Yesterday’s 10 Questions were just not complete. I did a terrible thing…in all my hurriedness, I short-changed my guest hypnotist. Yes, I did the unthinkable, the unfair, the most terrible thing I could do – I forget to include Shelley Albini’s location and a link to her web site.
I have corrected this error, but I still feel bad. Dear reader, if you would, please visit her web site at www.natural-mama.net and help me make this up to her.
Sometimes, I feel like a strangeness magnet. Not a weirdness magnet, because weird things don’t happen to me, but there have been several strange coincidences that have happened in my life, and one of them is relevant.
I went to Japan back in August, 2007. The World Science Fiction Convention was held in Yokohama that year, and being a true SF fan and Japan fan, I finally decided to attend, and spend several days surrounding the convention in Tokyo and on tour through other parts of the country. And it was during this trip that not one but two strange coincidences occurred.
The first strange coincidence was at the convention that I ran into my old friend Erick Wujcik. Erick was a very highly regarded game designer, whose best publication is a revolutionary diceless roleplaying system based on the Amber novels of Roger Zelazny. I hadn’t seem him for several years, as he had been teaching in China, and I wasn’t expecting him at the convention, but our paths crossed one morning as we passed on our separate ways to breakfast. We managed to chat a moment and promise to meet later, but that really didn’t happen. Regrettably but also fortunately, that was my last chance to see him as he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months later and died the following April.
But, even though that encounter was a strange coincidence, the strangeness I’m thinking about was even stranger.
That strange coincidence was when I was watching Japanese TV in my cramped hotel room in Tokyo. I was bored, lacking Internet access in my room, so I was channel surfing. I found a lot of baseball games, a couple American and British imports (like the Turtles or early Doctor Who in Japanese), strange gameshows and some kid’s anime. But one show caught my eye and I’m glad I paused to get a closer look.
The scene I was seeing was of a man, imprisoned in a jail cell, chained to a chair, with an opaque mask over his eyes. My first question to myself was “why is he wearing a mask?” The first answer that jumped into my mind was, of course, that somehow he could hypnotize people by meeting their gaze. While I was pondering this question, the scene shifted to who were apparently the stars of the program, a group of teenagers ranging from early to late teens. It was unclear how or why they were together, but it seemed like they were some kind of investigators, nor could I tell what role the two adults (one an older man in a wheelchair and the other reminded me of a stereotypical detective, complete with a fedora, which he would run his hand across in a very expressive gesture) played. However, knowing more than a little about common elements of television drama, I could tell this the first episode of an ongoing series.
There was also the strange woman in a white summer dress and parasol who had some undefined connection with the villain and the heroes. She had the amazing power of “Summon Limousine” that would cause a black limo to suddenly appear whenever anyone got too close to her, cutting them off and sweeping her away.
Curious, and lacking anything better to do, I continued to watch. Several minutes later, my patience was rewarded. I know only a few words of Japanese, but there is one I know very well, and when the teenagers were visiting the cell of the prisoner, I heard it: “saimin”. While “saimin” in Japanese can mean a type of raman noodle dish, it also has another meaning: “hypnotism”. Given the context, my suspicion was correct, the prisoner was a powerful hypnotist. And, of course, as the villain of the piece, he would have to escape, which he did by tricking the guard into removing his mask. Under the villain’s control, the guard rampaged inside the prison, while the hypnotist was in a coma and being driven away in an ambulance. However, as the guard was incapacitated, the villain, who was apparently controlling the guard remotely, suddenly opened his eyes and entranced the nurse attending him by eye contract. He then took control of the ambulance and drove away, just as the heroes realized what he was doing, watching him drive away.
And that’s all I know about the show. I don’t know a title, or how long it ran, or anything else, and lacking any further information or any resource to search, it remains just another strange coincidence and a great mystery.
We smile at one another before departing to wilds unknown and separate.
As I am about to walk out the door, my brother stops me, “Hey Ellie.” I turn back to look at him. He is standing there, holding up his hand, fingers splayed in the familiar V of the Vulcans. I laugh and give him back the signal. When we were younger and it was not the thing for older brothers to be seen fraternizing with younger sisters, my brother would always acknowledge me by that quick gesture. I would do the same (though probably at bit more enthusiastic than the nonchalant subtly my brother showed).
My nephew who is watching this looks back and forth between the two of us, suddenly intrigued that these adults have some odd code between them…or perhaps this is another bit of strangeness that come from being older than 30. It suddenly dawns on us that my nephew has no frame of awareness for what has transpired.
“It’s Vulcan,” my brother says to his son.
My nephew is even more puzzled and some old memories of geography lessons run through his mind, “Vulcan?”
My brother grins at me, “Why yes, it is Vulcan. It is from the greatest hypnotist of them all (save your aunt) - Mr. Spock.” I laugh and realize that I never thought of this myself.
This memory I have shared with you is not very new, but has surfaced again with the release of Star Trek: Origins. I was hoping to see the movie last night, but alas, other obligations interfered. I am pleased and excited about the movie because it is keeping the Federation alive for current generations. There will be no more secret code between my brother and I, but at least my nephew in his young adulthood, will be privy to our symbology (if he choose to be).
But the memory has brought up the whole idea of Vulcan hypnosis. Granted it has been awhile since I explored the mental Vulcan landscape, so I have gone in search of references. And sure enough, there are a few.
Did you know that Vulcans employ what is called the Art of Suggestion? Though it would seem to be more telepathic in nature, with suggestions being implanted by thought or finger direction, I think it qualifies (the induction is just a little different than using words).
Self-hypnosis or meditation is also part of their way towards relaxation. They use this to lessen the functioning of the body, slowing down both body and mind. They do this through a self-induced trance.
They also use self-hypnosis for fast healing.
Ah, the mental discipline. An interesting vehicle of literary whimsey? I think not. I am not sure I agree with my brother that Spock was the greatest hypnotist ever, but I think some of this mental prowess added to his mystique, like those citations I just mentioned, are a reality in this here and now. There is a form of non-verbal hypnotism. Relaxation is a big part of the hypnotism experience (though not required). And there are several studies (especially in regards to cancer) that show that hypnosis creates faster healing in people who utilize it.
The Vulcans know their stuff (or at least the writers do). We can all take a page from their mental discipline training.
Sources:
Photograph provided by di_the_huntress (cc)
She sweated. Seriously, she actually sweated as she read through the induction for the first time. It was a simple progressive relaxation and a pre-created suggestions for forgetting my name. As she lurched about in a halting voicing, I could not help but open my eyes and see what she was doing. She was so stressed out, I wondered why she was taking a course in hypnotism. So, I stopped her, gave her a pep talk and then asked her why she was taking the class. It turns out, she was a nurse and wanted to find ways to potentially sooth and help some of her patients. Very noble. We continued on and for a moment I forgot that my name was Ellie Blunt.
She and I still talk. Depending on the circumstances one of us ultimately becomes a cheerleader for the other. It is one of my most satisfying relationships, and one in which I find myself always learning something new.
Recently, her world has been somewhat revolving around swine flue phobia (I was wondering if that topic would make its way to these post). She says the phobia is so much worse and rampant that the actual manifestation of symptoms. I asked her how she was handling that - are people seeking her out for hypnosis to deal with the flu? Not exactly, but she is doing a community program on being prepared for the actuality of it, and yes, there is a group hypnotism aspect to it. Brilliant! As she reminded me, most people are afraid of catching it, so it is not really a deep set phobia. With a few behavior modifications, people can protect themselves against it (wash your hands, you!).
That really started me thinking about the fact that prevention seems very doable, but I also realized I do not know that much about swine flu and the like. So, I looked up nursing resources on the web and found Scrubs, the nurse’s guide to good living. Its audience targets nurses and is a not-so-sterile-or-clinical resource. Instead it is the lighter-side, like the Real Simple of the nursing world. It is upbeat and seems like it would apply to any level of nurses no matter how long they have been in the field. Interestingly enough, the first header is “mind” (YES!), directly followed by the headings health, beauty and style, not to be left in the cold but the other headers of work, love, money, and news and entertainment.
You know, I might have once brushed sites like this away with the mental broom of “it is not relevant to me.” But the truth is, all things can be fairly relevant to a hypnotist. Everything can be a source of inspiration or a site of learning. I have my nurse colleague to thank for this and helping me be more open, realizing that things that affect the nursing industry are often the same in clinical hypnotism. For instance, there is an article on swine flu prevention called What Nurses Can Tell Patients About Swine Flu. Very apt and very timely. And the things is, the articles are written in an informative, easy to understand way, instead of filed with esoteric medical terms that one can get lost in reading (if you are not a medical professional). In other words it skips scholarly and goes for the meat and potatoes of the subjects. Some of my professional colleagues would probably be appalled at my words here, but there are only so many hours in a day. Reading with a dictionary as a reference tool can get really old.
My friend agrees. From our swine flu conversation, the conversation moved to actual scrubs - do I think institution green goes with her eyes?
Hypnomedia’s Terry O’Brien brings us another fascinating Esoteric Saturday.
Looking over the diverse cast of mesmeric characters in the Golden Age of Comics (which is the period from the start of comics publication through the end of WW II) one is eventually struck by the rampant sexism involved. Practically every villainous hypnotic character is male, from the shady sideshow hypnotists and crafty con artists to the mysterious mystics and malevolent magicians to the sinister scientists and demented doctors. Which should be no surprise, as there were very few female villains at all during that time. The most famous female hero of the time, Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman had several female opponents, but her two hypnotic opponents, one female and one male, both disguised themselves: the female one was Hypnota, the self-described “?agician of the Blue Ray” and member of “Villainy, Incorporated”, who disguised herself as a man using a fake mustache and goatee, while the requisite male hypnotic villain was Dr Psycho, who hypnotized a subservient female spirit medium to evoke and manipulate ectoplasm at his command, including disguising his dwarfish body with a handsome ectoplasmic shell.
There were a few others, of curse, such as the Harlequin, who used a pair of hypnotic glasses as part of her circus clown motif, but she was a much more sympathetic character and eventually reformed, and Baroness von Gunther, another of Wonder Woman’s opponents, who on at least one occasion tried using hypnosis to interrogate a captive office (which ultimately failed, again possibly demonstrating male superiority.) But these were quite the exceptions: it almost seems as though the comics writers just didn’t want to or weren’t allowed to have a female character, hero or villain, who could control the male characters. It was acceptable for Luthor to put Superman under his hypnotic control, but no woman could. Given the sexism of the culture at the time, that seems a likely explanation.
But that all changed at the dawn of the Silver Age of Comics (starting around 1964), which happened to roughly coincide with the dawn of the Women’s Movement. Strong female characters like Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes and Sue Storm (the Invisible Girl, later the Invisible Woman) started appearing, so it was fitting that it also see saw the dawn of the first true female hypnotic villainous characters.
And what a dawn it was.
Enter the Enchantress. A minor Asgardian goddess (it has been suggested she was based on Freya, although later suggestions are that she was Idunn) she long lusted after the noble Thor, all the way from when they were young godlings, all to naught, as Thor was either too interested in battling giants or in his battle companion Sif (a purely potentially Platonic relationship) whereas Amora, to use her given name, was more interested in pleasure and the satisfaction of her amorous desires. During that time, she made several suspected and one certain attempt to enthrall Thor but was constantly thwarted, either by Sif or her own misjudgment about Thor himself. That never stopped her, however.
The Enchantress possessed the average abilities of any Asgardian god or goddess, strengths and abilities far above mere mortal men and women, but it was her superior seductive skills and mesmerizing mystic abilities that truly earned her the title of the Enchantress. She was an apt magical pupil of Karnilla, Queen of the Norns (who had her own unrequited passion for another of the Norse gods, Balder) until Karnilla banished her, and she used her wiles and magical ways to seduce and learn from other instructors. She used her supernatural beauty as a weapon as powerful as any repulsor ray or mystic hammer, and employed her mystic learning to devastating ends. She excelled at spells of enchantments and illusions, going so far as enchanting her lips so that any man she kissed (which even included the Vision, an android) into falling deeply in love with her. She had several other mystic charms and enchantments and artifacts in her arsenal, as well.
Visually, the Enchantress lived up to her name and reputation. A tall, green-eyed blonde with long flowing hair and longer legs (there is one memorable image of her, by an artist with demonstratively limited knowledge of human proportion, which showed her with legs twice the size of her body: the image was derisively titled “Stilt Girl”) she is one of the best examples of artist Jack Kirby’s women, and subsequent artists have also done her justice.
The Enchantress first appeared in “Journey into Mystery” (1964) in a plot by Loki: her mission was to seduce Don Blake, Thor’s mortal alter-ego. Her supernatural beauty allowed her to manipulate the mortal populace of New York, but Thor’s own supernatural heritage and noble love for Sif allowed him to resist even her charms. For this and other crimes, the Enchantress and her cohort the Executioner were banished to Earth by an angry Odin (Avengers #7), where they set about contacting like-minded criminal individuals, eventually forming an alliance with Baron Zemo and creating the Masters of Evil. In their first scheme to battle the Avengers, the Enchantress summoned Thor by way of a haunting call, then momentarily mesmerized him with a hypnotic stare and placed him under her control using a powerful potion. Under her control, he saw his fellow Avengers as cruel enemies and started attacking them. Fortunately Iron Man realized Thor was under a hypnotic spell and managed to awaken him with a bright flash of light.
That set the pattern for the Enchantress. Her plots typically involved some scheme to gain control over Thor or some way to further her satisfactions. She would target Thor or any other male hero with her mesmerizing beauty and hypnotic spells, including such heroes as Captain America, the Black Knight and the Vision, if she thought she could gain something from the encounter. However, she was more vain and self-centered as opposed to actually villainous, so very little actual damage was ever done. She avoided confrontations with female heroes, but she did have battles with the Scarlet Witch (once the wife of the Vision) and Clea, the paramour of Doctor Strange.
That pattern began to change when Lorelei, Amora’s younger sister, showed up. Lorelei did what Amora never could, managing to snare Thor’s heart, although she had to use a mystic love potion and the aid of Loki to do so. A jealous Amora helped free Thor and take her vengeance against her sister by causing Lorelei to fall in love with Loki by way of the same mystic potion. When Thor discovered them together in bed, he was so enraged at their duplicity and at how he had been enchanted: that he forced Loki to free him from the mystic love spell by threatening him with certain death and Loki could only comply.
Its hard to say whether that event, the later death of Lorelei, or other factors effected a change in her character, but it did lead to a change in her relationship with Thor. When Odin removed Thor’s powers and banished him to Earth, he and Amora finally had the relationship she desired, living together in New York, but it didn’t last, as Thor suddenly went missing (as did many other heroes at the time.) When Thor later returned to Asgard to return the missing Odin to the throne, then assumed the throne himself, he and Amora continued that relationship. But all that ended when Loki initiated Ragnarok and destroyed Asgard and the Asgardians. Yet gods do not die so easily, so long as mortal men remember them: Thor eventually awoke and returned to the mortal world. When he was manipulated by Loki into awakening the rest of the other Asgardians, it included Amora, who is now hanging with the Young Masters.
Its hard to imagine a character like the Enchantress as a model for the Woman’s Movement, but in many ways she was. Certainly she was vain and self-centered but she was also strong and independent, allying herself and using others but never subservient to them, more often at least their equal if not superior to them. She used her own talents and beauty to make her own way in the world and was totally unapologetic about it. She had the will and the drive to excel at her chosen endeavor, plus the patience to see her through any setback. But underneath her manipulative exterior, she still had a heart. The other man in her life, Skurge, the Executioner, was infatuated with her but rarely assisted her schemes unless they were directly related to Thor or Asgard. For her part, Amora heartlessly strung him along. But when he sacrificed himself in a raid on Hel, she found herself truly grieving for his loss.
In short, Amora is a ground-breaker and a trend-setter, a complicated character and a true enchantress. And a fitting icon of the Women’s Movement that she sprung from.
When I began this blog oh-so-long-ago, one of the first topics I covered was the idea of using hypnosis to remember alien abductions. It seems only appropriate that two years later, I should revisit the subject. Perhaps it deserves more than an Esoteric Saturday, but what has brought all this to mind is a new exhibit at the University of New Hamphire. SInce this post is more focus on the exhibit than hypnosis, I guess this category will work. The university now owns the Betty and Barney Hill Collection. For those not familiar with the Hills, they are the most famous alien abductees, the first to make their expereince public. To cut to the chase, they discovered missing hours from their life by using hypnotic regression. The collection includes papers, transcripts, the dress Betty was wearing when she was first abducted, and many fascinating things.
To learn more about the exhibit, click here to read the UNH press release.
If there is anyone out there who went to the opening and the forum, I would love to hear about it.
*photo is from the UNH Collection
Last Saturday HypnoMedia shared this video with us in a comment. I could not help but embed the video this week. What fun. Since this blog is read by an international audience, if any of you know the English translation for the words, please share them with us (or Terry, if you have found them let us know).
As I type this, it is actually Thursday and I have just finished scheduling 10 Questions with Kathleen Connolly (it ran yesterday). She brought up some good points and I believe everyone’s philosophies are valid. Her ways of approach just differ from mine. Such contrast make life interesting. However after posting it, I needed something a bit lighter to follow and so I looked up hypnotized in youtube.com and came across this – Fleetwood Mac’s Hypnotized. It seemed most appropriate. This stanza seems to resonate:
Now its not a meaningless question
To ask if they’ve been and gone
I remember a talk about north
Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass
In the thick of a forest without a road
And if any mans ever made that land
Then I think it would’ve showed
And now I smile as I leave you this fine, positive Saturday. I will be back in the cyber world soon.
Photograph from Fringe NZ - Canadian actors D’Arcy Smith and Andrea Tutt star in the comic tale, Kreskinned.
Recently in select theatres, the movie The Great Buck Howard opened. Has anyone had a chance to see it yet? It looks hopeless for me to view it on the large screen (unless I make it a hallmark of a trip). Alas, I am destine to wait for the DVD release, sit here, drink my Earl Grey green tea, and find something else esoteric to discuss this gloomy Saturday morning.
Kreskin is a good topic as Buck Howard is that sort of character, seems like a fine substitute. Hmmm. I cannot quite get my mind wrapped around the idea of spending an hour or two finding links and such about that most fascinating man, so lets step back and look at the fringe. Literally.
At the recent Wellington Fringe Festival, the Homeless Moose Theatre Company presented a play by Michael Healy called Kreskinned - The Natural Canadian Date Drug. On the Fringe site, the teaser reads:
A comedy asking the important question, what if you could hypnotize your partner into forgetting every time you’ve done something wrong?
In answer to their question: OMG, why did I not think of that? LOL. I suspect the main problem would be knowing exactly when you do something wrong.
Basically (and from just what I have read about the play without seeing it or reading the script), this play is about two people who are more or less set-up by a mutual friend. They are given tickets to a hypnosis show and both volunteer to be hypnotized. Both are given silly (probably cliche) activities that are triggered by specific words. The hypnotist does not remove the trigger words. Yes, you see it coming, do you not? After the show and on a real date, the female protagonist discovers her date’s word. A side effect of the triggered word is that he forgets everything that happens once the word triggers his response. Apparently she finds great relationship potential in this and uses it to her advantage…then he apparently discovers her trigger word.
Hmmmm….
Well anyway, it sounds entertaining. Possible? Maybe.
He would sit for hours or at least what felt like hours to my wee bottom that experienced the cold, hard wooden bench. But he never seemed to notice any discomfort, his or mine. Instead, gazing into the aquarium at a local park, it would keep hold his fascination above all else.
“Look Ellie! See that fish, the one by the glass, looking at me? He is talking to me.”
“What is he saying?” I would respond and my grandfather would weave the most fascinating stories about the life of the fish.
Often the story would begin with, “Well, luv, he says I should come and join ‘im. He wants me to meet his wife and have a lovely meal of seaweed.”
Then there were the times my grandfather would remain silent, staring fixedly into the dimly lit water. If the current Ellie could go back to those moments, I feel quite sure she would see all the markings of a trance. But the younger Ellie had no idea about such things. All she knew was that when her grandfather appeared unaware of the word outside of the aquarium, he would loose all the tension and worry from his face. What she also discovered was that if she asked for certain things, like a bit of chocolate, when they left the aquarium, her grandfather seemingly would have a desire for something chocolaty, too. They would stop at the little store down the street and her grandfather would choose the confectionary that Ellie had mentioned earlier and share it with her. On days when they were just walking or doing other tasks and she would ask for such a treat, he would respond in the negative
“Ellie, you know your mum does not allow for such things before our next meal.”
Hmmm.
So whether I am just craving a bit of candy, the presence of my grandfather, or some form of nostalgia, I still find myself intrigued with those creatures who live in aquariums. Hence you will notice the ad in the right column of this blog for “Dolphins blowing bubbles.” Maybe you thought it was silly for a hypnotism blog to have such things on it - what is this nonsense about dolphins blowing bubbles? Now, maybe you will understand a little more why I would put such things here (do click on it).
Maybe the phenomena of dolphins blowing bubbles seems meaningless, but I assure you, it is not. Here is the thing, the dolphins at Sea World have begun to do something quite unique. They have learned how to not just use their blow holes as biology dictates, but have to use them as a source of amusement. They create large bubble rings, much like a child who learns to blow soap bubbles through a special wand. Just like humans, the dolphins seem to find much enjoyment with playing with their water bubbles.
What also makes the dolphin bubbles special is that this playful behavior has just been recognized (by us humans). Though I am not an animal behaviorist, I am all about human behavior, so I can see the appeal to studying this phenomena. Perhaps even more interesting is the human reaction to the dolphins. People are fascinated (recognizing a commonality in play?), so fascinated that Sea World has made it part of their marketing effort. Ingenious! Seriously. If you have not visited their website on dolphin bubbles, it is really interesting.
I can imagine myself young and small again with my grandfather larger than life. I can imagine us watching these dolphin bubbles and I can hear my grandfather concocting great tales of bubble Olympics. Or I can imagine him silently engrossed in the spectacle. Then I can take it a bit farther and hear my own self mentioning riding the Manta coaster. Eventually, my grandfather would take my hand, leading me away from the dolphins and suggest we try our hand with roller coaster (something he was normally not so keen).
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