Mysteries and the Detectives Who Solve Them

If I was given a choice about the genre of books I could read and movies and television shows I could watch, and I was limited to just one genre, mysteries/thrillers would be my choice, hands down. For me, nothing is as interesting or thrilling as a complicated puzzle to solve. When that puzzle surrounds human behavior, emotions and motivations, to quote a famous (fictional) 19^th-Century investigator, “The game is afoot!”

I don’t know precisely what fascinates me about these stories. A complicated plot with multi-dimensional characters certainly makes for entertaining study. Is the puzzle or crime realistic? Is the “bad guy” as likely to be a sympathetic character as the “hero” is to be potentially flawed or even irritating? The straight-up plot of detestable criminal going toe-to-toe with an all-around saintly investigator does not interest me, nor is it very realistic. People and their motives and emotions are complicated, and I think this should also be true in a fictional tale. 

Referring to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, our behavior is built and based on a series of experiences and beliefs that create the Subconscious Mental Script. It is ultimately difficult or even impossible to imagine an existence that is different from our own or to behave in a way that is out of our realm of experience—until we learn how, that is. I think it was William Shakespeare who once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (A similar version of this philosophy is also in Ecclesiastes 1:9). Fantastic stories about vigilante heroes who wear long capes or modern-day armor and can soar through the air, solving essentially familiar crimes that center on jealousy and vengeance, are still too “unknown” to me.

If it’s between Marvel Comic’s Batman versus Colin Dexter’s curmudgeonly yet brilliant Chief Inspector Morse or Chelsea Cain’s emotionally damaged Detective Archie Sheridan, I’ll take the detective mysteries, thank you very much. I can wrap my mind around inexplicable deaths in bucolic Oxford, England and the complicated relationship between a Portland, Oregon detective and his quarry, a beautiful serial killer. I have visited these cities and the crimes depicted, while often horrible and grotesque, are still believable. Indeed, when I was working on my post-graduate degree in London, I heard a news report that a corpse had been found buried under floorboards in a home. I had recently started watching the Inspector Morse series on television, and an episode that aired around the same time featured a similar macabre discovery. I remember wondering if art was imitating reality, or was it the other way around.

I also find that mysteries involve a bit of reader-participation, which I really enjoy. Sure, it’s easy to get swept away with the action depicted in a romance or historical novel. But when there is a question to answer or a puzzle to solve, all of my senses become heightened. I understand best through inference and metaphor, so whenever a character does or says virtually anything, I can’t help but wonder about the potentially hidden meaning behind that action. Was that a clue? What does that gesture or throwaway reference suggest? If the prime suspect’s brother created that object, why does he (the suspect) have it in his own home? Maybe that character isn’t really who we think he (or she) is.

Whether I am watching the story unfold on-screen or poring over the descriptions in a book, I can’t help myself from looking for clues about the crime depicted in the plot. I study the descriptions of behavior and I draw on my background in psychology and hypnotherapy training to figure out the motivations of the characters. It is always fun for me to be able to solve part or all of the mystery along with the fictitious investigators, but I actually prefer the ones that I can’t figure out without the protagonist’s detailed explanation.

I believe that in some way, vicariously solving those puzzles helps keep me in shape for my work as a certified hypnotherapist. These stories enable me to use the creative, imaginative part of my mind to identify and apply some of the theories and behavior models I have studied. According to Neuro-Linguistic Programming models I use in my hypnotherapy practice, inflection of the voice or flushing of the skin is a clue to a person’s emotions and behaviors. So when I come across a description of this kind of physiological change in a character’s body, my own behavioral-detection radar goes up. Of course, obviously my work is very different from that of a licensed investigator or police detective. I may only work with individuals to help them achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals. If you want help to overcome writer’s block to complete a John Creasey Silver Dagger-award winning mystery a là the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, give me a call. However, I’m not the one to call to help you solve the actual crime upon which your best-selling book is based.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

Family Ties

 

                Last night, Late Night host Seth Meyers had his younger brother, Josh, as a guest on the show to help promote their new animated series, The Awesomes. This was the first time I ever saw them interact together, and I was immediately struck by how easy, comfortable and familiar they were. That made sense; not only are they brothers, they are obviously very good friends. Watching the interview was less like a promotion for their shared venture on the Hulu® network and more like being a fly on the wall at a family reunion. It was fun to listen to them reminisce about their childhood and adolescence, the private names they call each other and the verbal shorthand they use to communicate. Apparently, the brothers knew each other so well that when Seth offered to pick up a sandwich for Josh, the younger sibling immediately knew that the family dog had died. Similarly, when Josh started a phone conversation by saying “I’m all right,” Seth knew those words were actually a code for, I’m alive, but this, this and this happened to me on the ski slopes today, or whatever.

                Family members aren’t the only ones who communicate like this. Good friends, spouses, romantic partners or military personnel also share a similar verbal short-hand. Words don’t even need to be spoken, yet a gesture or facial expression tells an entire story to the other party in this non-verbal exchange. An observer, someone who is not part of this immediate group, might wonder if the members are even psychic the way they finish each other’s sentences. Even spookier is when one person says something and another says, “I was just going to say that!” and you know it is true. Extra-sensory perception may or may not have a part in the fluidity of this exchange, but you can definitely chalk up the mutual understanding to shared experiences and shared subconscious knowns. Siblings are a great example of this phenomenon.

                Consider this second example of shared, familial knowns versus what we learn from non-family members (strangers). The popular detective series of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Inspector Morse, got a new spinoff a few years ago titled Endeavour. This new series follows Shaun Evans’ rookie detective constable at the start of Morse’s police career, negotiating department politics while he solves complicated murders. I think Evans is well-cast as Morse. He has the clear-blue eyes for which John Thaw’s Chief Inspector Morse was known, and the younger man has mastered Thaw’s facial expressions, posture and pattern of speech. But Thaw’s daughter, Abigail, who has a recurring role in the new series, is even more like her late father than the man who portrays him. In addition to bearing some physical resemblance to him, Ms. Thaw absolutely has that raised eyebrow, grimace, slow smile that fans remember from her father’s embodiment of “Morse.” These are not gestures that she would have had to study and learn so she could mimic them in her role, the way Evans would have had to do to convincingly portray a younger version of Inspector Morse. Rather, she would have acquired them over the years while sitting on her father’s knee listening to a story when she was a little girl or any number of casual interactions with him during a family get-together.

                Whether or not you are emotionally close to your family, if you were raised and grew up together you already share more than DNA. You also learned various behaviors and beliefs from your parent(s)/guardian(s) through the development of your suggestibility, as did your sibling(s). You learned to associate certain events or stimuli with pleasure or pain, and these experiences became the knowns that would create, support and reinforce your subconscious life script. This process is the basis of Hypnosis Motivation Founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of mind and development of suggestibility. Whenever someone observes how two “like” minds think alike, I would say that is true more frequently about family members’—especially, siblings’—mental processes than that of two “strangers” such as spouses or close friends. Dr. Kappas’ Theory of Mind probably also goes a long way to explain the role of nurture in terms of contributing to our social development.

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014