PAMPHLET FAIL
Entertaining with Hypnotism – ‘Calostro’
Kev went on an eBay rampage this weekend and the result, today, is a Royal Mail bonanza of three pamphlets and two weird-as-heck hypnosis books (later, hypno-fans, later…).
He piles them up on my desk and I wonder: is this my job now? It’s like having an in-tray: an office; a boss. As a freelancer in the post-Covid world, the lines are very blurred. I note the anxiety I feel at ‘having’ to plough through these works: werk werk werk.
I pick up a pamphlet for a quick and easy win to please The Boss Man.
As you know, I delight in the exclusivity, danger and bossiness of a pamphlet. But this one, alas, falls flat.
Entertaining with Hypnotism by ‘Calostro’ was published in New York in 1977.
I feel this is well past the peak of pamphleteering – the internet is a mere six years away, and things just ain’t what they used to be, huh?
The best thing about this pamphlet is its cover; our mysterious author, ‘Calostro’, conveys that this is a ‘Calostro Publication’. It’s all quite grandiose and groovy for a small, unexceptional pamphlet.
The back cover contains a promo for the magic publisher’s other books on magic. I can’t glean anything about ‘Calostro’ beyond ‘buy this book’ links via Google, but, once again, we can assume he’s a magician or connected to magic.
For a probably-magician author, though, the contents are just dull, dull, dull.
We’re told in the introductory pages that hypnosis is blighted by both too much science and too much fakery. This is just the sort of ‘Creative Genius / Dangerous Maniac’ opening gambit I’d usually love, but – no. Calostro states that this pamphlet is simply about helping you amuse friends in social settings. He’s purposely removed the scientific and medical shizz for this purpose.
But what is a pamphlet without mad, irresponsible, grandiose claims?!
Part one of the pamphlet is theoretical. Points of interest are a preoccupation with audio hypnosis (records, earphones, general audio), and musings on the oft-used proviso that ‘you can’t hypnotise someone to do something against their will or morals/ethics’ vs hypno-murder-with-rubber-knife ponderings. It’s all very Manchurian Candidate… but with none of the charm, danger or depth. Literally: meh.
One thing that is worthy of our intrigue is our author listing Ralph Slater as a hypnosis researcher contemporary to Estabrooks. So. He is duly noted as a POA whose books/work we should snuffle out.
The other point of interest is that mesmerism is covered as a separate but related thing. So there are separate instructions for mesmerism as well as hypnosis; which is weird for a 1977 pamphlet… (Though I do wonder if I’m reading a magic reprint of an older work… I literally can’t be arsed to research because it is so dull, but please: do tell.)
The only pamphlet-ty-proper ‘danger-evil-mad’ moment is an anecdote about a French criminal prisoner informed that his arm was to be cut off as punishment, who was also then told that he was to be left to bleed to death. Apparently this suggestion and a mere pin prick were enough to seal his fate: he did indeed bleed to death. Exactly the sort of Black Magic we get into this shit for.
Part two is 18 lessons of instructional stuff. It’s dry and dull. I’ve literally nothing to report on that front.
Right. Onto the next purchase on my pile!
