Here’s a great exercise to sharpen your mind

Sometimes I tell people it is zapped from a spaceship circling Earth, which will one day take me back to my own planet, orbiting the star Electra in the Pleiades cluster.

Outside, the chaotic city is swarming, but here you are in a oasis of calm. The staff smile and bow as you pass. Wealthy guests glance up respectfully at you. You walk to the lift. An attendant in spotless livery holds the door for you. That attendant is me! I gaze straight into your eyes, and say: “This elevator will carry your mind to a high pinnacle of focus and clarity. We will be riding up a towering spire, soaring above the clouds, to where the sky is always clear and the air is like a draught of icy, fresh water. Will you step inside’’
You walk into the lift and, as I close the doors, you note the rich wood panelling, the deep carpet, the shining crystal panes in the doors. Then I press the button. An orange counter lights up above the door. You hear me say softly and with complete authority: “At each floor, you will become twice as focused as you were before.” You trust my voice: “Going up! 1…
2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10!” The door slides open. Bright light pours on you and all around. Crisp air fills your lungs as you inhale deeply. You hear me say: “Your mind is perfectly alert… Your thoughts are clear and focused… You are suffused with lightness and energy… When you step out of the door you will be back in your own world, and all through the day you will feel alert, clear, focused, light, energetic. You are at your peak!” This daydream really is hypnotic. You’re using the power of your own mind to hypnotise yourself.

Psychologists call that count-up from 1 to 10 a ‘deepener’. It puts the subject into a deeper state of trance. Think of a psychiatrist in a black-and-white B-movie. In an Austrian accent, he intones: “You are feeling sleepy… much sleepier… in a deep sleep … deep, deep sleep.” Each phrase is a deepener, leading to a more profound level of relaxation.