For me, one of
the most interesting aspects of watching Blackfish with my family was seeing their reactions to the marine
biologists’ and former SeaWorld
trainers’ interviews. For many trainers, their attitudes about orca captivity
evolved over the years, starting with genuine excitement, pride and love for
the work they did training and performing with the killer whales. They
explained how they loved to share their passion and knowledge about the orcas
with park visitors; they loved the bonds they had created with the animals in
their care. Eventually, however, the only reason they continued this work was so
they could continue to care for the animals, because their real-life,
behind-the-scenes experiences at the park were very different from the happy
image the public saw in advertisements.
During the film,
I watched as my nephews experienced a similar wave of emotion about the park. Afterward,
they asked why people still go to marine parks to watch orca, dolphins and
other marine mammals perform in a show when someone can just take a
whale-watching trip and see the animals in the wild. Here are a few reasons why
these parks remain popular:
Whether you are talking about zoos, ocean-theme
parks or circuses, animal entertainment is a “known” entity for a lot of
individuals. These venues have always been around (or so it seems). Many people
visit them with their families as part of a family vacation, and then recreate
this positive experience with their own children, a generation later. These
visits represent a familiar experience of comfort, love, family time, etc.
·
Hypnotic
modalities also influence our beliefs and behaviors. As I explained in my
blog about hypnotic modalities (Gullibility, Suggestibility, Hypnosis), three factors contribute to an
hypnotic modality: 1) The other person has authority over you or perceived
control over the environment; 2) The other person has an important theory,
model or logic that makes some sense to you; and 3) The other person overloads
you with so many message units or stimuli that you start to go along with
whatever he or she is saying. (This is how the hypnotic state is created.) For
example, people who visit marine parks and watch the orca performances might experience
sensory overload from the bright colors or lights, loud music, cheering, smell
of popcorn or other snacks, and even the sensation of heat from the sun,
drizzle or a breeze as they sit in the stands. Those audience members who are
sitting close enough to the pool will even enjoy the sensory experience of
being soaked the orca smacks his or her tail against the surface of the water
at the end of the performance (sensation overload).
An orca trainer or other park representative wearing the park uniform/wetsuit
and a microphone (authority) would
narrate what the audience will be watching during the performance and provide
specific details (facts/information) about the animals (doctrine). And then, of course, the audience gets to experience the
performance, including being soaked by a spray of water when an orca smacks his
or her tail on the water at the end of the show. In this closed environment, it
is easy to understand how and why people get caught up in the excitement and
supposed mystery of these performances. After all, how many people do you know
get to work and interact with a killer whale? Even the former trainers who were
interviewed in Blackfish conceded
that, at the beginning, they believed what they had been taught about orca
behavior during their training and happily disseminated this information to
their audiences.
Like those
trainers who eventually saw through the misinformation about these animals in
the doctrine they had been taught, my nephews came to their own decision about
whether captivity is harmful to the physical and emotional well-being of orca. As
we all watched the documentary, I saw them ride a tide of curiosity and
laughter to skepticism, outrage and sorrow that mirrored that of those trainers.
During the course of these three blogs, I have described the subconscious thought
processes likely helped to formulate their (and your) intellectual and
viscerally emotional responses to Blackfish,
whatever that response happened to be. For more information about this
game-changing film, visit http://blackfishmovie.com/.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2015
