Hypnotising My Brother to Cure His Shyness

Testing Out Hypnosis On My Brother

My name is Fiona. For the past five years I’ve been away from home at University getting my phd in Psychology, my final paper was on the benefits of Hypnosis in Psychology. I’m sure that sounds very interesting and it was but ultimately I found the results just were not substantial enough except in certain circumstances and indeed in many cases it can be harmful to the patient to be forced to repress memories or feelings using hypnosis. For example ptsd it sounds like a dream come true to simply wipe their memories and allow them to live a normal life right? Well in attempting to repress their memories many of our research volunteers experienced a violent outburst. Simply put it was like holding a bottle of air underwater. Eventually one way or another it will surface and the more it needs to struggle the more violent the eruption that follows. That’s not to say my research was fruitless, I found the patients I did not repress entirely their memories but instead tried to mitigate the effects like the dreams and the flashbacks benefited enormously.

The other discovery is that helping people discover things they keep repressed is far more interesting than I thought. This was an accidental discovery as it turned out one of the veterans I had tried to help, had been sexually assaulted when he was young. I was able to help him remember the details and confront them. With his permission of course, it turns out a big reason for his ptsd wasn’t because of his horrific experiences in Iraq but more to do with the assault in his formative years.

This brings me to today, finally home and I had a fantastic idea. I was going to attempt to hypnotise my brother. You see, my little brother has had a real problem with shyness since he was young. He is smart, handsome, kind hearted but really shy with girls and at 21 we (my mother and I) are convinced he hasn’t even kissed a girl or boy for that matter, we had explored the possibility he might prefer men but everything we could find out about him indicated he was straight. Our Father left when we were still young and we have barely had any contact with him since. I thought for a while his shyness could be to do with the rejection from his father or just a male presence in the house growing up but long since has my education disproven that fact.

My cab pulled up to our driveway. It had been a long journey. I loved the idea when I was young of attending Uni at the other side of the country just so I can be free of the distractions of Family and friends but I missed this place terribly. I paid my fare and went up to the door. I smiled at myself as I thought about knocking. It had been five years but this was my home. I reached for the handle and it opened before I got to it. My mother came barrelling out the door and enveloped me in her arms. She was short and a little fat but the red hair was a dead give away she was my mother. ‘Oh my Fiona it’s been far too long where have you been, you look so thin, have you no time away from your books to eat?’ I smiled at the welcome and in truth I was more than a little hungry and while I’m studying I tend to eat when I start to get a little dizzy from lack of food. I had a good figure for that though I wasn’t like anorexic but you wouldn’t believe that to hear my mother talk. ‘I’ve missed your home cooking ma, food just isn’t the same in the east’

With that I was whisked into the kitchen and in no time my mother had me at the table with a meal a King would blush at. My mother was a talented chief and worked at a fancy restaurant on the weekends. For which she managed to keep us happy even without any support from my father. ‘Is Adam home?’ I asked, always thinking of my studies and to be fair from what I know of my brother he was often away in his room not interacting so it was a fair question. ‘No he is at his job, programming computers, if he isn’t in front of a screen here he is in front of a screen there’ my mother sounded annoyed at Adam. ‘Why so upset? At least he is out the house and doing something he loves’ I tried ‘urgh how is he ever going to meet a woman if he is always in front of screens’ a thoroughly pragmatic mother right here. Always thinking of them meeting someone but to be fair to her Adam’s case was more born out of years of frustration. ‘What about you, did you and Dr Speckle get back together?’ My turn under the flame I guess ‘nope, Martin Specs and me are done for ever, turns out that bastard like them is a bit younger and less committed to their studies’ I replied sounding as disgusted as I could. ‘Men are all bastards Fiona, but some are less bastards than others’ laughed my mother. After that my mother caught me yawning and insisted I go to bed and get some rest.

I did and didn’t wake until the next day. Thirteen hours of sleep is a lot for most people but it was tons for me, I guess being home close to family with a good meal in my stomach does wonders for anyone. I managed to catch Adam coming out of the shower and my had he had grown. Now 21 he clearly spent some time away from the screen because he looked great in a towel. I knew him enough though not to raise that in conversation with him. ‘Hi Adam how are you?’ ‘I’m good sis just getting ready for work, mum said you got in but you were already asleep when I got back’ he replied looking me over ‘Odin’s sleep, can’t even remember the last time I had such a good long sleep. Ma says you have a job now’ I stretched as I said that it was true I was really well rested ‘Oh uh.. Yeah I work for a coding outfit downtown its small but we’ve made good money on mobile games, it’s not entirely what I want to do but it’s a start’ he was already looking past me nervous in his towel this wasnt unusual for him he struggled to hold a conversation with anyone really even his own sister. ‘Oh, i’ll let you get on, I need breakfast later, what time are you back? I’d like to chat to you about stuff when you get in’ ‘I should be home by 5pm ish’ he said passing me going to his room.

The day passed peacefully. I found time to read a novel but in truth Psychology ruined it for me. I find most authors don’t properly consider what characters’ motivations should be and change them on a whim to suit the plot. Ma fed me well, but kept out of my way, she was working this evening so she used her time pottering about in the garden before getting ready for work. She left before Adam came home. I fed him what my mother had left him in relative silence as I didn’t like interrupting his meal. In fact I wanted his full attention for what was coming next.

‘Ok sis, I can see you are wanting to grill me, Nope no girls yet, yes there is a gym at the office and yes I’m looking for a job with a real programmers’ This was typical of him he was obviously trying to head of every possible conversation so he could disappear to his room and not have to actually chat to me.