Deception 59: Hypnosis II -- "Accelerated Learning"
2-25-11
A few months ago, back in November of 2010, while in a used bookstore, I came across a Basic Spanish Course put out by the Foreign Service Institute. It was dated 1961. It contained a book and 15 tapes. It was very useful and plain and simple and it greatly forwarded our Spanish program.
Then, the day before yesterday, 2-23-11 we were at that same used bookstore and found a Spanish course that included the following words on the front cover,
SPANISH
A CASSETTE COURSE INCORPORATING
ACCELERATED LEARNING TECHNIQUESThere were probably over 30 tapes inside the two volumes--including Foreign Service Institute tapes. The front cover had a picture of a seal and the words, "U.S. Dept. of State" at the bottom.
We began listening to the tapes once we got inside our vehicle. We found that some of the tapes were ones that we already had, so we played one of the
Accelerated Learning
Spanish
Memory Tapes.The man's voice sounded very strange and bizarre but we eventually reasoned that maybe he was just trying and that is who he is. The memory tapes had
- a narrator (the strange voice),
- native Spanish speakers,
- classical music (some rather dark and some reminiscent of whimsical Disney),
- occasional beeps; and,
- some play with the voices--at points hear the male from the left speaker and the female from the right.
The cassette tape gave us the opportunity to do various exercises. It was quite enjoyable to do, but there was another puzzling aspect aside from the narrator's voice and some funny beeps and music--at times, the narrator would say a word so low that you could not understand it. I think that if you had the best ears in the world that you could not understand it. After one of these moments, we had an interchange that went something like this--
"What did he say?" one of us said.
"That was too low. You can't tell what he said." the other added.
We continued listening. On side two, the tape gave some interesting and pertinent information that a Spanish student might want to know. Even with the strangeness, I was quite excited about this find because I knew that it would work for us at this point in our studies--and that it would work fast. It was engaging and random, not rote. I believe that that randomness worked for us because we were already familiar with the FSI material that it covered. It made it interesting to follow. Even I could pretty much keep up with it...
BUT...
I told my daughter something like this,
"I have to make sure that we are not being hypnotized."
The next day, yesterday, 2-24-11, I started looking up information for "accelerated learning". Within just a few minutes I had surfed to information on
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_neuro-linguistic_programming)It appears that this beast came out of psychology. The hypnotist uses certain techniques to skirt past a person's conscious mind (and its blocks) to the subconscious mind where he can implant suggestions that are accepted by the "subject," or, perhaps more appropriately, the "victim." I started skimming the NLP article and I found the three stages that one man developed for executing Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
***THE THREE STAGES***
The first thing that caught my attention was stage number 1, RAPPORT. I had just read about rapport in Carla Emery's book a few weeks ago. To me, rapport is where the hypnotist establishes a relationship to the victim so he can access the victim's brain. The old, "Listen to me, you are getting very sleepy." That man on the tape was using a voice that sounded scary and soft. Not to say that rapport has to be on that wise. Carla Emery related a story where one hypnotist kept on talking until he bored the victim to sleep. In that particular case, the hypnosis was used for criminal purposes.
From what I've read, there are multiple ways for the hypnotist to get people to zone out and go into a trance-like state--from being boring to being interesting to being aggressive (I forgot what Carla Emery called it when somebody just tries to directly infiltrate your mind--I believe they try to get eye contact and may even get in your face). Rapport, as I understand it, will make the victim want to come back to the hypnotist. That makes me think about tv. People are hooked on it. I can remember back when I watched it and once found myself in a place where there was no tv. I did not know how I was going to handle it. I was very ansy (fidgety) like I could not be alive without a tv. I was like someone on drugs who was looking for a fix and was agitated because I could not find one.
The next thing that caught my attention was in stage number 2, OVERLOADING CONSCIOUS ATTENTION. An excerpt from the article--
The second aspect of the milton model is that it uses ambiguity in language and non-verbal communication. This might also be combined with vagueness, which arises when the boundaries of meaning are indistinct. The use of ambiguity and vagueness distracts the conscious mind as it tries to work out what is meant which gives the unconscious mind the opportunity to prosper.To me, this explained why at strategic points, not often, the narrator said a word that was barely audible. "What did he say?" After he said the practically inaudible word, it was followed up by full sound. After reading about NLP, I believe that he was saying a word so low that you cannot hear it so that the conscious mind will try to figure it out while the subconscious mind will directly receive, and accept and utilize, the information that they want you to know.
The set we purchased did not have the accompanying book with it, but I had the impression that someone might go to sleep with the tape playing.
The last stage, number 3, was entitled, INDIRECT COMMUNICATION. An excerpt--
The third aspect of the Milton model is that it is purposely vague and metaphoric for the purpose of accessing the unconscious mind. It is used to soften the meta model and make indirect suggestions... A direct suggestion merely states what is wanted, for example, "when you are in front of the audience you will not feel nervous". In contrast an indirect suggestion is less authoritative and leaves an opportunity for interpretation...This step may correlate to that randomness that we heard on the tape. At those points when the speakers did not give enough time for us to answer, I started talking right on top of them and not waiting.
The Accelerated Learning Spanish Memory Tapes were cut and discarded after I conducted my research and I asked the Lord to remove anything from our minds that was not good. We've had no nightmares with this experience.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
We have had religious revolutions, we have had political, industrial, economic, and nationalistic revolutions. All of them, as our descendants will discover, were but ripples in an ocean of conservatism--trivial by comparison with THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVOLUTION toward which we are so rapidly moving. That will really be a revolution. WHEN IT IS OVER, THE HUMAN RACE WILL GIVE NO FURTHER TROUBLE. (Aldous Huxley, quoted by Andres and Karlins in Requiem for Democracy? An Inquiry into the Limits of Behavioral Control, p. 1) (As found in Secret, Don't Tell p. 199)