The Hypnotist

He was tall, dark, and handsome. He was also creepy. The Hypnotist

“Hypnosis Study: The effects of hypnosis on cognitive ability. $40 per weekly session. Seeking participants between the ages of 20 and 35. NY Presbyterian Hospital Pediatric Psychiatry Research

Hypnosis? I’ve been hypnotized before. And they’ll pay me? Nice! Sure my only experience with the stuff was when that hypnotist did a show at my university. After the show I felt refreshed. That night I had the best sleep I have ever had. And once again…they’ll pay me! I called and made myself an appointment to “try out” for the lab rat position.

To gauge my “hypnotizability” I was hypnotized. Apparently I was very good at it. The doc, we’ll call him Dr X, was impressed and said he couldn’t wait to work with me. He informed me the study would test my ability to perform certain computer-based tasked under normal conditions, and while hypnotized. Sounded OK to me. $40 later I was back on the 7 train heading back to Flushing.

The following two months I had gone back to see Dr X for our sessions every week. He video taped every one. I was getting deep restful sleep, and some extra lunch money. Things were going well, until the juice incident. At the end of the session, Dr X “brought me back” and I was shaking and felt ill. I saw the empty OJ bottle on the desk in front of me and asked him what happened. He told me he had me drink the whole thing after being extremely “thirsty”. After a few angry words with him telling him to never do that again, he gave me my $40 and I took my hyperglycemic ass home. I did not sleep well that night.

Ever have that feeling, that nagging irritating feeling that something wasn’t right? I felt that way all week. I couldn’t place why. I went to my hypnosis session as usual. As always, Dr X was pleasant, polite and everything seemed normal. He started recording and before I knew it I was in La-La land. Seemingly an instant later it was over and he was turning the camera off. He went to get my $40 and I put my coat on to leave. Wait. One of the buttons of my sweater was undone. The one just above the middle, third one down. Odd.

On my way to the subway it dawned on me that I had only performed the computer test once. All those sessions and I can only remember being tested once. As if a switch went off the memories started flashing. Like lightning, flits of images here and there. That nagging feeling again. Seeing Dr X. The entire way home I struggled to remember more. Little bits coming to me here and there. Things were starting to piece together but not enough.