The “Mind Spa” Experience

by Abigail Caress, a client and writer

There has been no opportunity for me to leave on a vacation, not anytime now or anytime soon. No matter how badly I needed one as a working mother to two young kids. There’s simply been no time between all my work assignments, family responsibilities, routine duties, or the press of the daily grind.

But I was worn out. I came to my hypnotist’s office door feeling mentally very, very tired.

My hypnotist, Wally Post, suggested I try a mental reset through a hypnosis session experience that he calls a “Mental Spa”.

“How does that work?” I asked.

“It gives you the benefits of the relaxation mindset of a vacation without actually taking one,” he explained. “Most of my clients never want to leave this kind of hypnosis session, once they’re in it. It goes very deep, to a state called the Esdaile State, which gets your mind and body out of the ‘fight or flight’ pattern from constant stress through deep mind-and-body relaxation. It’s like hitting a reset button on yourself.’

Wally knows I’m a bit of a skeptic, so he brought out something from his library to show me. It was the classic tome Hypnotherapy by Dave Elman, a mid-century hypnotist who devoted a whole chapter to describing the Esdaile State and the technique of its creator, James Esdaile (1808-1859). Esdaile was a Scottish surgeon and a notable figure in the history of mesmerism (hypnotic techniques), specifically in surgical anesthesiology, where he made a name for himself by using a kind of deep hypnosis to deeply relax and anaesthetize patients in an era of medicine just before the discovery of chloroform.

Yes, the Esdaile State is supposed to feel that deep: it was described as a painless, floating, almost bodiless level of hypnosis.

I read over a few of the paragraphs describing the Esdaile State in fascination. And some doubt.

With Wally, I’d comfortably achieved a mid-level of hypnosis called “somnambulism” several times before. But could he actually take me to that deep level of the Esdaile State—what he was telling me was, essentially, “the basement” of my mind?

I got in the comfy chair and, under Wally’s familiar induction, I easily reached that mid-level state I knew so well. But then he asked me to “relax twice as much” at the next cue.

And then descend again to a lower level of deeper relaxation, and again, to lower and lower levels, like on an elevator. “Down to level C, now,” he’d say, and he’d ask me to nod when I got there.

When I got to level D, I couldn’t dip my chin to nod back at Wally anymore.

Everything felt both light and heavy at the same time. Wally knew we were getting somewhere.

I remember hearing him getting up from his chair, and coming over to gently lift my arm, which slowly went back into place.

He seemed satisfied by my progress, but he led me another level down. Although I couldn’t open my eyes at this point even had I wanted to, I felt him checking me for the Esdaile State that I’d seen described in the book—just a little pinch to the back of my left hand. I registered it, but it was like an echo, only after it happened. And not much pain at all to rouse me.

I was deep in that weightless and weighted feeling, like I was drifting in a slow pool of water. I had some sensation but nothing that could touch me deeply. I could still hear Wally, but he seemed farther and farther away.

Honestly, I just wanted to float, not try anything else in the experiment. Just float.

I floated for a long while. I registered Wally coming back towards my comfy recliner chair, lifting my arm again gently. My muscles felt somewhat waxy, both soft and rigid, and oddly, when he positioned the arm in the air above the armrest again, it mostly stayed where it was.

I distantly remembered what I had once learned in a neuropsychology class—that rigid flexion in limbs meant a catatonic-like mental state. Was I that far down? 

It didn’t bother me to be. I wanted to be left alone to float.

But then I heard Wally trying to bring me back up into awareness. He was using a familiar cue: “When I clap my hands, you’ll open your eyes.”

No I won’t. I thought back.

Clap.

I barely fluttered an eyelash. I wanted to stay down there.

Wally’s voice sounded amused and not at all alarmed. He’d expected this.

“Abigail,” he said with a serious tone, “if you don’t come out of that basement right now, I will never bring you down to this state again.” He clapped again.

Well, that worked. I cracked an eye and tried to make a face. I was still very floaty, oddly tired. He used a few more techniques to raise me into more of my old comfort zone at that somnambulistic level of hypnosis where I can respond easily, and where I had more focused awareness.

As he asked me questions about how I felt and I responded – still very relaxed, oddly sleepy—I kept yawning as I talked. Over, and over, I was yawning like I’d come out of a month of hibernation, not a 20-minute dip into deep hypnosis where I’d never actually fallen asleep.

Mentally, I felt soft. Things weren’t hazy, but they weren’t sharp, either. I felt detached, still, like Wally’s questions couldn’t bother me. The cold air conditioning couldn’t bother me. The way my jeans fit couldn’t bother me. They were there, but they weren’t a bother.

We chatted awhile until this feeling faded somewhat and my yawns subsided.

As I prepped to leave, Wally asked me to just take note of how I felt as I went about the next few days with all my mom-duties and job-duties.

So I did. Here’s what I jotted down:

• At the grocery store right after this session, I sauntered through my list and routine, and then shrugged off the long line that would have normally had me tapping my feet in impatience.
• This is a big one: despite perimenopause and stress both kicking my but in recent months, I slept the ENTIRE NIGHT through for the first time in weeks, without using my normal sleep aids like magnesium or melatonin.
• And crucially, after that, I awoke rested.
• My noisy children that morning weren’t as big of a trigger during their “virtual day” at home with me. Normally they would be – it was a day when I was balancing their parent-teacher conferences, teaching them their virtual lessons, and fitting in a few more work hours from home during any “breaks.” Despite the juggling act, it was like I still had that sense of stress-free detachment. The day was what it was – no hard feelings about it.
• My looming deadlines when I returned to work didn’t seem to loom. I worked diligently but felt less of the hot-under-the-collar anxiety I normally feel when I’m clocked in and working hard.

In all, I’d say these effects lasted longer than I anticipated—nearly a week, in fact—before I felt my familiar old anxious mental patterns creeping in on me. But that’s much longer than the effects of any “vacation” I can recall.

So, would I come back for another “Mind Spa” experience?  

You betcha. When can I book my next spa day?

To learn more about hypnosis and see if you might benefit from a consultation, contact Wally Post at the Anderson Hypnosis Center at (765) 442-3210 or via our contact form here.