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From: j@utah-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Theatrical Hypnotism and Santa Claus
Message-ID: <3115@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Nov-84 16:48:10 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3115
Posted: Thu Nov 22 16:48:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Nov-84 03:45:08 EST
Sender: j@utah-cs.UUCP
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 60


    Yesterday I was reminded of the feeling which most children have when they
learn that Sant Claus is nonexistent.

    A group of friends took me to see 'Raveen' at the Capitol Theatre here in
Salt Lake City.  An overwhelming stack of evidence convinced me that this guy
hypnotized nobody throughout his entire show.  A few things that come to my
mind are:

	1)  After he had 'sorted out' those which 'were not in the super-
	    conscious state', *all* of his suggestions were followed precisely
	    as he described (with the actors adding minor improvisations now
	    and then).

	2)  Some of the actors were obviously more experienced and convincing
	    than others.  In particular, one guy, who was told to act like a
	    very old man playing his banjo, had troubles with his spoken line
	    (which sounded like a part of a prepared script), and looked like
	    he was trying hard not to laugh at his own act.  Another actor,
	    apparently more experienced, seemed to steal the show by usually
	    'hamming it up' to a greater extent than the others.  (At one
	    time he was told by Raveen that he was Lassie {the dog}, and
	    pretended to do the sort of thing that dogs do near fire hydrants.)

	3)  When a group of 'hypnotized' people were all asked to do the same
	    thing, they did the task in curiously similar manners.  Although
	    the English language is comprehensive enough to convey their
	    instructions, I would be inclined to think that their individual
	    imaginations would interpret the instructions more differently
	    than they did on stage (their *were* closed while they received
	    the instructions).

	4)  One of my friends had seen the show just 4 days before I saw it,
	    and recognized about 6 of the 20 or 30 people that were chosen to
	    act.  She (my friend) said that they received free tickets, and
	    must have wanted to be hypnotized again.  I doubt it.

	Perhaps that was enough to give you an idea of the indications that I
spoke of.  My questions for the net are these:

	o  All of the others in my group actually believed that some of those
	   had been hypnotized.  Now I myself believe in hypnotism, but not in
	   this *theatrical* hypnotism (albeit, I must say that I was mildly
	   entertained at times).  Have any of you actually been hypnotized
	   on stage?  (thus indicating that I may be wrong)

	o  I was called 'skeptical' by my friends.  Are there actually that
	   many people in our civilization that are so naive and gullible as
	   to believe this sort of hypnotism theatrics?  (if so, perhaps I
	   can use this knowledge to make some bucks; I'm only 19 right now)

	As I mentioned above, I see no reason that theatrical hypnotism cannot
be regarded as magic shows are, and thus be entertaining.  It's just that I
used to believe (when I was about 8; the last time before yesterday when I
saw a similar show) that people were being hypnotized on stage.

Enlightenedly yours,

Gary L. Crum						oper.crum@utah-20.arpa
University of Utah Computer Science Department		decvax!utah-cs!crum