I have been hypnotized on a handful of occasions by one of
my previous psychiatrists. The experience is difficult to explain without a
common frame of reference. Perhaps the easiest way to give you a feel for the
general sensation is to compare it to dreaming or very being very involved in
reading something. I may go into further detail in the future.
On one of the most vivid occasions, I was instructed to
imagine myself at a certain location on the local university campus. (I was nervous
about taking college courses as part of a dual enrollment program in my senior
year of high school; by picturing myself on the campus, I was to familiarize
myself and become calmer in the situation.) I did so, but instead of sticking
to the reality of the place, I quickly wandered into a realm of fantasy. I
vaguely remember a hippogriff walking between trees in the distance, for
example.
The key event that occurred was that I was approached by a
serpentine Lindword. Imagine a dragon with a snake-like body, two legs, and no
wings. It also had frills on its neck so that it reminded me of an extremely
large version of those salamanders with prominent gills. The body was as thick
as one of the trees surrounding us, and it moved swiftly. When it was near me,
it turned its head to the side so that one large eye was facing me. We gazed
into each other for a time, and a strange, deep feeling came over me.
I do not necessarily believe in supernatural spirit guides,
but I do believe in psychological archetypes, and spirit animal shows up
throughout history. A contemporary example would be the daemons from His Dark Materials—external
manifestations of a person’s soul that take the form of an animal which
represents them in some way.
What a Lindworm (or a salamander) would say about me, I do
not know. Any heraldic significance, while interesting, would not mean as much
in this context as my personal feelings towards the creature. Perhaps it is
just a fluke of free association in visual form. I know it is ingrained in my
subconscious to some degree, as it was a common feature of my doodles at the
time, but I do not have any more insight than that.
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