When the afternoon had come at last, Paula and Megan drove to her appointment. They parked the car, and Megan attempted to make a final plea to her niece.
“Are you certain you want to go through with this?” Megan asked as compassionately as she could, hoping that Paula might look for another avenue to wellness. “We can try and find another way if you’re not comfortable with the hypnosis.”
“We’ve been over this. I’ve got to try it. This is the best hope I have right now. There’s nothing to worry about, this guy is a professional.”
“I had to try,” Megan said, lowering her head. “I wouldn’t be your aunt if I didn’t.”
Megan had spent so many years of her life distrustful of people that she had now become skeptical of professionals such as Doctor Sanchez. As a recovering drug addict, her mind had become so twisted that even somebody with the sincerest of motives would raise suspicion in her fragile state. Now that she was forming the beginnings of a bond with her niece, she felt she had something to truly protect, so her old failings had become her new defensive mentality.
“I understand Megan,” Paula nodded in acknowledgement, “I really do.”
The two of them got out of the car and found themselves in the reception area of Doctor Sanchez’s office, which seemed reasonably warm and inviting on that cool October afternoon. Megan grabbed a clipboard and finished filling out the forms, frantically scribbling information in the spaces provided on the paper. When she had finished, she walked up to the counter and cautiously handed the clipboard to Michelle.
“Here you go. I think I have everything you need on there.”
“Thank you,” Michelle replied over the dull thud of the big rubber stamp she was using to make Doctor Sanchez’s seal on the forms. “I’ll let you know if you missed anything.” Michelle handed Megan some information about the sessions, including a page that listed pricing and payment options for Paula’s appointments. The fees seemed a little steeper than Megan felt as if she could handle. She sat there looking over the information as best as she could, but the costs kept creeping into her mind.
When Doctor Sanchez finally came out to collect Paula, he spotted them and then smiled warmly as he approached. Megan stepped in to ask a few questions. “The prices of these sessions are high. How do you expect an average person to pay? Twice a week at that.”
Doctor Sanchez spoke to Megan in a calm and collected manner, “I’ll take her case for free. You have nothing to worry about.”
Megan’s suspicions became suddenly aroused, as she had learned in her life that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. “Nothing is free in this world, Doctor. What’s the catch? What’s in it for you?”
Doctor Sanchez was well prepared for this line of questioning and knew the best way to counter Megan’s suspicions. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I have a good success rate.” The Doctor continued, “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t anything in this for me. This is a chance to study and observe a unique case, one that nobody’s ever fully studied. This is uncharted territory in the field of dream therapy, this is a chance for me to…”
“A chance for you to what?” Megan cut him off sharply, realizing what he was all about. “A chance to get rich off my niece? You science junkies are all the same.”
Doctor Sanchez began in a cool and calm voice, “Where’s the harm in writing a paper on Paula’s condition? Or a book, perhaps? All the names and locations would be changed to protect her identity. I don’t understand why this is such a problem for you, as I will still be providing her treatment.”
Megan Lindsay softened at hearing this explanation. This man was being upfront and honest with her, telling her that he will document her niece’s condition and that he will profit from it. But there was a gentility to his words that she succumbed to, one that made her realize that he means her niece no harm. “I suppose you’re right,” Megan agreed. “There’s no harm in that.”
“No harm at all.”
“If I sense that one thing is going wrong,” Megan threatened, only caring about the safety of her niece, “I will pull her out of these sessions and that’s a promise.”
“That is, of course, your prerogative,” replied the Doctor. “But this might be Paula’s last shot at getting back on track and back to her normal life. Like you, I just want what’s best for her. I want to help her solve her problems. Please, just trust me. I’ll treat your niece very professionally.”
Megan finally gave in to what Doctor Sanchez was saying, and reluctantly agreed to everything that he is willing to do for Paula. Doctor Sanchez looked over at Paula and motioned her to come to his office.
“Are you ready, Paula?” he asked.
Paula nodded her head as she stood up, walking toward the door to the corridor that led to Doctor Sanchez’s office. Before entering the door, she took a look at her aunt, who didn’t know if she had just been “shrunk” herself. Doctor Sanchez opened the door for Paula, and they disappeared into the hallway beyond.
When they reached his office, Doctor Sanchez opened the door for her and motioned to the door on the right-hand side of his office, to the room she had done her intake meeting with him just the week before, the hypnosis chamber. Instead of the sofa, Doctor Sanchez instructed her to lay comfortably on the day bed with her hands folded together on her stomach. He strapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm and affixed some EKG leads to her to monitor her vital signs, assuring her all the time that everything was going to be alright. While she did as she was asked, Doctor Sanchez was doing his very best to reassure her that the actual risk involved in the process was minimal.
“You know, Paula, I’ve never lost a single person in this process. The entire fear of that is completely unfounded.”
As Paula relaxed, she listened to the psychologist go on about the intricate details of hypnosis and found that her level of trust was growing with each passing moment. What before seemed somewhat frightening, now seemed like an everyday practice to her.
She also felt herself making a personal breakthrough. The more that Doctor Sanchez explained the process to her, the more interested in it she became and couldn’t wait to begin. But more than just trust in the process, she was beginning to feel as if she could trust him. This was a door she hadn’t opened to other psychologists before. When she attended sessions with other professionals, she felt that they were leading her on and weren’t really paying attention to her. It seemed to her that many of the doctors she had been to see were just listening to her to make easy money, not to help her with her problems. One of them had even fallen asleep listening to her and told her dismissively that the entire episode had been all in her head. Nothing made Paula angrier than being ignored. But listening to Doctor Sanchez was different. He seemed to care about her problem and seemed to know his craft and was confident in his skills.
“I trust you,” Paula whispered, barely audible even to herself.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Doctor Sanchez boldly stated. “I will be putting you into a condition of deep hypnosis where I can project myself into your dreams.”
“Project yourself into my dreams?” Paula asked, seeking clarification as to what exactly that meant. “How do you do that, Professor Xavier?” she chuckled.
“Through hypnotic suggestion, I can communicate with you in your dream, to lead you, guide you, and teach you how to overcome obstacles,” Doctor Sanchez replied, cool and collected, explaining the process to her. “While I am not physically there in your dreams, your mind will make it appear that I am standing right there next to you, and I will show you what you need to do to control them. And since you will be dreaming in hypnosis, everything you say to me in your dream, you’ll audibly be saying here in the room. This is how we will communicate. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Paula said nervously, but focused on the task at hand. “I want to make this go away.”
The briefest moment of apprehension flickered across Paula’s face, unprepared for this newest revelation. She knew that she had a lot of darkness pent up inside of her and wasn’t sure if she was ready to release it or not. She took a moment to think, her eyes darting back and forth, looking for an answer. It was then that she noticed a piece of art on the wall. It had clouds illuminated by a crescent moon at night and a simple phrase was written upon it:
“Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Kahlil Gibran
This was all the confirmation Paula had needed. She suddenly understood that she needed to let go of the dark things in her mind so that she could have a fulfilling future. She couldn’t do what she needed to do unless she could find the strength to let go of the things that had haunted her for so long. It wasn’t going to be easy. She began to tremble slightly, but bit her lip and addressed the Doctor, “I’m ready.”
Doctor Sanchez reached over and started the metronome, which immediately began ticking in its rhythmical fashion. Click, click, click. Each timed with meticulous precision, constant and accurate. Paula let the sound take her to a place where she found herself easily relaxed. Doctor Sanchez reached over and grabbed a remote control that allowed him to turn off the main light in the room and replace it with a blue tinted light.
He began to speak to her, slowly and deliberately, “Miss Lindsay, I want you to relax and soak in the atmosphere of this light. I want you to hear the clicking sound and try to time your breathing and heartbeat with it. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Paula answered, her voice sounding relaxed.
“Good. I want you to hear the sound of my voice as I talk to you as you feel yourself slipping into a state of complete and total relaxation.”
After a few more minutes of his monotone, Paula’s eyes felt quite tired, and her eyelids became too heavy to keep open. As the Doctor continued to speak to her in quiet, cool monosyllabic tones, she found herself succumbing to sleep completely.
“When I count down to zero, Miss Lindsay,” Doctor Sanchez began, “You will be under complete and total power of suggestion. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“Yes,” Paula managed with a whisper, feeling her body relax in a way she hadn’t felt in many years.
“Ten. . . Nine. . . Eight. . .” the Doctor continued. “You are sliding into a deep slumber. . .”
Paula could begin to feel another state of consciousness take hold, as one reality started to slip away, and another moved to take its place. It seemed to her that she had stepped into a tunnel between the two worlds and was walking slowly toward somewhere new.
“Seven. . . Six. . . Five. . . You can only feel the sound of my voice. . .”
Without realizing it, Paula’s legs were moving, and she was walking further down the tunnel, toward a distant light, leaving behind everything she had previously known. She couldn’t turn around even if she had wanted to. Nothing in her body would obey the commands of her mind and her legs kept propelling her forward toward the light, which was growing as she got closer to it.
“Four. . . Three. . .Two. . .” said the voice of the Doctor, silky and smooth. “You should be arriving in your subconscious any moment now.”
Her legs kept walking forward, further and further into the light. A moment later, the brilliance of the light surrounded her, and her eyes had to adjust to the magnitude of its brightness. She could feel a coolness coming from the light, one she hadn’t felt before. Just a few more steps. The light seemed as if it were inviting Paula inside of it, drawing her in. For what purpose, she did not know. At that moment, nothing else existed for her, except the light and the coolness.
“One. . . Zero,” the Doctor finished counting down; observing her vital signs to make sure his patient wasn’t in any physical danger. He continued to monitor her for some time, penciling his observations in a leather-bound notebook. After a while, the EKG monitor blipped and Paula’s heart rate had increased. He looked over at her face and could see her eyes darting back and forth behind her eyelids, an indication that she had achieved REM sleep while in a state of hypnosis. It was time to join her in her dreams.
Paula had taken her final steps into the light, which gave way to a beautifully reimagined version of the Central Park in Manhattan, as if the light had been a curtain that had been pulled back. All the greens were greener, the blues were bluer, and the whites were whiter. There was a layer of morning fog that hung in the air, and the sunlight streaming through the barren branches left trails of shadows that playfully danced upon the mist. A thin veil of fog hovered over the surface of the lake, swirling in the gentle breeze, not completely concealing the water beneath. Paula could hear the joyous sound of small children playing nearby, their laughter was music to her ears. A familiar voice made its way towards her, increasing from a muffled whisper to an audible level.
“Are you dreaming, Miss Lindsay?” asked the voice of Doctor Sanchez, hoping to reach her in her newly discovered plane of existence.
“Yes,” Paula’s voice responded monosyllabically back in the office.
“Am I invited to enter your dreams?” Doctor Sanchez asked.
“Yes, Doctor Sanchez,” Paula replied without a hint of anxiety. “You are invited.”
A rare smile spread across the face of Doctor Sanchez, “Very well, I am coming in now.”
• • •
Almost instantaneously, Doctor Sanchez appeared next to Paula in the park. While not physically there with her, by granting him permission to enter her dream, a mental projection stayed by her side, instructing her through his voice in the real world by speaking to her through spellbinding suggestion. Doctor Sanchez had been pioneering this sort of dream therapy for years, and he hoped that one day he could use his techniques to solve a case such as Paula’s.
For a period of time, he had attempted to solve his client’s problems with a variety of prescription drugs but could not achieve the results he was looking for, as he couldn’t target the specific parts of the brain he needed to. The drugs also tended to lock him out of the subconscious mind of his test subjects, so he finally accepted the medication as a failure, and moved on to other techniques. He tried simple therapeutic techniques with his patients, and each failure led him to another bold step forward until he had become a leading expert on dream psychology. All of his research had led him to this moment, helping a patient with nightmares so severe that they hindered the patient’s development in their environment. He was now in uncharted territory in his research. He couldn’t wait to find out what his next failure would be, so he could learn to move past it to the next step.
Paula was pleasantly surprised to see Doctor Sanchez in her dream with her and began to speak to him as if he were actually there. It was at this point where the hypnotic technique melded into a state of complete transparency, and it seemed as if the two of them were just in the park having a conversation. The moment of seamless interaction between the two of them became a moment of joy for Paula.
“Are you ready to open your mind?” Doctor Sanchez spoke with much less authority and more emotion in his voice than she had previously experienced. “Are you ready to take control of this gift of yours?”
Paula excitedly nodded her head in approval, “I am beyond ready!”
“Do you recognize your surroundings, Miss Lindsay? Tell me about what you’re seeing.”
“I am at Central Park, near the freeway,” Paula responded, trying to understand the differences between the material world and the immaterial one. “Though it doesn’t seem like I’m really
there. This feels like a dream.”
“How can you tell you’re dreaming?”
“I’m in black and white, and everything else is in color,” countered Paula, observing both herself and Doctor Sanchez. “Except you’re in black and white too.”
“That is how you perceive me. You invited me in, so I am a reflection of your own perception. These are important observations, and this is the knowledge you will need to become awake inside your dream.”
“Awake inside my dream?” Paula asked, scratching her head, wading through the confusion of what the Doctor had just told her. “Am I not already awake inside my dream?”
“You are awake in the sense that you can see what is going on around you,” Doctor Sanchez patiently explained. “But there is a difference between being awake in your dream and being conscious in your dream.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The difference is that in your sense of awake you are only able to see the information going on around you. Being fully awake in your dream will give you the ability to interact with your dream in whatever way you see fit.”
Paula had to stop and think about this for a moment, wondering if she had been awake in her dream every time and hadn’t known it. Surely, she hadn’t been, and if she had, then she could have exerted some influence over her dream and interacted with it as the doctor said she could.
“But how do I do that?” she wondered. “How do I interact with something my mind has pre-determined?”
“I know that I am dreaming. I know it each time I’m dreaming, especially if it’s going to be a nightmare. There’s a difference. I guess there’s a difference between the way the two feel.”
“Good,” Doctor Sanchez answered, nodding his head in the affirmative, writing Paula’s words in his notebook. “Knowing that you are dreaming is an excellent first step. Do you recognize any of the signs that we discussed the other day?”
The Family Secret Page 5
