The Path To Sleep, Exercises for an Ancient Skill: Hypnotic training in the neurology, psychology & physiology of sleep

The Path To Sleep consists of written and spoken words. It contains a series of twenty-four guided visualizations—that you can download from the internet—that carry you in thought, image, rhythm, and frequency into a range of other states of mind. These are not simply different ideas or perspectives, they are different realities. You are a different person in these different states. Many people—especially those with sleep dysfunctions—do not, are rarely, or cannot even imagine being someone other than who they are. This makes the work in this book especially difficult or confusing for the very people who need this work the most.

If you find yourself becoming lost or confused, that's exactly where you should be! Let the material unfold without your guidance and control. Learning to intentionally let go is a prerequisite for allowing your identity to dissolve, which is what sleep essentially is. Sleep is a form of metamorphosis you cannot control. You must let go of all that you are and create a completely empty space for other selves to arise.

The Path To Sleep presumes no knowledge on the readers part, and does not require you to understand or remember any of the information it presents. Its works to improve your sleep through reforming your control of your thinking, leading you to less control and more flexibility. You cannot achieve this by trying, just as you cannot fall asleep by trying. Falling asleep, staying asleep, and experiencing the material in this book all require that you merge into a different state of mind. The book presents exercises to develop and strengthen this ability, and as your mental abilities improve, so will your patterns of sleep.

This book—it is actually a training tool—views sleep as an activity controlled by your higher mind. Your higher mind is an elusive thing that resides in all things connected to you, sometimes conscious and cerebral, but more often chthonic, celestial, implicate, or ancestral. It is always present and listening, but hears many voices besides your own. Many you would not recognize as having any language at all, such as your body.

This book speaks to your higher mind, and that’s why it should be read to you. Do not struggle to understand the material in this book and—to a large extent—I do not want you to understand it.

This work trains your subconscious. You must be able to lose consciousness in it. Your consciousness exists to orient you, but it cannot perform healing. The limitations of your understanding are the sources of your problem; you cannot fix these limitations, you must move beyond them.

Your consciousness has brought you to this book, but it cannot learn what is in it. This book is best understood when you are in a trance state and your conscious mind is relieved. In this state your sensible mind is free to leave, and you will not mind this book, which works to avoid making sense.

Those who need this book the most may find it makes no sense. In that case, do not try to understand it, experience it. Experience yourself in terms of rhythm, frequency, and resonance. This is the consciousness you need for sleep. — from the Preface of Path to Sleep

Lincoln Stoller has published work as a physicist, astronomer, statistician, biologist, neurophysiologist, neurofeedback therapist, psychologist, hypnotherapist, computer scientist, software architect, anthropologist, mountaineer, and educator. He holds a PhD in quantum physics from the University of Texas, hypnotherapy certifications from ICBCH and IMDHA. He holds the patent for a business accounting system, and has twenty-five years experience in the system's design, implementation, and support. He is an assessing editor at the Journal of Mind and Behavior, and is currently in private practice as hypnotherapist specializing in medical support, sleep enhancement, executive coaching, spiritual guidance, and business psychology. "The Path To Sleep" continues his work in mind-body health, psychology, meditation, trance states, and other forms of control and self-awareness. It combines his experience in mindfulness, shamanism, education, and mental health. Sleep requires relaxing into an unique state of mind; a complete release beyond what's comfortable for most of us. It is a state that our body requires and our ego resists. Those of us who are especially resistant achieve a destructive compromise by creating chronic states of insomnia. Sleep is not a chemical or mechanical condition that can be remediated using drugs or medical intervention. It is a state of consciousness that can be learned. It is a state that's increasingly unavailable to those of us who are out of touch with our natural rhythms. "The Path To Sleep" aims directly at reestablishing these natural rhythms. This is not a logical process; it does not "make sense." Re-learning mind-body integration is not only important for sleep, it is important in master all systems of your body for the purpose of regaining physical health, understanding life, and achieving longevity. For more information see: www.mindstrengthbalance.com