Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Going With The Flow

It was a long drive. 

I had an appointment to meet with Laura yesterday after work.  When she gave me her address I sarcastically commented that my passport had expired and so I wasn't sure if the delegates of Maple Ridge would let me in her neck of the woods.  I was chatting with her on Facebook and I could sense she was rolling her eyes at my witty retort. 

Traffic was at it's peak and of course the weather started to turn ugly.  "Great... this is freaking fantastic."  I call Chris to let Laura know I would be late.  As I manuever myself through the GVRD my mind started wandering back to our Facebook chats.  Laura is a clinically trained hynotherapist who I just recently started befriending.  During her own journey into her life's purpose she had recalled two past lives.  In one lifetime she was a Priestess who healed people but eventually felt so burdened with her talents that she decided to stop practicing her gift.  She died from someone carving her heart out.  She learned that she doesn't have to feel obligated to serve her entire lifetime.  In another life cycle she was a Viking soldier who couldn't save his wife from being kidnapped and probably tortured.  He did re-marry and lived a long life but the guilt was never let go.  Such fascinating stories.

I am a strong believer in re-incarnation and cycling back into this physical plane with the purpose of experiencing lessons.  I am also what you may call an "easy" subject when it comes to the power of suggestion thanks to my vivid imagination.  If a person said, "Hey Huong, you want a caeser?" my mouth, like a seasoned Pavlov's dog, would start watering right on cue.  For this same reason, I refuse to watch scary movies because I am very talented at impressing the images I saw onto my own landscape... for like... weeks.  With this level of awareness I try to keep my expectations in check.  On the one hand I am also very nervous to see what past life issues I have been harboring unconsciously.  On the other hand, I wonder if my highly tuned and conditioned analytical mind would even allow me to be seduced to the hynotic level where the lymbic system runs automatically without the conscious mind.

Laura walks me through the technical aspects of hypnosis to clear up any apprehensions and misconceptions.  Laura has set aside a cozy, dimly lit room where I happily plunk myself into a comfy Poang chair.  I smile at the familiar IKEA best seller and start recalling how many units of this favorite lounger I sold as a sales manager.  I then notice the sounds of water falling and realized she owns one of those table top Zen rock waterfalls things... the same one in fact that Chris got for Christmas from his step grandma 4 years ago.  It then occurred to me that I totally tuned out what Laura was saying.  I reshift my body language to focus on her.  See?  This is how my mind works.  It rambles and rambles and rambles... all the time.  The really freaky thing?  I have these random thoughts but I totally heard EVERYTHING Laura had said down to the statistic that we use only 5% of our brain, leaving 95% of it unused in the sub-conscious mind.  If you really know me, you would know that I recall details vividly and with impeccable accuracy.  So how is it that I can have a separate conversation with myself about minute, trivial information but somehow can conduct a full conversation and acquire new information at the same time?  So... I guess Miss Laura has her work cut out for her.

She starts the session by turning on the CD with the new age music.  I feel like I'm at a spa.  I uncross my legs, slip into a cozy throw, close my eyes and follow her instructions as she reads a script.  She tells me to imagine myself floating out of my body and looking back down at it.  I envision myself doing this and start giggling - in my mind so I don't get in trouble.  I find it so funny that the person I imagined floating out of my body was not the actual image of the real me.  Instead, I imagine myself as a blue energy being with very little facial features and long blue energy hair down to my bum.  Laura instructs me to move my floating self to the left as far as the wall, or perhaps beyond it and even beyond this planet if I choose to.  In my head, I methodically repeat her instructions: Okay Laura I will float my weird, unclothed blue energy being to my left... ummmm... go past your wall... go outside your home... oh wait, is your home on a greenbelt?  Does that mean if I float too far a bear might eat me?  I started silently smiling in my head again because apparently I am being highly amused at my own running monologue.  Laura brings my floating self back to my core and instructs me to start creating a safe zone where I am at peace.  My mind starts imagining a peaceful forest where the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly onto the... ummm... pond?  Why on earth would you pick a pond?  Ponds are stagnant bodies of water which means it's a ripe environment for leeches to grow.  Eeeeewwww... great sanctuary if you're an animal that feasts on leeches.  For pete's sake if you're going to imagine a water feature go all out and do a waterfall.  Okay.. the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly on the small lake where it is being fed by a waterfall.  Is the waterfall being fed by a glacier or an underground aquifer?  Holy geezes, why do I have fairies dancing around me?  Shoo!  Dancing fairies you need to fly back to Care Bear Land before Laura finds out your distracting me from following her instructions.  The fairies ignore my request but they politely bring me a rock where I delightfully sit in the signature yoga pose of ohm.  Laura's voice then focusses my attention and tells me that I am so relaxed that my left leg is feeling so, so, so heavy.  It is so heavy that I can't even lift it.  Oh sure, I am so, so, so relaxed that I can't EVEN lift my left foot.  Apparently my blue energy being is sarcastic to the core.  Laura softly tests my state and tells me to lift my left leg.  I skeptically ignore her warning that I had no control over my leg and triumphantly... failed?  Wait a minute... holy geezes I can't lift my leg?! What the hell just happened here?  One second ago I was shooing away fairies like they were mosquitoes and the next thing I can't lift my own leg?  This can't be right.  I test my other limbs, everything is dead weight.  In fact, even after Laura gives me permission to float my left hand up into the air like a helium balloon I couldn't oblige.  She had to come over and lift it for me.  I am utterly flabbergasted.  Suddenly it dawned on me that somewhere between my own running monolgue and my conscious mind following Laura's instructions I was able to relax to a state of unconsciousness.  My mind goes quiet.  I feel that my limbs are frozen but I sense some tingling at the extremities.  I am aware that if I really wanted to, I probably can open my eyes and regain control of this physical ship so I can move limbs.  But then what?  That's seem silly trying to undo what you came to discover.  

Laura moves onto the next phase of the session and ask permission from my soul to explore it's past lives.  I give her permission by raising my right finger.  She starts describing elements of a carnival scene and although I am sure I heard her voice in the background, I really didn't follow her instructions as strictly as the first part.  Instead my mind starts wandering into a bizarre silence where its quiet... I have never experienced that before.  No monologue laden with sarcasm.  No silently smiling at my own reflections.  No digesting stimulation.  No fairies dancing on mushroom tops.  No going over a to do list.  It was just... nothing.  Just me embraced in a white light.    

Laura's voice jolts me out of the nothingness and she guides me to recall a past life.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Huong, I cannot believe that you left us hanging there! I am so excited to hear what happens next. This is a great story!

    I was hypnotized many years ago as a way of quitting smoking. I couldn't believe how deeply relaxed the body is, while the mind does become quite compliant - you lift your finger when told to do so, etc. It is a weird feeling!

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