you are potentially a good
subject. You respond perfectly to previous conditioning; thus, you are
responding as anticipated. If, on the other hand, you picked line AB,
you are normally suggestible. If you honestly picked line CD, you are
extremely cautious and respond best to "reverse psychology." Once again
you are highly suggestible, but toward one extreme.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Here's another interesting experiment. Would you say that lines AB and
CD were perfectly straight? I'll let you figure out what your response
means to this test by yourself. You can take a ruler to determine if the
lines are straight.

We all respond unconsciously to stimuli of some sort. Word association
tests are based on this principle. Aren't your reactions automatic to
the following terms: democratic party, republican party, communist
party, mother, father, movie star? If I mention the name of a famous
person, city or country, the same immediate unconscious reaction takes
place. Let's try it. Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Boston, New York City, Hollywood, Miami Beach, United States,
England, France, Italy, Israel, Africa, Russia, China, India and South
America. The response and image keep changing, don't they?

I am trying to point out that this reaction is automatic because of
previous conditioning. I could mention almost anything and the same
automatic reaction would take place. The reaction would always be the
same unless something had happened to change or alter your response. Let
us mention the word hypnosis. Some sort of reaction must take place.
This can either be positive, negative, or neutral for our purposes. You
really don't have to think about your response as it is automatic. The
point to remember is that a definite response has taken place which will
either help or hinder your attainment of hypnosis. If the response
should be negative, it can be changed by gaining knowledge and actual
experience in hypnosis. It is natural to have a bit of uneasiness when
first experiencing or thinking about being hypnotized. After all, you
haven't been exposed to hypnosis in a therapeutic setting and couldn't
have formed a favorable reaction. Your response is probably derived from
a fictionization of hypnosis. The initial task of the hypnotist is to
create, by educating the prospective subject, a favorable attitude so
that the s