oned
response mechanism necessary for self-hypnosis. Let us look at the
following examples of role playing.

During the war, many soldiers who wanted to leave the army would pretend
something was wrong with them. They would convince the authorities of
the authenticity of their "illness," and since nothing seemed to make
them better, they eventually were separated from the service because of
the incapacitating disorder. But what happened to many of these
malingerers after they were released from the service? I'm sure you know
the rest of the story. The constant malingering was transformed by this
role playing into a conditioned response pattern, eventually bringing
about the very undesirable condition responsible for their leaving the
service. I saw some of these individuals and more than once they told me
that they had unwittingly hypnotized themselves into having the ailment.
They wanted me to dehypnotize them. They actually turned out to be very
easy subjects as they had become highly suggestible. Unfortunately,
their super-ego structure was weak, they had difficulty in identifying
strongly with anyone, and the relationship in hypnosis was superficial
and without depth.

I am going to relate another example which I hope will help you
understand the role-playing technique for self-hypnosis. I have had the
following experience many times in giving hypnotic demonstrations before
various organizations. For some reason, even though I carefully ask that
only those who desire to be hypnotized volunteer as subjects for the
hypnotic demonstrations, an individual who has no intention of
cooperating comes up on the stage to poke fun at the hypnotist. In
giving public demonstrations, I usually work with about ten subjects
and simultaneously give them the same suggestions and posthypnotic
suggestions. Once the subjects are hypnotized, I work with them with
their eyes open. Using this technique, with each subject carrying out a
posthypnotic suggestion, intensifies the responses of other subjects.
There is also competitiveness to become the best subject.

In the meantime, the individual who is really not under hypnosis has let
the audience know about it by winking or making a grimace when I was not
looking at him. Observing laughter and other audience reactions which
are not in keeping with what is happening at the precise moment during
my lecture is my cue that I have an egocentric person on stage. You
might ask, "Can't you tell