Unblinded Science, Period Six [6/21]

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Walter puttered at the front of the classroom humming something to himself that sounded suspociously like "Jingle Bells."

On his workbench and at five stations around the classroom were cubicals containing simple black boxes with a row of red and green bulbs along the front of the box.

"Good afternoon," Walter greeted the students cheerily. "And welcome on this Summer Solstice day. We are half a year away from a time for carolingt, but I am of a mind to approach today's class in a festive manner despite that.

"Today we will discuss hypnagogia before moving on to an interesting practical demonstration of hypnagogic suggestibility."

Walter launched into a lecture informed by anecdotes regarding zoning out on the highway, sleep paralysis, "night hags", and alien abduction.

As well as occasional tangents on sleepwalking, Las Vegas hypnotists, and several minutes spent scrawling on the white board the instructions for getting an optimally fluffy omelet.

Then on to the practical applications of the lecture.

"These boxes," Walter said, turning around the cubical on his desk to show the students the black box in question, "are programmed with both the proper visual wavelengths and frequency of light flashes to induce an hypnagogic state in an observer.

"I want you to choose one or two partners and take turns observing the lights to experience and record your observations on any time lapses you may experience. You will likely not realize that time has passed, so I suggest looking at the clock immediately before you begin to watch the lights, and immediately after the lights stop flashing for you. The boxes are on a timer and you should note that the clock's hand jumps three minutes ahead without your remembering experiencing those three minutes.

"Adventurous students may use my box." He tapped the cube on his workbench. "Only under my direct supervision. This one has been programmed with the proper frequencies to induce not just a time lapse, but hypnagogic suggestibility. I suggest you trust your partner for this one and I will permit no post-hypnotic suggestions. Only immediate suggestions such as 'rub your head and pat your tummy' will be allowed."

He gave them his best mad scientist grin. "Or I'll be the one giving the next post-hypnotic suggestion. Are we understood?"

[ooc: two minutes for OCD, please.]

Comments

Sign In [062110]

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Re: Sign In [062110]

[notmyownage]

Claudia Donovan

Re: Sign In [062110]

[icecoldfrost]

Emma Frost

Re: Sign In [062110]

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter Bishop

Re: Sign In [062110]

[mathletenomore.livejournal.com]

Lindsay Weir

Lecture

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

You always wanted a fluffier omelet, right?

Re: Lecture

[notmyownage]

Claudia skipped taking notes on the omelet, and tried to decide if her curiosity at the actual hypnogogic state outweighed her fear of embarrassment.

Re: Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma was going to look at the boxes warily and contemplate ways to get out of this exercise. She had little-to-no control when she was asleep, and while three minutes seemed a safe enough time frame, an Incident during class would be uncouth.

Re: Lecture

[mathletenomore.livejournal.com]

Lindsay was actually quite intrigued by this experiment. Though she was wary of it as well.

Re: Lecture

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

Well, the experiments sounded intriguing at least. The omelet instructions were less so, but perhaps could come in handy someday should Joolushko ever have a need to create a fluffy egg dish. Somehow, that didn't seem very likely.

Experiment!

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Time lapse or hypnosis, your choice.

Re: Experiment!

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter went and stood over by Walter's bench. "I'm volunteering for the suggestion part of the day," he said, casting a glance Claudia's direction.

Re: Experiment!

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Walter grinned and rubbed his hands together gleefully. Perhaps he was remembering another occasion in the past/future in which he'd set Peter in front of those lights.

Perhaps not.

He glanced over toward Claudia and beamed at her. "Which of you is going first?"

Re: Experiment!

[notmyownage]

Claudia tilted her head at Peter. "He is. I think it's so he can get revenge if he thinks I made him do something too ridiculous."

Re: Experiment!

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"Yes, revenge is foremost on my mind," Peter said. "Muhuahahaha."

His evil laugh was the most pathetic, half-assed evil laugh ever. Mainly because he was being sarcastic.

Re: Experiment!

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

Joolushko certainly wasn't about to let anyone hypnotize her. The time lapse experiment, however, seemed less likely to end in an embarassing or otherwise unpleasant fashion and so she was going to stick with that. If nothing else it would be interesting to see if differing physiology had any effect on the results of the experiment.

Re: Experiment!

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully had actually experienced this before, around Mulder. Zone out... zone in. Nine minutes, poof. Or as he'd claim, aliens.

So experiencing it again wouldn't exactly be a hardship.

TA

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Science!

Re: TA

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter was eyeing the special set-up warily. At least Walter seemed to have a responsible approach as to the suggestions.

He was also afraid Walter was going to suggest he use that machine.

Re: TA

[notmyownage]

Curiosity was winning out over self-preservation.

It was a problem of hers.

"He's not saying he'd be the one hypnotizing us with that thing, right?"

Re: TA

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"I think he's saying he will just oversee its use," Peter said. "Which is... partially reassuring, I suppose."

Walter

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Jingle bells, jingle bells....

OOC

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Whee!

Re: OOC

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

The book I was reading today actually talked about this very thing. I'm ROFLing over here.

Re: OOC

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Hee! Synchronicity. It's actually canon for Fringe.