SELF HYPNOSIS LESSON 20
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      Penelope's Cave

      Goal
      To each one to experience adventures that happened to someone else-either
      a real person or an imaginary one. In this exercise the someone else is a
      young girl, Penelope, who goes to explore a cave.

      Time
      At least fifteen to twenty minutes should be allowed for this exercise.
      Those who wish may linger in the cave for a longer time.

      Preparation

      Close your eyes and enter your altered state of consciousness by means of
      relaxation suggestions. As you go deeper and deeper, see yourself on a
      hot summer day in the country. In the distance you see the figure of a
      young girl-Penelope.

      The Exercise

      Visualize Penelope as clearly as you can, getting in close to her,
      focusing on her face. Picture yourself tracing her features with the
      fingers of your right hand, passing them lightly over her forehead, eyes,
      nose, and lips. Now lift your hand to your own face, and feel the shape
      of her forehead on yours, the shape of her eyes, her nose, and her lips.
      See how alike they feel; they could belong to the same face; they are the
      same face-your face; you are going to live her life for a while.

      You are sitting on a river bank now. Feel the stillness of the hot summer
      afternoon as you sit there. It is so quiet-so still that everything in
      you is hushed in response. Close your eyes to savor this peace, this
      silence. It is quite hot, but you know that there is also shade and
      coolness here, the coolness of a nearby cave. As you think about the
      cave, it seems to come toward you, behind your closed lids; and the
      closer it comes, the more inviting it is...Now it stops in front of you,
      inviting you to enter.

      How cool it is inside. A narrow path leads into the depth ot the
      mountain. It meanders downhill, very gently, very gradually becoming a
      little steeper as you become accustomed to the dim light, to the
      coolness, the peacefulness. Now the path is becoming smoother and
      smoother, and walking requires less and less effort. And you know that
      soon, very soon now, it will cease being a path altogether; you will not
      have to walk at all any more, but will be able to float down comfortably,
      enjoyably, effortlessly, down to the depths of the cave waiting to
      receive you.

      Now you feel yourself beginning to float, hardly aware of the transition
      from walking. It is a warm, secure, happy feeling to descend like this,
      cradled on a soft pillow of air, watching the scenery go by as you float
      deeper and deeper.

      And now that the burden of walking has been lifted from you, you have time
      to see the walls of this cave.  As you look around this tunnel through
      which you are floating, the walls are lined with pictures.  The scenes are
      very familiar, and gradually you realize that they depict scenes from
      your childhood, recalling your happiest memories.  And as you continue to
      float down, the pictures of your happy memories accompany you down the
      corridor of time, back through the years of your childhood, year by year.
      Whenever you wish, you may slow down to examine a picture at leisure, and
      continue to float when you are ready.

      Now you have found a picture at which you want to stop.  You have stopped
      now, and are examining it, seeing it in all its vividness of color, all
      its detail.  And as you absorb these colors and these details, you also
      absorb the feeling of happiness you experienced when you first
      encountered that scene as a child.  The happiness penetrates you, until
      it encompasses and fills your whole mind. And you know that this
      feeling of happiness, of well-being, will remain with you, even as you
      float back up, slowly, effortlessly, past the earlier pictures, all the
      way back up to the path. Now you retrace that path, leading smoothly
      upward, outward, toward the sunlight which you begin to see in the
      distance. Now the light comes closer, grows brighter, and you begin to
      feel the warmth and the stillness of the summer day again. You come
      closer and closer to the mouth of the cave, and now you are outside
      once again, out in the daylight again, but with the happiness of your
      past memories alive within you. Without losing any of the happiness
      any of the memories, separate yourself mentally from one to three, and
      then quietly open your eyes in the present again.