w away… feel all those muscles completely relax … as you go deeper and deeper into your trance.’
I repeated the same instructions as I moved down her body: shoulders, arms, wrists, fingers, chest, stomach, groin, hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet, and then back to the face: forehead, cheeks, nose, chin. She was still staring with a blank, transfixed gaze at the metronome, but her body had slowly spread out and become heavier in the chair.
‘You are now filled with a great calm. Your entire body is so limp and so pleasantly relaxed, even your eyelids are getting too heavy to stay open. It is now impossible for you to keep them open anymore and they are starting to close by themselves,’ I went on.
Her eyelids began to flutter downwards.
I waited until only a crescent of gleaming white showed under her eyelids.
‘You are now in a very, very pleasant state, completely disconnected from your body, and aware of nothing except your mind, which is floating in a dark so intense it has a feel, smell and taste of its own. Nothing can wake you up or stir you away from this safe, womb-like limbo. And nothing else matters but my voice as you gently drift deeper and deeper into your dreamlike rest. Completely let go and go deeper still.’
I stopped and allowed a few seconds to pass.
‘Your right arm is now so light it will start to float up of its own accord.’
I watched her right arm slowly begin to rise. When it was as high as it could go I said, ‘Your arm will start moving back down to your lap at the rate and speed with which your unconscious mind completely submits to my voice.’
Her hand reached her lap and I continued, ‘When I ask you questions, the answers will float effortlessly out of your mouth. Are you completely relaxed?’
Her mouth moved soundlessly first, then closed and opened again. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. Her voice was like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.
‘Are you aware of your body?’
‘No.’
I touched her hand. ‘Is anything touching you?’
‘No.’
In the glow of the blue light her face appeared pale, slack, and blank—the features flattened, the mouth gaping, the expression reminiscent of someone of very low intelligence. The rise and fall of her chest was slow and steady. Her hands lay limp and still on her thighs. It was the look and stance of a person under deep hypnosis.
Gently I lifted her eyelids. Her eyes had rolled up and showed white. I lay back in my chair, my muscles relaxed, and my breathing deep and even. It was not a well known fact, but during a session like this the hypnotist also falls into a parallel trance. A similar phenomenon to the way a group of women living together will start to bleed at the same time every month. I didn’t consider it a bad thing as it meant the hypnotist could help entrain the subject into a deeper trance.
I started speaking again. ‘This darkness that you are floating in is not powered by money, the sun, machines, rotating gears, oil, God, or anything you know. It is powered only by you…. It is eternal…unfixed. There are no clocks here because time is not operating chronologically. Time is fluid. Your memories are all alive. Nothing can be lost here. You can find anything you think you have lost. All the things you saw, heard, did, and felt are waiting here for you. Days, weeks, months, years they have been waiting. You are in charge. Nothing here can hurt you.’
I paused before I carried on. ‘Now, I want you to go back in time and find a place you loved. A place where you have been happy in the past.’
A child-like smile crept into her face.
‘Are you in your happy place now?’
‘Yes,’ she replied in a monotone.
‘Where are you?’
‘I am in the woods…in France…. My father owns this land.’
‘Describe everything you see and do.’
‘It is…late summer…perhaps even autumn. I’m not too sure, but it has not rained for many days…. It is hot and dry and the yellowing grass is full of grasshoppers and crickets. They are calling out to each other. Everything here is alive and growing…. There are dragonflies flying above my head…. They are so beautiful. Everything is so beautiful…. Even the deadly scorpions hiding under the stones. Anton says I should be careful of them, but I’m not afraid of them. They have never harmed me. I lie down on the rotting leaves and look up to the blue, blue sky. And I feel so happy.’
She giggled softly.
‘Who is Anton?’
‘He takes care of the grounds.’
‘What’s happening now?’ I asked.