“Six Days Asleep”: Self Hypnosis Ritual Guide
"Six Days Asleep" is a weird little guide to an open-ended set of rituals. It is a combination of self-hypnosis exercises and a writing practice intended to help motivate people towards purposeful introspection and the building of hypnotic skills.
Published by sleepingirl in 2023. Full text available here or available as a download or physical booklet copy.
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For those who seek. For the hypnosis community. Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!
Thank you for picking up this strange guide. This project was born out of my experiences with hypnosis/hypnokink, magic, unprogrammed Quaker meetings, yoga, and a general love for introspection and identity. It was inspired by these things as well as an interest in solo-TTRPGs and Empty Spaces.
In unprogrammed Quaker meetings, if someone says something that doesn’t resonate with you, you’re encouraged to find the meaning behind the words that does. I encourage you to take this approach with this guide. Everything written here is intentionally very open-ended so that it is as adaptable as possible -- while structure and definition can be comforting, the best experiences are the ones where you create your own or eschew them entirely.
I believe that both magic and hypnosis are necessarily philosophical in that they rely on the way we conceptualize the practices, the ideas within, and the world. We are meant to ask questions, and we are meant to think more.
This is magic if you want it to be magic, and brain-hacking if you want it to be brain-hacking. But for me, it’s both.
Introduction
Six Days Asleep is a personal dedication consisting of six “Rituals” -- six self-hypnotic or imaginative experiences. This is a hybrid journaling/writing exercise, magical practice, and/or hypnotic experience. The only “goal” is to explore an Intention (while building hypnosis skills along the way). This is a process of discovery more than concrete achievement.
The general format is as follows:
Write about an Intention
Hold six introspective Rituals, writing after each one
Finish with a final writing
The majority of this guide contains instructions and ideas for self-hypnosis and meditative techniques. It has a bit of a magical lean but you will not find direct instructions for either hypnosis or magic. This practice is one that emphasizes introspection. Introspection, curiosity, and experimentation are the most important parts to developing hypnotic, meditative, or magical skills.
This can be done in any amount of time -- you can do all Rituals in one day, one for six consecutive days, or sporadically over any amount of days. One per consecutive day is recommended, as having a six-day practice can elevate the sense of being on a journey, but do what feels natural for you -- no sense in forcing something that doesn’t fit.
The Ideas
Intention
For our purposes, an Intention is not the same as a goal. Goals imply a sense of pass/fail -- you either achieve them or you don’t. On the other hand, “intention” has a more broad connotation. In a magical framework, intention is often cited as a driving force for manifesting something -- it is the impetus of the goal; a feeling, curiosity, and motivation to act.
Your Intention, while goal-like, should be something that acknowledges the fact that no matter what the outcome is, discoveries have been made and growth has happened. It can be anything that motivates you, anything that makes you want to know more, anything that is personal for you.
Here are some example Intentions for this practice:
Building hypnotic skills (general or specific)
Getting to know yourself
Connecting with magic
Experiencing the allure of surrender
Transformation/transformative reinforcement
Exploring creativity
Be aware that what you intend may change subtly or drastically over the course of this practice -- be flexible and accepting.
Identity
Our identity is a product of all of our experiences, beliefs, perceptions, and view of our self. Identity is subjective, and it is colored by the lens through which we or others view it.
You’re encouraged to incorporate thoughts, questions, and even perceived transformation of your identity as you move forward. Introspection and inward focus is an examination of identity, and is a naturally hypnotic behavior. You will always be changing your frame of reference/lens in a practice like this -- take note of how your view of yourself and your capabilities changes.
One of the ways that you can play with this is by changing your framing of your rituals -- writing or thinking about them in first person (“I,” “me,”), second person (“you”), or third person (“he/she/they/etc”). A valuable hypnotic tool is imagining that something is happening to “someone else”; even shifting your perspective slightly may cause you to see new things.
Ritual Style
It can be helpful to have a framework for the journey you take and the types of Rituals you will be doing. If you are inclined towards a magical aesthetic/practice, for example, you can include or imagine your Rituals to contain candles, circles, invocations, or etc. Likewise, if you are motivated by and familiar with hypnotic techniques, you may work within ideas such as trance induction, associations, or etc. A meditation framework may involve traditional elements such as mindfulness, quiet, enlightenment, or etc.
All of these ideas are both personal and overlapping -- the distinctions between them are about your own personal history and context. This guide takes a blended approach: it has a magical lean, and also will work to teach various hypnotic concepts and self-hypnosis practice.
Storytelling
How we represent an experience affects how we perceive it and what we are capable of within it. Even reproducing a memory to ourselves causes us to look at it from a different frame of reference and thus make discoveries. It is the practice of taking the nonverbal and putting it to words.
Writing is an important part of this journey, and it can be as sparse or as detailed as you like. If you have a blank journal you haven’t found a use for, or you want to open a Google document for this experience, or even just a small post on Twitter/social media, having a dedicated place to express and codify your thoughts is part of the process. The physical copy of this booklet contains pages at the end to write in.
Remember: If you are writing with an intent or expectation to share beyond yourself, you will automatically be adjusting the content (even unconsciously). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be limiting. To work around this, you can have a private version of each writing that you edit or summarize for sharing later if that’s important to you.
The basic writing flow of this exercise is to begin with a writing about your Intention, writing after each Ritual, and then completing the journey with a final writing. It can be completely free-form or working off of the prompts/questions provided.
Another option you have is to include a bit of microfiction as part of your writing. Creating fiction and fantasy is a practice that allows us to explore real themes in a metaphorical setting.
No Accidents
In a practice where the focus is on self-reflection and exploration of your own psyche, there is no way to fail. Every piece of information that you get -- where your attention goes, the thoughts that you think, and the way you feel -- is a piece of yourself revealed.
You may feel a drive for consistency—always being able to produce the same quality and length of experience, writing, and motivation. It is normal to have fluidity and variation in these things, and it doesn’t lessen your experience or dedication if they temporarily wane. This is a human experience.
The Practice
Intention Writing
The first step in the journey is expressing yourself honestly about your Intention. Write it down in your own words. You can think about the idea that expressing something manifests that expression -- into reality, and outside of you.
Next, you may want to write about feelings you have, curiosities, or questions. Here are some ideas:
How does expressing the Intention transform it?
How do you feel about beginning an exercise like this?
Do you have any expectations about what may come or what you may experience?
Do you have any desires about what you’d like to experience?
The Rituals
Our primary tool is our mind, and our primary goal is discovery. Thus, we’ll be working with “ingredients” to help us achieve workable and productive introspection -- self-hypnosis.
A ritual in a general sense is a set of actions that is performed with some combination of purpose, reverence, and repetition. A ritual is an agreement and acknowledgement that you are doing something “outside” of your norm -- you are intentionally setting aside space and time for something different and special.
Hypnosis, meditation, and magic are all naturally ritualistic, and you can include any elements of purpose, reverence, and repetition from each.
A timer is recommended for this practice -- 15-30 minutes is a good starting point, but feel free to adjust it. Put down your phone for this, and make your space less distracting.
Understand your purpose
You have an Intention, but also consider the other purposes of engaging in a practice like this. Why did you pick up this guide in the first place? What is the value in ritual and commitment? How do you benefit?
Create your space
Do something that makes it clear that you are entering into something different than the ordinary. If you are magically inclined, you may want to include physical symbols or tools. It may be as simple as sitting down cross-legged or taking a deep breath as you start.
Acknowledge repetition
Notice the parts of your practice that repeat -- themes, ideas, images that keep surfacing; things that you do to engage that stick with your Ritual. Do you sit the same way, breathe the same way, focus on the same things? There is familiarity in the experience of hypnosis and introspection, and that can help give it meaning. And -- be open to change as you honor the familiar.
Focus
Focus is the medium through which we experience both the external and the internal -- our attention can be directed outside of ourselves or within ourselves, and it defines what we are aware of and where we go next.
Some may feel daunted by the misconception that they must have control over their focus and thoughts to find success. Think of your focus as wild magic. Sometimes you may be able to direct it and sometimes it may do what it wants, and there is no value in fighting it head first -- accept it for the power it has and what it shows to you.
Trance or an altered state is not the goal, per say, in that it doesn’t matter whether or not we are “in trance.” What is useful to us is creating a space that is subtly different from our usual. Your thoughts and discoveries are more important than a state.
Methods
What can you do within the Ritual to actually create and further introspection?
Not everyone thinks “in words,” but everyone is familiar with what happens when their thoughts just run with something. Whether it’s daydreaming, getting lost in thought, or some other experience of processing, our internal monologue is one of our primary tools, and the following sections are about how to engage it.
Introspection is observation, examination, and curiosity. This will likely be a combination of passive and active experience. Keep this in mind as you let your thoughts run.
Engage your Intention
Your Intention should enter into your focus at some point. You can choose how this happens before or after you begin the Ritual, or allow it to happen spontaneously.
Here are six examples -- this is a non-exhaustive list, but if you enjoy structure, feel free to work off of one per Ritual.
Question
Image
Sound
Sensation/Emotion
Concept
Mantra/“Magic words”
This is just a starting point -- the purpose is for this to transform over the Ritual, so you don’t need to feel like you must continually focus on it.
Change Direction
One of the best ways to mentally create a different space (“beginning the Ritual” or “inducing trance”) is by shifting your focus.
Your focus can be on:
Something external
A spot on the wall, a candle, a picture
Something internal
A thought, an emotion, a visualization, a memory
Your body (hybrid)
A part of your body, a feeling, a full-body “scan”
Experiment with shifting between different things and directions. When you shift, what changes? How does your perceptual experience change? Even “checking in” on yourself has the effect of shifting your focus inwards.
This is one way to communicate to yourself that you’re creating your space; it is naturally hypnotic, and it is also a tool you can use as you move through the Ritual to change pace, broaden or narrow your awareness, and refocus.
Shoulders, Chest, and Breath
There is a lot that we say about the muscles in our neck and shoulders -- they are where we carry stress and tension; they are what literally support our head. Traditional hypnosis often contains themes of relaxation, and while that’s not at all necessary for trance or introspection, general bodily awareness (and manipulation) can help us feel like we’re in a different space.
Muscle tone and posture has an effect on breath, as well. Particularly, an opening of the chest and loosening of trapezius (neck/shoulder muscles) and pectorals (chest muscles) can make breathing feel easier and different.
You can focus on your body and imagine these muscles releasing, making small physical adjustments to see what feels good. In particular, think about not just these large muscles but all of the places that these muscles connect to smaller ones and the connective tissue. See what result that has on the way you feel generally and what your breath feels like.
Eyes, Lips, and Perception
Most of our sensory experience is centered in our head -- it’s where our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are. How we literally experience the world through our senses is one of the lenses through which we think and feel.
Another way of changing your space is to focus your bodily awareness on your eyes and lips and make microadjustments to see how that affects your perception. Relaxing your eyes -- allowing your eyelids to droop or flutter, closing your eyes, or softening your gaze -- is one of the most reliable ingredients in self hypnosis. Not only is this naturally a hypnotic feeling, but your visual field and perspective will literally change.
Experiment with this on other parts of your face as well. In particular, a person’s lips, mouth, and tongue are one of the most intimate parts of a person, and allowing those muscles to slacken can create a hypnotic shift.
Ask Questions
You can drive your thoughts by posing questions. Questions beg an answer, but this practice isn’t about finding the objective truth -- it’s about the subjective. Your questions may be answered with more questions, and that’s valuable, too.
You can think of this as a way to fill out more of your understanding of your feelings about your Intention; think about questions that focus on your relationship with your Intention. Here are some examples:
“What does this image/sound/word/concept mean to me?”
“How does it make me feel to think about this?”
“What is associated with this?”
“How are my thoughts changing about this?”
“Who am I in relation to this?”
“What is this teaching me?”
Sometimes you may have a gut feeling instantly, and sometimes you may need to give yourself a few moments to discover an answer. Your answers may be in the form of words, abstract ideas, feelings, emotions, visualizations, or something else. Look at this as an exploration or a conversation -- your answers are opportunities to ask more questions.
You can also pose your questions differently to get different answers. For example, you could ask:
Your whole and conscious self
A metaphorical “part” of yourself
A metaphorical part “outside” of yourself
Transform
Bringing thoughts into awareness necessarily transforms them, and learning to notice how your thoughts naturally evolve is part of this skill. But there are ways that we can drive this transformation ourselves.
There is a concept in hypnosis called “submodalities.” This describes the process of assigning sensory qualities to a thought, memory, or behavior, and then intentionally changing those sensory qualities and noticing the resulting change.
For example, if you are thinking about an image, that image may have qualities of color, brightness/darkness, vividness/fuzziness, size, or etc. If you consciously “adjust the sliders” on those qualities, you have an opportunity to see how that changes the way you think and feel about the underlying concept.
Here are a few potential sensory qualities you can transform:
Visual
Distance/location
Size
Motion/stillness
Vivid/fuzzy
Bright/dark
Auditory
Distance/location
Volume
Motion/stillness
Vivid/fuzzy
Pitch
Kinesthetic
Distance/location
Intensity
Motion/stillness
Vivid/fuzzy
Texture
For abstract thoughts, you can experiment with assigning or discovering sensory experiences with them. If you are thinking about a general concept, explore and see if you can imagine an image, sound/words, or notice what your body feels when you think about it (remember that emotions are connected to physical experience as well).
Mix and match, too -- is there a verbal experience in an image? Is there a visual experience in physical sensations?
Silence and Acknowledgement
While a “blank” mind is both classically difficult to achieve and not exactly what we’re looking for with introspection, you can incorporate silence into your practice as a way to sway your focus.
There is a term in hypnosis called “fractionation” which refers to the practice of shifting between two states, feelings, or other effects in order to emphasize one or both of them. For example, if you cycle between “in trance” and “awake,” the feelings of trance tend to grow stronger (and this can be done for the opposite effect as well).
Something you can play with is the exercise of very consciously acknowledging the thoughts you’re having, and then abruptly “cutting yourself off” or stopping your internal monologue. This is an easy way to get a split second of mental silence -- you’re not looking for a long period of time, just a moment.
You can explore various things in this space. You can see what happens if you let your thoughts come back naturally, you can direct your thoughts to a different idea or course, you can try to notice what that silence feels like. This is a great tool to refocus if your inner monologue is feeling unwieldy.
If you do this multiple times, what happens? What gets emphasized?
End the Ritual
Traditionally, we think of an “awakening” from trance in hypnosis. Trance isn’t the focus of this experience but it is likely happening anyways, so we want to think about reorienting ourselves back to our reality.
It is not uncommon to feel a little “off,” “fuzzy,” or otherwise “different” after self-hypnosis, meditation, or anything similar. After this and your writing, give yourself time to relax and return to baseline, drink a glass of water or eat something, and generally express some care for yourself.
Say “thank you”
Expressing gratitude helps express the completion of something, and engaging in a ritual isn’t an easy task. You can thank yourself for setting time aside to make some discoveries, or you can thank metaphorical parts of yourself or parts outside.
Relax your focus and do something else
While trance and introspection can involve intense outward focus, reacknowledging the world around you is a way to orient yourself back to you. Shift your focus and “relax” it. You can move your body, stretch, and go on to do something else (such as your writing).
Post Ritual and Writing
Now is the time to write. It can be as long or as short as you like (though keep in mind that with a practice like this, it’s natural to start long and then taper off through the days -- that doesn’t imply a lack of motivation).
You can express whatever you’d like about what you experienced and what you’re thinking about. If you can, writing close to your Ritual can help you remember details -- but, there is value in the things that you can’t remember. You shouldn’t feel the need to note down everything, as it’s both magical to forget (a secret being kept from yourself) and often too painstaking to reproduce a full 15-30 minutes of thought.
Here are some potential questions to answer:
What do you remember? Are there things you don’t remember?
Can you identify any themes that were present?
Were there any interesting symbols?
How does expressing your memories transform them?
What is your favorite thing that you thought or happened?
What ideas do you want to explore next time?
If you appreciate structure, you can write based on a theme or prompt for each day, either introspective or microfiction. Here are some examples:
Day 1: What is above
Day 2: What is below
Day 3: What is inside
Day 4: What is outside
Day 5: What is magical
Day 6: What is mundane
You can also use your Intention focus/themes to use as your prompts.
Experiment to see what and how you want to communicate -- there’s no singular “right” way to do this.
The End…?
The last step in this practice is a final writing. You can do this directly after the last Ritual writing, or you can give yourself a day to process. You should review the writings you’ve done thus far and see how your thoughts, Intention, and experience has evolved over the Rituals.
It is recommended that you answer the question: “What is one major thing that I discovered?” or “If this was a story, what is the major takeaway from it?”
Here are some more questions you can think about:
Were there any common themes or experiences?
Was there anything that left you with questions?
How did your Intention change?
If you’re writing microfiction, you may want to write something that follows the thematic structure of your experience—how would you represent the peaks and valleys of your own story?
At the very end, you may want to write, “Thank you” to yourself.
Endnotes
Hypnotic Skill-Building
Getting “better” as a hypnotic subject is about having more intense experiences. This improvement comes broadly in three parts: 1) exploring spontaneity, 2) getting comfortable with our thoughts, and 3) analysis of, familiarity with, and reframing of our process.
Spontaneity
The unexpected is inherent to hypnosis -- it is one of its defining qualities. The mind is incredible and unpredictable, and when you dig into it, things will happen that you can’t predict. Thinking or imagining things you don’t expect; having responses that are subtly or largely different than what you anticipated; discovering interesting things.
Gaining comfort/familiarity with this concept is important. So is the muscle memory of noticing when it happens and allowing it more. This is often where the real magic of hypnosis is, and it’s something you can explore on your own.
Our thoughts
Thinking is often considered to be a bad thing in hypnosis. Not only is this wrong, it is completely the opposite case -- thinking during trance can produce changes in our experience and how we conceptualize things in a very positive way.
Our process
Building specific skills in hypnosis can take many forms, but introspection about what we’re feeling is an invaluable tool. Identifying the aspects of our experiences that are changed allows us to pay them more attention, intensify them, and subtly train our process to broaden them.
Any change in our cognition affects our experience and capabilities. Even entertaining the idea of a suggestion causes us to parse through it and imagine it. Hypnotic responses can feel subtle at first, or not quite what you expect, but you’re encouraged to broaden your awareness of what is changing. Simple awareness can make a response feel bigger.
Learning the bits and pieces of responses that feel like success is an opportunity to develop habits around them -- you learn what exactly you’re doing and feeling that feels good. Consciously repeating these things leads to them becoming more unconscious skills.
How to Transform this Material
The beauty of an exercise like this is that there are elements that play well with our other skills and hobbies. Having a meditative practice in general is a mentally healthy thing and helps us get better at hypnosis and magic.
You’re encouraged to play around and see how you can change your Rituals and writings. Here are some other ways you could use these techniques and this framework:
Tarot exploration (pull one card per day to focus your ritual on)
Precursor to spellcasting (ritualize your intent before magic work)
Sensuality (explore physical pleasure in conjunction with ritual)
Addition to yoga or other physical practice (how bodily motion and awareness changes the internal)
Partnered or guided practice (how this could work with traditional hypnotist/subject roles)
Regular meditation (using aspects of this to have a meditative practice at other times)
