🚀 go-pugleaf

Anyone have any funny or instructive experiences using hypnosis?

I'll lead off.  Everyone is familiar with the belief that you cannot
make a person do something harmful to themselves, or to which they
object.

When I was in flight school, one of the guy's little brothers came to
visit.  14 and a pest.  What do you do with a 14 year old pest when you're
all stuck together in Milton, FL?  Naturally, you hypnotize the kid
and entertain everybody by making him act like a fool.

This kid was a sixth level somnambule (sp?).  Anyway, you know what I
mean.  I could have said "Boo" and this guy would have gone under. Had
all the classic indicators-- bizarre auditory and visual post hypnotic
effect-- the whole nine yards.  I put on quite a show explaining the
various tests for depth and demonstrating on this kid.  He just kept going
deeper and deeper.  As a final demo, I explained that no matter how 
good a subject I had, I could not make them do something harmful.  This
whole process was happening on the third floor of the BOQ.  As a demo, I
instructed the kid to go outside and jump over the railing.  Up until
this point he had done everything he had been instructed to do.  And I
do mean EVERYTHING.  But he calming declined to jump from the third story.

It was a great ending to a little fun, and I should have stopped there.
But who can resist one more little show?  Attempting to push it a little
further, I spent about ten minutes giving suggestions indicating that
a well conditioned athlete (kid was a wrestler) could reasonably jump
from that height without injury.  I then told him to jump again,
expecting to have the same response.  Wrongo.  This kid took off like a
shot toward the door, fully intending to jump.  I had to tackle him
and it took three of us to get him back inside.  Finally we did.

Moral of the story.

            Never push a suggestion too far.

            If you don't follow rule 1, always stand between the
            subject and the door.

Got a story?  I've got two more--one about a shark encountered
in 100 ft of water off Moorehead City and another about Harry
Aarons and the time I tore my hand off in an accident.  

But I'm not gonna tell them unless someone else jumps in.