I’m loud and extroverted and sometimes the things I say come off as…odd. Well maybe even odd is too kind. I think it might be because I think constantly. People think I’m loud and I talk a lot, but they should be on the inside of my head. It’s freaking constant in here. I don’t say even half of the things that I think…even the really witty things. So yes, I am loud but I do try to censor for my audience. (I don’t always succeed.) My friends get the worst of me (or is it the best) because when I relax or I’m having fun, the stream of consciousness gets more external. Sometimes it’s funny and sometimes it’s nuts, but thankfully it is usually the kind of nuts my friends have come to accept. How do I know that I come off as odd you might ask? And how do I know my friends accept the weird? I know because I occasionally have conversations that go like this:
Friend: Hey Laura, you did hypnosis to get over your fear of flying right?
Me: Yep.
Friend: Did the hypnotist help you?
Me: Hypnotherapist.
Friend: Wha?
Me: Hypnotists make you cluck like chicken, hypnotherapists help you with your problems.
Friend: Tomato, T’Psycho. (And then the conversation moved on.)
NB. True story, I am totally no longer afraid of being in the giant flying coffins some people refer to as airplanes. But apparently I never was afraid of flying, only of losing control according to the hypnotherapist/hypnotist. I now even on occasion enjoy flight, although I still don’t like losing control…do you think they’d let me fly the plane? Thanks hypnosis.
Writing Exercise:
Hypnotherapists/hypnotists can not hypnotize you to do anything you would not do in real life. That’s right, all those people who cluck like a chicken, or do embarrassing things on stage in front of hundreds of people were predisposed to do so. They may not have volunteered while their conscious mind was in control, but take away that layer and they are good to go. I doubted that at first, but then a hypnotherapist told me that if he could hypnotize someone to do something out of character, or that they didn’t want to do (at some level) then he would be super rich.
“You are feeling sleepy. You will rob a bank and give me all the money. You will forget this conversation and confess.” Repeat.
So what would happen if a hypnotist decided they really did want to commit crimes using their skills, but knowing they couldn’t get someone to act out of character, they decided to go on the road incognito and seek people who had a hint of crazy. Just a touch of the willingness to kill or steal or whatever? How would he find those people? How would he arrange to hypnotize them, and what crimes would he choose? Wouldn’t it suck being the crime investigator on that one? Any witnesses would say that the crimes were committed by different people, but the statistics would point to a serial pattern led by one mind. Spend twenty minutes exploring the possibilities. Happy writing.
NB. I bet this would make a really good, bad movie.
