415. Respawn in Groesbeck

Uh, I'm gonna see how long I can hold my breath underwater and I keep going, come on with smoke. We're different. And I just thought it was interesting. Which is if I try to treat my memory, if I really unwind and like r fucking relax and try to think about it, I there's elements of memory that I can at least imagine as an open world game. And like the the the the whole thing with her she's gonna marry Greg, it's so fucking it's so fucking funny to me. And then a funny thing, you won't get this unless you've watched multiple seasons of this and I don't care, is that then Greg will go, well now I've uh s I have like asserted. There's nobody out there who needs to worry if I'm fretting about how they are by me speculating about how they should be.

And I'll bet there were times where you were scared to do it, and I bet the result of it working out was it wasn't as scary as you thought. It's 1121. What can we say? And then in 30 seconds, I want you to consider thinking about what are the three objects closest to you right now that are have a piece that's round. The kids are named Rumor and Scout. I'm gonna have that made actually. But that's really what we're talking about. And if y'all are honest, you'll admit that it doesn't come naturally for you. But you know, you know things like the project management triangle. We're talking about interior worlds that are extremely difficult. But like mindfulness, I would like, as with maybe not so much as Zen, but mindfulness meditation is maybe not the greatest place to start, because it actually does take some meditation skills to be useful.

Most of us focus on how bad we are at meditating, but that's okay. And if I say mindfulness, now we're off on this jag about, you know, whether we should all be wearing kimonos or whatever. But that doesn't mean everything has to go in that bag and then stay there. This is when I was still making fun of D, but there's no way that's right. I mean food. And I go, okay, let's go to sleep, guys. and that's become a good practice for me. Also, dude, were you just was your hearing aid turned off? Uh you buddy y you like David Bowieed a Buddy Holly song. I'm not gonna do it entirely on that. I want to say Joan Rivers, but it's probably Phyllis Diller, I don't remember. And then a little stuffed chick comes out, that's the magic.

Which is I sat down and did a mind map of trying to figure out when and where I got this book. A rectus that came out last week, like b buying a copy of something called the man book. You know, Jack Kirby he didn't invent the action look of comics, but like Jack Kirby brought a whole new look to like how could you make a white guy coming at you with fists look cool? Uh I'm uh hi, hi, it it's Alex, it's me. I I mean I'd be asking so many questions. Because what you know they they're they're they have so much to do in the production of this show. uh where you'd where you'd want your second bum hole and what it would do. or ChatGPT does today, which is like gives me some kind of like a a a footing somewhere, right?

Tell me tell me about self-hypnosis or how do you how do you usually open um a session like that? So, you know, then I basically get a Wikipedia article of exactly what I want and you know, set links to to what I want. It honestly what would actually was helpful was the something really specific and then something like find three things. Here's the actual podcast and then I will allow you to watch a Bob Mortimer video with you. Well, I'll meditate a bed. Well how relaxing is that? the self-hypnosis relaxation things. If it's a bit whether you think people don't know what to do, you can't do that. I was watching a T V show. The other eye the other. The basic idea of hypnosis is, and the reason oh sorry, the reason I'm avoiding unconscious on da-da-da-da-da-th-s is not science, this is not magic, this is not trickery, right?

I want to quit I don't I want to smoke less. The implication You're not actually doing anything. I'm I'm sorry, I should have put that differently. Whoa, what does that look like? I since last week I haven't stopped thinking about chickens. What uh the what's not okay, you you want something else. If you had to go to the case, you can't get a little bit more than a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a this week's Roderick on the line and a new thought technology that I unintentionally or uh have been trying to implement and you gave it a better But you're close on like well, you're not that close, but you're kinda close on like five different things.

No, it's just interesting. It's not like I'm gonna walk up to the shelf in my voluminous library that's ordered chronologically and take something off the shelf. at least fifty percent correct memories of things. And then like thinking, oh my friend Dave's house is two doors over. Like a thing my friend John and I used to do um pretty much every Saturday morning is walk to the convenience store and spend our sub one dollar amount of money on something, like a a comic or candy or whatever. or as we called it then Walden, where in Walden I would walk, where the little like sort of remaindered island was, where I bought that for probably ninety nine cents. Uh, whilst I remember some public details about the death of my elderly neighbors, with great specificity, what I'd said was, I don't think that means, in my memory, I could hop the fence into their yard and just start plucking separate, you know.

book and I'm not mad about it. Because I thought it was the summer I got the book and it wasn't. uh as the proof shows us, it is a complicated thing. It's just more like, look, I know I bought this book. Cone Incense and uh Rick Wakeman's uh Wives of Henry the Eighth album. within a couple months of it coming out. And I think the the dynamism of this is wow, sorry, I am never ejaculating again. Untraditional, as a couple people pointed out, it didn't have the usual like, you know, old comedian on it that always makes it fun and balances things. Like think of him, the the perfume guy in Parks and Rec who like sprays everybody in the audience and like he's just he's the worst. I wanna hear more about Walton books too and the T shirt and the Um Um It's Good Season but also the outtakes.

Sometimes it includes people breaking. Here's the thing. But what I was gonna say was watch the outtakes because they're really funny. Well, you're still figuring out what you think you need to say because your mind has started asking a question. And my not caring, worst of all, has nothing to do with them. I don't do a lot of that. Or a lot less stressed out or certainly a little less angry. entry on Rene Descartes. I mean w there are benefits to style guides, whether that's in an encyclopedia or Wikipedia or whatever. No, sorry, let's talk about Claude. Okay, that uh that is where I started. I'm I'm always saying this, but I don't know if it's accurate, but like your your fast thinking brain.

and share it with other people and how how we react when people share parts of their brain with us. Like out of uh it seems like I'm saying else out of defensiveness. Which is obviously a joke, right? The way that relaxation is related to meditation is not the same way that mindfulness is related to meditation or that mindfulness is related to relaxation. This is what where true chaos comes from, not just from one thing that confuses you because you missed a step, but from the true complexity of things that interact in unusual ways when they're next to each other. Also, I'll point out in passing, this is why you don't have a podcast. That's why I uh not not to you, not to our audience, not to anyone.

Are you relaxed every time you're meditating? And like, but let's even say you're doing mindfulness meditation. Because 1982 is when John came to Florida. and in let me pull up my mind map. And a guy in what I remember to be, he looked kinda like the uh know what I mean, Vern guy, Ernest. I feel like wait, Tom Halls is on my right. But like I uh I didn't even wash my hands 'cause who would? It's the s the topic is self-confidence, but the brand name of the series is called, I think it's called Unlimited Pot Unlimited Potential Um Self Confidence Yeah. like the the the thing where you swing like your Svengali and you like swing a pocket watch in front of somebody's eyes or you show them a l like a spinny zigzag thing and you go, You're getting sleepy and now you're a chicken and this is before all the stuff y'all know In 70 cinema?

No, I think there's a lot of things. of relaxing. how that or No that book was some bullshit. to ask yourself questions and have your unconscious mind answer. I don't know if it wasn't what I lied to you. It can really change the valence of what kind of answer you won't want, you know. Well, one thing will start happening, which is you immediately go, well, yeah, I feel it on my hand. But it's out there somewhere. Um I'll tell you a funny thing though, sitting there watching that. Well that actually brings us to a very interesting point to meet. I like being happy and not knowing things. And that comes through you. Hypnosis, well, I think it's kind of two parts. your parallel park like right next to meditation at that point in my mind.

with aspects of memory and cognition and branding and all these different kinds of things. But like, oh no, but what's the implication? Wasn't that fucking amazing? There's all kinds of ways, but like being 13 and starting to think about mental models for self-relaxation, in spite of, not because of, but in spite of being bad at it the entire time, have been really useful to me. And it might be bullshit, doesn't matter to me. that here comes oh this is the okay so it's a Steven Universe song that I like to do. I guess what happens? Because that's too self-involved and weird. Maybe baby I'll have you if I'm the baby I gave birth to Maybe baby I'm an Ouroboros giving birth That's part of it anyway.

I'm pretty good. You say that every week and I it's I know because I try and save the show. Mm, that's not true. So that's eight jokes now, by the way. I didn't say it was funny. Remember he does the magic act? I m like the metaphor. Nah, cause it's the the it's not a topic, it's just a thought that I was just thinking. something that I sc described to John on uh on Monday's episode. You know, th I mean I don't have I think there's probably three photos of me from nineteen eighty one. Uh and then what I was saying was though when I think about I found myself we're thinking about my childhood home and what I said was I find myself uh unintentionally, unconsciously going into more more like a Google Map mode where I'm like looking at my house from above.

It's not cold rain, it would be, it doesn't matter. I don't think I could take a left turn into a house I don't remember where people I don't know lived and like w you know, eat let alone like it th I can't walk through houses I've never been to. I think just because I have specific isolated memories doesn't mean I have the ability to wander around. that I have a pretty specific recollection of like where this store was in the mall and what it was like inside and um the I remember the cool animated knife in the window. I know, I'm sorry. Uh oh boy, no, there's a lot of stuff I don't remember. blades of grass and having recollections, like some kind of a r you know, a a a Proust or something. Dreams are are brain garbage and memory isn't too much better.

I can see the value for for me, which you yeah, you might have mentioned. Isn't that insane? I'm done talking about that because I'm a cool guy. Lightly. Because yes, you you know Jason Manzukas's comedy probably. He's very good on everything he guessed on. feeling very bullied and like no man will ever love her, that she painted her floor and her ceiling black and her walls yellow and she did the theme of her entire The outtake, what is an outtake? The one what's gonna happen when we graduate? Um because I'm reading books. an insane thing and it took a long time and if I do it one more time they won't be able to cut it out of the show. who who's a uh a gastrointestinal surgeon, he s his his brother-in-law told him that sometimes people get ha he has to fit people for a new bum hole.

to think about what has been said and then have an answer that would advance the topic. suddenly try to explore the thought they just had. All right, let's let's uh wait form form question. It's the same question I immediately I don't I didn't I didn't I didn't get anything super valuable out of it, but I noticed things that I think are interesting. Do we travel to go somewhere different, or do we travel to be somewhere, or to like become someone different? Um, which is not that important to say, except that I also then consequently realized how much how many other people are hung about hung up about that thing. Like that's weird. And I just also like I'm not I'm starting to accept that I'm not as hung up on s certain kinds of things as other people.

But Letterman would just stare dead into the camera and make his eyes real buggy and go and he would go, I've been hypnotized And it was really, really funny. Because it's gay. Because the guy says the sample goes when all is ready, I throw this switch. You I asked you and I think you said TikTok. Tell me about self-hypnosis. Where so I'll say s d I will say, can you please give me a history, sort of a combination of a Wikipedia article and a Uh no. over time you also develop your own sense of w when those questions tend to be better or when those answers seem to be better than others. And not just you ask something, but sort of the degrees of how you ask it, like that's a super l that's really long.

How uh however, if you go from something like chat b chat GPT four O to five, suddenly like it's out the window, it's completely unpredictable. Which I think is what you were talking about from the book in the 1980s that you were trying to get? Fuck is not what it's said. Yeah, it it got uh quiet. Find three objects around you that are square. And they're just so different. And if you force, you encourage yourself to say, what like without opening here I'm here's one. Because at least the way I was raised, and I think a lot of the way of Christian Midwestern Americans were raised, was to like that this is very I no I'm not saying it's out of out of defensiveness, but out of necessity. So No, no, no, no, no, no.

You could Chandler? out with myself has correct brief moment of uh why the fuck didn't I know Chandler? where like all you you know there's all that bullshit I always say as long I can't even imagine what people think I'm trying to say when I say this but when I say stuff like uh oh you don't you're not like that but you know people like that processes and practices. Because it makes you sound like an idiot. Relaxation, meditation, mindfulness. I think one and and why uh so uh why am I asking so many rhetorical questions? But and I'm not doing this, I'm not saying this to be a dick, but just FYI. like mentally, physically taxing things that you can do. B, because you also don't know things and you'll skit in your own way if you mistake them for each other.

The relaxation is what enables you to calm down enough to focus, but that focusing can be far from relaxing. I think mindfulness is very can be very much a practice. being in the moment. And he had a he had like an Indian headband and I was urinating and he he's tall, he's a tall fella. And then he looked up uh in my eyes. Could I you turn out of that bathroom instead of going left to go meet John by the bus, could I have gone right back into the place? Have you ever heard that anecdote? And I'm fourteen. Through hypnosis. the cover I expected, but it was just in the service of saying, How long? uh like about hypnosis stuff. That's weird. That's the need for that why I say self hypnosis. Wait, but it's not called hypnosis, is it?

At the point, remember because like she's punched her mother out and she's wearing glasses and they meet on the bridge and she's very sad, you know, and then the guy the guy falls out the window, a little bit suspicious. It just so happened that it worked. And and there was then there's the part where I say in different ti at different times, self-hypnosis meant relaxation. which is what I thought the book you were read was focused on. I mean I I don't think I care about that answer and I think I know the answer to that question. that started everything. Um, did I get any good answers from it? Yes. Uh say more about that. you know, let alone explain. That you're looking at at the same time. Learnings you will receive from this.

You will start to feel that feather in your left hand, even though that is not your left hand. Right? And it's not just so you know it's not j there's big fat quiz of the year, but there's big fat quiz of the decade, etc. Crashing your head. Know about ahead of time. tricking somebody into becoming a chicken. The part that's clearer and more mechanical, if you like, is that how do we get you relaxed enough that you sort of let down your guard? Um, but you're swinging a watch around and some lady in a white gown starts floating and then I guess you get to finger her or something. to do something as anodyne as quote hypnosis has served me well over time and has been really almost like a like a like a You were talking about sleep, but then you don't want to talk about sleep.

told you that. to think about those kinds of things, how would I ever come up with a mental model for saying to myself, here's the part where the racing thoughts come. If I'm not willing to sit around and think about my dreams, if I'm not willing to like sit and and think about my my neighbors who died in 1978, I'm not I'm it's like it's too upsetting for me to even think about with the layout of their backyard Oh, I didn't know that. I don't want anyone to peg me. Two, one. For our audience. Exactly. Would that be would that be good for the show? 24 questions? Anyways what you say to someone at the the DMV who his personal anecdote is going on longer than you think it should. I know I know. I think it would be fun for you to just start, you know, writing down things that might be challenged.

washcloth. Oh, it's funny because if you uh were to look at the challenge spreadsheet, I'm not opening documents I don't need, Alan. means that I have now for like trying to triangulate memory. uh an o optical disc that would skip to different sections. No, but I know the h like hardware the uh uh the genre, yes. I think it's more like a like I think it's more like Dragon's Lair than like a wanderer around the universe game. In Cincinnati where I almost definitely bought the book, and thinking about all the stores, and could I walk into the store and like see the layout of the store and look for professional ladies' clothes from like 1981. Which does not make it true, but it was certainly very interesting.

Like if I'm trying if I'm doing some kind of an inception and I'm trying to like see the reflection of somebody's pin code in a dream, like that so if I get you get too far into this shit and you're really you're on very thin ground because you know dreams are To take your rather silly question. Every summer my friend John and I would do matching something. I think it that would see now I gotta look this up. And then another year. Whoops. I I would say, you know, maybe less so for Good Place in 9-9. But uh also, you know, if you just like him on those improv shows. back and forth with Greg about how she was an 18-year-old Muslim woman who decorated her entire room in Batman. No, I am reading I am reading them in the original Flemish.

Did I imply somehow that that I I dislike questions in general? Hmm. Right, so like that's that's it's kind of the classic version of uh of travel. And yet I learned things about travel, even though I I rarely have any interest in where we're going. I don't need a I don't need a break from my life. If you're hung up about something that I'm not hung up about, and just because everybody agrees with you, not you, but people, uh, well, they're just gonna have to get okay with the fact that I don't care as much as they do. You've lost once I no longer care if you think I'm right, you've lost your power over me, people. What happens then? Uh wa w uh what what c cat? Oh no, that's why I said it under my breath.

Mm-hmm. Men. I don't know who that is or what's a 40 hour. Right. College history report of self-hypnosis and how it's evolved into what it is today. pretty much mindfulness and that's where I ended up that m finding all of the examples of self-hypnosis that were uh that will Once a month, huh? I wanted to be productive. Cruel Scout Pranks. Um the I think there's a similar route to the problem of why it's difficult to do things like self hypnosis Now in the same way I once I once said to my friend Adam, I said I said, Adam, you're always thinking about naked ladies. Like actual naked ladies. that because I bet there is a person. Yes, but I n what the fuck is that? Because spend the rest of your life exploring theory of mind with a cruel world.

just the really stark whiplash between something specific and just so abstract. Uh a word I probably first picked up from this weird s uh constellation of fields, expansiveness. You know, what whatever it is that that makes make where your where your bad feeling machine uh is is running. Relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness are related, but I want you to listen. Why would you say that both ways, you fucking idiot? What? I think at even like a 101 level, you've got to calm your mind and your body. It sounds like a fancy phrase, right? From Cincinnati to Tampa. With uh I mean really oh sorry, I back in the magic. So I finished what I was doing there. Um and so uh but how about that right there?

They're isolated from one another, and I think they're isolated in some ways from where they happened. Anyway, that's part of one that I thought would be fun to talk about. What? No, that's why I'm typing it up. And and uh the self at Mysis tape came from the wagon wheel flea market in Pinellas Park, Florida, in probably girlfriend, junior, senior, junior eighty-three or four. Well, and I think also at that time, I'm sorry, I uh not no I'm not sorry. Wait, in the exercise no, I I genuinely have no idea. It's more recent to think of those as the same thing or that's something that's always existed. And we don't consciously know why, but our brain will almost always come up with a reason why we did something.

simple as what will you know which uh which triangle did you grab? or don't imply the kind of answer you want and we can always get better at that, right? So that was a big block of context that ac act like all of that made sense. rubber left hand and a real right hand and you put them on different sides of the thing. Do it long enough and you'll feel it in a hand that is not yours. I mean, I bet that's not I find that fucking fascinating, but I bet it's only fascinating on some kind of a fairly explainable perceptual level. Did it work? Let alone something like self-hypnosis. It's like it's a Spanish verb, my favorite verb, and because it combines both both making and doing. Yes. Are you self-contagious?

That to me is a very pure and simple way to think about it. We have trouble persuading our brain to do the thing it already wants to do. So the problem is, what why did I say all those things? Which seems I don't know why. Uh what's the word in a lodestar? You know, it's like you know how remember in the in the self-hypnosis one, I'm sorry, in the the orange liquid one, there's I think there's something about walking down steps. Tiny tiny suck. Um I I do okay, that's aside. Oh, the wait I didn't know. It's a kind of challenge. Um uh I think obsess over different things. I know where the convenience store is, I know where John Patton's house is, I obviously know where Ann Weigel Elementary is.

I'm wondering why you were like, what's the value in trying to imagine the Lane Bryant? Uh I mean Did you see did you just see the most upsetting page in comic history? No, no. No, I okay. Um but I they're really much better thought of as outtakes because sometimes they include misspeaking and retakes and stuff that's very funny. Like if you're not already trying to make anyway, whatever. Oh, called that. uh way that uh don't shh sh don't laugh don't laugh at me. Uh I've I've been hibno ties. And you can still make sure the show won't move forward. Uh I do kind of want to like get a what I would uh how can I put this? And uh n not uh if I got too specif specific, it would have been uh shitty.

It i for the first time I listened to the entire thing. that was basically mindfulness of l find three objects around you that are that are round. In my well just like part of my stipulation here. that's easy for you. techniques I've uh uh done just the the it's it's beyond the differences you noted I'm gonna propose something here, and this is not this is an absolutely I I think absolutely unemotional thing. Um and I think you could think of an equilateral triangle, although there's no necessarily not necessarily an exclusion to these, that's relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness. Um but I think these words do mean things. Um so I was I was well and truly young, but no and I was a late pubescent.

83. Like my mom went to a class to quit smoking, quote, self-hypnosis class. like figuring out the context all this and how it relates to your uh you need a name for the triangle. Pack it to a day. contemporary from the from the eighties. Did you get anything out of it? Big fat quiz, feather, do we want to we could talk about the suggestible is the word I wanted to put a pen in. Um I have to close the thread with the we'll come back to it if we need to. And what does Richard I want to say? Uh man, I'm tired. They're smart. Like I knew the manager at the guitar store. And the brother in law was kind of put off by the question, but then he kept pursuing it. This is my name. Now it's uh actually now it's Claude because I will say give I said How do you phrase it when you ask?

Let's talk about self-hypnosis. Ca with pseudo-e uh sciencey things like self-hypnosis, I kind of expected it to be notice something really specific in your environment that is true. that can short circuit your like the the part of your brain that allows you to clump and that allows you to just fly over a ton of information so you can look for the latest thing to be freaked out about. Um that include a part that's visibly round from where you're sitting. uh just any of the the the disordered ordered or however shit going on in your brain, like this is what makes us interesting, is how we spend the rest of our lives trying to take the things in our brain. Um internal, inward looking, inward turning things.

Yes. Bus right. Now see, now see, we were at a we were at a bus stop, a rest, whatever, you know, you stop and you get out and you get some food and you you you you spend a penny. And so that would make it the summer of incense, the summer of Rick Wakeman. Like I don't think I could because I didn't do that. Unlimited potential is the brand, the company, that guy. I still continue ever when I when I find a way to ha experience and enjoy the benefits of what began as Getting hypnotized. At different times recently. Whilst watching that. I could definitely I could definitely I could definitely imagine like what Oh fuck move on to anything but yawning fuck Um geez. The pitch for hypnosis, especially in a clinical setting, is this.

Because there's no magic in this. Right? Um like if there was an I there was an idea that like you walk around all day thinking, man, you just yawn again, dude. And then you do it over and over? Please capture that. Of magic. uh completely unrelated, but totally related. Putting that documentary in show notes. Despite the fact that I have memories I think are very clear, or memories that are that seem very clear for my purposes, I don't think I can wander around. Um he's um a very gifted and very strange man. Challenge this week was to hypnotize yourself. Well this is the interesting part. Um so can I ask how you it's interesting, like like uh with these things, I think one thing that's not that different from nineteen eighty one for me is that actually helpful for me and by helpful I mean it made me relaxed and in the moment and then It's for the same reason it's difficult for a similar reason to why it's difficult for Alex and I to talk about this with one another and y'all Yes.

See, no, when I say things like this, I want you all to listen because I'm not just a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a Wait a minute, isn't this all just closing your eyes and smiling? And so that's why what's funny to me, buddy, self-hypnosis is where this all started for me. You're going through the Mind Palace and you have this single starting point. Just watching them and seeing how they reacted. If I'd never gotten more okay with being a kid from Cincinnati who was not encouraged to have inward-turning thoughts and self-awareness, who was mostly just instructed to follow rules, if I'd never given myself permission to relax enough I wasn't stressed out.

Mmm. a thin little crappy paperback book that I got i in the early 80s and and that introduced me to self-hypnosis. in my memories. Um Batman shirt. Do-ga-do-ga-do, doo-do-do-ga-do. No, it was a big jumble of uh How did you start learning about self-hypnosis, Alex? G going like you it it will give you self-confidence if you sleep through it because your body is filled with orange magnets. Remember like the the lights are bright, the floor is green, the Yes, but w but it's the like I've experienced the case. Your real hand that's attached to your body must be nice. No! You know what I can do? This would be a good taskmaster situation. I'm so glad we're not roommates. And then I can go in and I'm that way with topics still.

Yeah, uh yes, but as I learned this week, when a model changes and you have that sort of style guide of how you ask something Maybe they killed the mocking bird, yes, I'm familiar. Read a book. Um he was closer to like he had like dropped out of high school and was older and was kind of a little bit he was an aspiring hood, you know, and l only listened to fifties music. The file you gave me was just guided meditation self-confidence, yes. Well, why do we keep saying it's self-hypnosis? Like how our mind well I mean m one of my takeaways from that, it's not the main I don't know if it's the main takeaway, but my big takeaway from the CGP Gray UR2 artic um video was that sometimes our m we do things There was an intertitle on screen that told you that.

Should have warned you about that. I I love his work and hit the weird themes throughout it and I have never seen his Electra. Bruv. What do you think scared me and made me mad? I get I get extra points, including for one con that has been happening on this show for over a year. So the um so the puppet the puppet Yoda being uh manipulated by Frank oh forget it. I was watching soap. Fake goth. I I think most people do, but they don't realize it. Yes, uh it's me. That used to be a very funny bet on Letterman. I'm gonna have a giant blinking warning sign made that says, uh, this none of this makes any sense if you're how you are right now. the open world map, whether that's a Greyhound Station or Grossbeck, Cincinnati, Ohio.

You know this? That's like self-sex. What are you talking about? I wouldn't think that you're the kind of person who gets long anecdotes from people at the DMV, especially because you don't drive. Uh, but uh I don't know if I'm using this term correctly, but I was talking about the way m I feel like my memory works. But listen, treat yourself. I thought there was more than one con. This this is a like pre-prompt thingy. W what I'm avoid I want to completely avoid words like subliminal, subconscious, unconscious, non-uncons. I start having racing thoughts. Oh right. I love my hometown. No, that's that's that's okay. And then later on, while I mention it again, you won't remember you watched it.

uh relaxation, mindfulness, meditation, whatever you want to call any of that stuff. Congratulations, you're the first one. Well, that's pretty weird. For the first of many times this week, I will break your heart by saying, I don't care. You know what I'm talking about? I think that as you were describing the thing I was writing down. Like it's this is why I love the word acer. Why is it so snarky? And now the reason I mentioned it would be useful to have heard the show, and forgive me for the rest of you who haven't, is that like it I think A, it's not that surprising. He didn't just write it. Go find an episode of season 19 of Testmaster called uh I think it's called Children's Midnight Picnic.

Ready? Right? Oh, look at you. Oh, I was about to say. Get into? I'm upset that you're why why would you be upset about that, Alex? Probably 83 probably. Yeah. And I've just introduced the portion, the first portion of going to sleep. Yeah. Uh oh Fuch Algory. Suddenly, as before, it will never really matter what anyone else thought about you. It's y'all. Wasn't that mindfulness? It's the first time I'm w I can recall a man uh checking out my dick who was on that trip. Uh it's only it's interesting to me because um, you know, uh John and I John Roderick and I I know it was one of two summers. That's right, when y'all say zen zen. We we s we roll uh we roll up to the Tri County Mall or whatever, probably Tri-County, and uh and go up and they get their tickets.

Um and there's a there's a phenomenon uh with our mind uh that I couldn't begin to understand. What was he saying about 1981? Also they just don't respect her. I would like to hear your two topics. He holds up the hoop and he has the why does he put the thing in the he puts the 'cause that's the ma the magic act is that an egg goes into a lady's purse. What will you have left? It's extremely difficult to talk about your interior worlds, especially if you're feeling self-conscious about people thinking you're some kind of a nut. Well, actually you don't, but anyway, whatever. Everything that's happened in terms of all of the triangles has a weird genesis in picking up a paperback book that I'm pretty sure was called self-mastery.

And you uh yes Oh Jesus Louise. And I wish other people wouldn't as well. It doesn't sound different, but it's different. If you were at a flea market and it was somebody who sold candles, are you sure? It's not. Read a book. No. Okay. Because they will. Like a Cooper makes barrels, a Fletcher makes flo somebody whose name is Fletcher makes arrows. I'm not doing a bit genuinely, especially with the no exclusion because they each exist, they're all different, they have if you like purposes, but like Cause when cause you know when you're an adult, you remember how you you remember how you buy movie tickets when you're an adult? Like, well the flesh the flesh bulb memory. You thought about ahead of time and that you know are good ideas, but there are ways that like it would be beneficial to get these ideas into your mind by finding a way to What did I say before that?

I Oh, in that case it's perfect for the show. Hmm. Like I mean I don't go somewhere and like get my hair braided and buy a funny shirt and act like I'm different. Humpty Hump's my name. Sorry, my bad. But uh there's things you can do with uh bifurcated mind and like people whose corpus collisum has been cut and all these kinds of crazy experiments things that have happened with perception and and memory, cognition, etc. I was asking how you were reflecting things. Yes, my fake yawns work? Anyway. I think that was March. I'm just gonna throw out The Exorcist. It's a kind of magic. Could I'm glad. Be good. Lots of things to think about. No, I I mean if you wanted this to be written as a tome that I could publish, I would do that.

So cute. Outtake is an outtake. You haven't taken the make, bruv? I wrote down after listening to Roderick on the line, and you did in fact answer the question of what That'd be a pretty name for a girl. The whole point is I'm talking to you and I'm then I'm I'll trying to give you the fake distance to go like that's not me. I got two examples for you. Uh why are we doing this? That's the implication. It's never been true. I'm pretty sure a Chandler. It was the only thing that had ever worked, and it worked. Meats and cheeses always please us. I think so. And like I'm having trouble getting my brain to understand that. I never would have gotten anywhere near for several reasons. It is. Something like that.

That can't be a thing, right? But if somebody's like rubbing a feather, like gently rubbing a feather on both of your hands, Okay, is that making sense? Whoa. Hey, it's Duby Friday. Very funny. Was this part of was this the beginning of the movement around specifically self-hypnosis and quitting smoking? I meant as opposed to a meditation tradition that precedes the recorded mirror of history But like splitting it up. I don't know who that is. Or uh eight eight questions. You said it like a fucking cop. The whole thing. I thought it was hypnotize yourself. I know. That's moved to move to California. Like as in like old ladies who are naked. It took relaxation to get you to where you could un unhook enough to meditate.

I know, but if someone didn't listen to the thing, I was 14. Oh, it was probably Big Fat Quiz of the Year. About which part? Across the room, I pretend I'm like, Matt, I'm gonna tickle you and I do a tickling motion and he lose it fucking loses. Look at you. This is not about the Manchurian candidate. Three, two, hey, sound normal. Surely homogeneous. I just thought that was a funny joke. And it were the words used to the word anyway. Because I gotta go, I'm learning about Rene Descartes. You're doing this like refrigerator poetry. No, no, no, no, no, not for if you're here. Did you think about that a lot? What I what I can't say is like i knowing exactly when it happened, in what order. Well, yeah, but I did it in the style of letter Kenny, so I was cheating a little bit.

Tell me tell me how it was. I don't want to move forward with it. Um, or at least like it makes you seem simple or gullible or or whatever, or it makes you seem disloyal. Tom Hulse's on my right, that he might have been on my left. Um you know what? I was like, yeah, I'm really glad that's over. No. While I was watching that, um it wasn't that I felt the feather on my hand also, but I could really imagine it. It's a kind of magic. They're smart, not like people say. No, I in I was uh thinking about the challenge uh the last few days and just jotting some ideas down. If if if okay, so then I go to the mall, maybe there's this oh my gosh, maybe if I explore it hard enough in my mind palace, there's a story there I don't remember where all of my secrets live, but I don't know because I can't remember it I want a Merlin Mann list of uh celebrities or guests that are constantly good.

I think if I were gonna try and gloss this real quick, first of all, okay, now let's let's stop there. Tampa or Clearwater. And he looked down at my penis and lingered eye-wise there. I was very into the white album. Like I I I still kind of like laugh a little bit that that's where it all sort of started. You have a turban and a mustache and you're no go back and look. I'm pretty sure it was self-mas it was self-mastery through hypnosis. I just feel like I would never get to sleep. They will. Like because you'd be amazed, y'all, that there's a lot of people for whom that's not okay. Like that you wouldn't use in conversation, but like doesn't that kind of go over better as a as a topic with people?

I I'm pr pretty sure. No. Um, this is the I'm only giving this as much explanation as is needed to elicit the fairly modest Um tiny sock. What do you mean? Don't don't peg d don't. You decide. It's it would be very unkind. I used to do it for a living. Like, I don't think it's plausible to think that you could drop me onto the map and like that I would respawn and gross back title. I know. Stage is a cage, the mic is a Would you like would you like some more rapping this week? It'll just be the first paragraph of a Wikipedia article, basically. That'll be funny. And yes, you can do both and you should. He's like, he goes, I think he goes like oh good grief. Well, that's okay. Mm-hmm. I'm pretty I'm eighty percent sure it was eighty one but I can't prove that.

And it was really funny. I don't know how it started when it started. I was All right. When I was ready, I throw this switch. The reason that I wanted a history is because how I started was the hi self-hypnosis tape that you gave me a while back. Look, let's say you're doing there's like the more classic kind of meditation where you like like focus on a bowl or a flame or whatever. Sure, it can be, but stop saying mindfulness. So there was never I had never heard of anything I what the fuck is self hypnosis? It has some Ouija board type shit in it. If it's hypnosis, you can make a lady swim in the air and do stuff. Has been a a guiding light for me in a lot of these internal journeys I was never a goth.

Have you have you ever done that to to another? It is actually it is actually a truly outstanding page. What did you say? The self-hypnosis tape that I listen to probably like once a month that talks about Cool Scout. Okay. I thought that was really, really fun. There's no magic and there's no real science in this. Like I'm like I'm like a pants character turning off all the lights. Did you not hear the part where the brain just announced a minute ago that here here's the part where the racing thoughts come? Ooh. I was about to say I'm not a Mexican. Okay. Outtake is something we had to cut out because it was too long or inappropriate or you know didn't advance the show. Merlin, what did you find most valuable about exploring your mind palace?

Well, you're asking how I do. Well, we were always I was always very much, I feel like, encouraged to not dwell on these kinds of things. If it comes too naturally for you, you have weird friends and no one likes you. You know, what the hell? I picked up the um what is it called? In what sense? The second part is giving you an idea you already want in a way that your brain can do something with it. But I I I know how to walk to the convenience store, like half a mile from my house, but like I I don't know when Frank Miller's Wolverine came out, but we both got the cover of Wolverine One by Frank Miller airbrushed on a t-shirt. Well, go look up his stuff. What's wrong with what's the first one?

Season nineteen Taskmaster is very, very good and just delightful. Well, this is kind of like that, but not really. You ever try actual meditation? That's part of the process. Did I get like did I learn something from it? I was kind of it was kind of like watching how a yawn can be contagious. The woman who said my husband has so many affairs I didn't I don't even know if my last child was mine. But C, most fascinatingly, I mean God, this is so obscure. But while Fach Al-Ghouri's history as being an 18-year-old Muslim woman struggling with her faith at the age of 18. That's Humpty Hump. As a bit. It's a real it's a real giveaway, you know what I mean? Mr. Well, y I think you meant Descartes, but then you said that you're misquoting Aristotle.

They had an animated uh Swiss Army knife that fascinated me. Will uh around what it helps me sleep because No, but this you're so f Uh anytime you try to talk about things that are emotional, um mental That's why I push back a little bit at how many things end up falling under meditation. No, no, that's okay. No, like throughout the in the nineties it was mindful what? In the eighties it was like you are going to relax. Well, like at least when I was coming up, that's what hypnosis was. Okay, but like that's one of those weird things. There's a reason they make candles. Eventually you want to take things out of the bag and use them. Well, because that that that goofy idea of taking the Can feel it.

Here comes the part. You can't make them any smaller. And I see that's a reference to the Bob Mortimer thing we watched together and you didn't laugh. And and what I was saying was, I don't know, this isn't that interesting, it was interesting to me. You know? You ever seen the cover? That is a really wait, wait, say it again. I just thought that was kind of interesting, is how how our memory works. I was not able to put my hand even to like a PDF of it and the covers I found were not Well, at least when I was a kid, uh all you ever heard about was hypnosis. That sounds a lot like Aristotle, if you think about it. You're not actually saying anything, but they, believe me, they completely understand the implication.

Whoa. I didn't stop. Yes. Anyways, um forget it. I don't know. How to go. I did a um what they call a hypnosis challenge. And if I had done that, I still wouldn't remember that. Okay, so me, John Patton, John Larsgaard, and uh the friend Charles, um, all of whom are 16 to 18. That's a big part of the book and I spent a lot of the summer of nineteen eighty one trying to do it. Here's a funny thing. I I listen, listen. Oh. Like I knew a few things, but like I I don't have the same kind of We get matching shirts or something. And when I say so it's not just like goofy, you know, camping it up on camera. What do you call somebody who makes candles? You're trying to relax. Like Zen is one of the most uh difficult uh and It can very much be a kind of meditation.

I'm pretty sure, Alex, I'm pretty sure you would not believe the mind map I had to come up I chose to come up with to figure this out, to exclude nineteen eighty two. Well he's he's a s he's a psychiatrist. Okay, so first of all I'm gonna put a pen in this. Fancy Audio producer. So I I'm not a I'm not a pseudoscientist, but Depending on the night, depending on the whatever, I have two to six of those. Hmm. I'm you know last week. Literally once a day I have talked about chickens. It was two years later. It's a different topic. Well when you're falling asleep at night, are you necessarily meditating My best friend John came to Florida. Don't be meta, no more meta, not enough meta for the show.

Well, I don't want to live inside my own mind, but I certainly would like to feel comfortable when I'm visiting there. Now I'm here. Do a good job. I used to drive a car for a living. It was basically like basically if you hit the right thing at the right time you got to act like you were in a cutscene. Because you're usually you're looking at your prepared notes a lot of the time. There's one of those that turns it into like uh like a snipe hunt where you're out there fucking tearing ass as part of some kind of cruel scout prank. I'm pretty sure the name Chandler comes from making candles, but I'm not sure. I'm gonna be honest. You said in eighth grade you could produce semen. Keep going. Self-contagious.

And that's why that's why this all you guys didn't realize it at the time, but that's why this all really fits together. Well they sang a song called Nemesis about part of Genesis. No God no. And I just thought that was interesting. I think I well, at the very least, I can almost assure you that people if they experimented with that concept would find themselves a lot happier. I thought there was at least things that I've made. Cruel Scout prank. Like all words, they mean things. Oh. Um what is the movie Sybil? Kind of like uh, you know, the way in that video, CGB Gray sets it up with the divider and your your eye, one eye can only see this side. This multi-step falling asleep method that's like changed my entire life.

I'm a professional. There's no way you could be any more angry, most of you. There's absolutely no need to ask a question there. If you have no way to speculate about why I'm a bad person, what will you have left? I mean, at the very least, I should be probably just doing my fucking homework and doing good works or whatever. Uh or or different kinds of ways of like trying to give people Because mindfulness meditation is a different there's different all different kinds of meditation. Nobody washed their hands back then. The chicken in the the little container is something Um lots of things to think about. Wait, is that the most recent one? He's also a great guest on blank check. Like why are you so why are you?

I don't care about certain things, irrespective of other people, which I think is the greatest gift that I can give to the world. Don't laugh at don't don't act as if I don't know. I'm sorry. Because you guys don't like talking about shit like this and it makes you uncomfortable. That's all part of the process. I'm not sorry at all. I love the Joan River. And this is this is what's good for the show. It's not it wasn't nostalgia. It's gotta be a D time. It'll be funny. And the fake hand that you're looking at, you don't feel it. It's what you make and what you do. This is the part where I have racing thoughts. Do you want um the honest answer to that? No, just my questions in general. Now here's the question.

So long. I briefly had a and then ninety minutes later it's all about all the customer service problems she's had because no one speaks English. Do a good job. Like even if we chose to, I'm not sure we could obsess over the same kinds of things just because we're not wired that way. And, you know, it's uh w you know, why would I benefit I don't know if why if I would benefit from that, but maybe there's a st So did Fatcha. Had no use in the actual TV show, but the outtakes. AKA I know, I I know it's Humpty Hump. Twenty-six uh uh so that would be a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old took a 26 hour And then I think it's called, was it, was it self-hypnosis? No. Keep going. Oh my god, they're both so good.

Okay. That's uh the it feel it's giving Joan. No no no no no no. Here's my prescription. If this is your first season of Taskmaster and you're an American, that's why I think it's it it's because it's phenomenal. They don't have time to fuck around, but when they do and they get a little silly, sometimes they lean into it and then press it for a little while. I want to put it in notes. It's so i it's one of those numerous wonderful exercises like saying nine nine instead of ten. So you say something like, I've learned this with ChatGPT, I've learned this with you, I've learned this with my family. I was I know, it makes you even more fake. Do you have two topics? It's called w it's one other things.

Go look up Electra. Those characters are a little more unconventional. Yeah. It's not, and that's why you feel like you're so bad at it, guys I think that's a pretty famous one. Um the uh some of it I mean I I think I get it. And like you have you have no way to know which triangle you grab but your brain will still come up with like I wouldn't say that. I have no response to that. Basically you have a light gun. And it was just I just wanted to say that it was an interesting exercise. And then C2 or D, like there's some facts that don't really add up, and I still don't know exactly when I got this Yes. You can keep it dead in the water. That's the paid and full, that's one of the paid and full um remixes by Eric Bien Rachim.

I wonder if you are too. Find three objects around you that you find comforting. Actually at five times, you you've claimed to like Chris Fleming. And this is not just to say more words, I want you to actually listen, but they're also specifically related in unusual ways to one another. No, honestly, it's probably you have the skills to find this. I have complete control over you. Even though they're smart. No, I didn't I just sang I sang I sang like Shriek Shriek Back. Gosh, no, if you only if you're not here. It's it's like checking adjacent mall. Maybe it started with some kind of a visual gag. Um, okay, so you remember the CGP Gray UR2 video? I don't know. Why are we doing self-hypnosis? Oh god.

There was a funny joke. I've done this for a living since 2011. Yeah. See, I I mentioned to you in our super secret private text channel that I uh I you just be giving me homework all the time. Oh wow. That's a feather in my cap W because I Right when it gets interesting, change to the other thing. Well what happens is it's what's called an out it's an outtake. Before we ever get to trying to communicate it to a theoretically interested party, it's hard just to think about or thinking about thoughts is some fucking bullshit, man. And he he looked over the divider. Wait, no U14 you were you were there's no way no no I wasn't don't worry it wasn't traumatic. Well, but the whole term self-hypnosis, as I went on the d dumb journey of actually Like a big bunch of the book was about how to use a pendulum on a fishing line.

I'm just trying to clarify. But just the idea of relaxing enough to be able to have an idea in your mind that is a positive improvement. What was I saying before pants now? I just want everyone to know that I was very excited to be a few minutes. So uh I was just thinking about how to to a phrase I learned from Max that I use all the time now, flesh bulb memories, that I have what I feel like are pretty specific probably I have n yes. I had a wolfarine shirt, but it was a different time. Really good Chandler. And um his expression didn't change the entire time This is context, it's vital. And does that feel like meditation? How does it all fit together? That's not a species ending event. But it w would require you to have heard Monday's uh Roderick on the line.

Uh but um I learned things and in that similar way. And then I'll get two points with my friends who listen to the show. And I said make sure to give examples of key players and influencers, notable events, and various techniques. No, I'm not. Well but it's n it's not where she first starts talking to Merrick about his mother. If you brush if somebody brushes your hand and your fake hand No, no. Please capture that. I we guys talk about the side. If I started doing that to people, a lot would change. That I would respawn and grassback and and like be able to just start walking around. No. Are you up to that? All right, let's let's think about this. That's a way to do it. Relaxation, meditation is not relaxation any more than relaxation is meditation.

Um the but there's two parts that are not adding up. And and but like that's why we can produce semen My mother went to a self-hypnosis class in 1991. And it needs that expansiveness. Parthenogenesis, that's when you can uh make your own baby by your by yourself. Big Dark Nemesis, Parthenogenesis, everybody's happy and the dead come home. Chickens are smart compared to what? Uh so Which is why I don't use the word love Like now, is that gonna be a good basis for writing papers and whatnot? Cruel Cruel Scout Prank. That's really just a good graphic representation of something I think about a lot. Anyways. 1981. I uh uh I sometimes don't know Hello. And the the example I use and I don't know if this this is this is the right term and frankly I don't care.

And uh just think of Dennis Feinstein. It used to be Wikipedia. That's the orange magnets while you sleep is not what it's about. They spend a lot of time alone. But do you count every time you sit down and exhale as meditation? That's the memory I got. Uh and I am done talking about that. So anyway, that's hypnosis. And rub a hand, you rub a hand. It's not what you say. Hello. I'm do things are good for the show. Facha did her whole room up in Batman. I disagree. And like now here's the thing. I think it's a Chandler. You ever try to go to a retreat? Here's what you do. Well, what do we do? I don't I don't need you for this one. I can still remember going where in Walden Books. It's pretty funny.

Don't you love Facia? That's pretty different from what you see in your brain. I mean did I get the answers I expected? Sorry. Like I'm I Well the problem is if there's value in it, then I have a reason to try and make up memories. I definitely do not want to be going there. I found the clip. Same way I've done this really since elementary school, high school, college, like I yeah, I I will go to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy and I will read the That's that's how you're gonna spend the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. Otherwise they would just be grunts 1982 is when John and I took a bus. Now I don't know how much of that's true. etc. So so it's not that funny that I made a decision to stop driving a car.

Yeah, it is. Uh your your mouth has started asking a question before your mind has really thought about what it is you care about. Like why do we travel? And I think I actually said to John as we, you know, hurried to get back on the bus. Absolutely. Never in a million years would I want to, with my modest skills, unintentionally undercut any pseudoscience. It's something much plainer. No, it's it's my entire life career and nobody reads what I write. How are you, Merlin Man It was a funny joke I was remembering the other day. Cause I didn't go to that store. Cool. Say it again. The advice I've gotten in the past is you calm your body and then eventually that starts to help you calm your mind.

That's not what I mean. And then slowly his eyes came up and made contact with me. I'm I'm going on about this. Asking lots of questions. And there might be others, but I don't have other photos. His Daredevil and Electra, but especially his Electra stuff is pretty incredible. See, I'm trying not to ask because I think that's a good thing. Um I asked then Claude that. I'm trying to make it sound like it's connected to what you've been saying. Rumor, R-U-M-E-R. And again, here we put up the usual like giant blinking warning sign. And then to talk about how it made you feel, it's for a lot of us that that does not come naturally. Think of it in a different way. It's just Jimmy Carr and six people, and it's fucking hilarious.

No, no, no. It's funny that I didn't spend forty years of my life driving. It just keeps going and going and going. I Okay. And so what happened to mindfulness? And I don't feel it on the hand that I don't have. Yeah, you're worried about me losing it. It's a kind of magic This is Do by Friday, a weekly challenge podcast with Alex Cox and Merlin Mann. This week I'm gonna be providing you a lot more time to say the things you feel like saying. Well depends on how long the show was. Anyway. That's not that's not healthy. If your light gun didn't hit this exact right spot at this exact right moment, the movie stepped on stopped playing. There's no answer to that. What was the important thing? No, no, no.

Now it's gone on too long and it's not funny. Like we're like what for me a lot of times that's Wikipedia. And I I was wrong because that's kind of Okay, photogenesis, photosynthesis. So do you know you're about ninety seconds away from complaining about the Mexicans who fix her pipes. Now you say something. My life is what I have and what I like. Yeah, let's what would you like the challenge for this week? I don't think you're thinking about what naked ladies actually look like. It's not what you plan. Hello people. Yes. I have to think about, well, what book, when book, how book. I put that to the test this week in a way that I thought was interesting. Because also the way that he did his panels, I think, was really special.

The one where you have to guess? Um children like them. W way better than I thought in Hooray. Busy busy busy. The tape you were uh your to your earlier qu uh uh question, uh the questions are written down for me. I've hypnotized to you. Up, huh, huh, huh, huh? I'll just count all the questions you ask in an episode. I'm pretty sure I got it in 1981. I think I have a reflexive question that makes the person It gets weird. It just kinda shortcuts your You always mention that you're an adult. This is also a time where if you were to see somebody sitting in a chair with a professional He is a PhD. I'm by recently, I yeah, I mean the like Like since the nineties. Hypnosis is what you do, what you you you have a turban.

Go look at any and you can look at mesmerism. Tiny suck. There there's a lot of heterodox opinion about uh homogeneity. I would I think uh it'd be great if you did a quick recap of So any memory Frank Miller Wolverine. Isn't she wonderful? And then Lusanders got involved and it was really and they just ended up talking about Um the challenge this week was to get into self-hypnosis I'm just predicting that knowing you, there was something about the self-nosis challenge that scared you. Is that a pr is that a prompt you saved? Okay, I think a Chandler is somebody who makes candles. This is what if you try to use your toolbox to rr put put nails into a board, it'll won't work as well as taking out the hammer and using it.

Yeah. I was 14 and these guys were like I say 16 to 18. You've got a fake, you can't get a fake Calm down. Um, all right. I was listening so hard to you try and be like, okay, maybe I know the song. Okay, no, I'm halfway I'm halfway through. Presence of mind is something I think He hypnotizes her, and that's when we first meet the demon. That's not a meta a meta part because the meta part is like, okay This is not about any of those things. Hypnosis is this is it all it is. And now I've like framed it, I've introduced it. I can do this one on my own. And I found that what what I found interesting was I said, Yeah, but who knows, maybe I wander around back there and I do find some flashbulbs And that was what was interesting.

And I think that was either the summer we got matching. Huh. In instead of answering the other question, I will answer your question. He was statuesque. Do do do. Can I open up a time magazine s uh time magazine on the stand and see what's on page sixty-four? Is that sometimes It sounds like the beginning of every call with my mother. Anyway. Want something else. I know where all these things are, but I couldn't walk I'm gonna ask what Roderick did on Monday. What's March watching soap? I'll just I'll go I'll go. I don't know. Um and that to me what's funny is that the relaxation required I mean, one is the relaxation part, but you know what a really big one is, dude? Or if you're in incapable service.

No, I did not get it. Um what are you stressed out about? So he for example, in one he he talks he has a discussion. Whoa, you're very clever. I know, and now I'm trying to in my head. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. How do you get how do you get into such a state? And the more you interrogate these things and the more you look for context that proves that they're true. This is just what we did. Like we travel to like do we travel to be somewhere different? Pump up the volume. Now here's where some of the confusion comes from. Not dramatic to Wolverine in Japan. No wait, no here's another question. And really they're fairly clear cognates with English. It's just it's a relaxed Aristotle, which was one of one of the great skateboard moves at the time.

And uh and that wasn't the thing. I really no shit. With ChatGPT if I say uh It needs that space. After I've gotten in bed, I've done all my things, I'm ready to go to bed. Because I really liked the challenge this week. I'm guessing. And then I can work in some zingers that my that my friends who listen to the program will think is funny and they'll go, Oh, I didn't Alex didn't even notice you said that three times. And that's why the the funny thing I to me funny thing I said to John was the fact that these memories are so isolated is what makes me think they're isolated. It's called self Where like her in the big chair is how she was able to get this. Um oh my goodness, on one of my panel shows.

Now, who knows? Well, let's go back a step. That's the one where I do things like I realize, okay, here comes here comes those thoughts. Gacko Papa! Watch. Uh especially I would say even especially if you like if you like Taskmaster, I think it's a lot of fun. You know, and different people travel for different reasons. Without opening your eyes, think of the three things closest to you. I don't know why I'm having uh ig uh it's I'm disappointed in myself So the But I'm not saying this just to put out extra words. A rubber hand sitting on the desk that somebody is rubbing. But y you can already probably guess where this is going. You were uh the re important thing of yawning. Boy, you are just right parked.

Everybody's happy and the dead go come home. I wouldn't even say that. And if I had been less specific, it would have, like I said, been just a really short generic thing. I wanna give you some expansiveness. It's okay. And that's also this is also the summer of One Adult for Blade Runner I think about this stuff a lot. Well now it's going to be hard for you because I'm crushing your head. Maybe you just just above the bra. I'm I'm aware, which is why I'm here. Which is another unkind thing to say if you actually like the person you're talking to. Good. I think most people think about chickens once a day. Um other birds except Corvids, they take the cake. What I'm saying is He's great on everything.

Well you know how there's names that come from jobs? Yeah, I understand. You ever tried actual zen? What you're calling, what a lot of people are calling mindfulness, I'm just calling presence of mind, which is or self-awareness. We don't have time. And so it helps to kind of like, you know, take that down about five percent. Something dumb on screen. Like Rene Descartes, like I know like roughly when he was around and what his big concepts are, and that gives me this big map. Well sweet. And uh I'm pretty sure it was 1981. Apart from apart from what? Even something as It's not what you think about. Those are the racing thoughts. No, no, I'm just I'm sorry. I got two topics. I can't remember if it's Phyllis Diller or Pro But anyway, I just thought that was interesting because the more I I pushed it, A, I was able to go, oh you know what, I I feel like I really do remember that.

And they had a guest stay and they they came in and used one of her special cups. It's something beneficial if you always ask the same kind of question generally the same kind of way. Is that the one that included the tape about Don't forget about that. That's a tough name. But Chris Fleming has a line that I like a lot where he says, The people that you want to be poly are never the ones who are poly. Or like Chandler, Chanticleer, uh uh uh Chandelier. Isn't that kind of an interesting idea? And then you said not saying anything I'll try to find it. We want to try and get some good ideas into your mind that you Some that repeat, but I'm entirely aware of them. No no it's it's it's You know, it cut for time, right?

Now I know of Humpt And that's okay. If you you'll know you're you're on your second week of meditation working if you suddenly start getting a little weepy and you're not sure why. That was a fucking weird concept in 1991. I was just you know thinking about that and like I was like fucking you Oh jump frankly. I read difficult things about important issues. All right, all right, hmm I'm perfectly happy with how I am, and fourth and most saliently, I'm really happy with my life in general It's okay, that's just a it's just a guess. I already know what you're gonna say. And um I I think you almost clocked me on it, but you still haven't. Then when that gets interesting, change to another thing.

That's an outtake from the Empire Strikes Back. There's a very there's a end yes send their socks to him That's what we'll be doing. But the but but but why would you even think about this? He sidled up to the urinal on my right. Now here's the question. Did you get anything out of it other than uh, you know, having now that flesh bulb memory? I could, oh I can't mute you for a second. Don't want my non-washcloth voice. And my favorite part of the exercise was imagining going to Northgate Mall Um uh we're talking about internal worlds, we're talking about things that are No, it's not like the project management triangle. I think I fill in Okay. I've hypnotized for you with yawns. Tiny suck Tiny suck.

You could raise it up or raise it down. Um he had a headband Do you know what I mean? So that's that's been a long time and it's No, you put Descartes before Descorus. No more hups. Something I I said on Monday was like go I No one will ever touch me. Oh, if you enjoy it, if one enjoys it, including you, you're one. So every time I for hear the word hypnotized now, I think of David Letterman saying, I've been hypnotized I guess it's obvious I also like to write. And your notion of a person who wants to talk all day about their interior world. I I should say you know what? These words are useful. I want a washcloth, I wanna know what it sounds like Uh that I don't think I don't think I can wander through it Well, for a while it seems like a Jason Manzuka's character in 9-9.

Oh, fuck you. If it is too I want to talk to you if Like you imagine going down a flight of stairs and another flight of stairs and it's okay, you can think of something else if you need to, but I never could have done it. All right, three. Like I know where the Hoffritz for Cutlery is, because I very distinctly remember And like I I I really blew up my spot when I tried to look up when Too Shy by Kajakugu was out. Um season nineteen is Um going into this week. It did because Um And it started as kind of a lark by picking up this paperback book. Um, he was a he was a hippie guy, he definitely presented as gay. This is going on too long. Anyway. Specifically, I was trying to remember the book.

And and Dragon's Lair in the sense that that was a um that was a based on like a I agree with that. Janet, yeah, I've said this for years before this all happened. She is. Say more about that. Pump up the volume. You guys aren't doing a podcast about this. Uh or for put differently, I don't know how much of that is historically accurate Was that what it said? It's probably big fat quiz. That's not good. Watch that one. I just So it would be like really specific and then really uh yeah Now Scout's a cute name because it's from that uh that book. Odd. One is I remember some very DD heavy stuff happening, but I'm pretty sure. It needs that relaxation to calm the fuck down. But yeah, I got twenty I got twenty-four uh anyways out of the last rectifs.

It's a kind of magic. It was the summer that I was into Let me pick uh uh No no just like like when you say like tell me tell me about No you don't have to read things, just tell me say well. And then you just you do you type that much every time? Find three objects around you that are metal. I'm not trying to so A, I'm not saying that to sound like I know things. And and now one thing to s to say on number third of you, the um I don't know, this is just just an observation. And so I think so. Isn't isn't isn't This is the thing, and this is every fucking book about hypnosis that has any sense to it will tell you this is not about And I think Yeah, but the thing is, if you told me what books you're reading, I bet you they suck.

Do you a hop as of last week and I don't like the voice? Now you're gonna have to go watch the documentary like a fucking person. I have no one to talk to about it. But didn't you like the Vic and Bob one from the 90s? Uh the uh relaxation. Well of course classic now, but what's funny is we got it like probably the Since 81? What if I don't care that you think I'm a hypocrite? You know what I mean? No I'm Um, you you um what was it talking about poop? We just Why do you sound why you sound stressed out? I would like the challenge this week to be hypnotize yourself. You know those kinds of things? Stage hypnosis, generally. Did any while burning incense and listening to Rick Wick Rick Wickman's uh fake classical album.

No, I won't. Um anyway, go look for Big Fat Quiz and the feather thing. Why are we doing hypnosis? It's what you do. I don't have a that I can I know when the school year happened. And being away from it for m for a week doesn't make me feel better. Fair. Because, first of all, I completely understand why that seems like meditation. This is important to the story, but I do want to But also the hang on. You're trying to you give me a T up to sound smart. It's based on a guy named Mesmer. I never would have gotten anywhere near that without all this bullshit about self-relaxation and self-hypnosis. You didn't watch Season 19. But anyway, Something lo-fi. You don't have to answer that question for 30 seconds.

You can have fun with that or you can become a dick about it. And you got the It's the weirdest it's the weirdest thing and that's why that's why some of this stuff I wanna give you some some space. You know the um gosh, I shouldn't even say Here's the thing. Well, that's why I personally distinguish mindfulness from presence of mind. I'm my my penis is in my hands and I'm urinating the whole time. Is it an open world? She took one class, she came home, she never smoked again. Hey. That's Ultimately, when you like read, you know, as as presented. Yeah, I don't know. I I was trying to be subtle about it. That would be another one. Like a lot of times I'll just put on some outtakes. Is it Don Gular?

Oh my fucking God, Alex Fine, whatever. This is about you going I hate my hometown. Baby baby baby baby by yourself. I'm drowning. I would m Yeah, I I thought it was interesting. What am I what am I gonna say? Like I'm I'm not irrational about dumb shit and then don't think about it and insist I'm right. And what's hypnosis? I have all of this already, including the well it not the soap. It might be uh am I allowed to use that verb? Cheat yourself. And that's helping me find peace, to say like, well, it's okay that we get hung up about different things and And when you do meditate, you could choose choose the kinds of things that you focus on. Of course you do, yes? For whom? I wonder what a cop would sound like if if they were squeezing out a Isn't that a great show?

Pump up the volume. Where do you start when you're interested in something that's maybe a little fruity like this? If you always do it the same way. Thank you everybody for tuning in. That's not my hand. I can do that by cut with crushing your head. Here's the basic idea, I think, of hypnosis. I don't know. I it's it's to me it's the thing where I go, this is the part where I have racing thoughts for a while. Well you could also just assert you could also just assert remarks where you could say things like I agree with that It is the takeout, yes. Mm-hmm. I'm pretty sure. And I walk up I walk up to the window and I say, I want adult for Blade Runner. Self-hypnosis, how self-confidence meant self-hypnosis, right?

It's Oh, no more yums. Just that that alone. Or sometimes you haven't really thought about it and then it just kind of stops where we're going with it But uh These words can be like like an excellent IKEA fracta bags for carrying things around. I'm I'm I'm just I'm trying to avoid all of those terms. How do we get you relaxed enough that you agree to think about an idea you already said you want to think about? Sorry guys, lights out. Like I know where the friendlies is. The uh We've probably already gotten to it, so you probably just missed it. We took a Greyhound, 26 hour Greyhound bus ride. It's like a you know, I uh I I think a guy just looked at my penis I'll say I will. That's not good for the show or your lungs.

But I was saying that I don't think my memory is an open world game She gets better and better and better. Why don't you watch TV more? Uh let's talk about self-hypnosis. The triangle is very good. But you make and do. Do that more. I didn't tell you to. Hello. I like being different places. Um it was whatever. That's like that's like that's like when some when when when an alien goes I would like some of your human food. I like where you're going with this. In order to meditate, And I watched this over and over and over in this episode, and it's mind-boggling to watch. And then what was the thing we had to do to close the thread? You sound you sound you sound like somebody squeeze squeezing a washcloth.

And I think that's part of what makes the show interesting. And then you That's a really good metaphor. Tell me it's Don Gular. It's one of the great outtakes. We've got a triangle. If that works for you, run with it. John Larsgaard, that's the guy with the 64 and a half Mustang with pony interior I want to I I think about associations with that book. This is circa 8456. It's not very relaxing at all. Okay. I'm drowning. So it was And he asked what it would cost him to get a second bum hole Sometimes it meant meditation, and sometimes it meant mindfulness. Say more about that. You could even hit the ground, make it your beloved son or daughter, throw it out. Hypnosis, another word for m you know, mesmerism.

What? You said you were going to put a pin in yawning and the feather what Oh boy, is this the show? I'm like, ah I can mute you, but I don't control the buttons anymore. Okay. Like, but I don't think I could wander into the Lane Bryant. Forget about the year. I don't need to be right. You, you, goddammit. How did you get it? That's like where it comes from. We're gonna talk about the things that scared you and made you mad I can pretty much promise you I just want you to sound normal. Look at that. Dance. I wanna give you room. First of all, those things are related. Your entire life is a serre And I'm wondering if you did the challenge, but I did the challenge when I was 13, Alex. And I did think of think about our mall My friend.

But do imagine an equilateral triangle, right? I'm not gonna look it up, because I like having delight in my life. Who's the person I'm always misquoting? I know what the name for them is. A We either we got we either got matching Jason Manzucas, one of the great people to have on your podcast It was just something that happens Doesn't doesn't he she go and visit him in his office? What what do I think for you the nineties is not recently No, I was about to make a big point, right? I And then we would both wear that at the same time, which was extremely cool Oh no, oh no, let me guess. He's talking Sean Gibson about the time that he asked his brother in law Just I do your own shit. That other than any uh uh any other mindfulness White album.

You know what anybody else wanna yell all together? But uh the relaxation, uh oh wait, and the oh wait, you're you're criticizing uh me about how I present things. I'm aware. I was just saying that And you know, he he um he's the artist on that too. Answer whatever you want, Alex. Not really, but it does the thing that to me Wikipedia does today. No, I do want to hear more of I rem I I don't think I could walk through houses I never Wait, wait, wait. Just look for Frank Miller Wolverine 1. Hi. It's not the project management triangle because there's no exclusion here Did you give it to yourself? You know what I'm saying? Dance. Because I said mm-hmm, I don't get it. Did y did you hit puberty early or late, Merlin?

I mean the idea like Well, because hypnosis. The same way we would use make and do, which can both mean poo. I don't like going different places, which makes travel difficult for me. Wolverine in Japan. The part thick matters a ton to me and I think is interesting to think about. Maybe I'll know the reference. I mean I can't figure out what the chronology is. Is like it's you have to be careful what kind of question you ask because it And then You get to hear Fatya's entire like four minute They took it out. Take 30 seconds to not think about that. Tiny suck. Well, some people didn't like it because it's a little bit more Uh children's midnight picnic And because you started this because you do it the same way.

Well, because words mean things. I can do that by crushing your head. And they are all Mexicans now. You don't be I think those three things are related in general. God Maybe baby. That's more the way to look at it. That's what makes me different from the rest of you Therefore I keep doing it. Um I know, that's why I'm here. Oh god. March. Thank you. Do that do that almost all the time. I wanna give How does how does that happen? I I think is you know we Doom doom doom doom doom boo doom doom. She'd been smoking since 1956. What happens then? So what kind of answer did you get? I'm being general about this because this is how you approach a problem like this. Um Like, right But like he did that with Captain America.

Spoiler And to say something more Why are you trying to We're bringing it back home. And I found myself doing Um you didn't watch season 19 with Taskmaster? I'm saying that This week's challenge? As always, please cite sources and provide links whenever possible. Whoever it was, probably Aristotle, who said we are what we frequently do. Three, two I know that I've survived every single time I've ever had that thought. Like I could I know how to walk. He looked at my penis. You've never seen soap. I love pants so fucking much. Oh, it's a buddy Holly song. Oh The room to first of all say it's okay to think about inward turning I've tried to talk about it so many times and it never interests people.

It's a very interesting setting. But here's and what's funny is like Ugh. It's that it that it's giving. Um I'm sorry. I knew my house address. Oh do you know the game? Oh what's the what's what Americans sometimes call bloopers. And you're not actually reading to them, you're listening to them. Anyway Okay? What do I mean by that? You ever do a relaxed Aristotle? What was I talking about? Um so you know like That is hard. So when did I start producing semen? Were you satisfied with where it was taking you? Which which way? That's not good for anybody. What's happening? Think about those word root similarities. It's th it's very untrial famidorian. I'll go back I'm sorry, I promised I'd give you this mode and and now it's What is the most famous hypnosis scene?

Don't worry, it's a Buddy Holly song, yeah. Are you familiar with it? Hmm. Put a pin in that. That's what you'll have left. Ding. Because My friend. Blah Yeah. I'm here to keep running up to you. Okay, cool. That makes you weird. I don't know what soap is. Get into self-hypnosis. The C part was the most interesting. I don't love pants. Ah, I'm hypnotized. It's giving Joan. And then B Well You lost me. You keep going raw transcript