Weight Loss by Hypnosis......

I saw an advertisement in the newspaper this past weekend for a weight loss session using hypnosis.

I've always been fascinated by hypnosis, and I have been hypnotized myself. When I was taking psychology in high school, our teacher brought in a guest speaker who said he could hypnotize anyone who was over 18 or had parental permission. I immediately produced a note written by my mother just on the OFF CHANCE that some random hypnotist wandered into our school and wanted to practice on any of us.

This guy didn't believe in the nightclub type hypnotism, unfortunately, because I think that would have been hilarious.

He first had me sit in a chair with my arms resting on the arms of the chair, and he had me relax. I was thinking it was all a bunch of bunk, because I could hear everything he was saying, and I could even hear Rex Martin snickering in the background. Or maybe it was Ronnie Wilkes. Who knows.

Then he said one of my arms would feel lighter than the other, and my finger popped up into the air of its own accord. I had absolutely no part in the decision-making; my finger just hopped up there by itself. I'm not making this up. Then my arm started floating up, and he said when I touched my head I would go under even deeper or something silly like that.

That's all I remember until the bell rang. I don't remember doing anything outstanding or foolish (no more so than usual, anyway) for the next few days. He called me on the phone in the school office a couple of days later, and I've always wondered if he used that phone call to "break" the spell.

I went to one of the weight-loss sessions many years ago, but from the beginning I didn't feel that I was hypnotized. I attributed it to being in a room with so many other people. How can you feel hypnotized if the person isn't speaking directly to you? When the folks came out of the session I was sitting on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette and waiting for Katydid to come pick me up. I think they were highly disappointed; the smoking cessation hypnotism session had occurred just before the weight loss one.

For $50, I'd be willing to give it another try. As long as the weight loss doesn't just occur because I start clucking like a chicken every time I'm in a restaurant and then run out of there too embarrassed to eat.