Hypnotist at the Bijou
Part 3
With the intent of making their way backstage to see the hypnotist, Cherie and Angie slip along the row of now empty seats, while Connie and Tim the pack horse (carrying all the coats and bags and his own hat) traipse off to the bar. As they head towards the dressing room Angie feels a defensive mood come over her, and she suggests they go back via the antechamber to his dressing room, and have a peek in before surprising him. Cherie has a little giggle, she loves the idea. So they turn along the corridor and open the little hatch like door, and slip into the secret passage. It is bloody dark in there at night, with no other dressing rooms casting any light. Still, they see his room and the rim of light around they spy hatch, and soldier on, arriving at the small chairs next to the hatch. Angie surreptitiously opens the hatch doors, they hear talking, someone is there with the hypnotist, intrigue, excitement, peer in.
The hypnotist’s dressing room is further along the passage than the room he was in before, and this room is rather large and lavish. The hatch is actually well secluded, so he has not in fact heard the women position themselves. They have a full and clear view of the girls from the seat behind theirs in the theatre, and they can hear him speaking to them. “I am only too happy to answer all of your questions, my dears, and thank you for being so bold and coming to see me. I makes me delighted to entertain such intelligent and lovely girls, especially if I may bring you a greater understanding of my art. From my position on the stage I could see the light in your eyes as you were able to pay very close attention to everything I say, watch carefully as I show you things.”
The girls were loving the attention, listening to his flowery meaningless phrases and loving his voice once again. Cherie and Angie were again warming to his charming sound and absorbing his suggestions, without knowing their meaning. They were so excited, watching from the spy hole, being naughty. They noticed an object on the table, covered with a black velour cloth. The object had them guessing, they couldn’t work out what it might be.
“There are things that have great meaning in this infinite universe we inhabit, objects of power and mystery and knowledge of the ancients that move heaven and the earth.” As he was saying this his voice was growing deeper, more authoritative, perhaps just a little quieter, with just a hint of superiority, and he was purposefully gesturing with his hands, as if he himself was moving the heavens. The sparkling eyes of the girls were caught up in the movement, following his hands everywhere. Cherie and Angie both were listening to his words, and wondering what he could possibly be talking about, and occasionally catching sight of his more amplified hand gestures. Still, it was enough to confuse them and keep them intrigued.
“Our minds play a large part in what happens to this world… where would we be without the likes of Edison or Braid… Bell or Mesmer… Einstein or Aristotle… think about the discoveries of the Egyptians alone… their minds forever contemplating the deeper meaning of things… it was the Egyptians who first explored the temples of sleep, investigating the very root of consciousness itself… if not for the desire to delve deeply into the sleep state… uncovering what possibilities exist when you… go to sleep… especially deeply to sleep… what things could our society have missed?”
All the women were developing humidity in their eyes, slightly softening their gazes, absorbing his words. Without knowing it they were on the track to blissful hypnotic slumber already. He then gestured to the object sitting in front of him, inviting their anticipation as he slowly moved to withdraw the velour. He teased at the cloth as he continued speaking, “Edison was indeed a master of electronics… creating many engaging devices… I have such a device here… harnessing the universal energy for beneficial human contact. I invite you to witness the elemental power of the universe.” As he dropped the velour to the table the bright lightning flashing its myriad patterns was now in full view of all the women, and they were all captivated by its presence.
“See the power… look deeply into its source as it compels your gaze… feel the energy as it surrounds you… feel it sapping your strength… feel it draining your will… feel your eyelids getting heavy as the energy encompasses you… it is impossible to look away… look deeply… deeply… and sleep… go to sleep.”
Cherie closed her eyes and slipped into the deepest of hypnotic trances, this is how she was hypnotised the first time. Angie was struggling with her eyes, they wanted so much to close, but she needed to protect her friend. The two beautiful girls weren’t able to resist and were following Cherie down into a deep trance, deeper and deeper as he talked. At this moment Zelmann remembered Cherie being at the hatch earlier, and decided to investigate that possibility again. Unsurprisingly there were Angie and Cherie, the latter clearly under his power again, but Angie was still fighting it, although completely unable to look away from the globe. “I find racing cars make you go deeply to sleep!” At first Angie couldn’t believe he said that, she was confused, then the volunteers onstage came back to her mind, and so did her hypnotic trance, she closed her eyes and fell deeply to sleep, now also completely under his power.
He entered the antechamber and brought Cherie and Angie to the dressing room. He sat them down alongside the other girls and had all of them open their eyes and stare fixedly into the lightning globe. After a minute of this he intoned, “The hypno globe is irresistible… when you see it you cannot look anywhere else… it compels you to look… it compels you to obey… when you listen to my voice you have to obey… you like my voice… you like to obey me… you like my voice… you like to obey me… I am going to make you come back to see my show… you will each come back to see my show soon… you will see my show again… you will bring another friend with you… you will each bring another friend with you… you will obey!”
“I am going to make you even more vulnerable to my hypnotic talent… in a moment I will awaken you and talk to you as my new and interesting friends. You love being here with me, and you find you want to listen more and more to anything I have to say to you. You won’t want to leave until I have to get my rest, and I ask you politely to go. Until then you will be attentive to my words, my voice, and my suggestions. But you are not influenced in the slightest by any other hypnotist. If you should wish to be hypnotised for therapy, you will be a good subject, but no one else can hypnotise you unless you give your considered permission. You are my deep hypnotic slaves, but no one else’s. When I wake you up you will clearly remember coming here to talk to me, but you will think you just got here and sat down… the last twenty minutes has not existed for you… if you look at your watch you will see the time is right… nothing is missing… you have just arrived. At the count of five you will be present in the moment… talking to me. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5.”
“So please, tell me your names, I think you know mine.”
They started from left, sort of shaking out the cobwebs, “Hi, my name is Teresa, I live here in town, and this is my friend Sam, she came to visit from down south, a ways.”
Zelmann says, “How delightful, and I am very pleased to make your acquaintance. What about you, dear ladies?”
“Well, hello. My name is Cherie, I live 120 kilometres away in the mid north, I am visiting my sister and brother in law while on holidays. He owns the theatre and invited me to the show, this evening.”
“I must remember to thank him for bringing me such enjoyable company, and what about you, my dear?”
“Hello, yes, I’m Angie, I’m a good friend of the family of the owner, and he invited me along with them. I loved your show, by the way, you’re really very good.”
“Aw, shucks, now you’re embarrassing me. No, actually thank you very much. Without my audience enjoying themselves there wouldn’t be much point to me doing what I do. It’s always nice to hear feedback. Well, was there anything in particular that you wanted to ask me?”
Teresa piped up, “So many questions, where to start. What is hypnosis in the first place, and how did you get all those people to do such odd things?”
“Wow, so many questions, and you managed to ask most of them in just one sentence, brilliant. Okay, let me think on the best way to answer that for you. Many times every day everyone spends periods in a hypnotic state. Sometimes when you read a book you become so engrossed in the characters you become totally unaware of the outside world, focussing closely on only what is before you. That is a form of hypnosis. Sometimes you may notice as you are driving that the white lines are becoming repetitive, flashing at an even rate, steady and rhythmic, mile after mile, flash… flash… flash… like a steady beating drum… repeating the same rhythm in your ears over and over… flash… flash… flash. This often produces hypnosis, called highway hypnosis, and although you feel as though you are miles away, your mind drifting and floating, your thoughts off with the fairies, it is generally recognised as not being dangerous, because your deep subconscious mind is monitoring your journey.”
All the women had sparkly eyes as they gazed, fascinated, at his handsome gracious face, listening to his every word with rapt attention. Everything he said made them think, everything he said took their minds to a personal experience. Everything he said was just wonderful.
“A personal favourite of mine is the late night black and white movies. Have you ever stayed up late at night to watch the good old movie marathon… especially when they used to put on the vampire films… but around ten o’clock they always seem to throw in a black and white dud. You so desperately want to watch the Count Yorga film that comes on at two o’clock, but the black and white film is so boring, and you can’t help watching the time, wishing it would finish. Ten thirty, this film just isn’t engaging, it might even be a foreign film that’s dubbed, and the writing’s so small, making your eyes so tired trying to read it all. And the voices, saying things that you don’t understand while you try to read the subtitles, so tiring. Ten forty five, it is taking ages as the minutes tick slowly by, the film is so boring, you’re feeling so drowsy, you shift position on the lounge to try to stay awake. Then you settle down and get more comfortable again, and you try to get interested in the slow and boring film. Eleven o’clock, and the time seems to be really dragging, you want to close your eyes, but you keep fighting it for all you are worth, you are determined to see Count Yorga.”
The sparkly eyes are dimming, everyone’s eyelids are drooping, obviously there are memories being invoked here. But there is no less attention given, the beautiful women are still in deep concentration as he speaks on and on, they are apparently not aware of his intentions, this is almost too easy.
“Eleven fifteen, a pleasant buzzing is sounding in your ears, your thoughts are drifting to the Count Yorga film to come, you feel incredibly sleepy now as the time drags more and more… becoming so sleepy, so tired… eyelids getting so very heavy as your mind drifts miles and miles away… your mind is drifting miles and miles away to the land of sleepiness… and drowsiness… and tiredness… and deep… deep… relaxing sleep. This is another type of hypnosis, as you are likely to be well aware of now as you allow yourselves to simply drowse deeper and deeper down into your deep hypnotic trances once again. Listening to my voice has made you sleepy once again and you can no longer resist the urge to simply let go and obey my voice… obey my voice.”
There were now four deeply hypnotised and exquisitely beautiful women sitting in front of the master hypnotist, and if he wasn’t careful he would cum in his pants. Jeepers he loved doing this. “You are now hypnotised… when you are awake you believe you are unaffected by hypnosis, and would be prepared to challenge anybody on that score… you think you are impervious to hypnotism… but I can hypnotise you… nobody else can… but I can… easily… you will always obey me. When you bring your friends to my show you must bring them backstage with you… each individually… bring your friends backstage to meet me… and you will want to talk about hypnotism… and you will convince your friend she wants to be hypnotised by me in the safety of your company… remember… you think I cannot hypnotise you… you can be the chaperone… I will hypnotise your friend. Tell me you will obey!”
Like a group of disparate alarm clocks chiming in concert they responded,
“I obey.”
“I will obey.”
“Yes, I will obey.”
“Yes master.”
Zelmann continued, “At the count of five you will wake up, refreshed and relaxed and on top of the world, you absolutely loved meeting and talking to me, and you are looking forward to a chance to meet me again. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5.”
All the women were looking rather pleased with themselves as they smiled at each other, like conspiratorial sisters, but it was alas time to part company. Cherie and Angie hurried back to Tim and Connie, who were seeming just a little anxious for their whereabouts. But there was soon beaming smiles all round as the group reassembled, a final round of drinks topped off the evening a treat, and Cherie could not stop gushing about this extraordinary man. “I am serious, Connie, you should just talk to him, he’s so brilliant, and magic to talk to.”
Connie was easily convinced, “Believe me, after what Tim has been telling me, I plan to meet him. Tim says he will have a word, I might get to meet him tomorrow, on my flexi afternoon. I can hardly wait, seeing you girls lit up like Christmas trees makes me a little envious. Did he try to hypnotise you, though?”
“No, not at all,” piped up Angie, “don’t worry, I wasn’t going to let anything like that happen, best buddies and friends look out for each other, right Cherie?”
“Too right, darling girl, God I love seeing you again. I love seeing all of you again. This is the best week ever.”
After the drinks were finished and the chat died down they headed home. Angie walked her couple of blocks, and Cherie went with Tim and Connie back to their place in the SUV. Tim was still harping on about how brilliant they all looked tonight, and the women appreciated that very much, and vowed to do it again.