If the Fourfold Breath does not lull you to sleep, you can try this self-hypnosis technique.

• After you’re in a comfortable place, beginning to relax, close your eyes and imagine yourself in an agreeable setting.
• Now, start to talk to yourself internally, sort of like a voice-over for a film you’re creating in your mind. The key is to use the phrase: “And now.” Speak just as a hypnotist might speak.
• “And now I’m on a beach . . .”
• “And now I’m wading in the surf . . .”
• “And now I hear a seagull overhead . . .”
• Your voice-over should be very slow, monotone, the way you would sound if you were drifting off to sleep.

I still use this technique now, even as my sleep has gotten better. It’s just a fun way to relax, and I can envision places and events I want to manifest in my life. Thoughts turn into beliefs and beliefs become reality if enough energy is being put into them.

Coming to bed one night, I didn’t realize Damien was half asleep, and I thought I woke him up. I apologized, but he just smiled and said, “That’s okay, I wasn’t asleep, I was walking through Soho, looking at all the places I love and miss.”

I laughed, not knowing that as we lay in bed at night, we were having our own private journeys, traipsing about in our minds.

It turns out to be a wonderful way to fall asleep, but it also enhances your ability to visualize. The more detail you put into your imagined environment, the better. For example, notice the cobblestones you’re walking on, the color of a door, or what’s in a shop window. As you walk, feel the coolness of a breeze, or the warmth of the sun. Notice the smell of fresh bread as you walk past a bakery. The more you involve your senses, the better. Feel every sensation as if you are actually there, in this place, whether it be the beach, a mountain, or your grandmother’s garden.

In one of my favorite books, Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar, two characters are trying to navigate a meeting in their dreams—to actually dream the same dream together.

Damien doesn’t know it, but I plan on surprising him on one of his etheric explorations of Prague.