Free Your Eyelids Are Growing Heavy by Barbara Paul Page A

Megan said, appalled. “Why would anyone do such a thing to me?”
    â€œThat sounds pretty fanciful, Snooks,” Gus said dubiously.
    â€œIt’s not fanciful at all,” Snooks said. “In fact, it’s a standard way of checking on trance depth in experimental studies. The second suggestion can’t cancel out the first if the depth of the trance is the same. And Megan is such a responsive subject that taking her into deep trance would be child’s play for any trained hypnotist. Also, there’s the possibility that drugs were used during that missing weekend. There are so many that can increase suggestibility—paraldehyde, pentothal, scopolamine. Megan, think back carefully. When you woke up on the golf course, did you notice any unusual physical symptoms? Blurred vision, a feeling of lethargy—”
    â€œI was a little woozy when I first woke up, but mostly I was stiff from sleeping on the ground. Nothing in particular.”
    â€œHm. Well, I’d like to know, but I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. I’d say somebody was on that elevator with you when you left work Friday. Maybe gave you an injection right there. And then sometime before you were released, you were told to forget the encounter—to forget the whole thing, in fact.”
    â€œBut why?” Megan burst out. “A … a calculated attack? Somebody lying in wait for me on the elevator, shooting me full of god-knows-what, then telling me to forget it ever happened. What’s the purpose?”
    Snooks hated to say it, but she’d gone this far. “Megan. Isn’t it possible that the suggestion to forget was not the only suggestion you were given?”
    A look of such horror came over Megan’s face that Gus quickly moved to her side and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. Megan said in a shaky voice, “You mean that right now I’m carrying around in my head some command … that I don’t even know about?”
    The psychiatrist lit her first cigarette in almost an hour. “That’s about the size of it. I hate to sound alarmist, but if I’m right we’ve got a far more serious problem than just a blackout. Because there’s no way to find out what that command is until you obey it.”
    â€œBut that’s terrible!” Megan stood up and began to pace about the room. “My god, it could be anything! You mean somebody just came along and programmed me as if I were a machine—”
    â€œNow wait a minute,” Gus objected. “Snooks, you’re the expert, but from what I’ve read I got the impression the subject had to cooperate with the hypnotist before a trance state could be achieved. How could anyone hypnotize her without her even knowing about it?”
    Snooks sighed. “I know of at least one case in which that happened. It’s very rare, but it’s possible. If Megan’s hypnotist was quick enough, she just might not have had the time she needed to muster up an effective resistance. Some of those drugs are pretty fast. It can happen.”
    Gus looked sick. Megan was still pacing. Finally she stopped and faced the older woman. “And there’s no way you can counteract this command?”
    â€œNot if I don’t know what it is. Probably not even if I did.”
    Megan resumed her pacing. “What if it wasn’t just one command? What if it was a whole series of them? I could spend the rest of my life never knowing what I’d do next! I’d have no control, I’d—”
    â€œNo, no—that’s not the way it works,” Snooks hastened to reassure her. “Without reinforcement posthypnotic suggestion gradually fades away. As a rule, it lasts anywhere from two months to five years. There’s one case on record of a posthypnotic suggestion surviving for fifteen years. But that’s unusual.”
    â€œWhat kind of reinforcement?” Gus said