Sleep magick can be defined as any kind of magick which takes place at some point during the sleeping process. We refer to sleep as a process because it has several stages, and some are more conducive to magickal work than others.
The process begins in the waking state, when you settle down in bed and close your eyes. After that comes the hypnagogic state, when the body is completely as rest and the mind is quiet. Here the brain is in a rather creative phase, and this is where the person falling asleep may experience dream-like imagery and feelings. This creative phase then gives way to sleep itself, and then to a state of deep dreamless sleep.
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If you were to look at the output of an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine during this transition from wakefulness to the edge of sleep, you would see brain wave patterns shifting from a beta frequency (14 to 40Hz) to alpha (7.5 to 14Hz), to theta (4 to 7.5Hz) and then to delta (0.5 to 4Hz). The range 7 to 8Hz – which can also be reached via deep relaxation and meditation – is particularly useful for the practice of visualisation magick, dream programming and astral projection.
One simple way of working sleep magick was made famous by New Thought author and speaker Neville Goddard, who lectured from 1938 until his death in 1972. Goddard’s approach to sleep magick was as follows:
1 – First, define your objective by determining exactly what you want. Define this objective as clearly and precisely as you can.
2 – Every night, as you fall asleep, imagine a scenario in which your objective has already been achieved, and make sure that the achievement of your objective is in the past. For example, if you want a promotion at work, you might imagine someone congratulating you on hearing news of your promotion.
3 – Pay attention to your feelings as you imagine this scenario and try to ‘feel it real’ by making it feel as real as possible. Feel as if your promotion has already been achieved.
4 – Maintain this feeling of your objective already having been achieved until you slip into sleep.
This is a simple but very powerful technique, and it is just as effective today as it was when Goddard was lecturing about such things more than 40 years ago. To illustrate, Shane Missler, who is 20, recently became the fourth biggest lottery winner in the USA by winning a Mega Millions jackpot worth $451 million. Prior to that win, Missler posted several times on his Facebook page that he was using Neville Goddard’s techniques to try and win the lottery.
A collection of Neville Goddard’s most important writings can be found in The Power of Imagination. Goddard used a lot of Christian language to explain his techniques, but he had a refreshingly metaphorical view of the Bible and was really practicing a form of magick, not religion. Indeed, The Power of Imagination, which is a volume of almost 600 pages, begins with a portrait of Goddard that was written by respected occultist Israel Regardie, who wrote: ‘Of all the metaphysical systems with which I am acquainted, Neville’s is the most evidently magical.’
We would encourage you to give Neville Goddard’s method of sleep magick some serious consideration and see if it can’t work for you in just the same way as it has worked for many others.