HUH?!?

The genius book has these little self help "dialogues," which are intended to induce a hypnotic trance in the reader

and to give him the positive "suggestions" which are the bread and butter of hypnosis.

But, in an unusual twist, the guy suggests that the reader record his own voice reading the dialogues which he would then play back to himself, thereby taking the concept of self hypnosis to a more literal level.

So, there I was with the book and my recording gear already set up in front of me.

All I had to do was to record all the "take a deep breath...and, as you exhale, feel all the tension leaving your body..." type of stuff, and then put my headphones on, get into a comfortable position, and play it back.

The author has found that people respond to the sound of their own voice. I guess they trust it.

This makes sense because the last time I ever tried using a self help, hypnotizing recording, it was way back in the days of cassettes, and I remember that I was never able to go into a trance.

Part of that was because my mind was actively thinking about the voice on the tape, wondering what the guy looked like and about his choice of words, etc. And he emitted what sounded like a tiny suppressed burp at one point, and, instead of being in a trance, absorbing his every word but not consciously hearing them, I was fully conscious and thinking things like "Here comes the spot where the guy burps" and was never able to "go under."

The use of a person's own voice seems to be a stroke of, well, genius, and something that I had never thought of, myself.

I certainly felt kind of silly and self conscious, as I started to record.

I couldn't get through it without cracking up, laughing, unable to resist the temptation to ad lib stuff, like  yelling "Huh?!?" for example, after a question which went something like, "Wouldn't it be amazing if you could summon this resource at will in the future..(HUH?!?)"

I recorded the dialogue and then used Audacity's noise reduction effect to remove the sound of my air conditioner, which gave me a chance to experiment with that effect in a non musical context where I didn't have to worry about it making a guitar sound like it was under water, and I learned how to use it more effectively.

I then compressed the signal, finding the point just short of where it would make the "p's" pop, something that I can also apply to my musical recordings.

Right now, a couple blocks from the Lilly Pad

Then, I figured, why not add a heaping dose of "cathedral" reverberation to make it sound like I was trying to hypnotize myself in a huge cathedral, which I did find to be more trance inducing.

Still, I haven't been able to totally go under, and when my voice instructs me to slowly "return to the room," at the end of the dialogue, I have already been in the room each time. So far, anyways.

Maybe this is the missing piece of the puzzle for me, the ability to be able to use self hypnosis. In the past, I have never been able to go into a trance because, besides wondering what the guy on the tape is burping up, I have witnessed "professional" hypnotists who had groups of people, at the snap of his finger, walking around believing that they were chickens, flapping their arms and making clucking noises. Then, when the guy snaps his fingers again they returned to their normal selves and couldn't remember being chickens. This was way too freaky for me.

How do I know if I'm really a busker in New Orleans now, or if some guy just hasn't snapped his fingers to bring me out of it yet?

It is Thursday night, and the tropical storm has missed us.

I have a new set of strings to go on the Takamine, and a fresh set of batteries for my spotlight. My only reason for not feeling happy and confident as I ponder heading for the Lilly Pad for a night of busking would be that one or two of my harmonicas have developed a slightly flat note or two.

It won't hurt to go out and at least try. I wish I could summon those resources by imagining myself sitting in a circle of light, like I was talking about on the recording.