Monday, April 22, 2013

An Adventure Into the Mind


Since I'm very rude and controversial, I am going to write this entry without even greeting you (obviously not a single trace of any kind of irony in that sentence). In advance, I'll apologize for any grammatical mistakes of any shape and form; I'm feeling a bit drowsy.


For once, I'm going to start this off with two pictures.



Just a big mushroom?




Simply a table lamp?





Now, what is so special about those two pictures? We'll return to that later. (I didn't spend much time with that table, I promise. That is why the angles and proportions are so wierd).





I'll also, for once, already, post todays composition by me (I actually made it more than a month ago). I'm not sure what to think of this one. If it sounds empty somehow, it's because it wasn't finished. I was supposed to add more instruments, but I forgot long ago and just now found it.

It has the most creative name also:


Orchestration (yourlisten.com)


I don't even know how to play it anymore... (Still, that would only take 5 minutes for me to figure out using the MIDI-file, but oh well). So I don't think I'm going to finish it...

The reason I already posted it is because it doesn't suit the theme of this entry at all in my opinion, but I'll return to that shortly as well.


We'll soon go to the very interesting (if you ask me) theme of this entry, but first I'm going to share with you a recommendation to a movie, namely Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I won't spoil anything much, but it has great actors and script. It also involves one of the most clusterfuckish (yes, I did indeed make that word up) series of events I've seen in a long time, and on the top of that it's very well put togehter.


Another Movie I watched was the 1979:s Dracula.

The shots of the environment in that movie were astounding, and count Dracula's castle was perfect.


Oh, and by the way. You might have noticed that I changed my blog layout slightly, upon request. I don't really know if I fixed the problems the layout originally had, but at least I think it looks a bit more pleasing.


Anyhow, I was supposed to get a lot done this weekend, but yet again I failed. One of the reasons to that was that I began watching the modern Sherlock series. Goddamit! Things like that always have to happen...


Anyhow x2, Let's stop wasting time, and venture into todays subject.


So the reason I already posted my composition earlier was simply because it wasn't mysterious enough for the subject of this evening (also the reason why I filled up some space with movie tips [since I know that at least some of you probably listen to them in the background while you keep reading]).

If you want to listen to something more fitting, I recommend you listen to what I am listening to right now while I am writing, that is to say:

Night Mist




There, now that the mood is set right, let us begin.


Todays subject is yet another deep drop into the human mind, in this case, Hypnosis.


Hypnosis? some of you might ask. A surprising amount of people actually believe that hypnosis isn't a real phenomenon, and that it's all movie bullshit.

Well, they are partly right, but for the entirely wrong reasons.


Hypnosis is very much a real thing, it's just that the way movies portray it sometimes isn't that accurate compared to it's use in reality. Hypnosis is a very large term nowadays, and it covers for lots of eveyday occurrences.

There are many different states of the mind, being in "trance" being one, dreaming another and being conscious the most usual.


The basic function of hypnosis has to do with ones creative mind. It's a state in which you view the world differently from usual. But you are still usually very much aware of what is happening around you, often even more so than normally, that is to say, not under the influence of anything else than just your conscious self.


There are many myths concerning hypnosis, and I think I'll begin by de-bunking a few of those. Obviously I'm not going to cover that large a part of hypnosis with just this entry, but I'll probably continue later on.

A not so well known fact about me is that I can quite easily do basic hypnotic inductions. It's acually not difficult at all, so most people would be able to do it, many on their first try. I've had a few practise rounds, with very interesting results.

I could try writing a particularly hypnotic text right now, but that would require too much effort from my part right now. When, reading, you're already in a different state of mind than usually anyway. Same thing goes for when you're listening to music. So in a way, writers and musicians automatically use a kind of hypnosis without even consciously trying. The trick is however, to write or compose in a way that really grabs the readers or listeners attention, and almost immobilizes them, momentarily unable to focus on much else than what they're reading or listening to.


There are of course also more covert forms of hypnosis, disguised as for instance telling a story. This could be about whatever, like what you did today. This kind of hypnosis is of course much more effective when you actually use your voice and not text, since there are a lot more elements to the story then. You can for example reach so called "report" with one person or a group of people. But I think I'll return to that in later entries (you can naturally investigate more on your own, if you want to).


So many people have what I'd like to call stupid beliefs of hypnosis. They can think that it is really dangerous and can have many negative side effects. I'll start by saying that it's almost never dangerous even in the slightest.

Pretty much the only exception to that is that you can accidentally trigger memories of traumatic events, in some people. That, however, is very rare. People with tragic pasts might be better off only hypnotized by proffessionals, like psychologists.


A number of people also believe that if you're hypnotized, the hypnotist can make you do anything.

As cool as that would be, that is entirely false. It's more the other way around. The hypnotist can make you do anything YOU want.

What do I mean by that? Well, it's true that your conscious mind mightn't be in as active a state as usually, but your subconscious mind has pretty much the same values as you.

If a hypnotist tried to make you murder someone, you would instantly snap into your usual mindset and have your normal response to when someone asks you to murder someone (I wonder how this would work if you actually genuinely wanted to murder that someone?).

Jk. That wouldn't work either, probably not even in extreme cases.


Anyway, different hypnosis phenomena are completely safe, and quite common.

I'll give you a short introductionary example (it's a real word, however introductory is much more common).


Quite common phenomena are for instance: Amnesia, Anaesthesia, Catalepsy, and Hallucinations (there are many more).


Through hypnosis, you can manually make these occur, but they happen every day quite naturally.


I'll explain a few situations when the above examples take place in everyday life.


Amnesia (memory loss) can happen when for example you're trying to remember where you just placed your phone, but minutes after you have completely forgotten where it is. This is mostly because of your "autopilot". You just do something without taking specific notice of it. Speaking of autopilot, have you ever driven a car or ridden on your bike, or just walked, and suddenly realized that you've reached your destination without even noticing the sudden progress of your transportation? This has to do both with amsesia and simple time dissortion. Sometimes when you do something you do often, your autopilot (even know as the subconscious mind) jumps in and takes over for you. This often happens for me when I play the piano (also, for me much is in my so called muscle memory).

Amnesia can just like most hypnotic phenomena purposely be induced using simple suggestion techniques (extreme memory and such might require experienced hypnotists though).


Have you ever got minor injuries during sports (not the big ones). Notice how it might not hurt even though it would normally? That's because your concentration lies entirely elsewhere (this is anaesthesia, lack of pain).
This is not to be used wrongly. Even if pain can't be felt, damage may be caused to your body.


Catalepsy (not being able to move) is a common hypnotic trick. A real life example would be when you're just lying comfortably in your bed, newly awakened. You know you could really get up, but you just don't get to doing so. Instead, you just lay still in your bed, like I'm doing right now =)


Hallucinations are interesting. There are positive and negative hallucinations (not good and bad). Positive is when you see something that's not really there, negative, when you don't see something that is there.

In a way, all hallucinations are both positive and negative; in order to not see something you must see what is behind it and vice versa.


Now when do hallucinations commonly occur? They might do during sleep paralyzis, but they can also appear on a much more regular basis.

Have you ever been in a hurry, looking for your phone or your keys? Sometimes you look just at where you know they should be, but you just can't see them! Well, turns out, they have actually been there all the time, you have just been momentarily unable to spot them.



Those were some examples of hypnotic phenomena. I'll go into more detail and try to uncover what hypnosis really is, but I can't write much more on the subject right now (I should sleep soon, school tomorrow).

A final example is the so called covert hypnosis.

Usually you can't hypnotize people who do not want to be hypnotized, but there are some people who can use simple conversation as a hypnotic tool. Here's an example of Darren Brown robbing salesmen while paying with blank paper sheets.






So that was my random and NOT well thought out introduction to hypnosis and such cool stuff.
Ask me if I have confused you concerning something (which I'm very sure I have, trying to rush through too much information at once, without giving proper explanations)...



Back to the pictures I posted earlier. What do you think was special about them?

Well, they both kind of portray false realities.

I urge you to look at them again before proceeding lower in this entry.

(I'll leave some space before the explanations).























































Remember that kinda big fungus? Some people, especially artist might notice this due to the pencil strokes, but that mushroom wasn't big at all. I'll show you!






Isn't different perspectives kinda cool? I think so.




Now, the mystery of the table lamp.

(keep scrolling for a dramatic reveal)






















































That's right. It's actually my reading lamp, on my wall. I woke up this morning, and dazed as i was, I saw the illusion of that lamp being a table lamp... Wierdest awakening in a while....






Were you fooled by those two images?







Wow... more than 1800 words again...

Probably my third longest entry or something like that.



Well, you can finally stop reading (some of you probably didn't read 'til the end but, meh...).

Goodnight!

2 comments:

  1. Haha, nice med hande lampan, trodde så det var en bordslampa=D Men tror jag hade sett svampen för så var lite beredd på det. Och intressant blogg om hypnos, men behövde inga exempel jag=D Jag visste att det funka av personlig erfarenhet*_*

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  2. Yes! Jag tror vi båda har det ganska på klart med hypnos och dess sanningshalt, av erfarenhet... Och du har rätt; svampen har beskådats av dina ögon förr =)

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