I got an email this morning, and it went something like this:
Dear Angry Professor,
I really want to be hypnotized. I have always been really interested in this phenomenon. Could you please hypnotize me? What I really want is for you to implant a "false memory" in me. I want to see how real it feels. I will sign any waiver that you require without having to worry about any liability. I am serious! Please write back and let me know.
Sincerely,
Interested Student
With great regret, I had to turn the student down, in the course of my rejection explaining about Institutional Review Boards and Ethical Treatment of Human Subjects and other bureaucratic nightmares associated with working with humans. What a party-pooper I am.
5 comments:
The father of one of my high school friends became a hypnotist. He started out as a psychiatrist, but when the state board took away his license, he needed a new line of work.
Oh my. Are you permitted to disclose the details of the revocation of the license? Actually, I can guess what happened already. It's usually the same story with psychiatrists.
The direct object of our discussion was Bud Hopkins: artist, writer, hypnotherapist. There's competent medical care for you.
You've probably guessed correctly; the scandal made its way into the local section of the paper.
I live down the street from an accupuncturist. When she applied for a zoning variance (or maybe a "use on review"?) so that she could practice out of her home, the neighbors had questions. Things like, "Where will your clients park their cars?" and "What hours of the day will your business be open?" Accupuncture-neighbor sent out a shrill email to everyone vehemently defending the practice of accupuncture and accusing us of being closed-minded for attacking accupuncture.
Several years ago, I was giving a public astronomy lecture. Afterwards, this woman comes up to me to ask some a question. She asked if any of my students every get a very anxious feeling when looking through the telescope. I asked for clarification. She then produced a business card and explained that she is the president of the local chapter of the American UFOlogy society. "Oh, no, here it comes," I thought. She went on to explain that she is a state licensed psychologist whose practice is primarily recoverring repressed memories of alien abductions. She explained that nearly one in four people have been abducted, and they just repress the memories. But, of course, under hypnosis she can resurect these memories (rather create them, I expect). She then handed me several more cards to pass out to my students who felt ill at ease looking through telescopes. I thanked her, pocketed the cards and then went on to do other things. Later, I deposited the cards in the round filing cabinet near my office door.
Hah, that's a good one, astroprof. Perhaps you should have explained to her that (professional) astronomers rarely physically look through telescopes anymore. :)
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