Ahhh, psychology. Helping us convince ourselves that we can become completely different people with little to no effort since 550 BC!

It started with a banner ad for that "Mind Master" subliminal messages program. I click on it, it looks amusing. But of course it's $34.99 or something, that's no good. However, since the #2 purpose of the internet is to Give Me Stuff For Free (the #1, largely related purpose being to Entertain Me Without Requiring Effort On My Part), I ask my good friends Google and Limewire for the closest substitutes. And further information. And related items. And "if you are interested in this download, you might also try..."

So now I have subliminal messages flashing every fifteen seconds on my screen, floating over a picture of a tranquil sand dune on my screensaver, whispering at me from the subfrequencies of zen music, telling me I am charismatic, I am confident, I eat only when I am hungry, I sit up straight, I give the opposite sex vertigo with a twitch of my little finger. Which is great.

I'm not sure, however, at what point in there I started looking at hypnosis.

I found a bunch of free scripts online, so I busted out the mic and the recording software. The only one I've tried out so far is one for ADHD, and it was pretty trippy. I had difficulty with the imagery in the "suggestion" stage, but I didn't have any problem going into the trance--shoot, I'm in a trance half my waking life. XD It was surreal. The thing I noticed most (when I was noticing anything at all, which is kind of the point) was that I literally couldn't feel my hands. I was numb and floaty all over, but my hands, it was like they weren't there. I was not expecting that.

Honestly, there was not a lot of expecting going on at all. I figured maybe I'd listen for a while, then start daydreaming and forget about the audio tape. But I never daydreamed. And it definitely worked, at some level. I went out to dinner a little while later and Mom asked if this dosage of my ADHD meds was working better, that I seemed very calm and focused, and the whole family seconded that. And I know that I felt really good and alert all evening.

So yeah, I'm pretty sold. I'm excited to try it again. I don't think it can make your boobs get bigger or cure balding or cancer or stuff like that, but it really does make a lot of sense that it would work on behavioral things. It's not voodoo science or anything, it's not as new agey or hocus-pocus as people make it sound. It's just letting yourself chill out. 

On the other hand, the subliminal messages thing? I don't see much reason why it would work, really, but hey. If it does work, I'm all about dropping inches from my waist by listening to monks chanting along to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played on bamboo pipes and a wildebeest skin drum. If it doesn't work, I spent some time listening to weird, kinda boring music. I'll take my chances.