Mike

Forgive me if I missed comments from someone else. I'm wondering whether your Principal has any role to play in this and what kind of support a teacher should expect. I'm also wondering if your relationship with the parents is such that you can talk with them about the issue?

I've known a lot of women, and one thing I've learned (I keep telling myself) over and over is when to give up. Anyway, for me there was no choice when I met her. It felt like a wonderful fall. And every time I saw her again I fell over and over. I guess the choices were to keep coming back for more.

Me? Hahaha, ditto.

You know what? That part of our experiences was similar. When I walked into the room I saw her slouched back on a sofa tossing grapes up into the air and into her mouth. I wouldn't call it a voice, and I didn't say anything to my friends. But the words came into my mind that I would marry her. So, my friend, you and I can relate after all.

Hahaha. I'm not even talking about unrequited love as you are in the context of Shakespeare. For me so much that's joyful in this life, especially love, is an accident as in unexpected at the time of its arrival. I'm talking, my dear, about a wonderful feeling, a sensation, a delight in every good and wholesome sense of those words. I understand that the connotation (of falling) you're dwelling on is negative, but I choose a happy one like falling into a feather bed, or falling into a clean, cold mountain lake on a hot summer day. Or falling back into tall grass in a field of wild flowers with their aromas delighting me, and looking back at the shapes of clouds in the blue sky with the sounds of bees and songs of birds all around me. And that (for me) only scratches the surface in my feeble effort to describe it. Since God apparently made me a physical being in a physical world, I laughingly took all those physical sensations and came up smiling--that's how it was for me anyways not caring whether it sounds corny to anyone else.

? Well, you've said too little. Please continue.

It kinda seems to me that if for no other reason than the sheer number of souls any one of us ought to be able to love and be happy with at least a thousand different people--and thats without even trying that hard.

In the context we're discussing I think I share your opinion about choosing whom to love. On the other hand I'm something of a romantic. In a romantic context I kind of like the feeling.

@anatess2 Interesting story. I've never experienced anything like you described. I would like to.

@wenglund Actually before you posted, I did wonder to myself whether my own experiences "day-dreaming", "zoning out", etc. are anything like being hypnotized.

@Vort But you know, your comment brings up another thought for me about what we (you or me, for example) "see" in our minds' eyes in various situations such as reading someone's remarks on a forum, listening to music, solving a math problem in our heads, listening to music, etc.

Sometimes it's helpful. Other times, it doesn't make any difference--I find myself having to re-read multiple times and I still feel compelled to say, "Excuse me?"

@wenglund I see what you're saying.

I can't speak to the question. But if it only became a main thing in the 20th century, I'm feeling glad I was born in the 20th century. Of course this doesn't mean I discount the possibility that people can fall in love after they marry. Moreover, I don't think marrying purely for love is a problem at all. I suspect the problems that arise are often a result of the parties *not* being in love and not knowing the difference between love and some other things.

Yes, I see that if making sure my potential spouse were legally and culturally bound was important to me then it would be a reason to marry.

I see. Personally, I don't find the fact that divorce is illegal (in some countries) as very compelling to make me want to get married. In fact, taken by itself that fact wouldn't make any difference to my intentions. Tax benefits (again, just talking about myself) don't help make any difference, either.

I have felt like you say. I have pondered this very same thought.

That actually sounds to me like it could be interpreted as a good thing. I'm thinking in terms of neither the piece of paper, nor the way anybody else looks at my relationship with my sweetheart as making any difference to the quality of our relationship. Our relationship is all about commitment to one another. But I probably misunderstand you. So, what's the difference between being married and not being married in your country?

When I was seven years old my grandfather died. I recall through the years hearing my grandmother repeatedly insist that she didn't want to have to be with him throughout eternity.

I'm also the Financial Clerk--have been for almost 9 years. I like it because I don't have to motivate others and I can always resolve a problem or question to everyone's satisfaction.

Right. And I don't want you to misconstrue and conclude that I am critical or that I disbelieve in the propriety of making comparisons as you explained. I was making reference to the type of comparison that I think is less valid where one doesn't truly understand either thing that's being compared. For example, it's my opinion that a comparison between a state of being hypnotized and watching television is not a valid comparison. Maybe I'm wrong.

I am confident you know what it's like to become interested in any given topic in terms of curiosity or in terms of something that stimulated your curiosity. In the case of hypnosis I recently met someone who claims to have the skills to hypnotize, and make claims about what hypnosis can accomplish. As we talked we came to the issue of overcoming phobias via the hypnotist accessing one's subconscience and identifying let's say an event which caused a phobia where before there was none. I pondered two phobias: one of my own, and one of a close friend. And I tried to imagine how hypnosis would work. Like you, I have observed people on stage and my skepticism makes me wonder whether they were acting. So I thought I would seek out anyone I can who claims to have been hypnotized by a professional such as a doctor; and inquire into individual testimonials in terms of what the hypnotist did, what sensations the individual felt, etc. with the idea that I might enlighten myself or at least identify common testimonies. This would be different for me than googling the topic--the hope being I could ask my own questions.

In my opinion those people who say (that) about TV may not be using their own brains that much either. I think they are not talking very thoughtfully, or perhaps they really don't know much about either television viewing nor how brains work. I suspect one could erroneously use the word hypnotized when describing the way we execute routine tasks without the same degree of concentration we use when first learning the tasks--driving the same route home every day, opening a spreadsheet, or placing a child into the bathtub. I think many people have a (not always very useful) tendency to compare things they don't understand to simple things they think they do understand. Hence, my own questions about hypnosis.

Yes, think so, too. I suppose it's impossible for me to know the truth about someone else's claim. I'm more or less forced to choose whether to believe or disbelieve that someone "on-stage" is really hypnotized. That's another reason I had hoped that someone on this forum could talk about their own personal experiences with the entire process--I mean as opposed to someone's friend, relative, he-said, I've-read, etc.

No, I wasn't asking you to speculate about anyone else. I meant about your personal opinion regarding yourself. Nor did I mean to suggest anything about your own issues with ADHD. I merely wondered whether now that you are farther along and beyond childhood you might have different skills than you had back then which in your opinion about yourself might be enable you to be hypnotized assuming you weren't about violating the policy that @zil brought up.