Mrs. Potter’s Wheel
A Smuthunter Story
“…and how are we feeling now that we’re here?”
It was day one of a three-day weekend, and as he walked into his neighbor’s condo, Edmund felt his tension in his shoulders bristle. He felt it make them rise up, and he felt the tension hum through his posture, making him hunch forward more than was healthy.
“I’m, I don’t know. I’m just so tense all the time, I don’t know if I can really be more nervous or uncomfortable.” He smiled at his neighbor, Mrs. Constance Potter, who had offered to hypnotize him to help him relax.
Edmund, being at his wits’ end, had said yes.
They’d been at a Home Owner’s Association meeting, and she, friendly as always, had been chatting with him and noticed how tense he always seemed to be. He was always tense, it was easy t pick up on, he was just an anxious person, and he didn’t do well with managing stress as a whole.
There was something unsurprising about Mrs. Potter revealing she was a hypnotist. The woman was magnetic. She had dark brown eyes, eyes that were almost black, that always sparkled. They had a way of looking at you, looking into you, and they were so dark it made the light they caught glimmer that much more.
She had crow’s feet, her chestnut brown hair was still thick but there was some gray, and she was on the heavy side of curvy, but Edmund had never really checked her out that way. He didn’t really have an opinion on her features, but he passingly thought she was still pretty.
He was in his late 20s and she was in her, he never asked but thought maybe early 50s? It didn’t matter, she was sweet, and friendly, and truly engaging. He liked talking to her, and he was always surprised at how boring her husband Dale was. He didn’t come to the meetings very often, and was a pleasant enough, but completely forgettable… and maybe ten years younger than her. Dale was the most non-descript guy Edmund had ever seen, and Edmund saw himself every day in the mirror.
It wasn’t that he thought of himself as unattractive, it was more that he knew he was also a pretty plain looking guy. He thought of himself as plain, but in a handsome way, whereas Dale was utterly forgettable.
“Oh sweetie, I know, I’ve helped a lot of people who have been where you are. Let’s get you started, I have everything I need right through here.” She led him into a spare bedroom that was converted into an office, and he couldn’t believe what he saw.
There was a low backed cushioned chair in front of a desk with a black and white spiral on a wheel. The wheel was plugged into the wall socket and was already on, spinning in a slow, steady swirl.
“When I was starting my training, did I tell you I met my husband just after I completed my hypnosis certification, well, I learned that there’s a certain level of theatricality that speaks to some clients to help them into trance. The spiral here is a wonderful piece of theater that works wonders, and what I learned through treating anxiety and tension issues is that some gentle massage also helps. So please, have a seat in the chair, and focus all of your energy on the spiral as it spins. I assume you’re fine with me touching you eventually, if you’re not, let me know.”
He smiled and shrugged and said, “That’s fine, I’m comfortable with it” as he sat down.
Dale was wearing a long sleeved tee shirt and jeans, and she was wearing a long, navy blue skirt with white flowers, and a baggy, gray, loose turtle necked sweater with her hair up in a bun.
“Just focus on the center of the spiral, and take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, just feel yourself sinking into the chair and getting used to the sound of the motor’s hum. You’ll notice soon enough that the sound is going to fade away, and as you just stare at the spiral now, watching the black and white twisting, swirling together, that everything else can also start to fade away at the edges.”
There was an electric hum as the wheel spun counterclockwise, and Edmund hardly noticed the change in Mrs. Potter’s voice as she stood behind him. “We have all the time in the world, so just take your time feeling what you’re starting to feel, and letting yourself notice what you can open yourself up to feel.”
Her voice was different in a way he couldn’t put his finger on. There was always something smooth about her speech, and there was always something patient about her, something solid and put together, something magnetic about her that made her being a hypnotist not so surprising. Or as not surprising as anyone being a professional hypnotist could be.
“Take a nice deep breath now,” he did, and he felt himself blinking as the spiral kept swirling, and he noticed a real appeal to the illusion of the spiral. It did feel like it was pulling him in, it really was fascinating. “And as you breathe out, just close your eyes for a second. Let yourself just do what I tell you to, and give yourself permission to let this process continue to work.”
His eyes closed, he was following along because he wanted to cooperate, and this seemed like the way to do it. He felt himself sinking down into the chair just a little more, and down into himself. It felt like he’d been standing on his toes, and now he was flat on his feet.
“Now just take another deep breath, and as you breathe out, open your eyes and refocus on the spiral for me. Just let a deep relaxing breath enter into your body and flow through you, and as you breathe out and open your eyes, let that breath carry out any tension or noise you feel on the surface of yourself. Just breathe out and feel it happen now.”
His eyes opened as he exhaled, and he felt Mrs. Potter’s hands on his shoulders. She started to massage him as she spoke, “Now, just breathe and look deep into spiral again. Let yourself continue to breathe out any tension you’re feeling, and let me help your mind and body to relax even more. Let your breath carry away your stress and your tension, and let the spiral pull you in now, pulling in your focus more and more, guiding your awareness out of your own head, and into the center.”
Her fingers gently, but firmly dug into his shoulders, “It feels good to let go, and it feels good to just let everything else that comes and goes into your mind just flicker and fade. You can just focus on the spiral, focus on my wheel as it spins around, and un-focus on your inner thoughts.”
“Focus on the spiral,” her thumbs worked into the base of his neck, “and un-focus on yourself. Feel your body relaxing under my touch, feel yourself just relax more and more, letting your body and mind become clay under my fingers, clay for my wheel, and let me shape you, let me mold you into a more relaxed, and more peaceful lump of clay now. Let your figure go, let your form go, and just close your eyes…” he felt her thumbs dig into deep knots between his shoulder blades, “and sink deeper now.”
Edmund let out a deep sigh and felt his head tilt forward as a wave of relief spread through his neck and shoulders.
“How does that feel? Does it feel good to let yourself feel like clay now?” Her fingers brushed down his shoulders and his upper arms like she was smoothing him out.
“It does,” he wanted to tell her how good he felt, and it felt like he couldn’t keep the words inside, “It’s nice.”
“Yes,” she dug her thumbs between his shoulder blades again “it does feel good. Good at relaxing. Now I want you to open your eyes again, open your eyes and let our mind be blank and still, loose and unformed like fresh clay, like my voice and my fingers have kneaded you down, out of your flimsy old shape, down into a lump. Sit in my chair and stare at my wheel like a happy lump of unformed clay because a lump has no shape, and a lump can’t hold any stress, not like a bowl or a cup, not like a waking, aware person. Just focus on my wheel now, follow the spiral, and let it pull everything out of you so you can just be my new lump of clay.”
Mrs. Potter’s fingers worked deeper into him, deeper between his shoulder blades, and again, he felt her unlocking something in him physically. As he focused on the spiral now, doing it out of habit, feeling it just happen, only the Mrs. Potter’s wheel of swirling black and white felt stable, and he felt his own body loosen.
“Be formless,” her voice was closer now, he felt her breath as she whispered into his ear. “That’s right, let go, be formless, lose the shape that carries all of that stress and tension, lose your mental and physical shape as a kneed you into deeper relaxation, deeper into the center of the spiral now.”
Edmund felt her hands on either side of he neck, and felt her fingers on the sides of his jaw, “Close your eyes and let your mouth open just a little, loose and relaxed now.”
“Relax. Loose, limp, formless now. Just a lump of clay now. Unformed, unfocused, loose, limp, formless and so deeply relaxed now.” She worked her thumbs into the base of his skull then whispered, “How do you feel Edmund? Do you feel relaxed and empty now?”
He felt her hold his head in her hands and gently move it, making him nod along as he replied with a low, slow “Yes, yes I do.”
“Don’t you just feel like a lump of clay?” her fingertips traced up his face and pressed softly into his temples, then started to massage them in tender but meaningful circles.
He as going to agree with her, but the feeling of her fingers broke his concentration, and her touch opened up another low, relaxing sigh.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Now Edmund, open your eyes, open your eyes and look at my wheel. You’re a loose, limp, unformed and soft lump of clay under my fingers, and it’s time to shape you on my wheel. Look at the spiral in the center, see only the spiral, black and white swirling and swirling, light and dark merging together, focusing and un-focusing, eyes opening and closing, closing and opening, everything is one and the same now.”
He felt soft from head to toe, and his proportions felt different. His arms were resting on the low backed chair’s arms, and he felt like he was spreading out in it, and that there was less of him at the same time. As Mrs. Potter massaged his temples, she felt him also moving his head gently from side to side, and it felt like his entire spine was moving like he was heavy and weightless all at once.
The room around him felt vast and empty, but the wheel, the spiral, felt even bigger. It was all consuming, and as he blinked, as his eyes would close for a time, then open again, and as her voice became distant, and her words a soft, whispered blur in his mind, he eventually felt himself falling… falling…
“Edmund, your mind and body are soft and malleable as clay now, claw for my wheel, and I’m going to reshape you, I’m going to remake you into something, into someone who is going to be an empty vessel. I’m going to reshape you and mold you into an empty vessel now, an empty pot that I’m spinning on my wheel. This makes sense, because you’re clay under my fingertips and under my words, and I’m Mrs. Potter, and potters shape clay don’t they?”
She still had his head in her hands and was still gently, persistently massaging his temples. It felt like her fingertips had sunk into his brain, and as she spoke, as her words filled his ears, they guided her fingers into his brain, massaging his thoughts away as they flickered in and out of his unfocused, unaware mind.
“Answer me Edmund,” she nodded his head for him, and he felt her fingers pushing on the parts of his brain that made him talk. “I am Mrs. Potter, and you are clay, what do potters do with clay?”
“Potters shape clay.”
She stopped massaging his temples and started stroking down his face with both hands. “That’s right, and you’re here to be remade so you can be more relaxed and free of stress. That’s why you’re just a lump of clay now, and now as you watch the spiral swirling your mind is on my wheel. Feel my touch, feel me shaping and reshaping you. Feel my fingers brushing against your mind as it spins now.”
Edmund felt her softly holding his head, and gently pressing her fingertips into his forehead. He felt himself leaning back under her touch, leaning back until the back of his head was resting… on her breasts?
It didn’t matter, the spiral was swirling, the wheel was spinning, and her words, like her fingers, were sinking into his mind.
“You’re so relaxed now, so formless now. You were so brittle, so fragile from your stress, but now you’re broken down, empty, relaxed and formless.” He felt her fingers press into his head gently, then slowly start to caress his face before cradling him against her large, soft, welcoming breasts. “Empty, formless, and relaxed now. Empty of everything, empty mind, formless mind, relaxed mind. Just the raw material, just the clay. Now as the spiral swirls and the wheel spins, feel your mind starting to take shape foe me.”
Edmund felt her palm against his forehead, pushing his head back into her breasts even more, and her other hand rest gently around his throat holding him. “Watch the wheel spin, and feel my touch on the lump of clay that is you. Surrender to the spiral and feel your mind forming under my touch now. Feel it taking shape, soft, wet, malleable and ready. Read to take a new shape, a simple shape,”
Her hands moved slowly back and forth across his forehead and throat, and her breasts pressed more firmly against the back of his head, “See your mind as a perfectly round, perfectly smooth bowl now, gray and plain, gray matter shaped to be filled. The mind fills with everything, like a bowl, but now you are empty, nothing, only starting to take shape under my touch. You want this, to be remade, to be free from stress, to be made better. I’m making you better, better than you were, and you, bigger, and stronger, and I’m going to fill the bowl of your mind, so there is no room for stress, and no room for tension. It’s what you want, see it in the spiral, it’s what you need Edmund.”
“Feel my touch, feel the gray bowl being shaped, thick sides, and deep and wide, feel your mind growing sturdier, stronger, wide and deep. That’s right, the wheel spins and the sides rise, the wheel spins, the spiral swirls, and the mind takes the shape I give it. Feel it happen now, feel your mind become wide, deep and strong, wide, deep, strong, and empty.”
“Empty,” her voice was as soft and penetrating as her touch.
“Empty,” she was rubbing her hands over his face, and eyes.
“Empty, “ Edmund felt himself falling away, down into deeper darkness.
“Empty,” he felt his head against her breasts, and lost himself in her warmth.
“Empty,” her fingers were all over his brain, the perfectly round bowl, so deep and wide, and empty.
Empty.
If you know my work, you have an idea of what’s coming next… but I don’t think you’ll see the surprise and what’s really going on here!
