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Short Stories Non-Fiction Life in a Tea Cup
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Life in a Tea Cup |
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| Written by Paul Harris | |
| Thursday, 03 April 2008 | |
David settled himself in the reclined chair and closed his eyes as he had been told.
The slow monotonous voice started.
"I want you to take five deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. With each breath out you are going to become more relaxed. Sinking into the chair."
"So, breathe in... and out, feeling your shoulders slump, your body becoming soft."
"In... and out, relaxed, sinking deeper, and deeper."
"In... and out, deeper still, so relaxed, so heavy, so soft."
"In... and out, deeper, relaxed, heavy."
"In... and out."
"You are now so deep, so relaxed that even if you wanted to move, you would find that you couldn't. Your arms are so heavy and so relaxed. In a moment I'm going to ask you try and lift your right arm up, only by about two inches. You will find that your arm is so heavy that you can't lift it. In fact the harder you try to lift your arm, the heavier it becomes."
"I'm going to count to three now, and on the count of three, I want you to try to raise your arm. One, two, three."
The relaxation was more complete than anything David had ever been aware of before. He felt as limp as a rag doll. He could imagine that he had, indeed sunk into the very fabric of the chair. He tried to lift his arm, and to his surprise he found that it couldn't be done. He tried harder, and sure enough he felt as if his arm was becoming heavier and heavier. He smiled at the thought of how ridiculous it was, or at least he thought he smiled. He was surprised that he was aware of conscious thoughts, even though he was completely under the control of another person.
The voice continued, "I want you now to picture yourself outside a house. It can be any house you like, anywhere you like. Take a moment to look at it, what is it made of?"
David could see the house, it was made of wood and painted light blue. The paint was old and peeling in places. In some areas the wood was beginning to rot. The sloping roof was beginning to sag in the middle. This was quite clearly an uninhabited house.
"I want you to walk up to the front door and let yourself in. As you enter the house, look around the hallway. You will see a musical instrument. Have a look at it, you decide what you want to do with it. You choose whether it is important or not."
The front door was swung right open, a screen door hung limply across the opening. David found himself in the hallway without moving the screen door. The wallpaper was a light blue floral pattern, faded and dirty. On the wall was a small guitar made out of plastic coated metal. Just like the rubbish souvenir that his Grandmother had brought back from Spain when he was a child. Surprisingly David found that it filled him with disgust. He had no desire to give the despicable object any further attention. At the far end of the hallway through another door, David could see the kitchen window looking out into the woods.
"When you have seen enough, I want you to make your way outside."
Without moving, David found himself at the back of the house. He knew that the house was behind him, but he had no desire to look at it.
"Just for a moment, I want you to look around yourself. You are standing in a wood. Look at the trees, are they tall or short, are they close together or far apart, can you see between them, can you see the sky?"
David looked, the trees were very tall but the trunks were not thick. The tree trunks were covered with a white paper like bark, similar to that of a birch tree. The canopy of leaves was thin enough for David to just about be able to see the blue of the sky through it. David felt warm, he guessed that it must have been a spring day. A gentle breeze wafted through the trees causing the leaves to rustle.
"OK, as you look about yourself, you will become aware that you are standing on a path. Decide what this path is like, how wide it is, what it is made of. Can you see along it at all? After a few moments I want you to start walking along it, as you walk, pay attention to how easy it is to walk. Carry on until you see an object on the ground. As you approach the object you will see that it is a cup. I want you to have a good look at this cup. Look all around it, you may pick it up if you want or leave it on the ground. If you do decide to pick it up, feel how much it weighs."
The path was not very wide and made of soft sand. It curved gently to the right so that David couldn't see the end. As he started to walk along the sand seemed to be trying to hold his feet down. It was just becoming hard work when he saw the cup on the ground. The cup was a large silver trophy, about 60cm tall with coloured ribbons hanging from the handles. As David lifted it from the ground he decided that it was a ridiculous thing and he made a decision to change it. It changed instantly into a fine bone china tea cup with a matching saucer. David looked at this rather delicate cup more closely. He realised that where the white china should have been between the blue patterns, it was in fact completely transparent. There was no weight to it at all, it was more of an image than a real object. David placed the cup and saucer back on the path and in a second it was gone. He was aware that the warmth of the sun was no longer penetration the leaf canopy, although he could still see the blue sky above the trees.
"When you are ready to move on, I want you to continue along the path until you come to a wall. The path will stop at this wall and the wall will stretch away from you to either side so that there is no way around it. Again, I want you to notice everything about the wall. You will see that there is a way of passing through this wall. I want you decide what the wall is made of, how tall it is, how well it is made. Can you see what is on the other side? Do you want to go there?
If you choose to go to the other side we will continue, if you choose not to, you will remain in a state of total relaxation until I bring you out of it."
As David approached the wall his first impression was just how tall it was. He couldn't see the top of it without tilting his head right back. It was made of red brick and was evidently very old. There was an archway in the centre of his view, which was sealed by a very heavy looking wooden door.
Strangely as David got closer the wall slowly changed with each footstep until it was a low dry stone wall with steps leading up to a platform on the top. David presumed that there were steps leading down the other side.
On the other side was a large meadow of brilliant green grass, interspersed with yellow and white flowers. It seemed to David to be the most beautiful place that he had ever seen. He decided to lean on the wall and look for a while, he had absolutely no desire to cross over into the meadow.
As he came round David slowly opened his eyes and stretched his arms out in front of him. Although the whole experience seemed to have only lasted for a few minutes he felt as if he hadn't moved for hours.
"Just stay there, don't sit up." The owner of the voice swam into view. Jenny was sitting in the chair directly opposite David and when he opened his eyes fully she greeted him with a warm friendly smile.
"Firstly," she said, "how long do you think you were under for?"
David thought hard, "Probably about twenty minutes." He said with a questioning tone.
She smiled. "You were under for an hour and a half. Now then, what about the journey that you went on, let's see what you can remember. The musical instrument in the house, what was it?"
"A guitar," said David, "although not a proper one. It was one that I remember from when I was young at my Grandmother's house. I didn't like it, sort of ornamental rubbish."
"That instrument represents how you remember your childhood." Said Jenny, "maybe right now, there are parts of your past that you are struggling to live with, any way let's move on. The pathway in the woods, what was it made of, was it easy to walks along?"
David described the pathway, telling Jenny that is was difficult to walk along, he told her about the woods.
"That is how you currently see your journey through life." She said. "It would appear to me that you have a few issues that you need to deal with. You are becoming mentally bogged down and you feel that you are alone, with no one either side. Although there is some optimism as the trees were openly spaced and you could see blue sky through them."
"The cup," She went on, "tell me about that."
David described how he had seen a trophy, but had thought that ridiculous and changed it.
"The cup is telling us about how you see yourself." She replied. "You would like to hold yourself in high regard, but when you really think about it, your lack of self confidence won't allow it. The china cup shows that you see yourself as very delicate and easily broken. Finally, what about the wall?"
David described the wall, again how it had changed as he approached it, telling Jenny that there was an easy way across it, but that he chose not to take it.
"That wall is how you see your transition from the here and now to your future. At first the future seems a frightening prospect and you would rather not think about it. When you get closer to it though, you find that it's not such a bad place after all, and in many respects it's much better than where you are now."
For a moment David reflected on what he had just been told. Never before had anyone given him such an accurate assessment of himself.
Comments (3) |
 04-03-2008 05:05, amazing story...one of the best I have ever read in this website.... Self-discovery is always a very fascinating subject and you brought me surprise with your style of writing... Hope to see more of your works... » Reply to this comment...  04-03-2008 05:27, Neat! Great job...scary how the subconscious can bring up our true feelings... » Reply to this comment...  04-03-2008 19:53, The ironic thing about it is that the hypnotist was originally consulted for help to quit smoking! The story above was just a small part of the routine that was hit upon by chance. - Scary indeed... » Reply to this comment... |
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