You may know my wife, Angela. Quite the exhibitionist, even today. Not that I mind at all--she's gorgeous. But would you believe she wasn't always that way? Fortunately I was able to change her mind about that. And pretty much all in one night, too.
It happened before we were married. I was reading the latest issue of Playboy when Angela walked in the room. "Enjoying yourself?" she said with a tight-lipped smile.
"Actually, yes," I replied. "The article on Democratic presidential prospects was quite informative, the fiction piece was very well done, and the party jokes were actually funny this time."
Angela sat down beside me on the couch, reached over and flipped the pages to the Playmate. "What about her?" she asked pointedly.
I looked at the tastefully posed, porcelain-skinned, wonderfully-curved brunette and nodded. "She's gorgeous," I replied, "almost as gorgeous as you are."
She smiled for a bit, then looked away. "I'm not gorgeous."
I sighed. Here we were going again. "Listen to me," I said lifting her chin gently to look at her directly. "I'm not going to take that from you. No one is going to tell me that my girl is anything less than drop-dead, head-turning, awe-inspiring gorgeousânot even you. Do you understand me, Angela? You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."
She noddedâhalf-heartedlyâthen looked away again. I sat there playing with her thick, curly blonde hair. I pondered what to do. I was getting tired of this. We had been together for four months, and this attitude of hers just seemed so wrong for someone so beautiful. We'd always made love in the darkânever showered togetherâand I'd never even seen her in so much as a dress, let alone shorts or a swimsuit. She always wore baggy pants and a sweatshirt, nothing that could even hint at the gorgeous body underneath, the body that I'd glimpsed ever so briefly through whatever light leaked through the bedroom curtains.
But nothing I'd ever said or done made an impression on her, couldn't penetrate the curtain of self-doubt she'd drawn around herself. Flattery, poetry, fancy lingerieânothing. What was left to try?
Then it occurred to meâall the time I had been talking to her conscious mind. Maybe it was time to talk to her subconscious.
"Wait right here," I said as I got up from the couch and went to the kitchen. There I found a candle I'd kept around for blackouts, and the matches. I set up the candle in its stand and went back into the room and set up a TV tray in front of Angela. Placing the candle on the tray, I lit the candle and turned off all the lights in the room, then sat down beside her.
She was already staring into the candle flame. "What's this for?"
"I told you I'm not going to let anyone say you're not gorgeousânot even you," I said to her softly. "And since my words or actions haven't convinced you that you are extremely, wonderfully beautiful, you've left me no choice but to hypnotize you into believing it."
She reacted about the way you'd expectâshe started giggling, and the giggling became full-blown laughter. She calmed a bit after a minute and a half, and looked at me. "Are you serious?"
"Definitely. Now I want you to stare at the candle flameâ"
"You think you can hypnotize me?"
"I know I can."
"What if I can't be hypnotized?"
"If it doesn't work, you'll have something to tell your girlfriends to prove what a big idiot your boyfriend is. Any more questions?"
She thought for a moment, then said, "No."
"All rightâI want you to stare into the candle flameâstare into it until you can see nothing else but its soft, warm light. And as you stare into the soft, warm light of the candle flame, you will give your attention to my voice and my words as you let your mind and your body become more and more relaxed. . .more and more relaxed. . .more and more relaxed. . ."
I watched her carefully as she concentrated on the candle. Soon her face began to soften, and her eyelids began to droop. I insisted she keep staring into the flame for as long as she could, and I could see her eyelids flutter and her eyes water up as she fought to keep them open. I continued the induction, emphasizing how little by little every part of her body was becoming more and more relaxed. . .more and more relaxed. . .more and more relaxed. . .
And when I figured she was ready, I said, ". . .When you feel you are deeply and completely relaxed. . .deeply and completely relaxed. . .when you are ready to enter into deep, deep hypnosis . . .then your eyes will close, and you will be deeply and completely hypnotized. . .When you feel you are deeply and completely relaxed. . ."
I didn't get to finish, for as soon as I said the word "close" her eyes did just that, and then her head nodded forward and she seemed to list towards me. If I hadn't been sitting beside her, she would have stretched out on the couch and taken a long nap.
I did a few of the standard trance-depth-indication exercisesâyou know, arm levitation, arm stiffening, eyes stuck shutâthat sort of thing. I also desensitized her right hand to pain, and held it over the candle flame. No response. I put down the candle and re-sensitized her hand to normal. Then I smiled at the hypnotized Angela, and at my own success.
Pretty darn good for someone who had never hypnotized anyone before.
Oh, I had seen it done on stage shows, and in how-to videos, and in watching my college psychology instructor (who was a big fan of the stuff) hypnotize my class mates, but I'd never done it myself. But Angela didn't know that, and I saw no reason to tell herâand right now it made no difference. Angela was hypnotized, and I was the one who had hypnotized her. Now came the tricky part. "Angelaâlisten carefully. I want you to stand upon your feet while remaining deeply hypnotized. You know you can do this, and you know you want to do this. Stand up now."
Angela took a deep breath and rose to her feet, her head still slumped forward and her eyes still closed. With two fingers I pushed her head upright, and waited to see if it would fall over. It didn'tâand that's when I realized; this was the first time I'd seen her asleep. Yes, we'd made love, but she always went home afterwards or sent me home afterwards, depending on whose place we were at.
She looked really beautiful when she was asleep.
Time for step two. "Angela, I want you to come with me. We're going to the bedroom. I want you to walk with me and still be deeply hypnotized."
"Are we going to do it?" said Angela in a whispery voice.
"Certainly," I replied smiling, "as long as you remain hypnotized."
"Great," she smiled back.
With the candle in one hand I led Angela by her arm to the bedroom. I took her over to the bed and stepped back. I thought of our first time togetherâshe invited me over for pizza and videos, and when the sun was down she invited me into her room to "show me something." Now she was about to show me something more.