The First Time with Michael Raugh
Today’s tale takes place a few months after yesterday’s. In that time I had begun to make my own recordings for reinforcement of my work with Marcia. Being new, I had her listen to them first to make sure I wasn’t doing anything stupid. Marcia told me I had a talent for coming up with good suggestions, and that I should consider getting training.
Like a kid with a new toy, I was excited about the possibility of learning to become a hypnotist. While I waited for the beginning of the semester to begin that training, I eagerly bought books and read them and practiced on myself. And I talked hypnosis with my friends, coworkers, anyone who seemed interested. What I hadn’t done yet, though, was actually try to induce a trance in anyone else.
Then one evening a coworker, her teenage daughter, and I took in an improv show in Arlington. After the show we sat around, waiting for the crowd to clear, and my friend mentioned to her daughter that I was learning to be a hypnotist. “Oooh!” was her response. “Would you hypnotize me?”
My first instinctive reaction was panic, of course. Here? With all this noise and all these people around? But then I remembered a rapid induction I’d seen Marcia demonstrate, and it seemed foolproof. The trick, I realized, would be to project confidence — act as if I’d done it a hundred times before.
So I stood the teen in front of a chair, feet together, stood a little bit too close, and had her look into my eyes. I took my thumbs and traced the upper outline of her forehead, starting in the middle and working out and down past her temples. Sure enough, as my thumbs crossed the temples her eyelids fluttered — I pulled her sharply toward me and gave the command to “Sleep!”
Sure enough, her eyes closed and she fell into me. I caught her, still pouring suggestions into her ear to relax, let go, etc. — they may have been as much for my benefit as for hers — and guided her into the chair.
It was a short trance, basically just a down and back up with a few suggestions for energy and alertness for the drive home (Marcia taught me even before my training started to always give suggestions for a positive experience). She came up on cue, grinning broadly and feeling great. Her mom, my coworker, was impressed. So was I, of course.
That adventurous nature, the willingness to play and experience new and cool things, is one of the reasons I love working with teens. My first time introduced me to that.
<MR>
