CHAPTER 1
“He has a red turban on and his breath reeks of alcohol. Large brown eyes with red streaks in the whites are staring at me as he speaks. A rifle is slung casually over his right shoulder. Everyone on the train is standing transfixed during our interaction. A baby is crying as we hurtle through the darkness of the Indian countryside. It’s like a bizarre portrait frozen in time.”
Vincent was hyperventilating. His heart rate and blood pressure were clearly elevated. Doctor Fleur was sorely tempted to call a halt to the session but her fine mind speedily processed the risk-benefit ratio for this patient and made a professional decision to continue the clinical hypnosis therapy session.
“You are safe, Vincent. Just keep looking at the split screen in your mind and tell me what is happening now. Remember, a part of you is experiencing this as reality, and another part of you is observing it.”
“I can’t understand what he is saying. The brown man in the military uniform is speaking in English, I believe, but he is so drunk and his words are so heavily accented that it is almost impossible to comprehend his speech. I know that he wants to know where I am going. I tell him Dharmsala, North India. It doesn’t matter to him; I think he wants something more from me but I don’t know what.”
The clinical and forensic psychologist pushed her short dark hair back behind her dainty ears and spoke some calming words: “Very nice. Take a few deep breaths and continue, if you will.”
The thirty-something man on the black leather recliner shook visibly. His olive skin was tinged with pink but he appeared to want to continue speaking. “Ravi is trying to translate but can barely understand this menacing person either. Though both speak Hindi, the soldier has a different accent from Ravi.”
Chantal knew that her next patient was in the waiting room but that there was still some time left to spend with Vincent. She invited him deeper into the trance.
“We are going to dissolve the split screen in your mind now, Vincent. When I count to three, you will begin experiencing the events in the present moment—fully and completely. Is that understood?”
The patient responded with a weak inaudible grunt.
“Very fine. Three… Two… One. What is happening to you now Vincent?”
“The man in the red turban is taking Ravi to another train car. Babies are crying. People are staring. Everyone is afraid to move. The military man has a rifle slung over his shoulder and I’m afraid that if I move he will use it.
“I’m following them at a distance. They stop in the next car, almost falling down as the train wavers, then stand there talking. The guard took Ravi’s wallet and passport earlier. I could see him trying to read the passport but it was upside down. He looked at all of Ravi’s cash in his wallet.
“Why would the guard demand a green card from Ravi? Ravi is an American citizen. Wait. Look. He’s giving Ravi his personal belongings back. I think it’s a shakedown. The man wants a payoff but Ravi has nothing to hide. Ravi is an American citizen and doesn’t need any special papers to travel by train. My friend is slowly walking away and back to our car now.”
“You are doing very well, Vincent. Just keep going.”
“I am terrified. What if the guard uses his rifle? ‘Get back here,’ he is yelling. Ravi just keeps walking as if he does not hear the man in the red turban.
“My friend is passing by me now and whispering: ‘Let’s get back to our car. Just walk slowly like me and I think we will be fine.’ We are walking back now and hoping that the guard is not following us. Everyone is watching in tense silence making the roar of the train deafening. Ravi and I go to our metal bunks for the night. That was the longest few minutes of my life. I don’t think we will get much sleep.”
“When I count from three to one you will awaken, feeling refreshed and better than when we started. You will remember everything and may find that more and more of your memories return gradually over the next few weeks, perhaps during the day, perhaps in dreams.”
The doctor continued soothingly and confidently: “Three, two, and one. Awake and refreshed.”
Vincent opened his squinting eyes and blinked several times, rubbed his eyes, and mopped sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. The underarms of his shirt were ringed with dampness.
“How are you feeling, Vincent?”
“A little shaken, Doctor Fleur. I think I’d rather be at the dentist. I never thought I would prefer root canal to anything else!”
“Hypnotherapy can feel a little like pulling teeth sometimes, I know, but you will be glad you had the courage to do this. ‘Refreshing’ old memories, as we call it, can be very unsettling, but it will help us to piece together the missing pieces in your mind.
“Your memory is like a tape recording or a CD, but there are blank spaces in yours and we need to find out what they are and why they were put there.
“Do you have any conscious recollection of a military guard on a train wearing a red turban and carrying a rifle, Vincent?”
“Not before today Doctor, but now that I’ve been through this session, there is something vaguely familiar about that story. And I do remember what went on under hypnosis. You said that is okay, right?”
“Yes, okay, and very normal. We usually do remember what happens in hypnosis. It is only when the memory unearthed is still too traumatic for our conscious mind to deal with that we experience spontaneous amnesia to the hypnosis session. The fact that you remember what happened is a good sign, Vincent.
“Please practice the self hypnosis technique I taught you a few weeks back—the one where you roll your eyes upward while closing your eyelids, remember?”
“Yes Doctor, I do remember it and have been practicing it. Didn’t you say that doing things in two directions at one time, like rolling the eyes upward while lowering the lids helps to confuse the brain?”
“Right. Hypnosis taps our inner mind by circumventing the rigid and logical patterns we usually think with. Under many circumstances, logic is helpful and efficient, but sometimes it can get in the way of accessing what is repressed. When we do something confusional, it breaks the logic barrier, so to speak.
“There is an ancient Asian saying: ‘Confusion precedes enlightenment.’”
“Well, I’m going to be one very enlightened person then, because now I am one very confused guy.”
The doctor gently kept herself on track. “Speaking of memory, I now need to remember that someone is waiting for me in the reception area. Let’s meet again next week, shall we?”
“A part of me says yes and a part of me says no. Another good sign?”
“You’ll have my job soon, Vincent. See you next time.”