I’m married to Jennifer Aniston!

Briefly I considered writing a serious post about being hypnotized but the sort of corny humor inherent in hypnosis just makes it impossible. Also, the story gets a little personal and nobody here wants to hear personal stories, right.

Nevertheless, I was hypnotized last night, or something very much like it.

I watched “K-Pax” a couple weeks ago, and there is a scene where Jeff Bridges hypnotizes Kevin Spacey by counting him down from five, and brings him back by counting him back up. I watched that scene and was all like, Oh sure, no watch?

Well, last night this person who hypnotized me didn’t even count me down from five. He didn’t even tell me I was being hypnotized, for that matter, which makes me wonder whether I was actually hypnotized or something else, hence the disclaimer in the second half of the first paragraph up there.

OTOH, he did count me back up from 5 to 1, which made me think, “Holy shit, I’ve been hypnotized!!!” (Verbatim quote, BTW, from around “4”).

Don’t ask me what went on in between, because I haven’t the faintest idea. I may have been doing naked George Burns impressions for the staff for all I know, although I did not smell of cigar smoke. Also, there was no staff. Anyway, another Kevin Spacey moment in my life.

It was really amazing; at least, I was really amazed. I still am.

Have you ever been hypnotized?

5 responses to “I’m married to Jennifer Aniston!

  1. I haven’t been hypnotized, but I have recently (and at other times) thought about it. You know, thinking about how I wish a hypnotist would convince me to X, whatever X was. That sort of hypnosis. And X could be anything, like, suddenly have the willpower of Napoleon or suddenly be as at home on stage as some movie star or whatever. But I don’t believe in it. Hypnosis might make you lose self-awareness for awhile, but I don’t believe it can make long-term changes. All those self-improvement titles you see in the book store would be gone. There would be a hypnotist on every block. Hypnosis would be a popular major at college. All corporations would hire hypnotists. Teachers would learn hypnotism.

    So I’m pretty sure what it doesn’t do. But what _does_ it do? You have no idea at all what you did while you were under?

  2. I’ve never been hypnotized, either, but I have often wondered what it would be like, and while I’m almost as skeptical as Eeksy, a friend of mine who smoked for 35 years found that hypnotism was the only thing that worked to get her to stop.

    But, what exactly happens, that’s what I want to know.

  3. A few years ago, the therapist I was seeing at the time did a couple of hypnosis-like sessions with me, but it was quite a bit different than the party-trick variety. It was not at all like I expected. I remember the entire experience and never felt like I was “out”.

    Of course, every time someone says the word “elevator” now, I cluck like a chicken and peck the ground.

  4. mig

    That’s the odd thing. I do remember what went on during the session, but not all of it. There are two blank spaces, blanker than sleep, which makes me wonder, like, what part of my brain is blocking that. Or, how does the brain work, exactly. Or something.

  5. Yes, I was hypnotized once. In front of my entire high school student body (and bodies). I was given a post-hypnotic suggestion, too. And yes, I did stand up and shout something stupid. In front of my whole student bodies. I carry the scars to this day.