Hypnotizing Maria
By Richard Bach
Published September 2009 (Hardcover) Hampton Roads Publishing
Long before I was an interviewer, I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and I remember the sense of wanting to meet the author, the magnetic Richard Bach, someday. Today, I interviewed Richard about his newest book which I earlier reviewed here, Hypnotizing Maria in his hotel suite. I mention this, because Richard actually used — as an illustration for how we can attract certain situations — my wanting to interview him, and his wanting to be interviewed by me. He didn’t realize, until I told him, how long ago I must have set those wheels in motion.
A tall, gracious man, Richard had welcomed me in, nonplussed that I was a few minutes late. He had a glass of water — no ice, as I like it — set out for me. And we talked for thirty minutes, about his book, about how life really works, about how all this began with the death of his 12-year old brother, when Richard was just ten.
There was no sense of anger at the cruelty of losing his older brother — just wonderment at the world, and how it must work. Richard says he’s spent his life studying death and dying. When he tells of an experience brightened by light, but explains it was not a Near Death Experience, I pipe up that I had had an NDE. He says he wants to interview me about it someday. I’m all smiles at that. Once, when I was a young reporter, in a strange turnabout, actress Shirley MacLaine interviewed me on the air at my conservative talk radio station about my NDE.
Trying to comprehend that terrible event of his brother’s untimely death, was fuel for Richard’s intuition. He dabbled as a hypnotist while just a kid, letting neighborhood boys push sharp needles into his hand, which he did not feel. These are all illusions — suggestions accepted. If we don’t want to believe a certain way any more, we can withdraw consent.
What about people who feel trapped by circumstance, I ask. Richard says when we get bored with the drama, or sick of it, or angry, we often switch right out of accepting that suggestion. Later, after the interview, I ask, more specifically, what about people who are traumatized as kids, whose brain chemistry is altered by that experience. I briefly tell him my story — of my first four idyllic years in my talented grandparents’ Upper West Side apartment, and then being moved by my mother to the country where my new stepfather brutalized and raped me from before I was in kindergarten, and my mother became suicidal, schizophrenic, and alcoholic, and I never saw my father again after I was six when my stepfather beat him up. Not pretty.
Richard trumps what he has already said by commenting that some people come into a life, choosing fearsome challenges to achieve greater soul growth. I tell him that I pray by communicating what I know, that the one out of four sexually-abused girls, and slightly-fewer boys, will understand there is a lovely, positive life possible for them. That’s why I wrote my memoir. Richard says he read the first chapter, which I have on this site, and wanted to read the rest. I told him that I’m shopping it to agents right now. He told me to contact his publisher, and tell her that he sent me. That’s sweet.
Even without that gift, Richard inspired me. He says if we don’t like how our lives are going, “we can change it.”
I gathered up my equipment, and when I left, I reached up to hug him. I felt like I could fly.
Stephen Stocker said,
October 25, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Thank you so much for this post. I just ordered Hypnotizing Maria and decided to see what a search on the title would turn up.
I’ve been a huge Bach fan for 37 years (and a sexual abuse survivor slightly longer) and I truly love and cherish everything he’s written. Everything I’ve read so far, anyway!
Good luck getting your memoir published, I’ll keep an eye out for it!
Diana Page Jordan said,
October 27, 2009 @ 4:04 am
Hi Stephen,
You are courageous and generous. Thank you for your comment.
My interview with Richard Bach was on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan today at 1pm on http://www.pdx.fm. You can download that show — or any of them — at the site, anytime, if you miss the live show.
Thanks!
Diana
Stephen Stocker said,
October 28, 2009 @ 7:45 am
Thanks so much for the kind thoughts.
I did download the interview and it was wonderful! I also listened to the Jacquelyn Mitchard interview, and my “must read” list grew.
It’s strange the way things work. In all these years I never once thought to connect Richard’s philosophy with abuse recovery. After I ordered his new book (I’m awaiting its delivery) I got curious what people thought of it. And I found your site. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Thanks again, and please keep up the good work!
Steve
Diana Page Jordan said,
November 5, 2009 @ 3:56 am
Thanks, Stephen. It is psychologically treacherous to tell the secrets we were sworn as kids to never tell — but more liberating and rewarding than we could ever imagine. You are encouraging me, and I appreciate that!
Kalpa said,
June 24, 2010 @ 9:29 am
Hi Diana,
I just read this article today, after a friend mentioned reading Hypnotizing Maria, a few days back. I have been a huge Bach fan too for a long time
Thanks for putting this up and showing me a glimpse into the person Richard Bach.
Diana Page Jordan said,
June 24, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
Hey Kalpa,
Wonderful to hear from you that you enjoyed the post! Richard Bach is fascinating, charming, lives his philosophy – and he’s very tall!
If there’s anyone else you’d love to read about or hear, please let me know! Thanks!
All the best,
Diana