December 28, 2004

• Rather dangerous.
• I thought that this year's election day was the largest mass hypnosis event in history.
• Wake Up UK! will also be the lagest mass hypnosis event in the world, apparently, though if you search for UK locations there only seem to be three - Stafford, Birmingham, and er, somewhere in Oregon. It's not exactly a mass hypnosis event though, is it? If I've understood correctly it's more like a large-scale promotional exercise for local hypnotists. Still a bit worrying, and I should have thought there was an element of risk for the hypnotists, too. If hundreds of people go to the seminars, there are bound to be a few who feel ill afterwards just in the natural course of events. You could easily get a "post-hypnotic illness syndrome" scandal springing up. If I were an idle journalist, I'd be tempted to write the story now.
• >>there are bound to be a few who feel ill afterwards just in the natural course of events. You could easily get a "post-hypnotic illness syndrome" ??? have you experienced this malady, pleg? do tell
• Hypnotists know how to help you change your mind. They do it for millions of people all over the world and they want to show you how easy it is. People? I could swear it said "dollars" a minute ago.
• No, I've never been hypnotised myself (though I've seen it done) or known anyone suffer ill effects. I just think the hypnotists risk being blamed for anything which coincidentally turns out to be wrong with people who happened to go to their sessions. Given the scale of the exercise, there might be enough such cases by sheer chance to look superficially like a "syndrome". The temptation to blame, and perhaps sue, the hypnotists in such circumstances might be considerable. But maybe I'm just being paranoid on their behalf (now there's an interesting new syndrome...)
• I was hypnotically regressed on November 17, 1990. It was...interesting...also, it make me sure I do not believe in reincarnation...
• Hmmm. I tried it and never felt like I was in an altered state. I just went along with the guy because I felt sorry for him. I'd like to be hypnotized, but don't think I can.
• The only person who can hypnotize you is yourself. One of the tools you can use to do this is a hypnotist.
• I don't think I could be hypnotized either. But it would be fun to just sorta go along with it and come up with all sorts of freaky "repressed memories" -- alien abduction, lycanthropy, etc. -- just to see the look on the guy's face.
• Back in my college days, I saw a hypnotist entertainer by the name of Mike Mandel (Howie's brother). He hypnotized about a dozen audience members into doing wacky things...all in all a pretty funny show. (My favourite was when he convinced a dude that the number 6 didn't exist, then asked him to count his fingers. Couldn't figure out why he kept counting 11 of them.)