If the January blues are getting you down and you can’t quite stretch to the Bahamas, how about a holiday in your lunch break?

It might sound too good to be true, but a new hypnotising service promises to leave you feeling as refreshed as going on a two-week getaway.

Devised by Paul McKenna and Virgin Holidays, the virtual vacation was trialled on shoppers in Bluewater shopping centre.

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McKenna said: “What happens is people go into the pod and in 20 minutes I hypnotise them and help them to remember a really good holiday that they had.

“In the process of remembering it very vividly they start to feel very relaxed and very calm because the human nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real and imagined experience.”

He added: “Even though it’s January and we’re in a busy shopping centre you’re getting in twenty minutes the experience of a wonderful holiday.”

Virgin Holidays say the hypnotic experience, which was held in a small pod outside the House of Fraser department store, has been fully booked.

KentOnline also decided to test out the claims, sending reporter Gareth Arnold to recreate his favourite holiday.

Video: Paul McKenna hypnotises reporter Gareth Arnold

Recounting his experience he said: “I felt great, really good. I couldn’t remember [my holiday] as vividly as I would have liked but I did remember small details, things that weren’t at the forefront of my mind.”

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