Thresholds
The Sleeping City
Walk a whole city at four in the morning while it dreams, and feel unexpectedly tender toward every stranger in it.
This is a walk through a metropolis in the small hours when the roads are empty and the traffic lights change for no one.
You stroll past quiet buildings and sleeping streets while the narration holds a soft focus on the strangers indoors. It asks nothing from you but to keep walking and notice the stillness.
A walk through the city at four in the morning when the streets are empty and the lights are still on.
You move through the quiet blocks without needing to be anywhere, and the buildings are just shapes against the sky. Nothing here is rushing or demanding, and the pavement is wide enough for you to take it slowly.
What’s in it
A walk through a sleeping city, and a quiet compassion for its inhabitants.
Why do it
The city at night is a place of contrasts and anonymity, which can help soften and soothe the mind.
- Category
- Thresholds
- Depths
- ShortMediumLongUltra
- Lengths
- about 5m12m22m40m
- Ends
- Calm and present
- Stages
- 4
- Written
- For Intropi, originally
Timeline: Start to Finish
The standard-length build, block by block — the real sequence the app assembles, described rather than spoken.
3 of the 4 stages are named techniques with a published origin, credited under each.
-
InductionStage 16 min
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A classic head-to-toe relaxation. Tense and release, or simply soften, each muscle group in sequence.
After Edmund Jacobson PMR (1929); Dave Elman Hypnotherapy · what progressive muscle relaxation is
-
DeepenerStage 23 min
Staircase Descent
Visualized stairs descending into a deeper level of trance. Each step takes you down.
After Ledochowski, Deep Trance Training Manual
-
JourneyStage 3about 12 min
The Sleeping City
Walk a whole city at four in the morning while it dreams, and feel unexpectedly tender toward every stranger in it.
-
AwakeningStage 42 min
Calm Alert Awakening
Awake and present, but calm rather than energized. Good for evening or pre-meeting use.
After Yapko, Trancework
Where it sits
Liminal places that carry their own rhythm: a night train, the deep ocean, one bell fading, the middle of a crossing.
Why going here does anything
Seeing a place usually so busy now standing still gives the mind a very simple task, and having just one thing to look at allows other noise to settle.
The session spends its time on the feeling of unexpected tenderness that comes from seeing a whole city of strangers asleep. It is a gentle way to let the mind soften without asking it to try.
Before you press play
- 18+. Age floor set in the catalogue, not by us on the day.
Hypnosis is not for everyone. If you have epilepsy, a psychotic illness, or you are under psychiatric care, talk to your clinician before using this — here or anywhere.
More in Thresholds
Listen free
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