Hypnotise Me

More like hypno-lies. But hypnosis is real...
Recently I was in America for the New Years break, hitting the proverbial two birds with one stone in visiting some business contacts while hanging out with Mio, who is over there for her exchange. See Mio's blog on my links list on the right if you can read Japanese. Or you could just look at the pretty pictures.

Part of this trip included a road trip to Vegas (5 hours up, 5 hours back from San Diego) for a one night stay, to attend the Consumer Electronics Show being held over that week. Long way to go for only half a day at a show, which was only topped in redundancy by the fact that I got drunk and didn't manage to attend. Isn't that awesome? Only the second time that alcohol has prevented me from doing my job. The other one was because 3 guys I met at a Tool concert missed their last train, came and stayed at my house and along the way we accidentally got really trashed and they ran off into the wilderness of central Osaka, me running after them like an angry chaperone. In the end I couldn't round them all up, thought to myself "Screw this, they can get lost in the middle of nowhere if they want" and went home. By now it was 3am and I woke up 4 hours later with my head rent in two by a fantastic hangover, but that's old news.

Back to Vegas. I thought I was there a good 50miles before I was, thanks to all the casinos close to the Nevada/California border that try to cash in on the customers who want to gamble, but can't wait. I was then welcomed a good 20miles out of the city by billboard after wonderful billboard, proclaiming I must go see this or that country singer or Cirque de Soleil show (there were 3 CdS shows happening at different casinos). Nearly missed my exit, I was getting so fed up with being-but-not-being in the city. After cruising the Circus Circus parking lot looking like a paedophile, I finally found the place I was looking for on the 3rd pass - a high rise condo-complex at the end of the notorious Strip, where my "host" awaited.

During the course of the evening whenever anyone I spoke to asked me where I was staying, my reply of "crashing with a guy from the internet I've never met" brought a more or less consistent reaction of mild horror. "Oh, don't worry, I know about 'Stranger Danger'" didn't relieve this (Americans don't know the phrase 'Stranger Danger', but I've convinced at least half a dozen to use it with their kids). Certainly, images of serial killer sadistic Germans do tend to pop up when you say "met on the net" (I have nothing against Germans beside their stereotypical bluntness, but there was that story years ago of the man in Deutschland who met a guy and let him kill and eat him...). Anyway, let me explain to you about a wonderful thing that was thought to have died years ago, but still lives on in little corners of this world; I'm talking about the kindness of human beings.

An impressive portion of this "kindness" can be found in one of my favourite websites, CouchSurfing.com. This NPO is designed to hook backpackers up with places to stay (at no cost, and subsequently no promises on the quality of bedding) in the countries they are visiting, and likewise a chance for hosts to meet interesting people, hang out and generally be social being, all while racking up the brownie points.
Unlike most virtual communities, this one has a genuine equivalent community in real life too. I've hosted half a dozen people so far, from Canada, England, America, Australia and as far out as Finland. I've also hung withhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=31737511&postID=8271433228643847145
Blogger: Machine Gun Sarariman - Edit Post "Hypnotise Me" guys in China through it - you don't even have to host or be hosted, just using it to meet people in cities is cool. They've all been good jokers too - not everyone is like me, but they're all positive and polite and enthusiastic individuals. It's as though all the laid-back awesome people on the net all accumulated in one spot.
Security isn't heavily enforced, but it unofficially operates on a "he's with me" system (much like how members hear about it in the first place). Everyone knows someone on the site, so if you're paranoid you can background check their mates and references. Hearsay is there are a few bad experiences kicking around, but if you compare the amount of people who met dodgy individuals in bars or events and got into trouble when they went to crash with them, it's like car crashes and lightning strikes. With 325,000 successful hook-ups since mid 2006 (and 420,000 users), it's done well for itself. I'd like to see it grow, but I think if it ever got to facebook proportions (57million), then it may lose a part of the community vibe.
For my first "surfing" experience (I'd only hosted until Vegas), I stayed with an interesting bloke named Ivan, a Brit who has lived in Vegas for a few years, living it up and making money gambling (though, ironically, not in casinos but on the internet). He was nice enough to put me up, tell me what shows were playing and give me details on the one I wanted to see (The Amazing Jonathan!), drive me around and then poke me in the direction of the Venetian (the largest hotel in the world).
How could I repay him? Well, letting him hypnotise me might be a start.

Hypnosis isn't something I've wiki-ed before, but my first impression is less that it's fake, and more that hypnotists have a strange sense of humour. I don't find making someone make an ass of themself that funny - probably the same reason I don't like candid camera shows. I prefer letting people do it of their own accord - and its not like there's a shortage of that in the world. However the act of hypnosis is something that sparked my curiousity, made me say "sure, I'm game." Wouldn't you like to know what it's like to be hypnotised?

After the experience, I'm still not sure I can tell you. As in, I'm still not entirely sure if it worked. Whether it was because he was short for time so he rushed me through, or that I was one of the small percentage it doesn't fully work on, I'm not sure, but I think it was the former. Hypnosis itself is not mind control, its more like the power of suggestivity. It turns off your conscious mind and lets your sub-conscious do the driving. A hypnotist can't make someone do something they don't want to do. "When you wake up you will give me a blow-job" won't work until that was on their mind in the first place.
Ivan told me to relax, close my eyes and feel myself falling away. Soon my level of perception with the outside world was limited to his voice, though at no point in time did I losing consciousness. Once my REM came up he started to tell me to do certain things or act certain ways. It felt like I could "snap out of it" any time I wanted to, but a) I didn't, I wanted it to work, and b) I did experiment with that idea, and it felt like I was loosely bound by my own will. He told me that if I tried to open my eyes, they would feel like they were glued shut. Low and behold, that's exactly how I felt.

So it worked? I still don't know. But here's how it went:
First task: He woke me up, but not before telling me I would forget the number 3. He got me to count to 5, and the first time with some hesitation I said "three" correctly. The following times I only got to "th". It was strange, because it was less like I forgot it and more like I forgot how to say it. My head said three, but my mouth didn't.
Second task: This time it was forgetting my own name. Again, I had trouble but it wasn't completely gone. When he said "its not Tim is it?", my head said a combination of "yeah, I'm aware it's Tim" and "That rings a bell, but was it my name?"
Third task: This one was interesting, and makes me wonder if I was going deeper, or if I just know how to make stuff up on the spot. "You are the worlds biggest, and also worst, liar." Subsequent drilled questions about names, gender, body parts and favourite countries ("Alaska") were all met with fast-flowing lies without hesitation on my part. He had told me that when I told a lie, I would feel good. No doubt, telling him his hand was a foot somehow satisfied me immensely.
Final Task: This one also went well: "You're competing in a dance competition, and if you win you'll get a million dollars. The more you dance, the more you know you're going to win" Perhaps this worked because I willing dance anywhere with or without instruction, but I must admit my performance was one that even a drunk me would have trouble pulling off. Dance moves I wouldn't touch in real life came out. He suddenly stopped the music and asked me why I was dancing. I think he was expecting "to win!", but I blurted out "Because you told me to."

See, the power of suggestivity that hypnosis is supposed to invoke was there, but I was always aware that it was someone telling me what to do, rather than myself. And that's why I'm not so sure if it counts. I'm keen to give it another go though - just so long as it's not some creep on stage telling me to fondle an old guy's ass.