Manuela Balducci, a 22-year-old artist from Milan, has always considered hypnosis "a cheap show for fools." Therefore, when she heard that a hypnotist would be performing in a theater located not far from her house, she specially bought a ticket for his session in order to publicly expose the charlatan and have fun at the same time.
The presenter asked everyone to close their eyes and press one fist against the other as hard as possible.
“All of a sudden, I cringed and began to listen to his every word,” said Manuela. - Opening my eyes, I felt that my fingers were firmly glued to each other.
Manuela was one of ten spectators invited to the stage. The hypnotist put his hand on her shoulder and told her to look at the lamp, while he whispered something in her ear. The girl's mind was clouded.
“Fear gripped me because,” said Manuela, “I could not resist any of his orders.
For an hour and a half, she behaved like a zombie, doing absolutely everything that her master ordered her. Manuela alternately portrayed a bird, then rode on a "horse", then shouted to the "car drivers" to give her way.
After the session, she was haunted by a feeling of vague anxiety, excruciating headaches began, from which nothing saved, and at night she dreamed of skeletons raping her.
The young secretary from Rimini, Veronica Piombi, who accidentally came to the hypnosis session, standing on the stage, was concentrating and with obvious pleasure licking non-existent ice cream, which, of course, could pass for an innocent joke, if in the presence of thousands of spectators who were dying with laughter, she did not squeeze into hands holding a rubber penis.
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The fun performance ended in shame for Veronica, since the episode with the artificial penis was just the beginning of her public humiliation. In the next "number", besides her, another twelve women participated.
The hypnotist, using the power of his suggestion, invited each of them to portray passionate love with the man of her dreams. Ladies wriggled on stage in characteristic poses, lifted their legs, moaned, experiencing, as they themselves later admitted, an acute orgasm.
Veronica did not remember at all what was happening to her, but her friends told her about how she, having inserted that same rubber member into the causal place, arched her back in ecstasy, feverishly shifted in her chair and, in a paroxysm of passion, began to shout out obscene words at that time as the hall shook with laughter.
- Never in my life was I so ashamed, - Veronica admitted later. - In addition, for two whole months after the session, I was tormented by intolerable headaches, and no medicine could relieve me of them.
Mass hypnosis sessions in clubs, universities and theaters are considered an original form of entertainment. The trouble, however, is that people eager to become "experimental rabbits" do not realize that such experiments cause irreversible trauma to their psyche.
Dr. Antonio Sartori of the Milan Hypnosis Center notes that recently his patients have increasingly turned out to be people who voluntarily became victims of visiting sadists.
“All of them,” he says, “suffer from various nervous disorders. They are afraid to go to bed, at night they are tormented by nightmares, haunted by hallucinations. They often complain of depression and anxiety attacks. It is alarming that most of my patients are young women. They take the stage to demonstrate their independence, courage and lack of prejudice.
Experts from the University of Milan are so frightened by the consequences of mass hypnosis that they succeeded in banning such shows in the city. This decision was made after the first-year student Lina Rankeroni had to call an ambulance during the speech of a visiting medium. Having told her friends about the feeling of immeasurable happiness that gripped her, she jumped up from her chair and, tearing off her clothes, began to run around the hall, inviting everyone present to join her until she lost consciousness.
Less fortunate is 25-year-old Bernardine Scavallari. The hypnotist put her into a trance and ordered her to imagine that a current of 20 thousand volts was being passed through the chair on which she was sitting. Without knowing it, he hit the bull's-eye. Several years ago, the girl turned on the washing machine, and she got an electric shock, after which she began to panic fear of electricity. After the show ended, Bernardine was shaking with chills, and her head ached as if it were being squeezed by iron hoops. She died a few hours later.
Professor of the University of Milan, Albert-to-Arditi, a neurophysiologist and hypnotist, is more categorical.
- During massive sessions of this kind, - he claims, - a powerful effect on the psyche occurs. Even with clinical hypnosis in the hospital, we are unable to foresee everything that might happen to the patient.
However, people often become victims of mass hypnosis against their will, as evidenced by the case of 40-year-old primary school teacher Alicia Cobo. When, during the hypnosis session, those who wished were invited to the stage and 15 people came out, she remained in her place. However, the hypnotist still decided to make her the object of his influence. The unsuspecting Alicia, along with the others sitting in the hall, followed all the instructions of the showman. Following the direction given to them, she clasped her hands and immediately realized that she could not separate them. She had no idea that she was so susceptible to hypnosis.
Then, along with other spectators, who found themselves in a similar position, she was summoned to the stage to disengage her hands. Alicia warned the hypnotist assistant that she was not going to take part in the session. He only smiled ironically in response. The hypnotist unlocked her hands and said that as soon as she hears the word "toilet", she should shout loudly three times: "I want to pee."
For two hours, Alicia entertained the audience. She was bustling about the stage, tore off a piece of imaginary toilet paper and, finally, sitting down facing the audience, urinated. The leader of her antics seemed a little, and he inspired the unfortunate woman that earthworms had crawled into her pants. To the general laughter, Alicia absurdly jumped up, trying to get rid of them, and then furiously began to rip off her underwear and trample it with her feet. After which the hypnotist, apparently deciding to demonstrate the full power of his influence, loudly announced that Alicia had turned into a cat.
The woman, quite naturally meowing, rubbed her back against the side shield of the scenery. Sly winking at the audience, the hypnotist summoned a man to the stage and ordered him to portray a cat. He, also put into a trance, grabbed poor Alicia from behind and began to imitate sexual intercourse.
“You need to make little kittens,” the host shouted. - Well, fertilize the female as it should be …
The man obediently pulled off his trousers, lifted Alicia's skirt and took possession of her. The audience, introduced by the hypnotist into an ecstatic state, clapped their hands and hooted, provoking the copulating puppets.
The hypnotist, frightened that Alicia, having regained consciousness, would raise a scandal, did not bring his victim out of the trance completely, and she returned home in a semi-faint state. Only the next day did her consciousness begin to clear up. When a neighbor told her more than juicy details of the show, the woman was almost hit. During the week, Alicia was afraid to go out in order not to meet someone who was at the show.
Rumors about the teacher's participation in an indecent hypnosis session reached the headmaster, and he soon fired her for "immoral behavior in a public place." Alicia could not survive the shame and committed suicide by jumping out of the ninth floor window.
“During hypnosis, the human brain does not distinguish between the real and the imaginary,” says Professor Arditi. - For example, if, during a session, a person is ordered to portray an unearthly passion or animal hatred, the same psychological and physiological changes will occur in his body as in reality. This, apparently, explains the inhuman fatigue and emptiness after the session. In addition, people may feel confused or confused because they are brought out of trance too quickly. During a medical session, it takes much longer to awaken.
There are times when hypnotists and mediums use their gift to commit crimes. So, in Portugal, a professional was arrested who confessed to killing 42 people, using only the power of his mind as a weapon.
Luis Gonçalves committed his first murder in 1989. His victim was a neighbor whom he instilled in the idea of opening his veins. The choice of Luis fell on the poor man only because she lived nearby and he wanted to check whether his paranormal abilities were strong enough to force a person to voluntarily go to the next world. After the funeral of a neighbor, the medium began to select victims who were at an ever greater distance from him. He was so proud of his capabilities that he killed people for his own pleasure. The unfortunate ones died from various reasons, but most often they committed suicide. The mystery of their death would never have been solved if not for one mistake that Luis made.
Once he got drunk and began to brag about his "successes" to his acquaintances. As a result, he ended up behind bars. However, his psychic power is so great that he tried to kill his guards and escape. He was observed by psychiatrists and psychics. To suppress the activity of Luis, he was constantly injected with powerful tranquilizers.
Ecuadorian crook Fernando Arrigo fooled 250 fellow citizens and pulled half a million dollars out of them. Choosing richer people, he claimed that for two thousand dollars he would come to an agreement with … the devil himself, so that he would release the sinful souls of their deceased relatives from hell. He acted uncomplicatedly. Having received the money, he allegedly called the other world, promising to burn down two churches in exchange for the soul he needed. Before leaving, he told the deceived simpletons that their loved ones had been transferred from Hell to Heaven, about which the dead dear to their hearts would soon let them know.
At the trial, Fernando calmly stated that thanks to his mediation, thousands of souls were freed from hellish torments.
“Sinners always promise to send a sign to their loved ones that they are finally in heaven,” he said. “However, they don't always keep their word. That is why they are sinners.
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