Guild Wars 2

A little history lesson for those who’re interested.. and some writing practice while I mindlessly kill hours at work.

A few months back, while browsing through my local Barnes & Nobles with no intention of buying anything (But plenty intent on annoyingly sitting in the middle of an isle reading while people were forced to make disgruntled ugly-faces while they stepped over me) I came upon a book in the bargain section called “Extreme Science.” It looked really interesting, talking about things from Project MKULTRA to the history of LSD to.. omg.. Mesmerism! Being that it was only 10 bucks but filled with awesome, I bought it)

Franz Mesmer, as the name implies, is the father is Mesmerism. He was the first to lead hypnosis out of the occult and into science… barely. He was able to cure people of various diseases from psychosomatic blindness (How in the world do you make yourself believe you’re blind?), to more physical ailments ( His breakthrough case was that of Franzl Oesterline, a 27 year old woman suffering from what Mesmer described as a convulsive malady, “the most troublesome symptoms of which was that the blood rushed to her head and there set up the most cruel toothaches and earaches, followed by delirium, rage, vomiting and swooning.” These symptoms were so severe that Fraulein Oesterline moved into Mesmer’s house to receive round-the-clock care.*)

.. But he didn’t realize he was hypnotizing people. He thought his success was because of magnetism. He assumed the magnetic “tides” of the world also affected us as humans, occasionally throwing our “animal magnetism” out of balance and causing illness. Headaches? Nausea? Go swallow some iron and stick a kitchen magnet to each side of your head. Chronic Diarrhea? Rub a balloon on your scalp. That’ll work…

In fact, it actually did.

Using magnets to induce a feeling of “fluid draining from the body.” He was able to cure Fraulein Oesterline nearly instantly. Mesmer didn’t believe the magnet had healed her though, he believed that he had restored her depleted animal magnetism. The magnet, and some fancy hand gestures (known as the Mesmeric Pass), were simply his tools…. Yep. He cast a Mantra of Resolve on her, and his Focus was an Adamant Guard Gismo.

In Mesmer’s time, people were using leeches, drugs, and all kinds of painful, disturbing stuff to cure people… Like Heroin to cure a cough. So Mesmer’s methods were preferable. He successfully cured quite a few people, and ended up with so many patients that he started hosting group sessions.
Being a fan of theatrics and showmanship, he would darken the room, light candles and play soothing music while he groped his patients into healthiness..

Of course, with fame, comes an ample amount of haters. Even Benjamin Franklin had his hater-pants on tight. The scientific community could find no connection between magnetism and Franz Mesmer’s curing.. but failed to notice the profound effects of hypnotism on the mind.

Still, his legacy persisted. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about hypnotism is…

“In the latter half of the 20th Century, hypnosis expanded its horizons and moved into new territory. Our understanding of the trance state has been refined, so much so that the state/non-state debate, which preoccupied academic minds for generations, has come to seem rather outmoded. Advances in brain imaging technology, and the work of therapists like Stephen Wolinsky and psychologists like Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell, have shown, in effect, that both sides were right.

Brain imaging scans have shown that hypnotic suggestions do have an effect on perception. A study conducted at Stanford University showed that the colour processing areas of the brain were activated when subjects received a hypnotic suggestion that the black-and-white photo they were looking at was in colour. Griffin and Tyrrell explicitly linked hypnotic trance to the REM state, in their monograph Hypnosis and Trance States; A New Psychobiological Explanation (1999). At the same time, Wolinsky demonstrated that the so-called “Deep Trance Phenomena” can all be detected in everyday waking consciousness – in other words, “normal” consciousness is made up of layers of hypnotic trance that we move into and out of all day long. Hypnosis does produce a distinct state of mind – but it’s a perfectly ordinary and natural one that’s part of everyday consciousness.*

Yeah.. We’re hypnotized ALL THE TIME.

[*= taken from http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/franz-anton-mesmer/ ]

nice read, may you stalk more into Barnes and Noble alleys

This is weird, today I was also reading a book that was explaining exactly these stuff.

Thanks for sharing anyways^^

Very interesting. Thanks!

Much appreciated guys, thanks a lot.

This was quite interesting; however, since you state that your intent is to better your writing, you may consider taking a refresher on punctuation/grammar rules. There are quite a few errors in that department. Below is a link to an excellent and very readable book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_%26_Leaves

Disclaimer: I am certainly not a master of grammar and intend no negative criticism; I just though I would recommend a book that helped me.

Oh trust me, no offense taken at all. In fact, I’m about to order that book as we speak. I probably would’ve never known about the book if not for your post.. so thank you for all the good it will do me in the future.

Found yet another interesting article on mental manipulation (in the same book!) and didn’t wanna start a new thread. Free time at work gets the better of me yet again.

“Project MKUltra is the code name of a U.S. government covert research operation experimenting in the behavioral engineering of humans (mind control) through the CIA’s Scientific Intelligence Division. This program pretty much defined the concept of “Deception within deception.” It began in the early 1950s, was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967 and officially halted in 1973.

The program engaged in many illegal activities; in particular it used unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy. In the name of science, people were taken (often those who “wouldn’t be missed.” such as homeless people or prisoners.) and often brutally experimented on to learn the limits of mind control. Horrible as it sounds, some of the successes were pretty incredible.
There is a report of a man able to become Persona A - a regular patriotic American citizen, into Person B – a true, honest, communist kitten. with the flip of a trigger word. Person A knew everything Person B was doing, which was a step above poor…

Candy Jones: A model/actress was given an entirely different personality as “Arlene.” She supposedly became a CIA agent and traveled the world for different government tasks. Whenever she returned to her normal self, she had no memory of Arlene’s activities. In the book, “The Control of Candy Jones” the author reviewed hours of tapes made by Candy Jones and her husband which revealed a systematic program to create and manipulate alter personalities as the foundation for programmed couriers resistant to torture, where the primary personality would not even be aware of the secret information being carried. The information could be summoned forth via a post-hypnotic command or response to a pre-programmed cue, such as walking up to her and saying “Nerf Mesmers”.

MKUltra involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate people’s mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse (Sexual abuse to control minds?! Oh wait..When you think about it, people do that all the time.) , as well as various forms of torture.

The scope of Project MKUltra was broad, with research undertaken at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. The CIA operated through these institutions using front organizations, although sometimes top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA’s involvement.

As the Supreme Court later noted, MKULTRA was:
concerned with

“the research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior.”

The program consisted of some 149 subprojects which the Agency contracted out to various universities, research foundations, and similar institutions. At least 80 institutions and 185 private researchers participated. Because the Agency funded MKULTRA indirectly, many of the participating individuals were unaware that they were dealing with the Agency. So basically. They were deceived into working on a project about deceiving test subjects in order to get them to … deceive people (I just spelled deceive wrong three times in a row. Thanks spell check.)

Project MKUltra was first brought to public attention in 1975 by the Church Committee of the U.S. Congress, and a Gerald Ford commission to investigate CIA activities within the United States. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms’ destruction order.

In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to project MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings later that same year. In July 2001 some surviving information regarding MKUltra was officially declassified. " – Wikipedia w/numerous citations. + Myself

It really makes you wonder what sort of mind control is going on today. In life, the majority of what we know comes from what other people tell us. Our brains are tricked every single day and each one of us have the ability to manipulate the thoughts and emotions of others in some way. Learning to read body language reveals much more about a person than listening to their words, but how many fake-smiles do we give? Pretend laughter? How many dramatic, elaborate actions are little more than calls for attention? How much can you trust the media, when information is so obviously edited & filtered? How many lies do we tell our children to keep them in a delusion that the world is a place filled with fun, candy and bubbles, & Saturday-morning cartoons?

A person’s honest inner thought’s and emotions are one of the rarest things on the planet. We each perceive the world differently, and each one of us is a story. Its what makes journals more valuable than gold.

Bumbler.7581:

This was quite interesting; however, since you state that your intent is to better your writing, you may consider taking a refresher on punctuation/grammar rules. There are quite a few errors in that department. Below is a link to an excellent and very readable book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_%26_Leaves

Disclaimer: I am certainly not a master of grammar and intend no negative criticism; I just though I would recommend a book that helped me.

Just wanted to say that the book came in a week ago and it’s been a great read! Anyone looking to improve their writing/grammar should give it a look, thanks again man.
(Yes, the reply was necessary, as the book ‘Eats, Shoots, and Leaves’ rocks. No, this wasn’t shameless bumping…. There was some slight shame in it.)

Bumping cuz its Mesmer Month! (The birth month of Dr Mesmer)

.. and the perfect month for the BoTM /nudge /nudge@keenlam

Good to see this bumped back.

I think there was an episode of QI (tv quiz/general knowledge show in the UK) which talked about Franz Mesmer, although I can’t find it.

So….Benjamin Franklin is an ELE??? Since…you know, lightning and stuff….

Technically.. since Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod, wouldn’t that make him an engineer? =P

Also, this article reminds me as to why I feel like one of the most underestimated human resources is our imagination. Imagination guides our focus, our ambition, and even our ability to learn and remember. People often underestimate “imagination” as being only for games and children, but our ability to imagine things has helped us overcome massive obstacles, invent amazing technology, and apparently even cure diseases through sheer willpower.

The one thing I think most schools fail to teach is how to properly utilize this.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Technically.. since Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod, wouldn’t that make him an engineer? =P

Also, this article reminds me as to why I feel like one of the most underestimated human resources is our imagination. Imagination guides our focus, our ambition, and even our ability to learn and remember. People often underestimate “imagination” as being only for games and children, but our ability to imagine things has helped us overcome massive obstacles, invent amazing technology, and apparently even cure diseases through sheer willpower.

The one thing I think most schools fail to teach is how to properly utilize this.

If I remember correctly, the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy ranks Creativity as the highest order cognitive skill, above that of Evaluation and Analysis.

I don’t know what the situation is in most schools in other countries, but I certainly attempted to tailor learning objectives/outcomes around this. I say attempted because time restrictions often push you to take shortcuts, to the detriment of the learning…

Oh wow, I’d never seen or heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy before. I see it here though:

- Creating
- Evaluating
- Analyzing
- Applying
- Understanding
- Remembering

Lots of interesting stuff here for me to dig into and research too. Ty!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Oh wow, I’d never seen or heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy before. I see it here though:

- Creating
- Evaluating
- Analyzing
- Applying
- Understanding
- Remembering

Lots of interesting stuff here for me to dig into and research too. Ty!

Yeah, the general idea is to incorporate the lower level skills into learning outcomes for all pupils, and then build up to higher level skills in the outcomes for most/some/few pupils.

The theory is sound, but in practice it’kitten and miss unfortunately.

Crap! Was supposed to bump this for yesterday , March 5th, the day of Mesmer’s passing!

#Neverontime

Just use Time Warp…

Of course, if Sensei let someone proofread his writing before posting it said editor would point such things out to him. Not that I’m volunteering or anything. Sensei knows I like to play editor.