Hypnotizing Maria

turn.
    Feels strange, that such a simple thing as— He interrupted at once. Doesn’t feel strange at all! Feels natural, normal; feels right!
    He smiled at himself. Let’s not get carried away ... No! I’m already carried away, with my rewiring. It works! Only stuff gets through my gates is positive life-affirmers!
    I reserve the right to refuse negative suggestions from anyone.
    Come on, growled this feisty new optimist within him to the forces of darkness, what’s your next put-down for me? Roll er out. Take your best shot!
    Jamie Forbes laughed at the battle for his mind, put his money on the new guy there.
    Thank you, he thought to the teacher within. I expect you’re gonna see big changes, starting now.



CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    A fter the storms, the sky had gone wide open. Severe clear, as pilots say, the whole southeast.
    Expect little puffs of cumulus around noon, thought Jamie Forbes, preflighting his airplane. Puffs building to thunderstorms again by mid-afternoon.
    By the time the sun had cleared the horizon east, the T-34 was wheels-up and climbing, southbound. Air cool and smooth as buttered ice. He visualized his landing at home, a perfect touchdown, taxiing to the hangar.
    Level at three-thousand five, an impish part of his mind became advocate of the devil; he pushed it onstage.
    May not be a perfect landing. Something could go wrong. Engine could quit. Complete electrical failure. Wheels might come halfway down and jam.
    He waited for the attack of his inner optimist on these dark ideas, denying them all. Nothing happened. Oil line could break.
    It could.
    Aren’t you going to say Impossible? No Negatives Allowed?
    What’s negative about an engine failure? Part of the reason you like flying is the unexpected. Oil line break is an event, a test. No more negative than a spelling test.
    Of course. You’re right.
    You want to know negative, Jamie? Here’s negative:
    “ I’m sick.”
    "I'm trapped."
    "I’m dumb.”
    “ I’m scared ”
    “ I’m separated from my highest self”
    Negative is not the test, negative is what you get when you fail it.
    Why not No Tests, replied the pilot, hypnotize my appearances into trouble-free flying?
    Nope don’t you want to know why.
    Why?
    Because you love passing tests, you love proving yourself.
    The pilot considered that. Not just airplane tests.
    Not just airplanes. All tests.
    Why are you so confident, when I’m not?
    Since you just bought a suggestion that you’re not, I'll tell you why. I’m confident because I don’t wonder if what I see around me are my own beliefs. I know they are. I know I bring them to me for important reasons. With your permission, I’ll fill the Confident square for a bit, till you’re comfortable doing it on your own .
    Thank you, but...
    But what? Are you planning to put a negative in that blank?
    The pilot was not known for being slow of mind. He dropped . . . I’ll never be able to do this all the time” like a hot turkey.
    Thank you, but... I don't need your help.
    He sensed amusement from his higher self.
    Good. Let me know if ever you do. Bye.
    It felt a little lonely, his new friend gone.
    “It does not feel lonely!” he said aloud. Not gone at all, but just met. Finding selves in high places, that feels fine, and they answer when I call.
    The confidence he pretended flared into confidence he felt, his second instant healing of the day. Something had changed within Jamie Forbes. All this talk of Hypnotism by Culture was no empty play of words. The more he examined the idea the more he saw for himself it was true.
    Answers to every question shall come to me in some clear way, including quick and unexpected, and from within.
    The airplane slanted up through the top of the haze layer at four-thousand five, whisking by popcorn clouds dreaming giant futures. For a second its shadow fell on a layer of white mist, airplane silhouette in sharp black light, centered in a halo of technicolor rainbow, full-circle round.
    Oh, my, the pilot thought. Flying airplanes, you get eye-pictures like this, half-second snapshots you carry forever. What a life!
    The word on the blackboard, he remembered; isn’t that interesting, the word from his dream. He puzzled a bit, why Life solitary, all others erased?
    Do we have to tell you?
    Hello again.
    You wanted to know what’s real, remember?
    Since everything else is suggestions and appearances, yes, I did. Oh. Life? Life’s real?
    Level at five-thousand five, his thought-form