THE BATTALION Page 3
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1980
Nonbelievers fly across the universe
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by CATHY SAATHOFF
Battalion Staff
I flew the Millenium Falcon.
Star Wars heroes Han Solo, Chewbacca and I took
off from the Texas A&M Research and Extension
Center on Hwy. 21. When we were out in the stars.
Solo touched tny arm and told me to take the con
trols.
For a few brief seconds I sailed across the universe
in complete command of the ship. I took the ship
higher, then looped off to the side. Solo told me I was
doing fine. Then he said he must take over, that it
was time to go down.
Regretfully, I released my tight grip on the con
trols and let him take over.
But my trip wasn’t over.
After coming back down to Earth, I went back
wards in time to my first grade classroom. I saw the
old gang, wrote my name for the teacher, then came
back to the present.
The entire trip took about 30 minutes, and my tour
guide was a graduate of the Investigative and Fore
nsic Hypnosis Institute sponsored by the Law En
forcement and Security Training division of the
Texas Engineering Extension Service.
George Perkins, detective captain of Terrebonne
Parish Sheriffs Office in Houma, La., hypnotized
me, and while I was hypnotized I did all of these
bizarre things.
Perkins also helped in the hypnosis of Uschi
Michel-Howell, another Battalion reporter. Jimmy
Jones, police chief of Hedwig Village in Houston,
launched Michel-Howell on a trip that took her
across the ocean on “a big fluffy white cloud” to her
hometown of Frankfurt, Germany.
While in Frankfurt, Michel-Howell ran into old
schoolmates Ralph and Bettina, and was almost car
ried away by a bunch of balloons tied to her wrist.
That’s what Perkins told her, anyway, and
although Michel-Howell’s arm levitated from the
arm of her chair, she said she is still skeptical about
hypnosis.
We were both aware of what was going on while we
were hypnotized. It became easier to follow the hyp
notist’s suggestions and answer questions as we re
laxed.
Jones said, “Hypnosis is not like on TV, where
people will do apparently anything they are told.”
They will not do anything that is against their beliefs,
but as I found out, some people do strange things like
driving spaceships.
We were hypnotized in a tiny room normally used
for polygraph tests. Eight such rooms face each other
on either side of a hall lined with two-way mirrors.
Michel-Howell made sure I stayed in the room while
she went under.
Before hypnotizing me, Perkins told me hypnot
ism is not witchcraft, as many people think.
“It’s like being halfway awake in the morning or at
night, just before you fall deeply asleep,” Jones said.
"We can only show you the way, you have to be
willing to go.”
Perkins compared the mind to a long hallway,
lined on both sides with filing cabinets. Everything
that has ever happened to a person is stored some
where in these files, he said, and hypnosis is a means
of finding out what is in these files.
When Perkins took me down my mind’s hall, part
of my mind kept saying "This isn’t gonna work.” It
piped down when my head started to drop forward.
And when the entire scene looked just like it did in
the movie, my mind said I could see it clearly only
because I had seen The Empire Strikes Back.
But when my hands lifted to take the controls from
Han Solo, my brain once again was amazed. And my
voice, telling Perkins that I saw "lights,” seemed to
come from someone else.
But I must have done a good job, because when I
came out of hypnosis, officers who had been watch
ing through the glass said I was the best space-ship
driver they had ever seen.
Perkins said Michel-Howell and I were good hyp
notic subjects and will go under easily the next time
we are hypnotized. He also said the next hypnosis
course is in September, and I plan to go back to find
out.
by CATHY SAATHOFF
Battalion Staff
The use of hypnosis as a law en
forcement tool has been around for
about a decade.
At the end of July, 17 law enforce
ment officers from Texas and
Louisiana learned hypnosis techni
ques at an investigative and forensic
hypnosis course offered by the Law
Enforcement and Security Training
Division of the Texas Engineering
Extension Service.
Michael Boulch, director of the
hypnosis institute, said, “They’re
trained in theory and in practice. ”
The four-day course was con
ducted by Boulch and his staff.
Boulch, who is director of the Ther
apeutic and Forensic Hypnosis Insti
tute in Houston, said he has been
hypnosis in Texas for about
three years.
[ “We’ve put on two seminars at
*j A&M, Boulch said.
I Texas A&M Police Chief Russ
yj McDonald is a graduate of the first
Pi course, which was completed about
two weeks ago.
I “I think it’s the best school I’ve
been to,” McDonald said. “I’m look
ing forward to using it. ”
Detective Ken Nicolas of the Uni
versity Police also attended the
course.
“We haven’t had a case yet,” Nico-
jjl,!; las said. “The Chief and I are sitting
(so j jon the edge of our seats waiting for
'*ne.”
Bobby Austin, associate training
'ecialist for the division, said, “The
mrse is designed to provide a com-
rehensive program of both theory
jnd practice. Graduates should be
ible to apply their new skills upon
return to their agencies,
i “It helps victims to recall certain
. U ji important things relating to an ex-
perience they have had,” Austin
' id.
It is especially helpful in trauma
es like rape, McDonald said.
- .g. Witnesses who agree to be hypno-
relif tized are asked to recall details of the
rime, McDonald said, and may de-
icribe the suspect to a composite
Irawer, who will make a sketch from
^ ()r l J the description.
, h McDonald said hypnosis was used
in the LeShan Muhlinghaus homi-
:ide case last year. The College Sta-
ion Police Department brought in a
Texas Ranger for this, he said.
A composite of a suspect was
Irawn from descriptions given by
>eople who thought they had seen
omeone suspicious. McDonald said
after the composite was published
hundreds of people called in saying
they knew the man. The leads
’Proved fruitless, McDonald said.
Texas A&M doesn’t have a compo-
iite drawer yet, but McDonald said
le will probably send one of the offic
ers to school to learn this soon.
College Station has an artist, he
aid, and Texas A&M sometimes
ises his services.
The University does have a Smith
k Wesson Identi-Kit, which is
another identification tool.
“The people that are being hypno
tized want to help you,” McDonald
aid. Witnesses cannot be hypno
tized against their will. People who
are younger than 5 years of age, have
an IQ lower than 70 or are senile
isually can’t be hypnotized because
H# Ihey can’t concentrate well enough.
However, people who have been
in prison make good subjects be
cause they have vivid imaginations,
McDonald said.
McDonald said anytime a witness
is hypnotized, the interview must be
tape recorded, and video recorded if
possible, to make sure the witness is
not being led.
“You don’t lead them,” McDonald
said. "You don’t try to put any
thoughts in their mind. ”
For example, McDonald said the
interviewer would not ask if a sus
pect wore glasses, but would ask if
there are any distinguishing things
about the suspect.
Boulch said there are three means
of inducing hypnotism: eye fixation,
pressure and confusion. Boulch said
he tries to stay away from eye fixation
because of its association with pocket
watches in old movies.
Subjects can be hypnotized
through eye fixation with something
as simple as a thumbtack on the ceil
ing, he said.
“To get you in a hypnotic trance
we have to occupy the analytical side
of your mind with a difficult task,”
said George Perkins, detective cap
tain, Terrebonne Parish Sheriffs
Office, Houma, La. “Then we can
work on the other side of the brain.”
Dr. Cliff Sherry of the Biology De
partment at Texas A&M said the ex
planation given to the officers is “not
a totally satisfying explanation.”
Dr. Robert Reilley of the Educa
tional Psychology Department at
Texas A&M, said this explanation is
one of many.
“There are a lot of different
theories about what happens when a
person is hypnotized,” Reilley said.
“I think that’s one theory.”
Students of the course practiced
their theory by taking volunteers
back in time or having them experi
ence adventures.
The students were taught to
occupy the left side of the brain by
having the subject count down from
397 by three’s. Meanwhile, the hyp
notist counts down from 100, telling
the subject to relax as he counts.
The hypnotist’s voice gets softer
and softer, and as the practice sub
jet is led through the adventure of
his choice, he is told repeatedly how
beautiful everything is, and what a
good hypnotic subject he is.
The subject cannot be made to do
anything he does not want to do,
Perkins said.
clU 1
WOOD6TOCK
CONDOMINIUM*
Open
House
Won t go back to drugs and alcohol
Pryor says rum, not ether, caused fire
United Press International
LOS ANGELES — Comedian Richard Pryor said he wasn’t using
drugs but was drinking Jamaican rum when flames engulfed him in a
near-fatal “stupid” accident June 9.
Pryor is not going back to drugs or alcohol, he told Barbara Walters
in an interview televised Tuesday but taped July 24 after his release
from the hospital.
“Everybody gets wise, don’t you think? A fool stays the same. No, I
don’t think I’ll even drink.
“I’m 40 years old and I’ve burned up,” he said. “So I’m through
being hip.”
The comedian denied he had been “freebasing, ” a process involving
the use of ether to purify cocaine.
“You can’t blow up yourself freebasing,” he said.
Critically burned from waist to face, Pryor was given a “one in three”
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HI J 1 " 1
»
al. He called the accident “stupid.”
“Me and my partner had been drinking this Jamaican rum — it’s
called ‘overproof — and we were drinking and it spilled, and he went
to get a towel out of the bedroom to wipe it up, and I lit a cigarette and
the next thing I know I was on fire,” Pryor said.
Pryor said he and his friend were cleaning “every (cigarette) lighter
in the house” and refilling them at the time of the accident.
“So we got all the lighters, we re filling up — shish, shish — and I
don’t know what happened. ”
Pryor said the “friend of mine from Jamaica” — never identified —
and his Aunt Dee ran into the room and his aunt threw a blanket over
his head to put out the fire.
Lt. Dan Cooke of the Los Angeles Police Department said police
were told Pryor’s aunt was the only other person in the house. He also
said Pryor told several people at the time of the accident he was
freebasing cocaine and it exploded.
hhhhhhmm
New investigative procedure
A&M police learn hypnosis
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