Hypnotism

[Tolya]

I always wondered, is hypnotism something you can do for real or is it a complete staged lie? I've never met a hypnotist, the only knowledge about this I got from some TV shows (which means its probably utter bullshit).

Was there ay scientific research done on the subject? Can you really hypnotise someone?

[Zixinus]

Hypotism, the effect at least, is real. One can induce a hypnotic state, and there is one, the question is what is a hypnotic state.

A hypnotic state, to my extremely limited knowledge, is a form of gullibility. Because of that, you can only hypnotise someone who wants to be hypnotised.

Hynpnosis allows fighting addictions and resolve some psychological problems. It is a valid form of mental treatment.
It does NOT bring back forgotten memories or change your body biology in any way.

[Molyneux]

I always wondered, is hypnotism something you can do for real or is it a complete staged lie? I've never met a hypnotist, the only knowledge about this I got from some TV shows (which means its probably utter bullshit).

Was there ay scientific research done on the subject? Can you really hypnotise someone?

I've been hypnotised once; it was pretty fun, actually.
Essentially, hypnotism is just a particularly strange type of deep concentration; useful for, say, therapy, but not supernatural.

Posthypnotic suggestion can make you do some WEIRD things, though, especially if you're more suggestible than average.

[PainRack]

Let's not forget drugged:D

[Ariphaos]

I always wondered, is hypnotism something you can do for real or is it a complete staged lie? I've never met a hypnotist, the only knowledge about this I got from some TV shows (which means its probably utter bullshit).

Was there ay scientific research done on the subject? Can you really hypnotise someone?

There's a bit of dispute as to whether such a thing as an 'altered state of mind' really exists. Hypnotism is 'real' in the sense that, if you believe in it, it works, and if you don't, it won't.

'Self hypnosis' is basically meditation - it functions as an anxiety management tool, etc.

There's nothing magical or mysterious about it, though.

[Korvan]

I've been stage hypnotized twice and the best way I can describe it is that it induces a strong sense of trust and wanting to play along with the hypnotist. When I was clucking like chicken, it wasn't because I believed I was a chicken, it was because the hypnotist asked me to. In a regular state, there would be no way I would perform like that in front of an audience, but while hypnotized, I had a "what the fuck" attitude.

Though, at one point he had the girls parade in front of the guys on stage with the suggestion that these were the most desirable girls on earth. I have to say that I've never felt hornier in my life. It was only the command that we were unable to leave our seats that held us back. I actually started chair hopping to get closer until the suggestion was amended to the chairs being immobile as well.

Interestingly enough, the post-hypnotic suggestion to work and study hard produced feelings of nausea and lethargy.

[Superman]

This is from one of my psychiatry textbooks:

Hypnosis is currently understood as a normal activity of a normal mind through which attention is more focused, critical judgment is partially suspended, and peripheral awareness is diminished. The trance state, being a function of the subject's mind, cannot be forcibly projected by an outside person. The hypnotist, however, may aid in the achievement of the state and use its uncritical, intense focus to facilitate the acceptance of new thoughts and feelings, thereby accelerating therapeutic change. For the subject, hypnosis is typified by a feeling of involuntariness and movements seem automatic.

[Mr. T]

I've been stage hypnotized twice and the best way I can describe it is that it induces a strong sense of trust and wanting to play along with the hypnotist. When I was clucking like chicken, it wasn't because I believed I was a chicken, it was because the hypnotist asked me to. In a regular state, there would be no way I would perform like that in front of an audience, but while hypnotized, I had a "what the fuck" attitude.

Though, at one point he had the girls parade in front of the guys on stage with the suggestion that these were the most desirable girls on earth. I have to say that I've never felt hornier in my life. It was only the command that we were unable to leave our seats that held us back. I actually started chair hopping to get closer until the suggestion was amended to the chairs being immobile as well.

Interestingly enough, the post-hypnotic suggestion to work and study hard produced feelings of nausea and lethargy.

That's really weird. I've been stage hypnotized twice as well and the hypnotist never had any "power of suggestion" over me. It was just more along of the lines of "meh, I'm up here so I might as well give the people a show and play along".

What actuallly goes on is that the stage hypnotist just starts out with volunteers from the audience (people whom by nature of being volunteers to go on stage are more then likely outgoing and confident (and attention whores). Then once he has them on stage he has them do something while "hypnotized" so that those that probably don't look like their going to be too cooperative to go sit in their seats leaving a stage of attention seekers who the sillier they act the more laughs they'll get. The result ends up being that everyone plays along just to get laughs as because their "hypotized" it gives them an out to act silly just like drinking alcohol does.

[Molyneux]

I've been stage hypnotized twice and the best way I can describe it is that it induces a strong sense of trust and wanting to play along with the hypnotist. When I was clucking like chicken, it wasn't because I believed I was a chicken, it was because the hypnotist asked me to. In a regular state, there would be no way I would perform like that in front of an audience, but while hypnotized, I had a "what the fuck" attitude.

Though, at one point he had the girls parade in front of the guys on stage with the suggestion that these were the most desirable girls on earth. I have to say that I've never felt hornier in my life. It was only the command that we were unable to leave our seats that held us back. I actually started chair hopping to get closer until the suggestion was amended to the chairs being immobile as well.

Interestingly enough, the post-hypnotic suggestion to work and study hard produced feelings of nausea and lethargy.

That's really weird. I've been stage hypnotized twice as well and the hypnotist never had any "power of suggestion" over me. It was just more along of the lines of "meh, I'm up here so I might as well give the people a show and play along".

What actuallly goes on is that the stage hypnotist just starts out with volunteers from the audience (people whom by nature of being volunteers to go on stage are more then likely outgoing and confident (and attention whores). Then once he has them on stage he has them do something while "hypnotized" so that those that probably don't look like their going to be too cooperative to go sit in their seats leaving a stage of attention seekers who the sillier they act the more laughs they'll get. The result ends up being that everyone plays along just to get laughs as because their "hypotized" it gives them an out to act silly just like drinking alcohol does.

Sure it does.

And the fact that it took me about twenty minutes after I'd left the auditorium to stop my legs from automatically trying to dance whenever anyone said the words "high school" after being hypnotised was just 'playing along for laughs'.

[Superman]

I've been stage hypnotized twice and the best way I can describe it is that it induces a strong sense of trust and wanting to play along with the hypnotist.

Not everyone reacts to suggestion in the same way. This applies to a stage show or the actual usage of it as part of a treatment process. When it comes to using hypnosis as part of psychiatric treatment, clinicians actually assess a patient's degree of hypnotizability. While you experienced it as how you describe, Molyneux experienced something very different.

Here is a passage from the same psychiatry textbook. Physicians who specialize in psychiatry will learn these techniques during their residency.

Two major procedures exist to clinically evaluate hypnotic capacity, the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale and the Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP). The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale is a long laboratory-based test that has been modified for clinical evaluation and requires approximately 20 minutes to perform. It primarily measures behavioral compliance and suggestibility. The HIP is a shorter test that uses the eye roll sign as a biological indicator and measures cognitive flow, which differentiates those with no hypnotic capacity because of mental pathology from those mentally normal patients with any inherent hypnotic capacity.

A patient's degree of hypnotizability and the technique of hypnosis are clinically useful in diagnosis and in treatment, respectively.
The existence of spontaneous, trance-like states in everyday life and the potential of individuals to uncritically accept emotions and information in these states make a person's degree of hypnotizability a factor in the way the world is viewed and processed. A relationship is seen between various Axis I and Axis II conditions and hypnotizability. For example, patients with paranoid personality disorder are low and patients who are histrionic higher on the hypnotizability spectrum. Patients with dissociative identity disorder are highly hypnotizable. Patients with eating disorders are difficult to hypnotize.

Therapeutically, hypnosis' effectiveness in facilitating acceptance of new thoughts and feelings makes it useful in treating habitual problems and also with symptom management. Smoking, overeating, phobias, anxiety, conversion symptoms, and chronic pain are all indications for hypnosis. They can often be treated in a single session, in which a patient is taught to perform self-hypnosis. Hypnosis can also aid in psychotherapy, notably for posttraumatic stress disorder, and it has been used for memory retrieval.

[Civil War Man]

Hypnosis can also aid in psychotherapy, notably for posttraumatic stress disorder, and it has been used for memory retrieval.

IIRC, using it for memory retrieval is a really sketchy practice, because as often as not what ends up happening is that the patient gets false memories implanted. Happens a lot with people who undergo hypnotherapy and end up "discovering" that they were abducted by aliens. Even worse, people who recover "memories" of being molested as a child and the courts using that to send people to jail even though nothing beyond those hypnosis sessions actually suggest it ever happened.

[Superman]

Very true. Freud himself abandoned the practice of hypnosis because he realized that many of his patients were recalling false memories.

[Patrick Degan]

The effect is certainly real, and it is quite possible to fall into a hypnogogic state by accident —i.e. "road hypnosis".

[Lisa]

After many attempts at quitting smoking my mom went to a hypno therapist for treatment. she hasn't smoked in over 20 years, and the only day she even had urges to smoke was the day I nearly died in a car accident. Those of you that have quit smoking the cold turkey way or various other ways will know that the urge to smoke rarely goes away, for me i've quit smoking for over 6 years and I occasionally have the urge to have a smoke.

[Adrian Laguna]

That's really weird. I've been stage hypnotized twice as well and the hypnotist never had any "power of suggestion" over me. It was just more along of the lines of "meh, I'm up here so I might as well give the people a show and play along".

Your cynical attitude is pretty much the reason why he didn't have any power of suggestion over you. Hypnotism depends entirely on the subjects cooperation, one cannot hypnotize a person who does not want to be hypnotized. Even a person who wants to be hypnotized, but overthinks the process, can be unaffected. It also varies from person to person, some people can fall into a trance more easily than others.

Hypnotism cannot turn people into mindless zombies, and it cannot make people do something they do not want to do. Someone in a trance can, if they desire, break out of it (though it takes a while for it to wear-off entirely). The thing is, a person in a trance will rarely want to break out of it because it feels good.

[Korvan]

The effect is certainly real, and it is quite possible to fall into a hypnogogic state by accident —i.e. "road hypnosis".

I've had that happen to me once on a long straight stretch of road. I foolishly stared at the horizon for too long. My eyes were open and I appeared to be "awake" to my passenger, but I slowly started to drift to the right (away from oncoming traffic). When I hit the shoulder, my passenger started yelling at me and that brought me out of it. For me, it was like the car suddenly jumped over and appeared on the shoulder.

[Superman]

For me, it was like the car suddenly jumped over and appeared on the shoulder.

I've experienced this a couple of times myself, only I thought I saw a bicyclist ride out in front of me as I was dozing off. I felt a surge of adrenaline, and snapped into being fully awake.

[drachefly]

Oddly enough, I had a similar sensation of detachment and trance while driving, but upon thinking back the moment I broke out of it, realized I had driven safely, going around (gradual) turns, and even slowing to let someone merge.

I'd still rather drive in my usual mental state.

There's a bit of dispute as to whether such a thing as an 'altered state of mind' really exists.

Uh, how can there be dispute over that question? It's not like we're in one state of mind our entire lives. Add some definite properties to a candidate altered state and then we can have a discussion of whether that state actually exists.

[Tahlan]

That's really weird. I've been stage hypnotized twice as well and the hypnotist never had any "power of suggestion" over me. It was just more along of the lines of "meh, I'm up here so I might as well give the people a show and play along".

Your cynical attitude is pretty much the reason why he didn't have any power of suggestion over you. Hypnotism depends entirely on the subjects cooperation, one cannot hypnotize a person who does not want to be hypnotized. Even a person who wants to be hypnotized, but overthinks the process, can be unaffected. It also varies from person to person, some people can fall into a trance more easily than others.

Hypnotism cannot turn people into mindless zombies, and it cannot make people do something they do not want to do. Someone in a trance can, if they desire, break out of it (though it takes a while for it to wear-off entirely). The thing is, a person in a trance will rarely want to break out of it because it feels good.

Here, here. I agree. Stong-willed indivdualists can't be hypnotized. There's no relinquishing of the psyche. The two times I've seen hypnotism, the subjects were willing to be hypnotized.

[ArcturusMengsk]

Uh, how can there be dispute over that question? It's not like we're in one state of mind our entire lives. Add some definite properties to a candidate altered state and then we can have a discussion of whether that state actually exists.

That's mostly due to the influence of a particularly bizarre form of pseudo-psychiatry called 'Behaviorism', which denies the exisrence of subjective emotional states altogether (as a proposed solution to the problem of the 'other mind' in philosophy).

[Molyneux]

That's really weird. I've been stage hypnotized twice as well and the hypnotist never had any "power of suggestion" over me. It was just more along of the lines of "meh, I'm up here so I might as well give the people a show and play along".

Your cynical attitude is pretty much the reason why he didn't have any power of suggestion over you. Hypnotism depends entirely on the subjects cooperation, one cannot hypnotize a person who does not want to be hypnotized. Even a person who wants to be hypnotized, but overthinks the process, can be unaffected. It also varies from person to person, some people can fall into a trance more easily than others.

Hypnotism cannot turn people into mindless zombies, and it cannot make people do something they do not want to do. Someone in a trance can, if they desire, break out of it (though it takes a while for it to wear-off entirely). The thing is, a person in a trance will rarely want to break out of it because it feels good.

Here, here. I agree. Stong-willed indivdualists can't be hypnotized. There's no relinquishing of the psyche. The two times I've seen hypnotism, the subjects were willing to be hypnotized.

Just a minor nitpick: one can be strong-willed and hypnotized. It is completely possible to be both strong-willed and willing.

[ArmorPierce]

Yup, I hypnotized my girlfriend (not good thing I know) in a couple things. She sleep talks so I take advantage of that. When she has a bad dream (she has lots because of her troubled pass) I comfort her and the comfort transfers toward the waking world. When there's something that I want to bring up with her or suggest that we want to do but I don't want to be the first to bring it up, I suggest it to her while she's sleeping and normally next day she's waking up she brings it up.

[ArmorPierce]

Oddly enough, I had a similar sensation of detachment and trance while driving, but upon thinking back the moment I broke out of it, realized I had driven safely, going around (gradual) turns, and even slowing to let someone merge.

I'd still rather drive in my usual mental state.

I knew someone that normally drove from point a to point b while asleep. Don't know if that's considered the same as hypnosis but it is an altered state of mind.