Notice the colours of the planets, the clouds around it and see it from here in space. Spend all the time necessary to do this step in a thorough and enjoyable way, making sure that you notice the different perspectives as you move further away from that point where your body remains.

When you have done this, move on to step four.

Step Four:  From this place in space, totally removed from the planet Earth, viewing the earth and all the life that exists within it from this place in outer space, start to imagine you are sharing and benefiting from the wisdom of the universe. That you are gaining insight, wisdom and perspective from being here in space for a while.

You can then start to think about things you wish to achieve, you can start to contemplate the importance of issues, you can start to consider what is holding you back from achieving what you wish to achieve and just enjoy the freedom and clarity of thought you have way up here.

Use this space and time to ponder, question, think critically and away from distraction and gain some insight. Think about actions you can take, steps that will lead you forward and things you can do to make positive and progressive changes in your life.  When you have spent all the time you feel is necessary to do this, move on to the next step.

Step Five: Equipped with that insight and perspective, start to return to your place on the planet in front of you. Take all the time necessary to move all the way back down, through the atmosphere and towards that place where you began. Do it thoroughly and a t apace you are comfortable with.

Once you return to your body, start to feel your own sensations and wiggle your finger and toes, get a sense of where you are and open your eyes to bring the session to an end.

Have a good think about what insights and wisdom you brought back with you and choose to take some action in relation to that.

This is a much simplified version form the way I’d run such a session in a therapy session, but it gives us the opportunity to do this ourselves and gain much from it. So I hope you enjoy getting properly spaced out.

I am going to be away for the next 9 days while I run the second half of this years intensive hypnotherapy diploma, so the blog will be sparse for a week, but I’ll do my best to post something when I can. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy outer space and taking your brain to another dimension, to quote one of my favourite bands of all time…