A Bet with a Hypnotist

Giving it a try

Megan turned the sign in the window to say CLOSED. Then she led me into the store's back room. It was even more cluttered than the front part, and even dimmer. There were no windows, and the only light was from a small lamp on a high shelf.

She gestured at a chair. It was one of those old-fashioned overstuffed chairs with a high back. She sat down on a little stool a little off to the side. Maybe I felt a twinge of unease, but I ignored it.

"So," she said, "what sort of convincer do you want?"

I didn't understand what she meant.

"We need to agree whether you've been hypnotized or not. What would convince you?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure that much would."

"Well," she said, "then we don't have a fair bet."

Maybe she was hoping I would back out, but there was no way I would give her that satisfaction. "You're supposed to be the expert," I said. "See what you can come up with."

"Here's an idea," she said. "Try to keep your eyes open. That's all you'll have to do. If you close your eyes, and you keep them closed, we'll know you were hypnotized."

I shrugged. "OK."

"We'll try for half an hour. You have to promise to sit still and be quiet. You win if you can keep your eyes open. Sound fair?"

"Sure."

She pointed at a clock. "Five-forty. The half-hour starts now."

Then she stopped talking.

It was weird being in such a quiet room with someone I didn't know very well, neither of us saying anything or doing anything. All I could hear was the traffic outside, but it sounded like it was a long way away. The room must have absorbed noise pretty well.

The chair was comfortable, the sort you could take a nap in. I caught myself blinking a few times. I had to remind myself that I just needed to keep my eyes open for thirty minutes. Surely that would be easy.

Finally she started talking. She kept her voice low, but every word came through. "Let it all go. Everything. All your thoughts, everything you're thinking about. It will stay there for you later. Let your mind be totally calm, totally still. Imagine yourself slowly sinking, deeper and deeper, letting go of everything around you. With every breath you get deeper. It's a wonderful sensation, and it's all you're aware of. Let that be all there is for you, it's all right to lose track of everything around you...."

And on, and on, and on. She was sitting off to the side, and my chair was hard to turn in. I could barely even see her.

"It's all right," she said. "It's all right to let go. It's all right for your whole body to relax. Your legs, your back, your arms, your neck." She talked slowly, but never stopped even for a moment.

How could you keep from relaxing, just sitting there like that? I should have been worried. But I wasn't.

There was no way to stop listening to her. "Deeper, deeper. No longer thinking of anything, just accepting the feeling. Your face is relaxing now, your eyes."

In the back of my mind I knew something wasn't like I wanted it to be, but it was hard to remember what. She kept droning on. "It's all right to let your eyes close now, you can just let them close...."

And that's the last thing I remember.