Within the Wires: Relaxation Cassette #3

Speaker 1 and I don't just write Welcome to Nightville, we also write books that are not about Nightville, and here are some of them.

Speaker 1 Alice Isn't Dead, a lesbian road trip horror love story for fans of Stephen King.

Speaker 1 The Halloween Moon, my book for kids of any age about a Halloween where things really start to get weird for everyone.

Speaker 1 The First 10 Years, a memoir from me and my wife about our relationship told year by year without consulting each other about our differences in memory.

Speaker 1 And from Jeffrey, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, an apocalyptic novel that takes place in the same universe as the Within the Wires podcast.

Speaker 1 No matter what you're looking for, we've written a book just for you. Find them where you find books.
Okay, bye.

Speaker 5 If you're dying for the next batch of Wednesday Season 2 to drop on Netflix, then I'll let you in on a secret. The Wednesday Season 2 official wocast is already here.

Speaker 5 Dive deeper into the mysteries of Wednesday with the Ultimate Companion Video Podcast.

Speaker 4 Join the frightfully funny Caitlin Riley, along with her producer, Thing, as she sits down with the cast and crew.

Speaker 4 Together, they'll unravel each shocking twist, dissect the dynamics lurking beneath, unearth Adam's family lore, and answer all of your lingering questions.

Speaker 4 Guests include Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Hunter Doohan, Steve Buscemi, Fred Armison, Catherine Zeta Jones, the Joanna Lumley, also show creators Al Goh and Miles Miller, and of course Wednesday herself, Jenna Ortega, plus many, many more.

Speaker 7 With eight delightfully dark episodes to devour, you'll be drawn into the haunting halls of Nevermore Academy deeper than ever before.

Speaker 5 But beware, you know where curiosity often leads. The Wednesday season 2 official wocast is available in audio and video on todoom.com or wherever it is you get your podcasts.

Speaker 12 Hi, it's Jeffrey Kraner again.

Speaker 13 This is episode 3 of our new podcast, Within the Wires, which runs every other Tuesday through October 25th.

Speaker 13 And since we're only putting putting the first three episodes of this 10-episode first season on the Welcome to Night Vale feed, this is the last one you will hear here unless you go over to iTunes and subscribe to Within the Wires directly.

Speaker 13 Also, a big thank you to Club W for supporting this episode of Within the Wires. Go to clubw.com/slash WTW.

Speaker 15 That's WTW, you know, the initials for Within the Wires.

Speaker 14 Simple stuff. And get a free bottle of wine when you become a member.

Speaker 11 And hey, we appreciate you.

Speaker 18 In this cassette, we will address insomnia. We will approach techniques to help you sleep at night.

Speaker 18 After listening to this tape, you will be able to spend your nights resting, sinking into forgotten dreams, instead of wandering about the Institute trying to open doors to places you are not permitted.

Speaker 18 You may use the cassettes in this relaxation study to help you in your everyday life, but perhaps wait until you have all of the information before acting out anything you thought you heard or understood on these tapes.

Speaker 18 No one has told you to act on anything you hear.

Speaker 18 Perhaps the Institute might find your insomnia alarming.

Speaker 18 And now we will begin cassette 3, side A. Plant your feet, wanderer.

Speaker 18 For this exercise, sit upright on a counter or bed, your back perpendicular to the ground. Make sure your feet do not touch the floor.

Speaker 18 Take off your standard issue slippers and relax your feet. Let them hang down, sloping gently toward the floor, your toes like stalactites.

Speaker 18 Now bring your feet up parallel to the ground, flexing from the ankles. Keep your back upright and relax your arms, your neck.

Speaker 18 Try to imagine your head is being pulled up by a string and your spine is dangling from it, weightless.

Speaker 18 Relax your feet.

Speaker 18 Let's add some breathing now.

Speaker 18 Breathe in through your mouth and lift your feet and toes into the air.

Speaker 18 Breathe out through your nose, letting your feet relax.

Speaker 18 Breathe in slowly, flexing your feet and toes as you inhale, letting them drop towards the floor as you exhale.

Speaker 18 Continue breathing

Speaker 18 and think about the bottoms of your feet, the shape of them,

Speaker 18 their curves, their soft wrinkled lines and hard dry heels.

Speaker 18 Breathing in and out,

Speaker 18 flexing up and down.

Speaker 18 Feel your shoes,

Speaker 19 simple blue canvas flats.

Speaker 18 You are not wearing them right now, but you remember what it feels like to wear them.

Speaker 18 They are the ones you brought with you to the Institute, currently in Lockbox 4C182, along with a faux leather wallet, cotton tote bag, a Sony Walkman, Susie and the Banshee's cassette tape, blue jeans, ankle socks, brazier, lavender t-shirt, striped sweater, tube of persimmon lipstick, and hairpin.

Speaker 18 Feel your shoes.

Speaker 18 Feel the grass and earth below them as you walk about a public park.

Speaker 18 As you flex your feet up and down,

Speaker 18 breathing in

Speaker 18 and out.

Speaker 18 Imagine a public park.

Speaker 18 The sun is shining. It is spring.
The ground is green and bright. There are people.
They have books, frisbees, frisbees, dogs, other people. Some are smoking and laughing.

Speaker 18 Some wear sunglasses and listen to music from portable radios. You are near the pond.

Speaker 18 There are no people in the pond, but there are geese. There are three geese in this pond.

Speaker 18 Imagine the pond.

Speaker 18 Picture the sun glinting off the ripples that cross its surface. Hear the water lapping against the bank.
It is not difficult for you to imagine the pond as you flex your feet, for you remember it.

Speaker 18 It is okay to remember this pond.

Speaker 18 You hear the beats of music across the park, in your periphery, distant others dancing with their heads to the ground and feet to the skies, spinning like bent drill bits.

Speaker 18 In front of you is a woman, slightly older than you.

Speaker 18 You say her name.

Speaker 18 She says your name.

Speaker 18 You both smile. You both hug.

Speaker 18 She has lines around her eyes and she is broader, taller than you. Her face is fuller but you know her nose.

Speaker 18 Does she see her eyelines, her nose, on your face? Does she see you for who you are?

Speaker 18 Do you see her for who she is?

Speaker 18 It is something to learn, isn't it?

Speaker 18 Continue flexing your feet, up, then down.

Speaker 18 Continue breathing, out,

Speaker 19 then in.

Speaker 18 Close your eyes.

Speaker 18 I promise you are alone.

Speaker 18 You are definitely alone this time. You weren't alone during the last cassette, even though I said you were, but you are now.
I promise.

Speaker 18 Imagine you are in a park, in the spring, near a pond, with a woman. There are three geese on the pond.

Speaker 18 Imagine the dancers across the park in your periphery. You can hear the thumping of their music.

Speaker 18 You can just make out a crowd forming, waving their fists and cheering on the dancers with their switchblade legs and on-ramp haircuts. In the crowd you see two people.

Speaker 18 They are not moving.

Speaker 18 They are watching you.

Speaker 18 Watching her.

Speaker 18 They have sunglasses and cigarettes. They have books, but they are not reading.

Speaker 18 They have an unpleasant dog with them. All around them it is green and bright.

Speaker 18 They are neither smiling nor laughing.

Speaker 18 They look at you.

Speaker 18 From far away.

Speaker 18 In your periphery, where all you hear are the beats.

Speaker 18 Imagine the two people who do not move.

Speaker 18 Imagine what they must think. Imagine the work that goes into making frisbees and adopting dogs and recording music and allowing public dance spaces.

Speaker 18 Imagine all of the work people with sunglasses and cigarettes standing and cheering, smiling crowds, must do so that these crowds can cheer and smile,

Speaker 18 so they can holler and watch dancers spin and twist like unbalanced tops.

Speaker 18 Imagine being ten years and one day old, so fresh and new, so ready for learning and socialization.

Speaker 18 Imagine being a caretaker, separating the ten year olds and teaching them, allowing them to learn and love and live, giving them food as information, and art as nourishment.

Speaker 18 Imagine a history book, once burned and derided, now cared for and admired, cleaned and tidied, made nice for a new generation.

Speaker 18 Imagine a family tree, once clung to and revered, now pruned and clipped and picked at for its delicious fruit.

Speaker 18 Fruit does not return to trees.

Speaker 18 It becomes them.

Speaker 18 Continue flexing your feet,

Speaker 19 up,

Speaker 18 then down,

Speaker 18 breathing in,

Speaker 19 then out.

Speaker 18 Imagine the three geese.

Speaker 18 Imagine their feet.

Speaker 18 Orange, flat, wide, alternating flicks to keep them moving forward.

Speaker 18 Imagine what the geese see.

Speaker 18 Fish and water and possible predators. They see patterns of similar birds.

Speaker 18 They see you and they do not trust you, but they know they can get away if you turn on them. They know they can go to places in ways that you cannot follow.

Speaker 18 Imagine going to places in ways that others cannot follow.

Speaker 18 Imagine the two in the crowd.

Speaker 18 They are no longer in the crowd. They are elsewhere.
You cannot see them, but you know now that they are there.

Speaker 18 Were there

Speaker 18 You know now that they were there that day as you talked with her, laughed with her, talked about Susie and the Banshees with her, both of you drifting off into sunny naps with books across your chests.

Speaker 18 You know now that they were watching you. Imagine what the two must think, seeing the two of you with your similar lines about the eyes and similar noses.

Speaker 18 Imagine all the work that goes into into this park, this much sunshine, this much laughter, this many dogs and such great dancing.

Speaker 18 Imagine the work that goes into pruning a tree to protect the garden.

Speaker 18 Imagine what they must think seeing you and her.

Speaker 18 Imagine their curiosity as you lift your feet high, curling up your toes, breathing into your nostrils and under your scalp.

Speaker 18 Imagine their desire for knowledge as you lower your feet, relaxing your toes, breathing out through your mouth.

Speaker 18 Feel your feet in simple canvas shoes, shoes that are now in lockbox 4C182.

Speaker 18 Feel your feet on the grass and imagine how you know all of the things you know, all of the people you know.

Speaker 18 You may relax your feet and open your eyes. You are in your assigned room.
You are alone, just as I promised.

Speaker 18 Continue to breathe.

Speaker 18 You have completed your foot exercises. Before continuing to side B, take a moment to consider your favorite kinds of dance and how your hips make decisions.

Speaker 18 Explain body balance to your security nurse.

Speaker 18 In side A.

Speaker 12 I love good wine.

Speaker 14 I'm not an expert on the subject, I just love good wine.

Speaker 11 Sometimes we'll make dinner and have a nice bold red, or crack open a crisp rosé on a warm day with friends, or just relax on the patio at sunset with a chilly white.

Speaker 12 But standing in big aisles filled with label after label of wines I do not know is daunting.

Speaker 8 It's a tyranny of choice, and I have a hard time knowing what is what.

Speaker 11 And finding a good wine store to help me through that process is difficult.

Speaker 6 Do I like Pinot Noir?

Speaker 3 That guy in Sideways did, so maybe. How sweet is this Pinot Grisho?

Speaker 8 What's the difference between a Montepulciano and a Montalcino? Probably something cool that I won't understand or remember.

Speaker 6 With my membership in Club W, though, I don't have to worry about this.

Speaker 12 Club W is targeting a new generation of wine drinkers who want to do away with the pretense and simply enjoy reasonably priced great wine.

Speaker 12 There are a lot of inexpensive great wines, but you do need help finding them.

Speaker 6 Club W will do this for you.

Speaker 11 They have an ever-changing selection tailor-made for everyone's tastes.

Speaker 12 If I want to learn all the ins and outs of what a certain wine is like, where it's from, Club W gives me all of that.

Speaker 12 But if I want to skip this and just get great wine at great prices that I know have been expertly recommended, Club W can give me that too.

Speaker 12 The first thing they did when I signed up is give me a simple six-question palette profile quiz so they could tailor the best wines for me.

Speaker 12 And given how much I travel for work, welcome to Night Vale tours and all, Club W allows me to skip months anytime I won't be needing their service.

Speaker 8 Club W is offering Within the Wires listeners who are over 21 and live in the US a $20 credit plus free shipping on your first order of four bottles of wine.

Speaker 10 The price point for most of these wines is like $13, so by becoming a Club W member, you are getting your first bottle and the shipping for free.

Speaker 8 Based on Club W's recommendation, I've been enjoying a bottle of Ruse's 2015 White Zenfandel because it's summer and I'm trying to make White Zen cool again.

Speaker 2 It's not overly sweet, the nose is a little bit floral and tart, and the taste is smooth and even.

Speaker 12 It's cold and light, and Ruse's White Zenfandel was the perfect wine recommendation for a sunny weekend afternoon.

Speaker 6 To receive your $20 credit and free shipping on your first order, go to clubw.com slash WTW.

Speaker 14 Don't forget the slash WTW, the initials for Within the Wires, which is how you can support our show and get a great wine membership.

Speaker 10 That's clubw.com/slash WTW.

Speaker 11 And now, side B.

Speaker 11 Cassette 3, side B.

Speaker 11 Sleep on it.

Speaker 18 Here we begin an exercise to help with your insomnia.

Speaker 18 This exercise may or may not put you to sleep during this cassette.

Speaker 18 That is fine. But but as you sleep, do not stop listening.

Speaker 18 The important thing is for you to listen to the exercise, remember carefully each step of the exercise and comprehend what it can do for you.

Speaker 18 Lie on your back and close your eyes.

Speaker 18 Continue breathing as you think about your feet, which are soft and numb.

Speaker 19 In

Speaker 19 and out.

Speaker 19 In

Speaker 19 and out.

Speaker 18 Without moving your body and without opening your eyes, imagine your room. Remember everything about the room you are currently in.

Speaker 18 Name each thing in your room silently in your head. Bed,

Speaker 19 light, lamp, corner camera, table, sink, cabinet, mirror, tiled floor.

Speaker 18 Good.

Speaker 18 Continue with this list.

Speaker 18 Repeat items if you have to.

Speaker 18 Corner camera, for instance.

Speaker 19 Corner camera.

Speaker 18 Your mind will begin to relax, to let go of everything that is not in your room both literally and metaphorically.

Speaker 18 The mind must let go of everything outside its reach, outside its room, and here I made finger quotes.

Speaker 18 You should not make finger quotes, as this is a sleeping exercise, and I have instructed you not to move your body, except for your breathing

Speaker 19 in

Speaker 19 and out

Speaker 18 without moving or opening your eyes explore your room you are not walking but drifting you can move anywhere

Speaker 18 near the sink

Speaker 18 the mirror

Speaker 18 Do not envision your reflection. This is an attempt to go to sleep and you cannot get yourself excited.

Speaker 18 Envision the lamp.

Speaker 18 Turn off the lamp without moving.

Speaker 18 Simply envision all of the lights in the room turning off.

Speaker 18 Envision looking at the corner camera as you do so. It is dark in your room and you cannot see the camera anymore.
But you know that it still sees you.

Speaker 18 Someone sees you through the eye in the corner of the room. Drift through the door of your room into the corridor.
Look to your left, toward the toilets and showers.

Speaker 18 At the end of the hall, atop the wall is another camera. The lights in the hallway are always on.

Speaker 18 You cannot turn them off even in your mind.

Speaker 18 The camera that you see also sees you.

Speaker 18 The same person who sees you from the corner of your room sees you from the end of this corridor.

Speaker 18 Now, look to your right.

Speaker 18 There is another camera in a similar place on the other wall.

Speaker 18 The same person can see you through each of these cameras.

Speaker 18 Each camera has four hours worth of tape before it re-records over itself.

Speaker 18 Each person monitoring the cameras has a two-hour shift.

Speaker 18 Some people who monitor cameras care more for you than other people who monitor cameras.

Speaker 18 Some people care a great deal for you.

Speaker 18 Envision the clock in the hallway. Imagine the clock is set at 2.05 a.m.

Speaker 18 This is a time when you are watched by someone who cares a great deal about your safety and well-being.

Speaker 18 Envision in the corridor to your right five white doors. You have envisioned these doors before.

Speaker 18 Envision from the end of the corridor, a security team. Four sentries with helmets, rifles and specialty eyewear.

Speaker 18 The first door is a door to the toilet. No one will be suspicious of you going into the toilet.

Speaker 18 No one is suspicious of you. This is just a visualization exercise.
It is completely imaginary.

Speaker 18 It is important you do not go exploring when people who do not care for you are monitoring corridors and cameras.

Speaker 18 In the toilet, listen to the footsteps of the security team as they pass the doorway.

Speaker 18 It will take them 25 more steps to reach the hallway's end. Count these steps and then exit, heading past the other doors.

Speaker 18 One, two, three, four, five.

Speaker 18 Are you remembering to breathe?

Speaker 18 In.

Speaker 18 Out.

Speaker 18 Enter the fifth door.

Speaker 18 You will learn more about this door later. There is no time now, as this is simply an exercise to improve your sleeping habits.

Speaker 18 Envision a crescent moon. It is boxy, pixelated.

Speaker 18 Upon closer look, it is a set of interconnected buildings. They make up the Institute.

Speaker 18 See the Institute from above.

Speaker 18 Envision yourself in the trough of the concave curve, in the middle of the set of buildings, at the start of a concrete walkway.

Speaker 18 Walk down this path.

Speaker 18 It will lead to an oak tree standing beside a wiry fence.

Speaker 18 Plant your feet into the earth below the oak.

Speaker 18 There are other trees, but the oak is large and catches no artificial light from the moon-shaped building.

Speaker 18 When the clock reads 5.30am,

Speaker 18 envision a truck driving through the gate near the oak.

Speaker 18 Imagine yourself walking swiftly beside the truck, which has become a barrier between you and the Institute. It is still a truck, of course, as well as a barrier.

Speaker 18 It is possible to be two things at once.

Speaker 18 Imagine walking quickly beside the truck until you are around the corner and can slip into the nearby forest.

Speaker 18 You should be getting very sleepy.

Speaker 18 Count now your steps through the forest. Count 250 steps.

Speaker 18 Go on, count them quietly to yourself.

Speaker 18 While you continue to count to 250, examine closely the ground below you.

Speaker 18 Examine it with your feet, as it is still dark here in your visualization exercise, a completely fictitious exercise to help free you from insomnia.

Speaker 18 Feel the ground on your naked feet.

Speaker 18 You must imagine yourself naked save for your light gown. You have left your slippers as bare feet are more nimble.

Speaker 18 Feel the rough pebbly ground on the outskirts of the forest.

Speaker 18 As you approach fifty steps, feel the pebbles give way to brambles and grass.

Speaker 18 As you approach two hundred steps, feel large rocks.

Speaker 18 Move quickly, but not too quickly.

Speaker 18 Imagine you are uninjured, stepping through this forest in the dark.

Speaker 18 Envision a river.

Speaker 18 After you have counted to 250 steps, you should hear a river.

Speaker 18 Envision the sound of a river.

Speaker 18 What is the word for envisioning a sound?

Speaker 18 Lying now on your back with your eyes closed, do whatever that word is that means to envision the sound of a river. Move towards the river.
Do you hear it? Soft water trickling over mossy rocks.

Speaker 18 Follow the river to your right, toward the mountains. Up the stream into the hills as the sun breaks over the craggy peaks.

Speaker 18 The river rises steeply upwards through a waterfall.

Speaker 18 Imagine millions of gallons a minute falling dozens of feet. Envision the roar of the waterfall.

Speaker 18 No one can hear you here.

Speaker 18 Envision a hole behind the fall. Envision a cave.

Speaker 18 Carefully move behind the falling water into the cave.

Speaker 18 It is dark and cool in the cave. You will feel about slick rocky sides until you find a box.
A lock box containing hiking shoes, jeans, flannel shirt, gloves, and a water-resistant jacket.

Speaker 18 Water and rations.

Speaker 18 Envision the sound of a waterfall enveloping you in this peaceful place.

Speaker 18 Imagine basic needs met.

Speaker 18 Imagine yourself in slick walls surrounded by water and nourishment and the warm, undulating hum of nature. You have experienced yourself in a similar place before.

Speaker 18 before memory,

Speaker 18 before birth.

Speaker 18 You should not remember this experience, but somehow you do.

Speaker 18 Feel the pulsing hum with each breath.

Speaker 19 In

Speaker 19 and out.

Speaker 18 Feel the breaths and the hum all the way down to your tingling limp feet.

Speaker 18 You must be getting quite sleepy now.

Speaker 18 It is time to rest.

Speaker 18 Remember the steps of this exercise in the future. Combined with exercises from other cassettes in this series, it is a guaranteed way to be freed from insomnia.

Speaker 18 You have completed your visualization exercise for cassette 3. After you wake, fill out the required survey.
Answer no to every question except the first.

Speaker 18 Leave the survey in the Institute Library inside a book titled Extensive Studies Lab Test Results, Case Numbers 122 through 184. Do not give it to your security nurse.

Speaker 18 Do not read anything in that book.

Speaker 18 End side B

Speaker 15 Within the Wires is written by Jeffrey Kraner and Janina Mathewson and performed by Janina Mathewson with original music by Mary Epworth.

Speaker 8 Find more of Mary's music at maryepworth.com. Thanks again to Club W for supporting Within the Wires.

Speaker 15 Don't Don't forget your free bottle of wine and free shipping when you take a simple six-question palette profile quiz and become a member.

Speaker 10 Go to clubw.com slash wtw. That's the initials for Within the Wires.
That's clubw.com/slash wtw.

Speaker 15 Within the Wires is a production of Night Vale Presents.

Speaker 11 Check out our other podcasts, Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead.

Speaker 6 Both are available on iTunes or wherever it is you get your podcasts.

Speaker 11 Okay, our time is done.

Speaker 15 It's you time now. Time to draw a bath, play some music, and light an aromatic candle.

Speaker 11 Today's scented candle is Omelette Aftermath.

Speaker 15 Today's relaxing music is someone chewing beef jerky.

Speaker 5 Today's bath is filled with bird parts.

Speaker 20 This has been a production of Night Vale Presents. Find out more about us and our shows at nightvalepresents.com.

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Speaker 21 I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times.

Speaker 22 And I'm Paul Scheer, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from the League Veep or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters.

Speaker 21 We love movies and we come at them from different perspectives.

Speaker 22 Yeah, like Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't. He's too old.

Speaker 21 Let's not forget that Paul thinks that Dude 2 is overrated.

Speaker 6 It is.

Speaker 21 Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must-sees, and in case you missed them.

Speaker 21 We're talking Parasite the Home Alone, From Greece to the Dark Knight.

Speaker 21 We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks, we've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look, and we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of, like Kanja and Hess.

Speaker 21 So, if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure.

Speaker 22 Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 21 And don't forget to hit the follow button.

Speaker 7 Hey, Jeffree Kraner here to tell you about another show from me and my Night Vale co-creator, Joseph Fink.

Speaker 5 It's called Unlicensed, and it's an LA Noir-style mystery set in the outskirts of present-day Los Angeles.

Speaker 8 Unlicensed follows two unlicensed private investigators whose small jobs looking into insurance claims and missing property are only the tip of a conspiracy iceberg.

Speaker 5 There are already two seasons of Unlicensed for you to listen to now, with season three dropping on May 15th.

Speaker 8 Unlicensed is available exclusively through Audible, free if you already have that subscription. And if you don't, Audible has a trial membership.

Speaker 8 And if I know you, and I do, you can binge all that mystery goodness in a short window.

Speaker 5 And if you like it, if you liked Unlicensed, please, please rate and review each season.

Speaker 4 Our ability to keep making this show is predicated on audience engagement.

Speaker 16 So go check out Unlicensed, available now only at Audible.com.