When I was in Jr. High School, they brought in a magician. He asked for volunteers and when no one stepped up, he looked around and pointed at me. I decided what the heck and walked up on the stage. I do not remember a thing about what he did or what I did, but afterward he told me I was a good subject. Just remembered that tonight while I was thinking about Bo D's post about scientists planting false memories in mice, and then I thought about something else ....
years ago, about the time the USG and Russia were experimenting with one aspect of mind control -- distant viewing -- I saw an advertisement about a Mind Control Class that was going to be held in a building very close to my home. So I drove over, talked to somebody, didn't get any bad vibes, signed up.
The class was taught by a military officer and his wife, a nurse, and the introductory session lasted from Friday afternoon to Sunday night (we went home at night and went out for lunch but otherwise spent just about every waking minute isolated in a fairly large auditorium-type room).
There were all kinds of people there. We were asked to tell everybody a little about ourselves, why we were there (didn't seem like there were any crazies among us). After that, they continued by saying they didn't use hypnosis; they were just going to talk to us. But there was a metronome ticking/clicking in the background. I knew a little about hypnosis, so thought, "yeah." And I was right. They walked us through relaxing, clearing our minds, and before I knew it they were walking us through the part about our right arm slowly rising up without conscious effort (mine did.) They told us we were going to imagine an elevator and two people who would step out; they would become our guides during the exercises. I doubted that, had a little trouble with it, but let go and did as they said, and when that imaginary elevator door opened and two people stepped out, I thought, "ok, I have a pretty good imagination," but otherwise :rolleyes: Anyway, the first person to step out of the imaginary elevator was a tall woman who looked like she might be from India; the other was a shorter man with very curly red hair. Then we were told that some people who had taken the class in the past were going to join us, and several people walked in. One looked exactly like the man with curly red hair that I'd imagined. :spooked:
We were then told that we would pair off with the new people, that they would help us through mind-game-type exercises. The red-haired man walked over to me and introduced himself and said he would be my partner. We went through several exercises, but the only one I remember is that the red-haired man told me he was going to picture somebody in his mind and he wanted me to tell him what I saw. I was pretty sure he was going to be disappointed, but he kept telling me to relax and tell him what I saw, and I began to picture an older woman, sitting down. He told me to look at her carefully, every part of her, from head to toe, and describe her. It took a while, but I did gradually see her in my mind's eye, although I kept getting some blanks, and told him so -- for instance, I couldn't see her right leg below the knee, and another part of her body I don't remember. When I finished, he looked at me for a few seconds and said, "That was my mother you just described, and her right lower leg was amputated." By then I was in the "duh" stage, not really thinking. :rolleyes: Then he said he wanted me to look at somebody else he was picturing -- "my wife," he said. "Tell me what you see, what she is doing." I imagined someone, but then the part of me that is always in control thought something like "wait a minute. I am not going there," and I told him I was sorry but did not wish to continue.
Don't remember much about the rest of the exercises. On Sunday evening, as we all gathered around in a circle before leaving, the man with the curly red hair came up to me and said he'd like to invite me to join a group of people "over in xxxxx -- we get together once a week and experiment with different ideas ...." I told him I'd like to think about it for a while. I did think about it and decided I'd learned all I needed or wanted to know. Still feel that way.