Hypnotizing Maria

not.
    There's no rush. You'll prove you're spirit when you die.
    You want me to be foolish?
    I don't believe in bodies, Jamie, but you do, so you'll have to tell me. How does it hurt, to identify with undestroyable spirit, instead of the vanishing beliefs of spacetime?
    What a strange consciousness, he thought, this higher self. So if I’m not mortal, why did you say look out for the wires?
    I didn't. That was your nicely trained co-pilot. Looking out for your belief-of-mortal-self as you were about to discover some ideas to change your life, de-hypnotizing. So long as you believe you re vulnerable to sudden dying, it warns you when it... LOOK OUT! TOWER!
    The pilot jerked his head from the instruments, tensed to dart left-right-up-down where’s the wires!!
    Just kidding, said his higher self.



CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    O ld meadows given way to green hills and farms rolling soft below.EGT and cylinder head temperatures normal.
    The LOA. You know how it works.
    Not a clue, the pilot thought, enjoying this new aspect of himself. LOA. Light Observation Aircraft? Love One Another? List of Acronyms?
    Law of Attraction.
    Of course. Law of Attraction: whatever we hold in our thought comes true in our experience.
    LOA.NYN.
    What’s NYN?
    Now You Know.
    Now I N what?
    Aren't you putting things together here, Jamie? Do you think she came into your life for no reason?
    He knew she came into his life for a reason, but he had more on his mind that afternoon than the mystery of Dee Hallock.
    I’m running an airplane here, higher self. Maybe you could just say what’s on my mind in words?
    To the best of my knowledge which is pretty good ,’ it's taking two percent of your attention to run this aircraft. You're not flying, it's flying. You're just guiding the airplane , and once it's pointed in the right direction . . .
    All right, he shouted silently, I’ll tell you what I know!
    He didn’t know what it was he knew, but the instant he began, he knew he’d find out. It had worked that way so often in his life that he trusted the odd process again, and turned it on, shifting gears, thought to words.
    “What does the-world-is-suggestions-I've-accepted have to do with the Law of Attraction.” he said out loud, and around the time he had said, “... have to do with ...” the idea fell into place, the whole structure finished and done and true for him. Why didn’t I see this a hundred years ago?
    Law of Attraction: Whatever we consistently visualize, whatever we hold steady in our thought, soon or late will come true in our experience.
    -plus-
    Hypnotism is visualization, holding in thought: it’s the Law of Attraction with a supercharger. Hypnotized, we see hear smell taste touch the suggestions we allow in our mind not sooner-or-later but right now.
    An airplane, fortunately for Jamie Forbes, reacts no more instantly to thought than does the LOA, else the T-34 would have disappeared midair in a sudden explosion of understanding.
    The LOA’s no magic, it’s no secret cosmic mystery. The Law of Attraction is hold-in-your- thought suggestions, accepted. LOA’s the acronym for I’m Tranced By Every Suggestion I Accept.
    The Law of Attraction, the whole thing, it’s the same as, it's the definition of hypnosis!
    More precisely, he thought, for his was sometimes a precise mind, the Law of Attraction is autosuggestion— it’s self-hypnosis building stuff that, in time, other people can see for themselves.
    This is only astonishing to those convinced the world is built from wood and stone and steel. It’s only
    amazing if we’ve never questioned that our world is anything but what it seems to be.
    Otherwise, the Law of Attraction is ho-hum of course all us subjects in trance are seeing visions of whatever we’ve agreed to see.

    He swept into the landing pattern at Magee, Mississippi, enjoying the challenge of landing north in a firm west wind.
    He solved it with a sideslip down final approach: the airplane banked to the left all the way down final approach, that unnatural tilt holding the machine straight despite the crosswind as the left main wheel touched the runway. Only then the right wheel touched gently down, finally the nosewheel.
    He fueled the airplane, called a ride to the motel all in a whirl of understanding, a storm-trance.
    He checked in, took his room key, walked past a rack of paperbacks. Buy this book, something suggested.
    I’ve already got a book. The shadow of his old self, asking reasons for every