The word autogenic means self-generated — implying (a) something you do yourself, and (b) growth and improvement coming from within. Autogenics is a method of relaxation training, meditation and self-therapy that you practise on yourself to support the natural healing and development of mind and body. It consists of a series of mental exercises. During practice of these exercises you repeat brief phrases to yourself to cultivate a beneficial feeling-state in your body. These autogenic mantras (or autosuggestions, verbal formulas) induce a deeply relaxed state of mind and body which then develops naturally into a process of meditation and visioning.
The exercises bring on a particular sequence of sensations in the felt-sense of the body — heavy, warm, clear, light — to clear tension and disturbance and achieve an empty floating state. This altered state of consciousness can then be used to access dream-like visual imagery, visions, emerging from the deep brain / unconscious mind in a process of personal development.
Standard Autogenics
The exercises of Standard Autogenics use a sequence of body-oriented mantras which are specific to different regions of the body:
“My arms and legs are heavy”
“My arms and legs are warm”
“Being breathed deep and slow”
“Heartbeat calm and steady”
“Solar plexus warm”
“Forehead cool clear and light”
Standard Autogenic Training pdf hand-outs:
Standard Autogenics Exercise 1
Standard Autogenics Exercise 2
Standard Autogenics Exercises 1-6
An excellent ebook on the subject is:
I Could Do with Some of That!: The Power of Autogenics by Jane Bird, 2015.
Liminal Dreaming
REM Autogenics (dream autogenics) was developed from Standard Autogenics specifically to cultivate the liminal visionary state and shares similarities with yoga nidra, the ancient Indian dream yoga. While immersed in deep state visioning, a single mantra — heavy, warm, clear, light — is used for all regions of the body.
REM autogenics is usually practised in bed before sleep or upon waking, or in a comfortable armchair or recliner during the day to enhance a restful siesta and music-listening reverie.
Enhanced Practice with Technology
Let us imagine a small band of ancestors, sitting around a fire in the middle of the night with nothing better to do than getting absorbed in the fluid movement of the flames. Some may have fallen asleep, while others entered an alternative reality in which they would experience strange phenomena. This may well have been our first departure from the concrete physical animal world into the symbolic human mental world … … …
Fire was considered holy and associated with divinity probably because it came from heaven, like lightning falling in a tree, but I prefer to think that the fascination induced by fire is at the root of a collective state of worship that evolved into religions. I fancy that the first Buddhist monastery was born by chance around a prehistoric bonfire, long before Sidartha Gautama was born … …Luis de Rivera, 2017, Autogenics 3.0: The new way to mindfulness and meditation
Our ancestors spent a considerable proportion of their lives around campfires and hearths. Stimulated by music, song and storytelling their creativity was enhanced by the visions they saw in the flickering flames during states of absorption and reverie induced by this prolonged fire-gazing. Flickering light at alpha frequencies has psychedelic effects.
The REM autogenic shift into the visionary state can be reinforced by using ganzflicker—the combination of ganzfeld and flickering light. The Strobonaut ganzflicker app for mobile phones is available as a free download from:
When used in a smartphone Virtual Reality headset for meditation and music-listening reverie it has psychedelic effects promoting mental health and creativity by giving greater access to altered states of consciousness and vivid dream-like visual imagery released from the deep brain / unconscious.
Dr Pete Carr
remautogenics@gmail.com
July 2026
© Copyright REM Autogenics – All rights reserved
REM Autogenics 