AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. All characters are over the age of 18.
This is a slower burn than I've written before. Multiple chapters per part, more parts to come.
As always comments and questions are encouraged. I hope you like it and I hope that I'll have time for more stories in the future.
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Chapter 1
"God, hypnosis is such bullshit." My daughter Cassie muttered as we cuddled on the couch watching a movie.
I chuckled lightly. "What do you mean?"
Cassie sighed and sat up. "Just this dumb movie. It's always so bad when a movie uses hypnosis as a plot device. It doesn't exist and it's just a cheap cop out any time it comes up in a story."
I leaned back and shook my head. "I mean... I can say from personal experience that it *does* exist. But yeah, most of the time when it comes up in a story it's just bad writing."
Cassie grabbed the remote and paused the movie. "What? I'm not going to let you just breeze past 'I know for a fact hypnosis is real'. What the hell?"
I looked over at my daughter to see her staring back at me with her full attention. "I... guess I never told you, but I used to hypnotize your mom all the time." Cassie's head tilted and she blinked several times as she tried to process what I just told her. I straightened up and cleared my throat. "OK, I guess I owe you the whole story then. A long time ago, before you were born in fact, your mom and I saw a hypnosis demonstration. We were both skeptical, but the hypnotist stuck around after the demonstration to teach us about hypnosis and how to do it. We tried it ourselves later and it turned out that Cait was very susceptible to hypnosis."
Cassie furrowed her brow incredulously. "So what? Mom was a brainwashed assassin or something?"
I snort-laughed and shook my head again. "Nothing like that. We mostly used it for stress relief, mood elevation, pain relief, stuff like that. It actually helped her a lot dealing with the side effects of the chemotherapy..." I trailed off thinking of my late wife's long struggle.
Cassie nudged me with her knee after a moment. "Made yourself sad again?" I sighed and nodded. "It's OK dad. I miss her too." I reached out and squeezed her knee gently. "OK, I'll bite. How do you hypnotize someone?"
I took a deep breath to clear my head and thought back to the times I spent entrancing Cait. "Well there's a lot of ways that we used to do it, but they all revolve around the same concept. First you guide someone into a relaxed state where they're only listening to your voice. Then you use that relaxed state to give them hypnotic suggestions with code words. When you bring them out of the state you use the code words to trigger those suggestions."
Cassie nodded thoughtfully. "OK, let's do it."
"Wait what?"
"Hypnotize me dad. Seriously. You just drop all this on me and expect me not to be at least a little curious? This is way more interesting than that dumb movie."
I sat dumbstruck for a moment before gathering my composure. "OK. OK. We can try it. It might not work on you, I haven't done it for a while-" Cassie booed and rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine! Let's do this. I was just trying to manage your expectation." I cleared my throat again and shifted over to sit directly across from her on the ottoman. "Step one. Get comfortable, look directly at me, sit up straight." Cassie wiggled in her seat and sat up with her shoulders straight before meeting my gaze with a smile. "Now I'm going to talk you through some motions while I count down to zero. When we finish you should be in a relaxed state. Ready?"
Cassie grinned, clearly enjoying herself. "Ready!"
I held my hands out in front of me, palms up at shoulder level. "Place your hands on mine... Good. Now I want you to keep your hands on mine as I help you relax. Ten. Breathe deeply and slowly as you sink into the couch. Nine. Your arms are getting tired as we lower our hands a bit. Eight. You feel the tension leaving your neck as you get more relaxed. Seven. Your arms are losing their strength as we lower them halfway. Six. Your eyelids are getting heavy, it's harder to keep them open. Five. Your jaw relaxes and your mouth hangs open. Four. You can't keep your arms up anymore and I've lowered them almost all the way to your sides. Three. You can't keep your eyes open, and you need to sit back. Two. I've let go of your hands and your body is almost completely limp. One. Your mind is empty, all tension has left you, all you hear is your breathing and my voice. Zero. How do you feel?"
Cassie, her head lolling slightly to the side and her eyes fluttering slightly breathed shallowly. "...Relaxed..."
My heart pounded in my chest as I flashed back to all the times I had put her mother in this state. "Good girl. We'll start with something simple. When I say the word 'Dizzy' you'll feel lightheaded, as though you just stood up too fast. Understand?"
Cassie smiled slightly, still barely conscious. "...Yes..."
"Good girl. Now when I'm going to count down from three, say awake, and snap my fingers and you'll come back to me. Three, two, one, awake!"
I snapped my fingers and Cassie sat bolt upright looking around the room. "That was freakin' weird. Like... Like I knew everything that was going on I just... I couldn't... I didn't want to..."
I chuckled "Like you couldn't think of any reason not to do what I was telling you?"
"YES!"
"Yeah. That's how Cait described it too. Basically, as long as you don't have a reason not to do something, you'll agree to whatever. Like if I told you to do something you didn't *actually* want to do then you'd snap out of it, but as long as at least a small part of you wants it to work then it will. It's kinda like it just removes your inhibitions."
"Huh. So no brainwashed assassinations for me then."
I laughed and shook my head. "If so then we definitely need to get you some therapy." It was Cassie's turn to snort-laugh. "So how are you feeling? Dizzy?"
Cassie suddenly lurched forward, blinking rapidly. "Whoa! Holy... I can't believe that worked! That was intense. What else can we do?"
I thought back to all the different ways Cait and I had used hypnosis through the years, immediately discarding several thoughts of things that a father shouldn't think about his daughter. "Well, um, we can make you feel physical sensations. Basically, anything you have a frame of reference for. Like if you don't know how something is supposed to feel then I can't make you feel it, but otherwise yeah, just about anything. We can also change your mood, or make you think differently for a while. I used to use that in the mornings before your mom would go to work to help her deal with her asshole coworkers."
Cassie chewed her lip and drummed her fingers on the arm of the couch. "Alright, let's try a physical sensation then. I'm still a little sore from track practice, think you can help with that?"
"Worth a shot. Oh, fun thing about hypnotic states if you do it repeatedly and regularly, your body remembers how to get to that state easier the next time. Cait and I did it almost every morning so after a while I was able to just say 'relax' and snap my fingers and she'd be under. So this time I'm just going to count down from five. Ready?"