if you followed Joey Gibson, our peppy June Playmate, around her home town of Santa Monica one weekend morning, more than likely the trip would be a California kook's tour. First, a stop at her neighborhood grocery for a quart of carrot juice and a half pound of sunflower seeds. Then to a stationer's for a notebook—where Joey impulsively purchases a pink paper dress. Miss June, a 21-year-old blonde beauty, next takes time out for book browsing, leafing intently through Euell Gibbons' Stalking the Healthful Herbs. Walking briskly back to her pad, she practices what she preaches about the benefits of exercise. At her apartment, Joey quickly changes into her tennis togs; and as she awaits a midmorning date who'll escort her to the courts in Rustic Canyon, she downs the carrot juice, hardly touches her coffee. "If I want to exercise outdoors and it's raining," she says, "I'll put on a bikini and run around the block a couple of times." Finally, a sports car's klaxon calls to her—and another day in Joey's life has been suitably launched. "I am," says Joey Gibson, "my own woman. I lead my life according to no social standards other than my own." Joey's standards are predicated with one goal in mind: the pursuit of intelligent pleasure. And she finds it in her own eclectic bag—music, reading, exercise, relaxation. "It's important to learn to relax," she says. "When I arrive home from work, I'll put on a James Brown record, start gyrating all over the apartment, and in 15 minutes I'm more relaxed than most people are four hours after they're home from work." For the past year, our June Playmate has been secretary to Dr. Emmanuel Kruger of the Hypnosis Society of America. "When I was graduated from Santa Monica City College," she says, "even though I was a psychology major, I had no idea I'd be working in medical hypnosis." Joey underwent hypnosis as both job prerequisite and perquisite, is impressed with the short time span required for hypnotic cure to take effect—30 sessions clear up most difficulties. "In psychotherapy," she points out, "patients' problems are cured by going after the causes—usually stemming from childhood incidents. In hypnosis, the doctor goes after the symptoms."
Currently attending evening sessions at a nearby university, Joey says that the highlight of her criminology course came when the class was given a demonstration of how to cheat at cards. Says our Gibson girl, "Professional dealers are all magicians with cards. Their profession is lucrative but limited—they know if they're caught cheating, no gambling casino will rehire them."
Joey's tastes in music also reflect her individualistic life style: "I started listening to Ravi Shankar years ago," she says, "and only recently, when the Beatles brought sitar music into their records, did I become a fan of theirs. A West Coast group I particularly like hasn't made it nationally yet, but it will. They're the Hindustani Jazz Band—their music is really something else!" Joey is one young lady who, at the moment, is not overly concerned with the future. "Oh, I've thought about trying to be an actress," she says. "I appeared in several plays while at college, and I liked it. But since I started working for Dr. Kruger—and learning all about hypnosis—I haven't really thought about doing anything else. At any rate, why should I worry about what's going to happen a lot of tomorrows from now? I'm having too much fun with my todays."
