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Isaac, the receptionist, wore a cloth mask with a picture of cherries on it. He ushered Gil into Dr. Lipton’s office for Gil’s first hypnosis session. “Hi, Gil. Have a seat over here, and we’ll get to know each other a little better. It’ll help you to relax, plus I’m generally nosy about people. I’ll start. I’m a psychotherapist, and I’ve been in practice for eleven years. I’m originally from New York City and went to school there, but my family used to come up here to see the horse races when I was a kid, so I decided to move here after school. How about you? Are you from Saratoga originally?”
“Actually, I grew up in a small town called Greenfield, Massachusetts, which is near Brattleboro, Vermont. I went to college at UMass for engineering, and I got hired at Adirondack Robotics right out of school.”
“Very cool! Tell me about your family.”
“As I told you last time, my wife Cynthia died last year from COVID.”
“Yes, I’m so sorry.”
“I have two daughters, a son-in-law, and three grandkids. My older daughter, her husband, and their kids live here in Saratoga. My single daughter lives in California.”
“What are your hobbies, what do you like to do with your free time?”
“Well, I used to spend my time buying and renovating houses for resale, but I think I’ve had enough of that. I’ve been trying new hobbies lately, like fly fishing and bike riding. I read a lot of novels, and I love to go to the movies, but I guess I haven’t been since COVID hit. I hope to travel more when COVID goes away.”
“Yeah, COVID isn’t helping, is it? Well, any changes to your sleep problem?”
“No, it’s still a big problem. Maybe worse. Believe it or not, I fell asleep while taking a bike ride.”
Craig’s jaw dropped. “Really? That’s a new one on me. You may be transitioning into narcolepsy.” He wrote that down. “You may have to stop driving. When’s your next appointment with Dr. Manomoney?
“Not for a while.”
“I’ll have her set something up to discuss this change. Do you have any idea when your nightmares started or what may have caused them?”
“I have no idea, but I bet it would help my insomnia if you could help me get rid of them.”
“Well, I think I can help you with that. I’ve had quite a bit of success helping people to get rid of their nightmares. Nightmares are a fairly common problem. Would you describe them for me in more detail? Are they always the same?”
“There are several different versions, and they repeat. Some parts of them are pleasant, and some cause me a lot of stress.”
“Tell me about the pleasant parts.”
“Well, it’s a little embarrassing.”
“Don’t worry. Dreams can seem embarrassing to talk about, but talking about them is what will help them stop. Of course, nobody but you and I will discuss your dreams.”
“Well, one pleasant part involves a lot of breasts. Sometimes I see a sea of breasts with or without women, and sometimes I see a single girl with her shirt off. I usually see a baby or many babies feeding from these breasts. The thing is, I never feel sexually aroused by these breasts. I just get this pleasant, comfortable feeling.” Craig was taking notes. “Another pleasant thing is this angel. She is dressed in shimmering and flowing white, and she’s floating above the ground. Sometimes she protects the girl with the breasts and her baby.”
“Do you know these girls?”
“No, but I can’t quite tell what their faces look like.”
“Do you recognize any of the babies?”
This question surprised him. “I don’t think so. I don’t think I ever tried to recognize the babies.”
“Any other pleasant things in your dreams?”
“Sometimes I’m in a forest, and I can smell the trees and leaves.”
“Okay, please try and describe the stressful parts of your dreams.”
“The worst one is when I’m being shot at, and bullets are hitting the ground all around me. Another one is when I’m tripping and falling on rocks, usually trying to escape the bullets. Sometimes there’s a monster that screeches horribly and tries to attack the girl who is breastfeeding. And sometimes there’s a devil who comes after me.” Gil felt uncomfortable and looked away.
“I can see that you get stressed out just remembering these things. Today I’ll introduce you to hypnosis, and we’ll only investigate the pleasant parts of your dreams. Sound good?” Gil nodded. “We’ll use hypnosis to help you observe your nightmares objectively and without anxiety. When you become relaxed while having these dreams, they won’t be nightmares anymore. It’s unlikely that we’ll learn much about why they started. Hypnosis isn’t really a tool for retrieving memories. It’s more about relaxation.”
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“First, let’s start with some relaxation techniques.” Gil noticed immediately that Craig was talking in a slower, smoother voice. “Close your eyes. Now take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Now do another cleansing breath, even slower. Good, we’ll have you relax deeply, working your way from the top of your head down. Each time you breathe out, relax all the muscles in your head and face and let them go slack: your scalp, your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your chin. Good. Now relax the muscles in your neck and your shoulders. Relax your upper arms, lower arms, and hands, all the way to your fingertips. Good. Now relax your chest and let your stomach and back muscles go slack. Good. Now relax your pelvic area, then your thighs, your knees, your calves, and your feet, all the way to the tips of your toes.
“Good. Now imagine that a cloud of deep warmth is falling into the top of your head, filling your head and face, down through your neck and chest, through your arms, hands, and fingers, filling your chest, your stomach, spreading down into your pelvis, your thighs, calves, feet, and all the way through the tips of your toes and continuing to flow out of your feet and toes. This cloud is full of warmth and pleasure. How does this make you feel?”
Gil thought about it and said, “I feel very relaxed and comfortable, like I’m in a Jacuzzi.”
“Good. Now imagine you’re at the top of a stairway that goes to a wonderful place. How would you describe this stairway?”
“It’s an escalator. A new, clean escalator that’s colored like a nickel alloy with black plastic moving handrails. The stairs are grooved toward the direction of travel, and they’re moving downward, like any typical escalator.”
“Good. Next, you’re going to descend the escalator as I count down from ten, and each time I count, you’re going to feel more and more relaxed. Now step onto the escalator. Ten, you’re feeling more relaxed. Nine, now even more. Eight. Seven. Six. You can see that the lighting is very dim at the bottom. Five. Four. Three. Two. And one. Step off the escalator and tell me how you feel.”
“I feel very, very relaxed. I want to know where I am.”
“Your eyes are adjusting to the dim lighting, and you can see that you’re in a small movie theater, all alone. Imagine that you are taking a seat in this theater, and we’ll start the movie soon. Where are you sitting?
“I’m sitting in a middle row, to the right of the center aisle.”
“Are you relaxed and comfortable?”
“I’m very relaxed and comfortable.”
“Good. Now we’ll start the movie. You have a remote in your hand, and you can control this movie, so you can start it and pause it whenever you like. You also control what you’ll be seeing. You’ll be watching parts of your recurring dreams. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good. Now press the play button, and let’s watch the first time you saw a young woman breastfeeding her baby in your dreams.” Gil imagined he had a remote in his hand and pressed the play button. Craig said, “Now describe the scene to me as it plays.”
“I’m lying prone in a pile of leaves, hiding behind a rocky knoll. I see a girl who’s sitting on a big log next to a large outcropping of red igneous rock. She’s wearing farmer-style blue-jean overalls, but her shirt is completely off, and the bib of her overalls is down, exposing her breasts. She has a baby suckling her left breast. The air smells fresh, and it’s warm and sunny out, like spring.”
“Tell me where you are,” Craig said.
“I’m at Poet’s Seat Mountain, on the far side.”
“How old are you?” Craig asked.
The image on the movie screen showed Gil’s perspective, and he could look down at his arms and his clothes. “I’m about fourteen. The girl is only about sixteen, I think. Wait, I hear someone else.”
“Press pause now,” Craig said. “Do you know this girl? Do you know her name?”
“No.”
“How does it make you feel, seeing this young woman breastfeeding her baby?”
“I feel wonderful, almost like I was that baby.”
“Good,” Craig said. “Now fast-forward to the first time you saw the angel.”
“I have to rewind because it’s before.” Gil rewound and then pressed play. “I’m in the same spot, but with a friend. The young mother is there holding her baby with her shirt on. There are two men and a woman talking. Hippies. The angel emerges from a cleft in the rocks.”
“Tell me what the people are saying.”
“I can’t hear the words, but sometimes they laugh.”
“Describe the angel.”
“She’s a girl that’s eleven or twelve. She’s floating above the ground wearing a white, translucent dress. Her dress and hair are flowing with the breeze. She has dark hair with white flowers in it.”
“Now press the pause button. How do you feel?”
“I feel exhilaration and amazement.”
“Who is the friend with you?”
“Micky.”
“You’re doing great, Gil. Now I’d like you to go to the up-going escalator. When you step onto the escalator, I’ll count to ten, and as I do, you’ll feel more and more rested, and your mind will feel clearer. You will remember what you observed in the movie. When you reach the top, you will become fully awake and alert. Now step onto the escalator. One, you are feeling rested, and your mind is getting clearer. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! You step off the top of the escalator, and you’re now fully awake and alert.”
Gil opened his eyes.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel great. But I’m confused about what I saw. They were my dreams, but they didn’t feel the same.”
“We’ve removed the anxiety that you’ve felt when you see these dreams. In your nightmares, even the positive parts are connected with anxiety. Do you remember the place where these dreams are, this Poet’s Seat Mountain?”
“Sure. Me and my friends used to hang around up there. I can sort of remember finding a cave up there with Micky Tindall. Wow, I haven’t seen him in decades. Maybe I’ll track him down and see if we can find it.”
Craig was still taking notes. “Well, Gil, today we initiated hypnotherapy, and I think it was extremely successful. You’re very receptive to it. Next time, it’ll be even easier to initiate hypnosis and get you back into your movie theater. By the way, you’re the first of my patients that’s ever envisioned an escalator, and I think that’s very cool. Next time we’ll carefully explore some of the more difficult aspects of your dreams. But I like your plan. I think it would be good if you connect with Micky, talk with him about what happened, and find that cave. What do you think? Any questions?”
“Well, I was relaxed during hypnosis, but will this relaxation be long term?”
“After our next session, when we explore the more stressful parts of your nightmares in the relaxed hypnotic state, you won’t tie them to feelings of anxiety later on. They won’t be nightmares anymore. I’ll also teach you how to perform relaxation exercises by yourself and how to use that capability in the future.”