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departed. On the other side, conventional science has pronounced against everything that does not harmonize with its systematization’s. The scientist goes investigating, about as, to match ribbons, a woman goes shopping. The spiritualist stuffs the maws of his emotions. One is too dainty, and the other is gross. Perhaps, between these two, we shall some day be considered models of well-bred behavior. Let me try to explain: there is a little known fact about hypnosis that is illustrated by the following story: A subject was told under hypnosis that when he was awakened he would be unable to see a third man in the room who, it was suggested to him, would have become invisible. All the “proper” suggestions to make this “true” were given, such as “you will not see so- and-so” etc... When the subject was awakened, lo and behold! the suggestions did not work. So, another trial was made. The subject was hypnotized again and was told that the third man was leaving the room... that he had been called away on urgent business, and the scene of him getting on his coat and hat was described... the door was opened and shut to provide “sound effects”, and then the subject was brought out of the trance. Why? Because his perceptions were modified according to his beliefs. Certain “censors” in his brain were activated in a manner that The ways and means that we ensure survival of the ego is established pretty early in life by our parental and societal programming. This conditioning determines what is or is not possible; what we are “allowed” to believe in order to be accepted. We learn this first by learning what pleases our parents and then later we modify our belief based on what pleases our society - our peers - to believe. To return to our story, the Third Man went about the room picking things up and setting them down and doing all sorts of things to test the subject’s awareness of his presence, and the subject became utterly hysterical at this “anomalous” activity! He could see objects moving through the air, doors opening and closing, but he could not see the source because he did not believe that there was another man in the room. 161 High Strangeness — Part Two Why? Because they went against his belief system. He did not believe that a person could become invisible. Guess what happened? He was unable to see the Third Man. was acceptable to his ego survival instincts.