Certified Hypnotist
When I woke up this morning, I was reading an article about spices. I like things flavorful, but not spicy!
Last night I made a recipe from a magazine I got at the Supermarket. It was for a quiche, but because I don’t eat pie crusts, I made a frittata. It called for some nutmeg. Actually I didn’t think of making a frittata, the idea came from one of my good friends.
I like nutmeg, but in little amounts. The frittata came out great. Then this morning I read that nutmeg has hallucinogenic properties. I was thinking of all the things people can claim when spaced out on nutmeg! “ Sorry officer, I vandalized that house because the aroma of nutmeg was driving me crazy”
This in turn, reminded me of my “certificate” in hypnotism. Why, you may ask would I have a certification in being a Hypnotist!
The answer comes from a project I did while studying audiology. The authors of the study were trying to see if there was a connection between pregnant women who listened with headphones to loud levels of music while they were pregnant, to possible hearing loss in the babies. ( That’s a vast oversimplification.) We know that listening to loud noise whether you call it music or not over time will wreck your hearing, but was there a correlation between mother and child? Women in the study were late in their pregnancies. They last thing they wanted to do was to sit there and listen for different pitches being presented while they wore headphones. It was a long time ago and I don’t remember too much about the study or what conclusions it drew, but the author of the study wanted to calm mothers down and concentrate on the task. It was suggested they be hypnotized. What fun it was! A group of us, maybe 10 or so met with the hypnotist and he showed us the ropes. We learned about hypnotism and demonstrated on us! Some people are easier to hypnotize than others. We practiced on each other, and we practiced on our families at home. I was amazed that I could do it! At the end of the 5 class sessions, we were presented with a certificate stating that we had the required training to use hypnotism.
Before I had joined the faculty at the Yeshiva, I occasionally filled in for long term jobs as a substitute. The best ones for me were in the school where my husband taught. I got called in for a 6 week job as the science teacher for the 8th grade. The teacher was a friend of ours, so all the work was written out and I had no prep work. The problem was, the class itself was a nightmare. It was one tough group of kids! That first day when I walked in I realized that just being the wife of the big guy in an adjacent class wasn’t enough for these kids. Each and everyone of them towered over me. I decided, for self preservation to hypnotize one of them and create an example.
I told them that if we got through the material for that day, I would hypnotize one of them 15 minutes before the end of the period.
I remembered an exercise we had been taught and I implemented it. I chose the biggest, baddest kid in the class. I hypnotized him in front of everyone. I gave him the suggestion that he was very thirsty. One sip of water would quench his thirst. I told him that he would wake up and return to his seat. He would not remember anything till he drank some water.
He came out of it and looked at me and said, “I told you! You couldn’t do it. He sat down feeling very smug. Within a minute he raised his hand and asked if he could get a drink of water. The class erupted laughing. I quieted them down and said that when someone is thirsty there was no reason to laugh. A few minutes later, he raised his hand again but didn’t wait to be called on, he said, he was dying of thirst and wanted a drink. I told him the bell was about to ring then he could go out of the room and drink as much water as he liked. Finally in another minute, the bell did ring and he ran out to the fountain and had a long gulp. The kids were both entertained and scared! I had no trouble with that class ever!
Yes, I admit, I am a short lady who is the least intimidating person you will ever meet. This little parlor trick plus one or two others helped me greatly get through many years of teaching pubescent children.
I guess I include Hypnotist as one of my various “jobs” although I was never compensated for it. I have used it in several situations even recently. I have helped people find things they misplaced, I have helped people through dental appointments, I have even helped my son-in-law deal with his fear of flying. Good thing too, he often has to fly great distances. I even used it once to convince a salesperson to give me a discount. I don’t really feel bad about it. It was a large purchase and I missed the sale by a week. Who knows, he might have given me the sale without my little extra incentive.
Like everything else, if you don’t practice your skills, you lose the ability to do it. Just like Spanish, playing the piano, and even riding a bike, hypnotism has kind of faded in me. I would have to practice to have any effect on others. Well maybe!
I don’t tell anybody, ( well I guess the cat is out of the bag now) about the auras, the super hearing, and the hypnotism until they know me very well. All too often, if people know they ask me constantly, how they look. I currently have a friend who will testify to the fact that I told her that her sister was extremely ill. She had to admit her sister to the hospital that very night.
