My (Hypnotic) Origin Story
My earliest, most complete childhood memory, happens to be one of my most memorable hypnotic experiences to date. Hypnosis is such a natural and common state of being that we can miss how often it actually occurs in our daily life. This is simply one example of how the power of intention along with a highly focused mind accomplished much more than anyone would have thought possible.
There I am, it is the summer of 1975 maybe ‘76 in Aspen, Colorado. I’m either three or four years old living in a little log cabin on Cemetery Lane, at the top of the hill that settles down to The Slaughterhouse Bridge.
My mom and my baby sister are napping, I believe. (Transparently, that is the vaguest detail in my story’s telling. But truly, it’s the only logical explanation.)
I am a very grown-up little girl, trusted to roam the alleyway behind the cabin that runs along the base of what seems like a very large mountain. So, when I get bored reading The Little Engine That Could for the too many-eth time to keep my interest, I decide I’m going to walk to my babysitter Edda’s house.
I love playing with Edda!
Leaving the backdoor of the little cabin at the top of the hill above the Slaughterhouse Bridge I begin walking the gravel driveway towards the ‘safe way’ to the main road. Mommy doesn’t let me leave the front yard because she’s scared about cars on the main road hitting me. So, not wanting to make mommy mad, I walk the safe way to the sidewalk.
I see my chubby little toes in the gravel and remember how proud daddy is when he sees me walking barefoot without acting like a baby!
All I remember from this point to the next is repeating to myself with each step, “I think I can, I think I can.” Yes, I had learned to ‘read’ to myself around this time, though it was more accurately me repeating a story I had memorized because it had been read to me so many times already. The Little Engine That Could became my hypnotic metaphor to keep me going! “I think I can, I think I can.”
About 2 miles later, right before the light at Highway 82, I see the pond with the geese that daddy takes me to feed the sugary cereals he doesn’t want mommy feeding me. I stop and look at the pond and the geese, but know they can be mean so I decide not to get too close. They are dangerous after all!
Right at this point in my mighty adventure a car stops with three hippies inside, wanting to know where I am going. They invite me into the car as they ask where my mommy is. “Sleeping.” I answer. “I’m going to Edda’s.”
This does not seem to be acceptable to one of the ladies in the car who feels it is important to get me back to my mother. Hearing her explain this to the other big people in the car I lose my temper and begin to scream and yell that I am going to Edda’s and to let me out of the car, “NOW!”
There is a man in the car with the lady who has to get to work and says to leave me or take me where I want to go, “I don’t have time for this; I can’t be late.” I remember hearing him say with great annoyance. Relieved, I calm down.
I don’t remember them driving me the block and a half left in my journey to Edda’s. Thankfully, I didn’t cross Highway 82 or the Castle Creek Bridge into town all on my own. Edda lived in The Villas entrance right at the other end of the bridge.
I do remember having to wait outside her apartment in the parking lot she shared with my Uncle Tommy because she wasn’t home. Edda’s mom called my mom to pick me up and I waited, feeling fine. I wasn’t at all nervous as I waited for my mommy, swinging on the little placards that noted which parking space was assigned to which apartment.
I don’t remember being picked up or what happened afterwards. I just know we never ever talked about it, ever.
When I talk about hypnosis being a natural state of being that we have all experienced before, you may be surprised by some of your examples. Of course, we have all had an experience where we have been too focused on a task to notice banging into something, leaving a bruise and/or scratch we don’t remember getting in the moment. Most have probably been driving along a ‘same old route’ when they realized they have been focusing so much on something else in their head that they didn’t remember how they ended up where they ended up. Of course, they drove themselves to where they ended up, there’s just no memory of the trip that JUST finished. That’s known as highway hypnosis.
Hypnosis is simply such a highly focused state of being that you can transform thoughts and beliefs enough to accomplish what you haven’t been able to with willpower alone. When willpower isn’t working, Hypnosis Helps!
This ability to accomplish what has seemed impossible on one’s own is why people get confused and think hypnosis is magic or mind control.
IT ISN’T!
I simply teach people techniques they didn’t realize they could utilize to accomplish the things their willpower stands in the way of them accomplishing on their own.
Ironically, the meaning I had always attached to this memory was absolutely wrong. And that, that is the truest gift of hypnosis. “If only I knew then what I know now.” It took me until my mid-forties to realize I wasn’t ‘running away from home’ I was simply a very headstrong child who really enjoyed hanging out with her friend Edda!
“I think I can, I think I can!”