I 've just been watching an old Columbo film where the villian hypnotises his victim to commit suicide by jumping from a fifth floor balcony. I wonder if it is really possible - can someone be hypnotised or otherwise forced to act against their will to kill themselves or someone else ?
Not unless they were already predisposed to those acts. Hypnosis doesn’t take away one’s sense of right and wrong and won’t make someone do something they normally don’t do.
i just watched that today as well…ch5
interesting bit with the blind man swop??
just touching base
dont know anything about hypnosis
but did you see
doctor kaligari’s casebook
similar type of unreality
No. There was the Palle Hardrup situation, which was widely reported as such a case, but it is not looked at with much credibility nowadays (as is the case with hypnosis in general).
I’m not entirely sold on hypnosis, period.
But for the record, in that episode of “Columbo,” the hypnotized woman was NOT told to jump off the balcony of her apartment window and kill herself. Rather, she was told, under hypnosis, that she was overlooking a beautiful lake, that the water was very inviting, that it would feel wonderful to dive right in.
So, in her mind, she wasn’t killing herself- she was going for a swim.
I’m STILL not convinced that it was a plausible scenario, mind you.
So, is hypnosis supposed to be bullshit? You mean that the women/men that I see on a Fri. night at the local comedy club acting stupid are faking it? Or just what do you mean?
Just to add to what dorkus said, every hypnotist that I’ve listened to who have come to the local comedy club, has said the same thing. If it’s not in your nature, you won’t do it.
And I’m saying that I"ve heard approximately 6 hypnotists say this. That don’t make it true.
Maybe. Those that aren’t actively faking are probably passively impressionable.
It’s been covered a number of times in GQ & GD. The evidence for “hypnosis” as it has been presented in movies, TV, and on stage falls somewhat short of convincing.
I was hypnotized by Pat Collins (the “Hip Hypnotist”) back when I was 12. I must say that there is definitely something to it. I acted in ways that a nervous 12 year-old certainly wouldn’t act. I’m a skeptical person, but I believe hypnosis is the genuine article.
At one point she suggested to me that she was naked. I remember seeing that she wasn’t, but acting as feeling as if she was, blushing and refusing to look at her. She also did stuff like run a lighter under my arm and suggest that it didn’t hurt, which it didn’t.
Interestingly enough she suggested that we all (I was on stage with 3 others) get stoned (hey, it was '79). Being a future “just say no” kinda kid I wouldn’t and just sat there.
I also asked to go to the bathroom, so I was aware of myself. Oh, and afterwards I asked her to hypnotize me to have better penmenship. It didn’t work.
Hypnosis is genuine in the sense that it allows you to do or say things you might not unhypnotized. It won’t, however, have you do things you ordinarily would not. You can’t make someone hurt themselves or others, or commit crimes or perform unethical behaviors.
One’s skepticism doesn’t mean anything about your susceptibility to hypnosis. All you need to be is suggestible (which should not to be mistaken with gullible). Hypnosis is a process of relaxation and suggestion. Once physically relaxed, your imagination is the remaining force at work. You are asked to picture things in your head, and to imagine sounds, scents, and textures. The requests are simple, and easy to go along with. Depending on what your hypnotizer says, you may experience something as exciting as skydiving, or something as mundane as having a heavy brick weighing down your hand.
However, hypnosis is a cooperative relationship. At any time, you, the hypnotizee, are free to break from your state of relaxation and ignore or refuse to cooperate with what your hypnotizer says. Likewise, the hypnotist is free to stop suggesting things and let you sit there silently. No one has an upper hand in this relationship. It’s entirely voluntary.
Stage hypnosis is different. It’s important to remember that a stage hypnotist’s number one goal is to entertain his audience, not enlighten or treat his hypnotizee to something special. In this case, the stage hypnotist has the upper hand: He’ll pick people who will do what he wants. (Provided that the hypnotizee is not a plant, chances are he was chosen because he demonstrated through some means that he is likely a good candidate for hypnotism. If he hasn’t, a stage hypnotist might test the person as he goes through his routine. He’ll persist if it seems that the person will yield the result he wants and drop everything if not.) Because he is entertaning, he will elect to demonstrate outrageous things. He has had his act planned out days, if not weeks, in advance. He amy use trick props, plants in the audience, and any other aid that might bring about the desired effect. Chances are very good that you’ll leave the stage doing exactly what he wanted.
Stage hypnotizers can do amazing things in their acts. That people often walk away swearing they ordinarily never would have done the things they did, or that hypnosis muse be “real” because getting their leg chopped off didn’t hurt, or that they really thought they were Elvis, is testament to their abilities. However, if you remember that 1) you and an audience are being entertained, and 2) the hypnotist is an entertainer, then there isn’t much he can do that you should be surprised by.
Things done or stated in the name of entertainment should be taken with a whole shakerful of salt.
I don’t think anybody has answered this… would a hypnotist really be able to convince this woman to dive into a “lake”?
AudreyK - Why do you suggest that hypnotists may use shills? Do you know any hypnotists?
I ask because I doubt they would. I did improvisational comedy for a while. We were constantly accused of scripting and using shills, which I always took as a complement. The fact is, we never would. It wouldn’t be funny. The audience can sense spontaneity, or lack thereof. Whenever (always newer) performers slipped into some skit they worked out the night before the audience and performers could always tell, and the laughter would stop.
In truth, the audience is so skeptical that what we were doing was improv that sometime we had to intentionally slow down the “guessing” type games; those games where a performer is trying to figure out what a character’s secret trait is, etc. As we got good at such games we could figure it out well before the audience figured it out, even though they were there when the suggestion was given.
I say this because I’m sure a hypnotist’s worst volunteer is one that is too good. If a performer gets on stage and really can sing a decent aria, then the audience immediately suspects a plant and tunes out of the show.
I saw a stage hypnotist while in college (twice actually). He most certainly was there to entertain buit he grabbed a bunch of people from the audience and a great many of them I knew personally. The chances of their being plants I find highly unlikely. He must have had 15 people on stage and i personally knew at least ten of them. Maybe one or two was a plant but i don’t see how it would have helped matters.
The things he had them doing on stage was amazing. I knew these people and they were definitely acting in fashions they ordinarily wouldn’t. One girl, being told she was sunning on a beach (while others were shivering with cold) proceeded to remove her shirt and was working on removing her bra before the hypnotist noticed and stopped her. Granted this woman (I knew her as well) would happily sun topless on a beach she would never willingly expose herself to an audience of her peers.
Every person I talked to afterwards who was on stage was convinced that they were only up there for a few minutes (reality was over an hour) and did not believe they had been hypnotized.
As for the selection process the hypnotist had the audience run through a few simple procedures and those who seemed ‘susceptible’ were invited on stage where the hypnotist tried to get them under through various means. Those who he couldn’t get under in a minute or less were dismissed. Interestingly those people who had been hypnotized in the past he could get under in seconds. Those who had never been hypnotized before he had to work harder on.
So, while for entertainment purposes the hypnotist definitely had the people on stage in some kind of altered state. What overall practical use it may be beyond entertaining me is another debate but it was fun as hell to watch.
I don’t know any entertainment hypnotists, but for a few years in college I taught an introductory psychology class. One of the topics we covered was hypnosis. I was taught and was put under several times using a basic form of hypnosis.
About plants: An audience plant doesn’t necessarily have to know ahead of time precisely what the hypnotist has in store for him during the act. He may be told something as brief and simple as, “Just agree with or do whatever I tell you to.” For various demonstrations in my classes I approached students and told them I was going to do something, and that I was going to call on them and they should nod and agree with me. The vast majority of the time, other students had no idea the student was a co-conspirator until I admitted it.
Not knowing what they’re getting into would be key. A plant can be in the know and still be quite clueless.
If you’re the plant and all you know is that you should comply, how would you react if you were suddenly told to do a Hitler impersonation? Or to strap a dildo to your head and hop around on all fours? Up until now, the requests have been simple and pleasant-- close your eyes, imagine a sunny beach, and you have a feeling of happiness and calm. And then a bomb. There’d be normal hesitation on the your part as you thought about how you perform the action, all the time mindful of the dozens of eyes on you. And although you’d be hesitating in part because the instruction was unexpected and potentially embarassing, the audience would see it as part of the suggestion-dropping inherent to hypnosis. To them, you are acting the exact way you’re supposed to be. They’d have little reason to be skeptical.
Audience pressure to comply is a factor, and one not found in improv comedy. No improv performer feels the same kind of pressure a stage hypnotist’s audience participant does. Whether he’s a plant or not makes no difference. While on one hand he’s being asked to do something atypical, crude, embarassing, or shocking and he doesn’t want to do it, he’s also feeling pressure to be entertaining. He has a room full of people staring at him and expecting him to be funny. If he refuses or does a half-ass job, he looks like a fool, he makes the hypnotist look incompetent, and he lets down the audience. There is great pressure, then, to just do what the hypnotist asks and be done with it.
A good hypnotist will ask questions that will determine the content of the act. I’ve seen acts where performers asked people what they do for a living. While such a question wouldn’t weed out amateur entertainers, it would weed out the professional ones, and a skilled hypnotist could tailor his act accordingly.
Also, if a person seems too adept at a particular task, you can bet that a hypnotist wouldn’t wait long before suggesting an alternative.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to slog through this piece, but here is an article in the Wayne Law Review that discusses the various theories and legal implications of hypnosis. The gist of it appears to be, although some have attempted to raise it as a defense, they rarely have won.
Mary Christine Bonnema
39 WAYNLR 1299 (1983)
Wayne Law Review
“TRANCE ON TRIAL”: [FN1] AN EXEGESIS OF HYPNOTISM AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
A study done by Lloyd W. Rowland called “Will Hypnotized Persons Try To Harm Themselves or Others?” showed subjects sticking their hands into boxes with what they presumably believed were live rattlesnakes, and throwing concentrated acid into what they presumably believed was the unprotected face of another person. The study was done in 1939 and I’m not sure how he convinced the subjects to do that.
I’ve been to a hypnotist show before and I’m pretty sure that the people on stage were really hypnotized. I think what happens in those shows is that the hypnotist starts hypnotizing the audience even before they get on stage. In the show I went to, he said complementary things about people who could be hypnotized (They were more intelligent, more creative, etc). Then he had us do an example experiment where we clasped our hands together but had our index fingers sticking straight up. He said to move our fingers away from each other. At first it was easy, but then he said that a big rubber band was around our fingers holding them together. Then I couldn’t move my fingers apart! That was too weird for me and I stopped following his instructions after that point because I didn’t want to get hypnotized. So after a few more minutes he calls for volunteers and like 20 people rush to get on stage. They had a glassy, wide-eyed look so I was pretty sure they were hypnotized already. Some other people also went to the stage, but they didn’t really look hypnotized and they were eventually sent back.
If you haven’t been to a hypnotist show, I highly recommend it. It was very entertaining and educational. Just remember to ignore the hypnotists instructions or else your only memory of the show might be from your friends telling you how you sang Elvis songs with your shirt off while rubbing your belt between your legs.