How NASA kept astronauts from swearing on the Moon
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They were all hypnotised, in fact their "training programme" was marketed by its creator as an executive management tool. When offered the chance to undergo it, I passed. I was highly concerned, because one of the previous year's intake who had undergone the training was arrested just outside the security post of the ground floor factory of the building where I worked. He was attacking people with a gold club and murmuring quite extraordinary things.
The process using hypnosis which the astronauts underwent involves creative visualisation as it was then called, including focusing on individual internal organs and blood flow to control breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
It also involved sensory deprivation and sound and vision conditioning, Clockwork Orange style.
It seemed utterly unnecessary for executive performance, and it certainly didn't translate to performance gains of any significance- I was the one doing the time and motion my fellow managers, and they didn't boost their output.
What it did do was produce some random fugue states. Hardly advantageous.
It was interesting to listening to Art Bell, and apart from his usual tiresome schtick he mentioned that Edgar Mitchell, astronaut and ETH shill extraordinaire, couldn't remember much about being on the moon.
And of course there's Buzz Aldrin's mental dissolution on his return - documented fact.
And the ever-smiling hermit Neil Armstrong.
Manchurian Astronauts.
In preparing for his mission, NASA had the astronaut hypnotized. Rather than curse, a psychiatrist put the idea in his head that he would rather hum when his mind wandered. The hypnotized astronaut is rarely named, but only one man can be heard humming as he skipps across the lunar surface. Transmissions from Commander Pete Conrad are punctuated with "dum de dum dum dum" and "dum do do do, do do" making him the likliest candidate. (Image: Pete Conrad visits samples he returned from the Moon.)
Suggested Reading:
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo. 2004.
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They were all hypnotised, in fact their "training programme" was marketed by its creator as an executive management tool. When offered the chance to undergo it, I passed. I was highly concerned, because one of the previous year's intake who had undergone the training was arrested just outside the security post of the ground floor factory of the building where I worked. He was attacking people with a gold club and murmuring quite extraordinary things.
The process using hypnosis which the astronauts underwent involves creative visualisation as it was then called, including focusing on individual internal organs and blood flow to control breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
It also involved sensory deprivation and sound and vision conditioning, Clockwork Orange style.
It seemed utterly unnecessary for executive performance, and it certainly didn't translate to performance gains of any significance- I was the one doing the time and motion my fellow managers, and they didn't boost their output.
What it did do was produce some random fugue states. Hardly advantageous.
It was interesting to listening to Art Bell, and apart from his usual tiresome schtick he mentioned that Edgar Mitchell, astronaut and ETH shill extraordinaire, couldn't remember much about being on the moon.
And of course there's Buzz Aldrin's mental dissolution on his return - documented fact.
And the ever-smiling hermit Neil Armstrong.
Manchurian Astronauts.
