CHAPTER 04

Following Instructions and Going with the Flow

went into a light level of trance and apparently she did also, just listening to the imduction procedure. The experiment in this particular ease took about three minutes and the rest of the time Ken, Helen, and I were discussing the experiment and various other matters on the tape. Suddenly the guide said, "I think that I was there at that meeting of the three of you." I said, "Oh, how could you have been there, you were in California" She said, "I know exactly what is going to be said next and who's going to speak." She proceeded to demonstrate this to me. As one person finished speaking she'd name the next one and what they were going to say. While she. was doing this, I suddenly reahized what was happening: she was inside my head listening to my memory of what had gone on. She did this for a period of about twenty minutcs, rccounting exactly the next thing coming up. Suddenly she broke it off and said, "I don't believe m mental telepathy at all! This can't be happening." I said, "Well, it is happening! You are definitely inside mv head the way I was inside yours over the distance of twelve hundred miles." She finally accepted it and laughed with a childlike joy.

These experiments and experiences showed me that I really should investigate hypnosis more thoroughly. I decided to go to the laboratory of Emest Hilgard at Stanford University, which was the only hypnosis research laboratory in a university that I knew of. I spent two weeks in Hilgard's laboratory reading the hterature, getting acquainted with the field and being put through some experiments.

First of all they were interested in finding out how I responded to various of their tests. They put me through the "hypnosis susceptibility" test, which I later called the "hypnosis talent" test. My scores were very high, comparable to a group of high school students that they had recently run. They had found that, in

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