The Hypnosis Card

My boyfriend and I went to a party last night at this big house which I had never been to before. The people who live here must be very rich, I thought.

 A guy there was doing hypnosis – that is, he was hypnotizing people if they volunteered for it. The hostess had hired him to provide entertainment for the evening.

When we arrived, the hypnotist was already working with a couple of people. My boyfriend wandered off to visit with someone; meanwhile, I stood near the hypnotist to observe. It wasn't like those stage shows where they line up 50 people in a row – or even only 10 people. He did have five chairs arranged in a line, but only two people were getting his hypnosis treatment – and they seemed to be well on their way into an "induction," or whatever they call it when they first get zapped. Other people at the party seemed to be casually watching the proceedings, or in some cases ignoring whatever was going on.

"Hi, welcome to the party," the hypnotist said, turning away from his subjects to address me. "Would you like to be hypnotized?"

"Uh, well," I hesitated while I tried to think real fast. "Yes, well, maybe. But it looks as if I might be interrupting your show – aren't these people already hypnotized?"

"They are getting there – they are excellent subjects." He took a large, laminated card with a lot of printing on it from the pocket of his sports coat. "If you want to be hypnotized, put your beautiful bottom in that particular chair and this will get you caught up with these other two." He handed the card to me and pointed to a chair where I should sit.

Taken aback by his remark about my "beautiful bottom," I accepted the card and did, indeed, put my rump in the chair specified. A few fleeting, confused thoughts passed through my head at that moment. "He likes my bottom? He's doing a number on me already – when I sat in the chair where he pointed, I obeyed him way too easily – he likes my bottom? Oh, well, I guess I volunteered for this so I'll give it a try."

The hypnotist, I still didn't know his name, turned back to the other two people he was already working with, and appeared to ignore me completely.

The wording on the card – well there was an awful lot of words on the card and I can't remember them all – anyway, the wording on the card thanked me for volunteering to take part in his show. It also said for me to not talk again until he addressed me personally, so that I would not take away from the experience of the others. The card also claimed it was designed to hypnotize me and that it is perfectly fine if I don't believe this will happen.

Further instructions on the card told me to spread my feet and legs apart and lean forward resting my elbows on my thighs, just above my knees, and hold the card in a certain way so that I could read it but if I happened to drop it – the card would land between my feet where I could still try to read it. "These people better not try to look up my skirt," I thought. It made me feel more than just a little bit vulnerable.

But most of all, the card described some sort of mental trick I was to learn. Namely, to listen for his voice without remembering what he was saying to other people. Identify his voice in my head, so when he spoke to me I would recognize him – otherwise I was to ignore and forget whatever it was he was saying. And – to re-read the card as many times as necessary, even after it falls to the floor. 

Dropping the card was to be a signal that my subconscious was ready for the hypnotist. Him picking up the card was to be a signal to my subconscious that he and I were about to begin. My subconscious was to decide the exact moment I dropped the card: not a moment too soon, nor a moment too late.

I determined to myself that I would hang onto that card, and not drop it. I could hear him talking with those other two, as if they were hypnotized already and he was in command. I don't remember exactly what he told them to do, but he spoke with authority in his voice: he was definitely in charge of that situation. I kept my own self busy re-reading that card and ignoring whatever else was going on.

Somewhere along the line, it could not have been very many minutes, my attention to my hands must have faltered because I lost my grip on that card and it fell to the floor between my feet. Following its instructions, I continued to try to read the card even while it was on the floor.

Less than a minute later, the hypnotist picked up the card and rubbed my shoulders, telling me to relax. Golly, that felt good – my whole body relaxed and I slumped forward with my face hanging down between my knees.