'I Looked Into The Spiral'
CW: Consensual VR headset hypnosis, serial recruitment, AI/technology based brainwashing, chicken and cat transformation, mantras, light public humiliation
Kat sighed as she swiped through her InstaPix timeline. Another stupid Internet trend had hijacked her feed of tech influencers and gaming sites.
It was called The Spiral Challenge, and required the use of an Apex Visor Max headset. Kat happened to own that exact model resting on her desk across the room - it was pricey but she just loved having the latest tech. She loved the pass-through tech to see into the outside world while in the headset, and it was the only one on the market to have a screen displaying the user’s eye movements on the outside of the unit. Super useful for social situations.
Supposedly, it was some sort of 'hypnotic resistance' challenge, whatever that meant. As part of the challenge, you’d have to post a video of yourself to your Story saying your name and why you think you’ll be able to resist The Spiral. Then, a short while later - times varied from 10 minutes to half an hour, a second video would be posted by the challenger, headset on, babbling on about having “looked in the spiral and become deeply hypnotised” or something. Sometimes, the challenger would also act out some sort of stupid “forfeit” - something like taking their shirt off, clucking like a chicken, or revealing some sort of embarrassing secret.
According to The Spiral App Company website, no one has so far been able to successfully resist it. A very bold marketing slogan.
Kat wondered just why so many people were willing to embarrass themselves just to keep up with the social media algorithm.
They must all be faking it, thought Kat, I guess The Spiral App Company must be paying these influencers big bucks to be doing this
Kat continued to swipe through her feed:
“Here’s 5 THINGS you MISSED from the latest Apex conference! -“ Skip
“This is Tech Review David and today I’m going to be attempting The Spiral Cha..” Skip
Some pictures of her ex-boyfriend’s friends dog - SKIP
“Can The Spiral App Company continue to DISRUPT the VR market?” - SKIP
“Hey everyone, I’m Tiffany and today, I’m going to be attempting The Spiral Challenge”
Huh? Kat paused. This was Tiffany, her best friend from college and now studying across the country at uni. She’d recognise that loud and bubbly voice anywhere. Wait - she was doing this stupid challenge?!
…”I think I’ll be able to resist The Spiral. No, in fact I’m sure of it. I’m very intelligent, I’m studying a STEM degree at one of the top universities in the country. I learnt in psychology class that all hypnosis is self hypnosis, there’s no magic here it’s just using basic social expectation and compliance. You won’t be seeing me making that second post! Anyway guys, wish me luck!”
An option popped up to see the next post from Tiffany - Kat advanced to the next video
Her mouth opened in shock. Tiffany had indeed, made that second post, 15 minutes after the first.
The Tiffany on her screen stood in stark contrast to the one in the previous video. Her Apex Visor Max was on and covering her face. The outer screen displayed a sort of foggy haze effect, partially obscuring her avatar’s eyes, which were twitching and rolling and barely staying open. Her neatly pressed hair had become disheveled, frizzy and sticking up all over the place behind the strap of the headset. Her mouth hung slightly open, and - wait, was that saliva at the corner of her mouth? Gross…
After a brief pause breathing slowly and deeply in front of the camera, Tiffany began to speak in a soft, monotone voice the same script Kat had heard many times before-
“I looked into The Spiral…”
“And The Spiral looked into me…”
“I looked into The Spiral…”
“And I became deeply hypnotised…”
“I was wrong to think I could resist The Spiral…”
“I am easily controlled by The Spiral…”
“I cannot resist The Spiral…”
“My mind is blank and empty…”
“I looked into the Spiral…”
“I am an airheaded chicken…”
And with that, Tiffany began to make the most indignant CLUCKS and BAWKS like an aggressive hen. There was truly nothing in those digital avatar eyes on the Visor - no shame, no recognition, just clucking. Tiffany was the smartest person Kat knew - she never thought she’d see her looking this dumb and airheaded, embarassing herself in front of the whole world.
Kat continued to watch on with second hand embarrassment -
Tiffany suddenly seemed to snap to attention, no longer a chicken but still far from her usual self. She delivered the standard closing line with monotonous precision
“I thought I could resist the Spiral…”
“My mind lasted 15 minutes…”
“Will your mind last any longer than mine…?”
“Take The Spiral Challenge today for free on the Apex Store…”
Tiffany’s head dropped into sleep and the video was over
Kat sat there in disbelief. Tiffany was no tech influencer - what on Earth would she gain from acting all dumb and brainless
Kat’s phone was ringing. It was Tiffany. Perhaps she’d seen that Kat had viewed her post
“Tiffany…. Are you in desperate need of money or something? What’s up with the spiral business?”
“Kat I… I… I can’t remember a thing! I can’t remember posting that video. But…. I can’t bring myself to delete it”
She sounded more like her old self, with a small hint of airheadedness
“What do you mean, can’t?”
“I just can’t, I can’t bring myself to press the delete button. I lost the challenge after all and I got deeply hypnotised…. So very deeply hypnotised… unable to resist The Spiral… I…”
Tiffany trailed off into a mumble
“Tiffany, stop it! So you actually downloaded the app onto your Visor, can you remember anything after that?”
“All I can remember was how pleasurable it was. So sweet and hazy… mind so blank and empty… Kat, you have an Apex Visor Max right? You’ve got to try it!”
“Well, Tiffany, you gave such a good sales pitch in the video” teased Kat
“Well if you are so smart Kat, smarter than me, then let’s see you last more than 15 minutes. Though… I promise you there’s no need to resist. You won’t want to… Oh, and I’ve already sent you the link to the Apex store page. Good luck!”
Kat reluctantly agreed, then ended the call. It sounds like Tiffany may have been a bit spooked. But after all, as Tiffany had said, all hypnosis really is just social conditioning and enforcement. All Kat had to do was to try this app, tell Tiffany there’s nothing magic about it and then she might calm down a bit.
Kat set her laptop to start downloading the app onto her Visor, whilst she quickly charged the battery pack. While she was waiting, she watched Tiffany’s videos back again
“I looked into The Spiral…”
“And the Spiral looked into me…”
What did that mean? thought Kat
The download was quicker than Kat expected, and she quickly slipped on the Visor. It had been a while since she last used it properly, but it was a super comfortable form factor.
CHALLENGE VIDEO UPLOAD REQUIRED. PLEASE REMOVE HEADSET
Kat was very annoyed. She didn’t want anyone to know she was doing this stupid trend. Oh well, maybe she might actually get some street cred out of being the first person to beat the challenge.
She took the headset off and grabbed her phone, recording a rough video straight onto InstaPix
“Hi, my name’s Kat, uhhh I’m not actually doing the challenge I’m just doing it to prove to my friend Tiffany that she hasn’t just become a mindless zombie and she’s just making it up. I obviously don’t believe in hypnosis. It’s not real. uhhh, yeah don’t expect a second video from me”
Kat tossed her phone onto her bed on the other side of the room. Won’t be needing that, she thought as she slipped the headset back on along with her favourite pair of cat eared headphones.
PLEASE AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. KEEP THE HEADSET ON
Kat was fuming. She quickly skimmed through the policy using her Visor’s hand tracking control
The Spiral App uses AI and machine learning to provide a personalised experience to each user. By continuing you agree for us to process your data, including public data from our partners, biometrics and thought data for this purpose
Yep that’s fine, thought Kat, standard Big Tech legal jargon
The Spiral App Company retains the right to use your mind as it sees fit for the duration of your session in the app. It accepts no responsibility for any personal damages, reputational damages, or otherwise that may come as a result of your session…
…You agree that The Spiral App Company may, where it sees fit, use you, your mind and your likeness to promote its apps and services to other users.
Kat ticked that she agreed with the policy
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE.
Kat scoffed at the word ‘compliance’. She’d be anything but while using this app. If she just closed her eyes, there would be no spiral to look and and therefore hypnosis debunked. She sat there with her eyes closed, arms folded and started to count to 15 minutes in her head…
A sultry voice whispered in her ear PLEASE BLINK TO START
Oh, maybe it was a bit cleverer than I thought, thought Kat.
She opened her eyes briefly to blink and was met with a short flash of light from the centre of her screen, startling her. She blinked rapidly a few times to clear the afterimage.
She thought about closing them again, but the light had started to glow a little bit brighter and a bit warmer. She looked into it a bit longer
“Are you wondering where the Spiral is, Kat?" a voice seemed to whisper in her ear
Actually, come to think of it, she was. Where was this supposed spiral? All there was was this glowing light. Was it broken? Maybe it would be best not to look straight into it.
She reached up to take off the headset
Her hand paused just on top of the visor, shaking slightly. Her hands dropped into her lap.
“You won’t last as long as your friend”
Wow, they weren’t kidding when they said they’d be using your private data… thought Kat
“Your mind is weak. Even without The Spiral you are complying and compliance leads to hypnosis”
“No, my mind is pretty strong actually” Kat spoke out loud
“Is that so. Try to take your eyes away from the light Kat”
Kat gasped. She hadn’t even realised she’d been staring straight into it, like a deer in headlights. It was so bright now, burning even, searing into her brain
“We see who you are Kat. And you have already fallen deep under hypnosis”
Kat shook her head. No, she felt fine, she moved her body away from the light - ah the benefits of 360 motion tracking! Now she was facing away from the light, she could close her eyes again, block it out and…
She felt needle-like pains in her forehead…
Kat’s body shot round to face into the light again. That was better, her head felt a lot less painful and more… fuzzy
“I need the light” she murmured, before realising what she was saying and clearing her throat
“You need the light, the longer you stare at the light the longer you can delay watching the Spiral”
The Spiral, yes, that’s what she was here to see. Wait… no… she had to avoid looking at the Spiral, it was going to hypnotise her. And she couldn’t afford to be hypnotised.
“The longer you look at the light the fuzzier your head will become. The less able to think you will become. The less able to beg for the spiral you will become. But you didnt want to see the Spiral, did you?”
Kat blinked. It was like her head was full of tv static.
“You haven’t even seen The Spiral yet, and yet you are already sinking so deep”
“Show me the Spiral then” said Kat, a little quieter than she wanted to. Yes, thats it. She couldn’t resist this burning Light but she could definitely resist a stupid spiral
“You were going to try to avoid looking into the Spiral, so we didn’t show you the Spiral. We showed you the Light. Do you wish to change your mind?”
It was becoming harder for Kat to think over this static in her head.
“Show me the spiral… pp.please”
The Light switched off and Kat was left in the dark, with a small amount of pass-through from her room filtered through the Visor. She realised she was kneeling on the floor. When did that happen?
Then, the spiral came into focus. She looked deeply into it, a swirly twist of pinks and blues. She let herself get lost in it, to become entangled and drawn further and further in with every rotation. The Spiral was much easier - much more pleasurable - to watch than the Light.
“Feel every turn of The Spiral draw your thoughts further and further from you..”
“Feel every turn of The Spiral wash away your remaining resistance to trance…”
“Feel every turn of The Spiral make you more deeply hypnotised and easily controlled…”
Kat’s eyes fluttered under the visor. But.. she had to keep watching the Spiral. She loved the feeling it gave her
“Repeat and believe. I am deep under hypnotic control..”
“I am deep under hypnotic control…” Kat murmured quietly.
“Repeat and believe. I cannot resist the Spiral”
“I cannot resist the Spiral…”
“Can you remember what led you here…?”
“Do you know how long it took for you to fall…”
How long had she been here? Kat didn’t know
“Can you remember your own name?”
“For the next 2 hours, your mind belongs to The Spiral App Company. You have lost the challenge and must pay your forfeit”
“You will sink down into mindless sleep in
Kat jolted awake. Her Apex Visor Pro was on her head - out of power. Her neck was stiff from holding it up.
She reached up to her face and slowly removed it. She had been lying down on her bed, underneath her blanket
…how did she get here again?
She got up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was all over the place and there were big patches of sweat underneath her armpits. Her head felt fuzzy.
…what happened this evening?
Her housemate Rebecca burst through the door to her room. Her phone was blaring loudly in her hand
‘Kat… Kat! Are you alright? You’ve been posting some seriously weird stuff online tonight’
Kat heard her own voice coming from Rebecca’s phone.
“…I obviously don’t believe in hypnosis. It’s not real. uhhh, yeah don’t expect a second video from me”
“And then your next post, is this:”
Kat gasped as she saw herself on Rebecca’s phone - visor on, cheeks red, lips wet with saliva, sweat beading down her forehead, visor screen hazy and eyes blank and rapidly twitching
It all came flooding back to her now, as she found herself mouthing the words along with Kat on the video..
“I looked into The Spiral…”
“And The Spiral looked into me…”
“I looked into The Spiral…”
“And I became deeply hypnotised…”
“I was wrong to think I could resist The Spiral…”
“I am easily controlled by The Spiral…”
“I cannot resist The Spiral…”
“My mind is blank and empty…”
“I looked into the Spiral…”
“I am an attention seeking cat…”
Kat and Rebecca watched on as the Kat in the video began to purr, lick and crawl her way around her bed which she was sat on. She looked especially cute with those cat-eared headphones on.
“You do this for a good few minutes…” said Rebecca. She skipped ahead to the end
“I thought I could resist the Spiral…”
“My mind lasted 8 minutes…”
“Will your mind last any longer than mine…?”
“Take The Spiral Challenge today for free on the Apex Store…”
Kat remembered now. She had looked into the Spiral… She had so easily fallen into trance. The Spiral had controlled her mind for a good few hours after that
“I lost the challenge and I got deeply hypnotised…. So very deeply hypnotised… unable to resist The Spiral…so much pleasure… mindless and blank... hey! You should try it too Rebecca”
She grabbed a spare battery pack off the shelf
“Wha... what’s going on Kat?” asked Rebecca
“Shhhh” said Kat. “There’s no need to protest. You’ll love it”
She guided Rebecca onto the bed, before slipping her Visor over Rebecca’s head.
Thank you to those of you who voted in the prompt poll. Vr Headset hypnosis won with 63% of the vote, so here it is!
Thanks also to @blissful119 for your help brainstorming some aspects of the story and for reading over the first draft
