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Hypnosis: You're Getting Sleepy · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Sitting across from me is
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Speaker 1: when Charles W. Bryant you might know and love him
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Speaker 1: more as Chuckers or Chuck Chuck Tran, Chuck Tran whatever.
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Speaker 1: Call me anything, Just call me do you can call
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Speaker 1: me anything? Just don't call me late to dinner. Ah. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's another good one. That's a red Kneck one, isn't it. No,
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Speaker 1: it's classic. It's not red nick I've always heard it
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Speaker 1: from redne All read Nicky's classic. So wait, what accent
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Speaker 1: was that? It's like Internet Italio serbian. You're getting more
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Speaker 1: and more refined, buddy. Um, Chuck, did you see the
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Speaker 1: Stopwatch I have do? I went to to stare at
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Speaker 1: a Chuck Am. You're getting very drowsy, Chuck Am. You're
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Speaker 1: laying in a field surrounded by little rabbits. I love rabbits.
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Speaker 1: Y's the rabbits love you too, Chuck. Chuck. Yes, keep
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Speaker 1: your eyes open for me, Yes, yes, Chuck, I want
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Speaker 1: you to bark like a dog. When I snapped my fingers, ready, Wolf,
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Speaker 1: very good, Chuck, that was excellent. No, Chuck, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: bring us out of this this horribly uncomfortable segment. When
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Speaker 1: I snapped my fingers, I'm gonna count to three. And
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Speaker 1: when I snapped my fingers, You're not gonna remember any
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Speaker 1: of this, just me and the people listening to this.
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Speaker 1: Well now, okay, okay, one, two, three. Oh hey, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: I'm not sure what happened, but I feel lame. You
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Speaker 1: feel you should feel lame. You have every reason of Philiams,
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Speaker 1: so do I, Chuck Embarrassed, I suddenly realized I just
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Speaker 1: bestowed upon you like a really great gift that you
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Speaker 1: can't remember what just happened. That was like the worst
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Speaker 1: intro we ever did it. It is so just thank
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Speaker 1: you lucky stars. Chuck. That is a great intro. Josh.
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Speaker 1: Because we're talking about hypnosis, well, yeah, it would have
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Speaker 1: been a little weird for Australian frogs, right, that'd be weird.
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Speaker 1: So I'll go ahead and kick start this, my friend
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Speaker 1: by saying that hypnosis has been around for a couple
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Speaker 1: hundred years and because it has to do with the
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Speaker 1: brain in the mind, we still don't know a ton
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Speaker 1: about how it actually works. I'd like to kick start
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Speaker 1: this one by saying that hypnosis is complete. I don't
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Speaker 1: agree because I have been hypnotized and we will get
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Speaker 1: to that later. Really, yeah, have you really? Yeah? Sort of. Well,
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Speaker 1: we'll talk about it. I'll walk you through my experience later.
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Speaker 1: That would be great. You've been hypnotized twice. Now you
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Speaker 1: realize that you don't remember it. But I don't know
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Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I know you don't, but you've
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Speaker 1: been hypnotized twice. So technically speaking, buddy, a trance like
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Speaker 1: state is what hypnosis is. And um, it's characterized by relaxation,
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Speaker 1: heightened imagination, and extreme suggestibility. And they compare it to daydreaming.
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Speaker 1: You're actually hyperintentive. You're not asleep, you're hyperintentive. And uh,
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Speaker 1: they like in it sometimes so when you get lost,
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Speaker 1: like in a movie, and nothing exists outside the movie
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Speaker 1: and you are moating with the movie and you kind
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Speaker 1: of believe what's going on is real. And not only
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Speaker 1: was it compared to in this article by poor Tom
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Speaker 1: Harris um to watching a movie, uh, it was also
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Speaker 1: compared to driving, reading, and mowing the lawn. Was it. Oh,
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Speaker 1: you didn't see that. This is awesome illustration that shows
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Speaker 1: you all the things that you can kind of self
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Speaker 1: hypnotize with, and one of them is apparently writing a
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Speaker 1: lawn tractor. Well. Milton Ericsson is a expert in the
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Speaker 1: twentieth century of with hypnotism. He says that this happens
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Speaker 1: on a daily basis to everybody. Yeah, and I know
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Speaker 1: what he's talking about. Like, Um, I've definitely driven unimpaired
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Speaker 1: before and been like how did I get here? I've
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Speaker 1: done that too, man, And you realize you're so focused
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Speaker 1: on a thought or a problem or it's just something
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Speaker 1: you're trying to work out, that your body's just taken over.
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Speaker 1: And you can do it in a stick shift too,
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Speaker 1: it's not just with automatics. Yeah. You know what usually
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Speaker 1: triggers my realization that that's happened as I realized some awful,
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Speaker 1: awful song has been playing that I would never listen to,
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Speaker 1: like one second of like like Bad of the Bone
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Speaker 1: is on and it's like the bud you mean George
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Speaker 1: third good and the Tea Birds that now the t
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Speaker 1: Birds it's different. George Thirders, you didn't like Thur're good?
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Speaker 1: He used to go to the Hollywood Wide by the way,
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Speaker 1: the same we're on the same workout schedule for a
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Speaker 1: little while. Awesome. He like his old bones on the treadmill.
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Speaker 1: He looks like he's about to die, So I'm sure
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Speaker 1: he was. I hated Bad to the Bone, and I
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Speaker 1: maintain that. Okay, So if you are listening to Bad
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Speaker 1: to the Bone and you realize that it's like the
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Speaker 1: end of the song it's been on the whole time,
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Speaker 1: that's clear evidence that you've self hypnotized exactly. And there's
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Speaker 1: also a school of thought that all hypnosis is self hypnosis.
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Speaker 1: We'll get to those explanations later. That definitely makes a
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Speaker 1: little bit of say to me, mesmerized even do you
5:02
Speaker 1: want to talk about Mr Mesmer? Yeah, mess that The
5:05
Speaker 1: name actually comes from a guy named Franz France Mesma,
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Speaker 1: and he was an Austrian physician in the seventeen hundreds,
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Speaker 1: and he was one of the early proponents of hypnotism.
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Speaker 1: He thought it was a mystical force though, and it
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Speaker 1: um was early early on, it was a known as mesmerism, right,
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Speaker 1: and then that just eventually became like mesmerizing, right, And
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Speaker 1: and Mesmer's whole bit was that it was animal magnetism
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Speaker 1: flowing from the hypnotist like sleep, right, that guy coming
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Speaker 1: out of his fingers, in his eyes like into the subject,
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Speaker 1: and the hypnosis was the hypnotist exerting his will on
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Speaker 1: the hypnotized person um, and that was largely abandoned in
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Speaker 1: the nineteenth century I think was Yeah, a Scottish surgeon
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Speaker 1: named James Braid coined the term hypnosis, and it came
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Speaker 1: to be seen as a stage that the person went
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Speaker 1: into guided by a hypnotist, right, gotcha, Well, that's definitely
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Speaker 1: what happens um when you're under hypnosis. It's always that
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Speaker 1: you talk about the suggestibility. You you think that that's reality.
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Speaker 1: So the example they gave in the the article, which
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Speaker 1: I thought was appropriate for us, is if they say, like,
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Speaker 1: your tongue is swollen, you believe that, and so you
6:22
Speaker 1: might start talking like you do with a thick tongue.
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Speaker 1: That's nice. Or if they say you're drinking like a
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Speaker 1: cold soda, you might like feel the bubbles or the
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Speaker 1: cooling effect on your throat even right, uh and Chuck,
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Speaker 1: I think it's not that you think it's real, it's
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Speaker 1: that you are in much the same way it was
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Speaker 1: like into watching a movie or a TV show, Like,
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Speaker 1: do you ever watch a TV show and you like
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Speaker 1: it cuts the commercial and all of a sudden you realize,
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Speaker 1: like you're really anxious, like you're about you're in trouble
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Speaker 1: for something, and you don't understand why, and you realize
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Speaker 1: it's because you've attached to what's going on in the
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Speaker 1: show so much that you're kind of empathizing with the characters.
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Speaker 1: I think it's like that, like the idea that a
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Speaker 1: dramatic play going on inside a little box can evoke
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Speaker 1: emotions in you. That's what hypnosis say. Is this you
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Speaker 1: don't think it's reality because you're not thinking, yeah, you're well,
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Speaker 1: well we'll get into the brain of it. Then I
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Speaker 1: guess this is probably a good time to do it,
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Speaker 1: right the subconscious mind? Well, yeah, that this is this
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Speaker 1: is really where I started to zone out, and really
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Speaker 1: I was like, how did I lose the last hour?
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Speaker 1: The school of thought, for the most part is that
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Speaker 1: hypnotism is a way to get into your subconscious mind.
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Speaker 1: You say hypnotism, hypnotism hypnotism, uh taps into your subconscious
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Speaker 1: and if your conscious thoughts are the things that you
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Speaker 1: have to consciously think of in a day, your subconscious
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Speaker 1: is still like hard at work doing all the things
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Speaker 1: Like you don't think I'm going to get in my
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Speaker 1: car and pick up my key to insert it in
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Speaker 1: you just you know your subconscious knows how to do
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Speaker 1: all that, right. Um. Harris used the example of like
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Speaker 1: losing your keys, right, you're sitting there in your conscious mind.
8:16
Speaker 1: I guess in this respect, and I have to put
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Speaker 1: this claim around I don't I think conscious and subconscious
8:23
Speaker 1: concepts will be around for much longer. But I don't
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Speaker 1: think so. Um. But from the from the viewpoint of psychology,
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Speaker 1: your conscious mind is what's what realizes that you are
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Speaker 1: missing your car keys, and all the ramifications of not
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Speaker 1: being able to find your car keys, like you're gonna
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Speaker 1: be late to work and this is gonna be a problem,
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Speaker 1: and where did you leave it last? And all that,
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Speaker 1: and your subconscious mind are all of the different mechanisms there.
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Speaker 1: It's governing all the different mechanisms, bringing them together so
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Speaker 1: that you can have these thoughts, worries and access memories,
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Speaker 1: most importantly, so that you can remember the last place
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Speaker 1: you put them. So what seems to you like a
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Speaker 1: sudden flash of insight like there's the car keys, that
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Speaker 1: that was a series of mechinations by the subconscious mind
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Speaker 1: that brought you to your conscious mind to that point. Well,
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Speaker 1: that's very pertinent here because psychiatrists think that the deep
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Speaker 1: relaxation and the relaxed state relaxed, that the relaxed state
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Speaker 1: that you get into it is um allows the psychiatrist
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Speaker 1: or the hypnotists to tap into that subconscious because of
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Speaker 1: the state that you're in, tap that subconscious, tap it.
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Speaker 1: There may be a little bit too that too, right,
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Speaker 1: there could be, but um, we should probably say, chuck
9:48
Speaker 1: before we get into that that um, what the subconscious
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Speaker 1: mind is responsible for some of the big things, and
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Speaker 1: that that this is what right right, you've got the
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Speaker 1: sensation uh, bodily sensations, memories right, um. And with memories,
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Speaker 1: especially if you're getting in there and you're you're going
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Speaker 1: directly to the source where these things are stored, retrieved
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Speaker 1: and experienced, right, then you have a lot of responsibility
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Speaker 1: if this is actually real, um, by to to not
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Speaker 1: manipulate these the person in the state absolutely because apparently
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Speaker 1: you're dealing directly with the subconscious. So with the talking
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Speaker 1: about repressed memories, specifically, it's easy to create false memories inadvertently,
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Speaker 1: so you definitely have to be really careful. But yes,
10:39
Speaker 1: you are right that there is some um evidence. There's
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Speaker 1: some scientific evidence that there's something going on here when
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Speaker 1: people are in a hypnotic state. Right. Well, yeah, the
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Speaker 1: conscious mind is the inhibitive component of your body, so
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Speaker 1: it's it's the one that's like putting on the brakes
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Speaker 1: for things, and the subconscious is the more impulsive and
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Speaker 1: imaginative one. So it makes sense that you see those
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Speaker 1: stupid hypnosis shows live on stage where adults are like
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Speaker 1: barking like dogs and walking around like chickens and stuff,
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Speaker 1: they're still there. I was in Vegas a couple of
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Speaker 1: weeks billboards. People love that stuff that, Um, I'm just
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Speaker 1: not one of them. But that does sort of make
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Speaker 1: sense that if they're tapping into into the subconscious and
11:20
Speaker 1: leaving the conscious mind out of it, then that's why
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Speaker 1: they're uninhibited and feel free to do all those stupid things. Right,
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Speaker 1: So there's something to that in theory just by looking
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Speaker 1: at it, right, and there there is, um. I guess
11:33
Speaker 1: people have slapped people into e G. Machines, given them
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Speaker 1: electro and cephalography scans, yeah, to see what's actually going
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Speaker 1: on the brain, right, and there is something like there's
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Speaker 1: no there's no change bodily aside from and Tom Harris
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Speaker 1: did a good job making this point. People are relaxed, right,
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Speaker 1: but that's actually from the suggested relaxation that's not from
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Speaker 1: the state of hypnosis itself. So like your heart rate
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Speaker 1: might slow down and stuff, but it's not because you're hypnotized.
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Speaker 1: It's just because your chill. Um. But with the with
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Speaker 1: the brain scancer, I can't remember what we were talking
12:12
Speaker 1: about sleepwalking. I think you're talking about brain waves right, Um, yeah,
12:17
Speaker 1: we were. And the low frequency waves associated with deep
12:22
Speaker 1: sleep tend to show up more when you're in a
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Speaker 1: hypnotized state, and the higher frequency waves associated with being
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Speaker 1: fully awake and alert um slow down something. They don't disappear,
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Speaker 1: one doesn't take over and the other one goes away
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Speaker 1: like when you're actually in deep sleep. But there the
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Speaker 1: they're skewed differently than a normal person would have while
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Speaker 1: they're awake, and so they're there. Tom also points out
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Speaker 1: to that that's not like proof of anything, but it
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Speaker 1: is a nod to like, well, this is actually going on. Um.
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Speaker 1: The same with the study, the cerebral cortex and hypnotics
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Speaker 1: showed or hypnotics subject showed reduced activity in the left
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Speaker 1: hemisphere and increased in the right. And the left hemisphere
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Speaker 1: is where the logical control center is and the right
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Speaker 1: is where like the imagination and creativity is. So that
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Speaker 1: kind of supports the idea as well. But again not
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Speaker 1: like hardproof, Chuck, how do you? Um, that's my problem
13:21
Speaker 1: with us. There's no hard proof whatsoever. Um. How how
13:25
Speaker 1: do you as far as against psychology psychiatry goes, and
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Speaker 1: this is in widespread use or vegas, how do you
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Speaker 1: hypnotize somebody? Well, there's some different ways, right do you
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Speaker 1: can do it? There's the old school way where you
13:39
Speaker 1: like wave the watch in front of someone that you've
13:40
Speaker 1: seen in the movie. Yes, that's called field gaze induction
13:46
Speaker 1: or eye fixation, fixed case, fixed case. What I say
13:50
Speaker 1: field gaze? That makes no sense. It hypnotized you to
13:52
Speaker 1: say that wolf? What was that? Nothing? Uh? So that's
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Speaker 1: um idea there is that they're just getting you to
14:01
Speaker 1: focus on something and tune everything out and then they
14:04
Speaker 1: lull you to sleep with their tone. And that's sort
14:06
Speaker 1: of the old school way, and they don't do it
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Speaker 1: much anymore because apparently it doesn't work that well, Yes,
14:12
Speaker 1: because people are too smart. And what's the other one? Uh,
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Speaker 1: there's another one called rapid which I like this one.
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Speaker 1: It's like, Chuck, sleep Chuck, Chuck, you're hypnotized, Chuck, listen
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Speaker 1: to my voice, you're sleepy, Chuck, focus on me, Chuck, Chuck. What. Yeah, Well,
14:27
Speaker 1: and that's what they do in the Vegas shows. And
14:29
Speaker 1: they kind of prey on the fact that you're up
14:31
Speaker 1: on stage, you're out of your element, and you're nervous,
14:34
Speaker 1: and they supposedly that would make you more susceptible to
14:37
Speaker 1: that kind of suggestion. Right, that's too then there. Well,
14:41
Speaker 1: there's another one called progressive relaxation and imagery, where someone
14:44
Speaker 1: might suggest that you're laying in a field. That's the
14:47
Speaker 1: one that was used on me, or surrounded by bunnies.
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Speaker 1: Where was this? I okay, I'll go ahead and just
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Speaker 1: tell the story. I went to a hypnotherapist about four
14:58
Speaker 1: times before. I didn't go back and he, uh, this
15:03
Speaker 1: guy would. It was in his house over there off
15:05
Speaker 1: Monroe and this dude's apartment and he was sort of
15:08
Speaker 1: creepy and like the whole situation was a little unnerving,
15:12
Speaker 1: and uh, but I did want, Like they say one
15:15
Speaker 1: of the things that you have to believe that you
15:17
Speaker 1: can be hypnotized in order to be hypnotized, Like you
15:21
Speaker 1: can't go in there as a skeptic probably and like
15:23
Speaker 1: cross your arms and say wave your watch. But um,
15:26
Speaker 1: I believe that, you know you could do this because
15:28
Speaker 1: my friend went through the cigarette hypnosis and it really
15:30
Speaker 1: worked for him. So he had me look at a
15:34
Speaker 1: this huge painting that was on his wall and just
15:36
Speaker 1: like focus on that. And he had this like new
15:39
Speaker 1: age in your music playing softly and the lights were dim.
15:43
Speaker 1: That's a little creepy. And he lulled me with too
15:46
Speaker 1: with his voice, you know, and all that. And I
15:48
Speaker 1: went three times, and I guess I was looking for
15:52
Speaker 1: a hypnosis experience where I didn't remember what happened and
15:56
Speaker 1: I was like out of it. But from reading this,
15:58
Speaker 1: it's not like you're out of it. You're just in
16:00
Speaker 1: such a relaxated, relaxed, relaxated, relaxed state that you can
16:05
Speaker 1: go there or something. And the only success that I
16:07
Speaker 1: will say is for one of the sessions I got.
16:11
Speaker 1: It's sort of like meditation. Have you ever meditated too much?
16:16
Speaker 1: Going on, Yeah, well, you probably wouldn't be very good
16:19
Speaker 1: with hypnosis. Plus I can't get into the lotus position
16:21
Speaker 1: to save my mon. Well, you don't have to. Um.
16:25
Speaker 1: It's sort of like meditation though, and that this one time,
16:28
Speaker 1: I really really was lulled into this like super relaxed state,
16:33
Speaker 1: and we talked about some stuff, and then afterwards I
16:36
Speaker 1: came out of it and he was like, all right,
16:38
Speaker 1: how do you feel. It's like, I feel really relaxed
16:40
Speaker 1: and good. He said, how much time do you think
16:42
Speaker 1: that took? I was like, I don't know, about fifteen minutes.
16:45
Speaker 1: He went, look at your watch, it was an hour
16:46
Speaker 1: and twenty minutes. Dude, right to check, right, No, he
16:54
Speaker 1: just went through your talking. Uh so it's sort of worked, man,
16:58
Speaker 1: I mean I felt did you feel better? Well, yeah,
17:02
Speaker 1: I didn't go back. I think I went back one
17:04
Speaker 1: more time and they went, it's not for me. You
17:06
Speaker 1: went back for that fourth pity visit exactly. But I
17:08
Speaker 1: felt bad for the guy and then I just quit
17:11
Speaker 1: like returning calls. Basically, he's like, please come over, but
17:14
Speaker 1: I won't charge you. I haven't seen another person, and
17:18
Speaker 1: so I know he kind of gave me that feeling
17:20
Speaker 1: I hope he didn't listen to the show, but um,
17:22
Speaker 1: breaking me out, man, Like the passage of time definitely
17:25
Speaker 1: weirded me out to where I was like I lost
17:27
Speaker 1: an hour somehow. So you know, I was not saying
17:32
Speaker 1: I believe in it, but it was pretty real. Well you,
17:36
Speaker 1: I guess we're probably yeah, debunk it. Well, the problem
17:41
Speaker 1: is you You totally nailed the not just why hypnosis
17:48
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily real, but why psychology isn't necessarily real? Chuck,
17:53
Speaker 1: have you heard of the Dodo Bird effect? No, Dodo
17:57
Speaker 1: Bird effect? It was there was a psycholog just in
18:00
Speaker 1: I think the thirties and I can't remember his name,
18:02
Speaker 1: but he figured out and it's it's been proven time
18:05
Speaker 1: and time again that no matter what psychological orientation you're using,
18:10
Speaker 1: whether it's um, Freudian psychoanalysis, UM or behavioral cognitive behavioralism, whatever,
18:19
Speaker 1: as long as the patient believes that he or she
18:23
Speaker 1: can be healed, believes in the therapist's abilities, and the
18:28
Speaker 1: therapist believes in that orientation, there's going to be success.
18:36
Speaker 1: It is powerful, but the mind of the patient is powerful. Right.
18:41
Speaker 1: What is described by the Dodo Bird effect, and it's
18:44
Speaker 1: based on some part of I think through the looking
18:46
Speaker 1: glass or whatever, the Dodo bird decrease, everyone's a winner.
18:50
Speaker 1: It's the placebo effect. That's what hypnosis says. It's a
18:54
Speaker 1: placebo effect, but more specifically, it's a socially or cultural
19:00
Speaker 1: bound placebo effect like voodoo. Remember when we talked about voodoo,
19:05
Speaker 1: and it's there's a well we when we talked about zombies.
19:08
Speaker 1: I don't think we touched on it and voodoo. But
19:11
Speaker 1: with zombies, it's like, if you live in a culture
19:14
Speaker 1: that believes in zombieism and steps are taken to make
19:18
Speaker 1: you think that you have been afflicted and and and
19:22
Speaker 1: made into a zombie, you're going to act like a zombie.
19:25
Speaker 1: Most likely. That's what hypnosis does in my opinion. Well,
19:29
Speaker 1: and I sort of agree with that, But he also
19:32
Speaker 1: makes a point to when I was reading this, I'm
19:34
Speaker 1: glad he made the point in the end because the
19:35
Speaker 1: whole time I was thinking like, yeah, but if the
19:37
Speaker 1: end result is the same as hypnosis, isn't that the same?
19:41
Speaker 1: Like it's kind of splitting hairs, And he makes that point,
19:44
Speaker 1: what's the difference if the placebo cures your ills? Well,
19:49
Speaker 1: the differences is like if you can tap into the
19:52
Speaker 1: placebo effect. That's what optimal because you're letting the body
19:56
Speaker 1: take over and take care of itself. The problem whom
20:00
Speaker 1: is is when you write a check to somebody, okay
20:03
Speaker 1: for something that you could have done yourself. Or there's
20:05
Speaker 1: an entire field of study like psychology that entire other
20:10
Speaker 1: fields of study like economics or well let's just go
20:14
Speaker 1: with economics are based on the findings of and those
20:18
Speaker 1: findings aren't right it's all placebo effect. Then you've got
20:22
Speaker 1: a real problem. Yeah, I guess it's a solid point.
20:24
Speaker 1: It is, so I think if we identify the placebo effect,
20:27
Speaker 1: you have to identify it. But the problem is if
20:29
Speaker 1: people know that it is a placebo effect, then it
20:31
Speaker 1: kind of ruins its effectiveness. Usually well, because you gotta
20:34
Speaker 1: believe in it going in. Yeah, for sure. One of
20:37
Speaker 1: the ways they use it is um habit control treatment.
20:41
Speaker 1: And that's what I was talking about. My buddy Johnny Pindell,
20:43
Speaker 1: who quit smoking. What's your buddy's name, John Pendell? Johnell. Yeah,
20:50
Speaker 1: he sounds like he should be wearing like a Jeane jacket,
20:53
Speaker 1: might deaf Leppard and black like marker on the might
20:56
Speaker 1: be and he might be as you met Johnny. He
20:58
Speaker 1: was the guy in New York that's all guy in
21:00
Speaker 1: the back of the van with us. Oh yeah, I
21:02
Speaker 1: like that guy. I could totally see him in a
21:04
Speaker 1: jean jacket with death leopard on the back. He U
21:07
Speaker 1: he went through the cigarette program and a lot of
21:09
Speaker 1: times it's like overeating or smoking and they'll basically what
21:12
Speaker 1: they'll do is hypnotize you and reprogram your subconscious to
21:15
Speaker 1: like you're you're gonna feel nauseous every time you smoke
21:18
Speaker 1: a cigarette. And it, you know, with varying degrees of success.
21:23
Speaker 1: It's worked on some people, including John I think he
21:27
Speaker 1: smokes now, but that was years ago. Again, though, I mean,
21:31
Speaker 1: did it really work. It worked for a little while.
21:34
Speaker 1: If he didn't work because he believed it there It's
21:37
Speaker 1: not just that though. I mean a lot of cancer
21:39
Speaker 1: patients apparently undergo hypnosis to get through uh chemotherapy or
21:44
Speaker 1: to try and heal right period, and a lot of
21:46
Speaker 1: people swear by that. Um. Same with childbirth. UM. Then
21:51
Speaker 1: there's somewhere you're getting in some areas where it's like no, no,
21:54
Speaker 1: if this is a placebo effect phenomenon, like we shouldn't
21:58
Speaker 1: be using this at all, Like for sick. Yeah for sure. Yeah,
22:01
Speaker 1: because we talked about implanning false memories, there's a likelihood
22:04
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah. What they'll do in forensic is they'll
22:07
Speaker 1: they'll get someone who has like a suppressed memory of
22:10
Speaker 1: like an awful crime, and they'll hypnotize them to bring
22:13
Speaker 1: out these like details of the crime scene. But that's
22:17
Speaker 1: really controversial when it's used at all. Um there's also
22:21
Speaker 1: um oh, isn't there another one, Chuck? Well, just regular
22:25
Speaker 1: psychotherapy if you have like phobias or h fears, you know,
22:30
Speaker 1: subconscious fears, which is much like the habit control hypnotic treatment,
22:34
Speaker 1: except it's more usually more um guided towards things like
22:38
Speaker 1: phobias rather than quitting smoking. Right, But it uses a
22:41
Speaker 1: lot of the same tricks, like rather than you'll be nauseous,
22:45
Speaker 1: the next time you get afraid of flying, right, it
22:48
Speaker 1: will be it would? It would? I guess kind of
22:50
Speaker 1: instill in you self confidence or something like that, like
22:53
Speaker 1: you are you don't need to be afraid of this
22:56
Speaker 1: plane wreck. You'll it'll be over eventually. This is gonna
23:00
Speaker 1: be a email generator. I think I think we'll get
23:05
Speaker 1: both sides of the coin on this. A lot of
23:06
Speaker 1: people are gonna say, no, dude, I was hypnotized and
23:09
Speaker 1: it was real. Or I went and saw that Vega
23:11
Speaker 1: show and you don't know anything. It was hysterical, right,
23:14
Speaker 1: Or I think it's bunk and I'm I'm a skeptic.
23:16
Speaker 1: I think skeptics you're kind of wired that way. You're
23:19
Speaker 1: either skeptic or you're more inclined to believe things. I changed.
23:23
Speaker 1: I've done a complete one eighty. I was thinking the
23:25
Speaker 1: other day how much how surprised I am and what
23:28
Speaker 1: is skeptic I become? Did you at least I love
23:31
Speaker 1: everything that like without thinking Like I I used to
23:35
Speaker 1: think Genghis Khan killed like one point eight million people
23:37
Speaker 1: in an hour. I thought it because it was awesome.
23:40
Speaker 1: It was an awesome thing to think. And now today
23:43
Speaker 1: I was reading it was actually today I was reading
23:45
Speaker 1: this hypnosis article and I was like, this is bunk,
23:48
Speaker 1: Like I can barely make it through this article. Yeah,
23:51
Speaker 1: And and I realized, just like how much I've changed
23:54
Speaker 1: in that respect. I think you get older and you
23:56
Speaker 1: get a little more cynical and less prone to buy
23:59
Speaker 1: an to stuff. Do you want to hear any more? Um,
24:02
Speaker 1: there's there's like a whole slew of cultural cultural bound
24:06
Speaker 1: culture bound mental illnesses that are like if you live
24:11
Speaker 1: in a culture that accepts this as fact. There's one
24:13
Speaker 1: that I just want to tell you one, but if
24:16
Speaker 1: you're ever interested, you should go check out culture bound
24:18
Speaker 1: mental illnesses. There's lots of sites that have lists and
24:21
Speaker 1: descriptions of them. But there's one called CORO and it
24:24
Speaker 1: afflicts Malaysians possibly Indians. There's like, there's large populations that
24:30
Speaker 1: believe in this that under certain circumstances, like after you've
24:33
Speaker 1: had sex with the prostitute or engage in masturbation, if
24:36
Speaker 1: you're feeling particularly guilty about this, you may suffer from CORO.
24:40
Speaker 1: And CORO is the belief that your genitalia male and
24:43
Speaker 1: female are shrinking into your body. It can also happen
24:47
Speaker 1: from eating unclean food or whatever. So the idea is
24:49
Speaker 1: that if people really believe this, then it will happen,
24:53
Speaker 1: or they just believe it's happening, and so that's what matters.
24:55
Speaker 1: They believe it's happening, and that's what matters. This is
24:57
Speaker 1: why it's classifies a mental illness because it doesn't actually happen,
25:00
Speaker 1: but they'll take steps to prevent it from happening, like
25:02
Speaker 1: putting hooks into their breasts to pull them back out,
25:05
Speaker 1: tearing off their son's penises to keep them from keep
25:09
Speaker 1: it from spreading. Yeah, so, but that's culturally bound. Like
25:12
Speaker 1: if you did that in the US, everybody be like,
25:15
Speaker 1: you're absolutely nuts. You do it there, it's like, oh yeah, koro, Yeah.
25:20
Speaker 1: I think that's what hypnosis says. It gives you in
25:23
Speaker 1: the United States. Carte blanc two act in ways that
25:28
Speaker 1: you would be embarrassed by normally because you're hypnotized, So
25:32
Speaker 1: the rest of us aren't judging you interesting. I don't
25:35
Speaker 1: think that makes you skeptic. Thanks, thanks man, because I
25:40
Speaker 1: started to hate that little rotten pardon me skeptic. So
25:44
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about hypnosis or find
25:46
Speaker 1: out the fate of Chuck based on the fixed gaze
25:50
Speaker 1: induction that he underwent, Yeah that time, you can type
25:57
Speaker 1: in hypnosis h y ke and oh a I s
26:00
Speaker 1: in the search bar how stuff works dot Com. It's
26:02
Speaker 1: the plain old vanilla search bar and how stuff works
26:05
Speaker 1: dot Com and um, I understand it's well, let's just
26:09
Speaker 1: do the listen to mil thing or do we have
26:11
Speaker 1: a plug fest thing? Now? Listen to mail this is
26:13
Speaker 1: a special announcement time. This is a plug fest. It
26:19
Speaker 1: is plug Fest uh in October. In mid October and Atlanta, Georgia.
26:23
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a couple of things going on. One
26:26
Speaker 1: is an officially sanctioned trivia night at the Five Seasons
26:31
Speaker 1: Brewery West Side. Can look it up on the internet.
26:33
Speaker 1: It's gonna scene. Is it on Mary Et or how
26:36
Speaker 1: All Mill? It's on Maryatt I believe, but look it up.
26:41
Speaker 1: It's easy to find sorted near Georgia Tech. It's right
26:43
Speaker 1: by where how A Mill and Marriot to come together,
26:45
Speaker 1: I think at that point. Yeah, so they have a
26:48
Speaker 1: cool scene there on the roof and it's gonna be awesome.
26:50
Speaker 1: We're gonna have our all star Trivia. We have got
26:52
Speaker 1: some celebrity guests booked. We have Mr John Hodgman of
26:58
Speaker 1: The Daily Show, author and actor John Hodgman. Yes, who
27:03
Speaker 1: I am sure. I would say a hundred and forty
27:06
Speaker 1: of our audience is a huge fan of Yeah, don't
27:08
Speaker 1: call him the PC guy. I've actually had to stop
27:11
Speaker 1: myself last two guys time. Actually, he's he's very cool
27:15
Speaker 1: about that. He's very thankful for that job. So it's
27:17
Speaker 1: not like he's like don't call me that. Yeah, I
27:19
Speaker 1: don't ever want to discuss that again, right does that's
27:21
Speaker 1: our Hodgman impression? It sounds nothing. We have the guy
27:24
Speaker 1: who used to play um Bow Duke and the classic
27:28
Speaker 1: seventies TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, Mr Joe Randazzo.
27:31
Speaker 1: He's going to be joining us now. He is the
27:34
Speaker 1: editor in chief of the Onions. Yes, he quit The
27:36
Speaker 1: Dukes of Hazard. Gotta get work somewhere. America's finance a
27:38
Speaker 1: new source. Joe was coming down from New York with John.
27:41
Speaker 1: I wonder if they were going to ride down on
27:43
Speaker 1: the same planet. Uh. And Dave willis local legend from
27:48
Speaker 1: Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. Dave was a co
27:51
Speaker 1: creator of Aquitine Hunger Force, squid Billy and the Awesome
27:55
Speaker 1: squid Billy said he seen squid Billy, it's so great,
27:58
Speaker 1: and uh, we land a day and we're like super
28:01
Speaker 1: super psyched that he's going to be here for this.
28:03
Speaker 1: So what we're saying is you can come to Five
28:06
Speaker 1: Seasons Brewery in Atlanta no matter where you are on
28:10
Speaker 1: October three, which is the Wednesday. It's a work night,
28:12
Speaker 1: but just take the next day off trivia you will
28:15
Speaker 1: be worth it to play us Hodgement, Randazzo, Willis and
28:19
Speaker 1: possibly a couple of others in trivia for free. Just come,
28:22
Speaker 1: you buy your own drinks or whatever. And apparently have
28:25
Speaker 1: you seen the menu at this place? Oh it's good, awesome,
28:27
Speaker 1: that's where I had the cow cheek cheeks are the taste.
28:30
Speaker 1: He's part of any animal that I didn't care for
28:32
Speaker 1: it really then it makes me stay and I've been
28:35
Speaker 1: like it. We'll get you some sweet print sometimes. But
28:38
Speaker 1: you can come and hang out with these guys and yeah,
28:39
Speaker 1: they're all very approachable. Yeah, and we'll just play us
28:42
Speaker 1: in trivia. See what you got, bring your books, your
28:44
Speaker 1: John Hodgman books. He's got a couple of books out
28:47
Speaker 1: that I'm sure you'd be happy to sign. Probably will
28:52
Speaker 1: do that again. Uh, if you have an email about
28:56
Speaker 1: our trivia event, yeah, we have the other it to
29:00
Speaker 1: the non sanctioned event though. Oh yeah, go ahead. The
29:02
Speaker 1: night before trivia Tuesday, October twelve, our buddies, the Henry
29:06
Speaker 1: Clay people are in town. Yeah, at just Drunken UNI.
29:08
Speaker 1: Right by chance, they are in town. Uh, doing a
29:11
Speaker 1: headlining show this time, which is awesome at the Drunken
29:14
Speaker 1: Unicorn on Constant Leon Avenue, and I imagine it'll be
29:18
Speaker 1: sort of a late show. It's one of those kind
29:19
Speaker 1: of clubs. But you're gonna be there, right Oh yeah, yeah,
29:22
Speaker 1: Josh and Umi will be there, and Emily and I'll
29:24
Speaker 1: be there, and Jerry. We're gonna make you come even
29:26
Speaker 1: if you don't want to. And I think hopefully Joe
29:29
Speaker 1: is going to be in town and go with us.
29:31
Speaker 1: We'll see day before and we asked John if you
29:34
Speaker 1: would be there too, so we'll see and um, yeah.
29:37
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with the Henry Clay people, they
29:39
Speaker 1: had a song on Gossip Girls. Did you know that?
29:41
Speaker 1: Oh really? Yeah for them, camera what it's called. But
29:43
Speaker 1: that's a big time make a little coin. Yeah, I'm
29:45
Speaker 1: sure probably not. I'm sure they're They're label is just like, yeah,
29:50
Speaker 1: here's some tires for your road trip. So that is
29:53
Speaker 1: a non sanctioned, non official event, but we want to
29:56
Speaker 1: encourage people come out to that show, hang out with us,
29:58
Speaker 1: hang out with the band, give Jordan the keyboard player
30:01
Speaker 1: or some Greek for having line disease. You picked it
30:05
Speaker 1: up at Chuck's house from be a good time. We
30:06
Speaker 1: want to pack it out for those guys. Uh, it
30:08
Speaker 1: won't be hard junking Unicorn holds like fifty people. So yeah,
30:12
Speaker 1: you're right. So again, Chuck said that was a non
30:15
Speaker 1: sanctioned event. I guess marketing was all over and for
30:18
Speaker 1: that one, just being you just c O A c
30:22
Speaker 1: O A buddy. Thanks man. If you want to send
30:24
Speaker 1: us an email about our Atlanta event, you got any
30:26
Speaker 1: questions anything like that, you can um post it on Facebook, uh, Facebook,
30:32
Speaker 1: dot com, slash stuff you should know. You could ask
30:34
Speaker 1: me on Twitter as Gus. We tweet at s y
30:38
Speaker 1: s K podcast and you can also email us at
30:42
Speaker 1: stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com for more
30:50
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
30:53
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check
30:56
Speaker 1: out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com
30:59
Speaker 1: home page. M hmm. Brought to you by the reinvented
31:03
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve Camry. It's ready, are you