PART I
How to Understand Yourself

6.TRANSITIONAL SLEEP

When you are wide-awake you are conscious; when you are asleep you are unconscious. The bridge between, or the twilight area of transition spanning these two states of mind, is called the transitional-sleep state. You are familiar with this drowsy condi­tion, for you pass through it each night as you fall asleep and again each morning when you awaken. By comparing transi­tional sleep, first with the waking consciousness and then with natural sleep, its true nature will be perceived. During our waking state, the conscious mind is busy evaluating, analyzing, and rationalizing thoughts and attitudes as well as forming opin­ions of the action and emotional stimuli that surround us. Noises are disturbing to most of us during the waking state, and it is difficult to read or concentrate with the radio blaring, or when traffic noise interrupts our train of thought. The conscious mind is the censor, and it attempts to evaluate each impression before its approval is given. Often when trying to think out a particular problem, stray thoughts and irrelevant ideas flit in and out of our minds and confuse our thinking, because we are unable to concentrate upon more than one thing at a time. Our optimum conscious awareness would then be the whole of our attention focused on any one thing at any one time, to the complete ex­clusion of all noises or other stimuli. During natural sleep the conscious mind, or censor, has receded; it is unconscious and not attempting to analyze. The subconscious, during natural sleep, slows down its operation to the minimum requirements of the relaxed body. While in the state of normal sleep (uncon­scious ), all information is recorded, but this information will not be available to the consciousness when one is awake because it was recorded below the level of subconscious perception.

It is easier to control subconscious perception, when we un­derstand what occurs in the human mind as the waking con­sciousness blends into natural unconscious sleep. First, the con­scious mind begins to recede from its alert position. As the body relaxes and tensions diminish, the conscious mind relaxes still further, until the attention is temporarily in abeyance; it is not focusing on nor thinking of any particular thing. This is the state between natural sleep and the waking state, the transitional-sleep state. At this point the conscious mind is submerging in prepara­tion for rest, and the subconscious is advancing to take full responsibility of the body during the hours of sleep. The two minds for this short period of time are in closer accord than at any other time. They might be likened to ships that pass in the night, in sight of each other briefly, then moving on, each follow­ing its own path and performing its own task. It is this temporary though close mergence of the two minds of man that makes transitional sleep the powerful medium it is.

Contact with the inner mind cannot be made by force or an act of will, in fact, the exact opposite is true. The combina­tion of a passive mind freed from extraneous thoughts and a body free from tension and stress are primary requisites for contacting the power within. Millions, however, do receive glimpses or impressions from the inner mind. Few people without training are able to catch more than a fleeting glimpse of this area of the mind, even though they normally pass its portals at least twice each day. Much like the speeding express, we glide by the stations of the inner mind as we commute between consciousness and deep unconscious sleep.

Although channels of awareness and power are awaiting our acknowledgment along this route, without training or control we can do little more than glimpse this area in passing. To one person the transitional-sleep state suggests a dreamlike tran­quillity; to another, those last few seconds prior to sleep reflect an innate sense of timelessness. One of our students phrased it this way: "It seems as though my first thoughts upon awakening have a clarity and keenness and depth of knowingness that transcend my normal reasoning qualities," she said. Still others awaken from slumber to recall dreams depicting strange and interesting events.

If the sleep has been sound, only the end of the dream, like a final scene from a play, will be recalled as consciousness returns. Thousands of people have discovered that ofttimes answers to perplexing problems, so elusive during the day, will appear suddenly at this twilight period of sleep.

Many inventors rely upon the transitional-sleep state for their inspiration. You have experienced flashes of genius. Everyone, at one time or another, receives impressions from the inner mind that he cannot explain. It may be an intuitive hunch such as anticipating someone's telephone call or someone's thoughts; or a strange feeling of foreboding prior to hearing bad news; or perhaps a lucky decision or a break of an important nature. Some receive such impressions often, others seldom, but such experiences are universal in scope and vary only in frequency and degree. This information is received from the inner mind in a flash due to momentary cessation of conscious thoughts, for when the mind is stilled truth from within flashes through. Many of us accept these things as a coincidence or as a matter of course, and we attach little significance to them. Others are more deeply impressed. They wonder how they receive these flashes of wisdom, and why they are unable to summon them at will. Such experiences do furnish irrefutable proof of the inner intelligence, but they have little value. To quote one man. "You cannot depend upon the sudden hunch or the intuitive flash of knowledge, for its occurrence is unpredictable." Yes, sporadic evidence reaches us all, but without training or direc­tion the nature of mind power is rarely understood.

A person in transitional sleep is highly sensitive to suggestion. It is at this level of mental and physical relaxation that forgotten memories may be recalled. To most, the transitional state sug­gests sleep even though its levels differ from unconscious night­time sleep. Of course, one who is in the transitional state is deeply relaxed and does give the appearance of being sound asleep, so for easy identification we refer to this bridge between consciousness and sound sleep as the transitional-sleep state.

TRANSITIONAL SLEEP VS. HYPNOSIS

The question often arises: What is the difference between hypnosis and transitional sleep? The difference is mainly tech­nical and deals with induction and administration, for if it can be achieved with hypnosis it can be accomplished with ease and equal precision through transitional-sleep methods. Hypnosis has contributed much to the development of transitional sleep, because it was necessary to determine how negative concepts are accepted by the subconscious and how to develop the most efficient suggestive techniques for the removal of these negative concepts. Also it was essential to find the simplest method for changing destructive habits of action and taste.

Habits are formed by the repetition of thoughts and actions. The more we follow a set course, the more difficult it becomes to change. As human beings, are we truly self-determined crea­tures? Few of us are. When we are honest, most of us admit that our habits and attitudes lead us around by our noses, with little consideration for health or peace of mind. The person with one hundred pounds too many is the unhappy victim of a de­manding appetite. The chronic smoker, the narcotics addict, and the alcoholic have one thing in common: their habits are too strong for their conscious will to change. Of course, people dis­like very much to admit this. The nervous, incessant smoker with the rasping cough and trembling hands, will insist he could stop smoking if he really tried. Thousands of people eat them­selves into their graves prematurely each year. Those with un­controllable appetites have repeated many times that they could have dieted successfully if they had really tried, but could they? To save face, we must pretend we are killing ourselves from choice, for no one cares to admit being pushed around, even by his own habits!

Our personality patterns also become solid structures through repetitive action. Stuttering and other speech defects, if they have no pathological cause, become fixed habits due to repetition and the mechanics of doubt. The stutterer may be able to speak distinctly when alone, but in the presence of others he doubts bis ability and fear renders him inarticulate. Even failure can become a habit; so can stage fright, feelings of insecurity, and ill-health. The human personality is really a vast, integrated net­work, a series of habit patterns originating from concepts ac­cepted and developed from past memories and experiences.

Adverse habits yield under transitional sleep as they do under hypnosis, when the subject is properly conditioned, when ap­propriate concepts are planted, and when adequate repetition of suggestions are given. Undesirable habits and attitudes are strengthened each time we attempt to control them and fail. The fear of failure jeopardizes future efforts to control habits. The existence of doubt restricts full expression of our best qual­ities and our most desirable habits.

A powerful new car cannot operate with the brake on; neither can positive expression be realized when its force is re­stricted by the negative effects of doubt. There is nothing wrong with the car; release the brake and it moves forward. Doubt is accumulated disbelief, and when it is reduced belief expands to take its place. Remove the accumulation of doubt and the personality, released from its bonds, reaches positive expression. Doubt is most effectively reduced with transitional-sleep meth­ods via recorded sound. Appropriate concepts planted in the subconscious at the proper level of transitional sleep and repeti­tively administered will erase doubt.

Through electronic instrumentation the precise depth of re­laxation for optimum subconscious awareness has been deter­mined. Hypnotic processes opened the doors not only to sleep education, but to the revolutionary transitional-sleep method of self-realization as well. Countless experiments and tests have been made to determine the power of suggestions (concepts) made during transitional sleep. Techniques were evolved from these experiments. During the research in the control of nervous tension, several types of suggestive techniques were used. Their respective results were evaluated, and from the final tests stand­ard tension-control recordings were made.

Through the years, many programs dealing with memory, rehabilitation of attitudes, motivation, habit control, and other vital phases of personality have been tested and proved. It would be physically impossible to duplicate with hypnosis the marvelous results obtainable today through transitional sleep. Should a skilled hypnotherapist be available, the price alone for such lengthy professional services would be prohibitive. Transitional sleep prerecorded courses are tested and coordinated to produce calculated results in the privacy of one's own home without the need for professional guidance.

We no longer look upon the wonderful benefits of transitional sleep as miraculous. After viewing the unusual long enough, it ceases to be strange and becomes the expected. A man with a twenty-year history of high blood pressure reported that his blood pressure went back to normal in a matter of days. A young mother who was in constant pain from a duodenal ulcer and faced extensive surgery found swift relief through transitional sleep, and recovered completely without surgery. An overweight woman gained the needed will power to lose forty pounds. An­other woman was able to pass a difficult test and received a long-coveted foreign assignment by improving her powers of atten­tion, concentration, and memory, with nothing but transitional-sleep tapes.

Are these miracles? Perhaps they only seem so due to the ease and simplicity of accomplishment, or by comparing transi­tional sleep with the slower, more laborious methods of the past. Through the benefits of transitional sleep, you would be in charge of all subconscious habits, with the power to change them immediately if you so desired. Pain would be under your con­scious control and you could, if you wished, eliminate it by an action of will. You would never be bothered with nervous tension, for you would be able to erase fear and its devastating aspects without effort. You would not take over the duties of the subconscious but, like a benevolent executive, intervene when and if the occasion demanded. When we are only 10 per cent conscious we are in the embarrassing position of command­ing our lives in name only, without the necessary power to en­force our decisions. We strive to remember something, we try unsuccessfully to control fear, to stop smoking, to govern our appetite or other unwanted habits and often discover the power of the habit is stronger than the conscious will.

Do not be too critical of your will power merely because you have failed to control a habit, banish fear, or change an attitude of long standing that displeases you. Remember, you are pitting your 10 per cent conscious will against the all-power­ful subconscious with a strength nearly ten times as great. What is the answer, then? Certainly cooperation of the subconscious does not often occur as a result of direct force. While the inner mind is powerful and has all knowledge at its disposal, it does not have the capacity to think analytically as does the conscious mind. Like a simple giant, your subconscious will work for you just as persistently as it will oppose you, but force is not the answer. Certain areas of the subconscious have a strange quality of aloofness. They are rarely accessible to us when we are awake and can only be contacted when consciousness is stilled.

During deep relaxation, under hypnosis or transitional sleep, vast areas of the subconscious become directly influenced by the consciousness taking unto itself additional powers during the process.

There still exists much confusion concerning the mind, its forces, and its functions. The Perception Chart should help one better to understand the levels of perception and awareness and the powers of the human mind.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here….