In the mind of a madman there are color explosions. An eclipse of emotion.

I packed up the textbook I’d been reading through in the library and made my way across the early fall campus. Ash and I had both read up on hypnosis for years, my interest was more about its application to abnormal psychology, while his seemed to be more directed toward conditioning and behavior modification. Either way, we were both experienced enough with the academic side of things, at least as far as theory went, that we knew more than just the basics. I knew for a fact that Ash had managed to trance himself out using YouTube videos. Both of us had gone through the Stanford Scale in class, and both of us had scored high. Well, Ash had scored high.

I faked it.

One of the things I’d picked up through my study of hypnosis as it relates to Ab Psych is that sociopaths tend to have difficulty entering trance states, likely due to the already extant monomania that pretty much defines the state. And in case you didn’t catch the hint earlier, I score pretty high on the Manipulative side of the Dark Triad. I once read somewhere that manipulative and narcissistic sociopaths make up a pretty large percentage of corporate CEOs, politicians, and religious leaders; that if James Bond were a real person, he’d have to be a sociopath. Lacking in human empathy is essential when you can be faced with a decision that results in a loss of life or elimination of someone’s livelihood. My own projected career path was politics.

This was pretty unfortunate for Ash; his own career path was projected as a hypnotherapist… he needed to be able to show documented proof, and asking me to be his subject was going to prove to be a distinct disappointment.

I walked into our dorm room to find that Ash had dimmed the lights, the waivers were printed out and sitting on his desk, and our desk chairs were drawn to the center of the room facing each other. Ash’s face lit up as I entered, his slightly pouty lips spreading into a heartfelt smile. I would have felt bad about letting him down if that were in my emotional repertoire, but all I could manage was a small tinge of sorrow that he would be inconsolable until he actually found a decent subject, meaning I’d have to put up with him moaning about it for who knew how long.

“Jacob! Thanks for rushing home!” Yeah, he was super excited; those high cheekbones of his were flushed a rosy red, and he was speaking far too quickly.

“Well, you said you were ready, I figured ‘why waste time?’” Ash is the only person I let call me Jacob. I’m not really sure why I make that exception for him. I even make my parents call me Jake. “So what do you need me to do?”

It was pretty clear that his brain was going a mile a minute. Still talking too fast. “Well, there’s the paperwork, and you should probably be wearing something comfortable, and maybe you should go to the bathroom first, because I’m not sure how long this is going to take.”

He would have probably found other things to stress over so I just went and signed on the dotted line of the consent form, then relieved myself. I was already pretty comfortable in my joggers and a t-shirt, since I usually go commando, finding that most underwear is far too restrictive of my equipment.

I sat myself down and waited serenely for Ash to sit across from me and begin. Ash himself seemed somewhere between giddy and nervous. His cheeks were flushed and he was sweating. If I didn’t know how big a deal this was for him, I’d probably suggest that he go to the medical center. As it was I was pretty sure he was dealing with an erection and nerves about whether or not he would fuck this up.

“Ok, Jacob. I want you to take a deep breath and hold it for a second, then let it out and relax.” An authoritative style. Erikson recommended against authoritative induction due to its tendency to put subjects on guard, but Ash was gonna do Ash. “Keep doing that. Over and over. And just relax.” I could see him fighting with himself over rushing it. In fact he appeared to be very self aware in general. Self conscious about something? “You’ll find that breathing like this is natural and easy to keep doing without thinking about.” He seemed to be relaxing into the induction himself. Wait a second, he was taking breaths just a moment off of my own. Barely out of sync.

“Easy to breathe in and out and just relax.” Recalling the mirroring technique and the concept of modeling trance from class, I synched my breathing to his and let my face start to go slack and unfocus my eyes. “Relax and start to feel that relaxation starting in your left foot and slowly creeping up your leg.” Horrible imagery, but my own efforts were rewarded by hearing his voice lose a little bit of volume and his own cheeks going slack. “Up your leg to your knee.” For an isolation induction he was rushing it, so I decided to fuck around a little bit and slowed my own breathing down more and was gratified to find that Ash’s slowed as well. I allowed my eyes to focus for a moment and saw that his had started to go glassy. The little sonofabitch was talking himself into trance!

Over the next ten minutes he droned on, isolating and relaxing various body parts, his voice growing quieter and more breathy throughout. I played along on the surface, my mind racing and multitasking, one part focusing on his visual cues while the other was deciding what to do if this reached the conclusion I foresaw.

He made it as far as the neck before his head fell forward and I had to literally jump out of my chair to keep him from dropping to the floor.

Sitting there, holding him in my lap, I determined that I would do a little fact finding first.

“Ash, can you hear me?”

“—ess”

“It’s ok, just relax, Ash, keep taking those long deep breaths and let yourself relax deeper and deeper. No need to think. Just listen and relax…”

(Title lyric: Billy Idol, “Adam In Chains”)