TL;DR
Challenge Instant Hypnosis and Mass Hypnotism – George Armstrong
Avid readers will have noticed by now that I have been lax in my ambition to blaze through a heap of academic tomes for this project.
I promise that Kev’s Big Books of Hypnosis are jam packed with bookmarks! But, as I’m sure many people are finding at time of writing, it’s tricky to keep your mind on stats and stuff when the world is falling apart.
I mentioned in a previous post I’ve been here before. My attempt to read all 791 pages of The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis Theory, Research, and Practice while laid up with a broken leg failed after a few chapters.
But I’m glad I gave it a go. Because tucked inside the penultimate pages I reached was this absolute treat of a pamphlet on stage hypnosis for retro-gentleman-maniacs!
Challenge Instant Hypnosis and Mass Hypnotism by George Armstrong was published in London in 1950 and is a mere 16 pages – including adverts, and delicious prefaces and disclaimers as to the dangers that lie within.
I’ve mentioned the carotid artery ‘trick’ a couple of times already. I’m going to write about it with confidence and some transparency on this blog for a number of reasons.
Firstly because, without realising it, Fun With Asphyxiation was a recurring playground novelty of my – and, I’m sure, many of your – childhood and teenage years. I remember my first awareness of it was back in middle school, aged circa 11, watching one boy pushing against another boy’s neck with his back against a tree. The second boy soon collapsed unconscious and there was BIG TROUBLE. (Though that didn’t stop the teen fashion for getting giddy, ideally accompanied by a nice blow-back.)
Hence the second reason I’m writing about it is because I was so curious about tales of ‘instant hypnosis’ when I started on this journey that I felt like a real schmuck when I realised that that’s what it is.
And the third and final reason is that, in this age of informed consent and ubiquitous video recording, and in the general interests of not harming or killing another human being, surely no one – NO ONE – attempts this anymore?! (Kev is sceptical of contemporary claims this was used much or at all anyway…)
So, yes. This pamphlet is basically a big build up to (sort of) explaining how to deprive someone’s brain of oxygen in order to maintain prestige over difficult people in stage hypnosis audiences.
The ‘mass hypnosis’ bit is actually pseudo hypnosis, such as instructing the audience, en masse, to close their eyes and look up through the top of their heads, and then stating that it’s impossible for them to open their eyes. (Which it physically is if they’ve done it correctly as their eyes will be rolled back.)
Anyway. I asked Kev why he had such a surprising bookmark stashed inside such a sensible tome. It’s a rare pamphlet that he picked up back in his Head Hacking days. The bar sure is set high for when I do finally attempt to read The Oxford Handbook…
(In case it’s not abundantly clear, DO NOT TRY CAROTID ARTERY SHIT ON YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE. This is a relic of hypnosis-past; not a suggestion.)
