Like seriously hypnotized? Can you share your experience?
Either at a party, or by a friend for funsies? If yes, what method was used? What did they make you do?
Or to lose weight or quit smoking, etc? Did it start to work? Was it permanent?
For those of you who have, were you a skeptic at first and, if so, did it take a few attempts?
I’ve never been hypnotized before. I’m not a skeptic and am willing to get in the right mindset for it to be done.
I vaguely remember that my mom used to have a phobia that my dad was able to hypnotize out of her. He had her raise a finger or something to detract from the phobia when she encountered the trigger. She said she would raise her finger randomly for years after the hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy helped me out of a period of anxiety many years ago. I also learned to hypnotize myself by a self-relaxation technique. Then I made a recording, which included the induction, and gave myself suggestions to help remove the things that made me anxious.
Later I hypnotized my then young nephew to help him end the night terrors he had been suffering from for months.
What hypnosis is is an altered state of consciousness which renders the subject more susceptible, or perhaps I should say amenable to suggestion. What it definitely is not is a means of controlling a subject against his/her will. A person under hypnosis and who has not been given powerful psychotropic drugs will not do anything under hypnosis that he wouldn’t do when in a normal state. That is to say, no Svengali can dangle a watch fob in front of your face and make you commit a crime.
My sister was hypnotized by a stage hypnotist. She didn’t even think she was “under.” But he told her that her body would become rigid. Then he had two other people pick her up and place her on the backs of two chairs, her head on one and her ankles on the other. And then he sat on her. She stayed rigid as a plank, something that she could not do in the normal state. It wasn’t against her principles, it was just “physically impossible.” But she did it.
If you want to be hypnotized for something like stopping smoking or losing weight, it’s a good idea to find a licensed hypnotherapist. You could also find help for deeper psychological problems with a good therapist. Many psychologists and psychiatrists also practice hypnosis on patients.
It’s a good idea to read up on the subject. There are at least a couple of books on hypnosis by Melvyn Powers, and a really great book on the subject called “Miracles On Demand,” by Charles Tebbits I would also recommend. That’s assuming that those books are still in print. Check Amazon.
I have tried. I have a terrible phobia of needles, to the point of when I need a shot for anything I need to be held down by about four people to get it done. I went to hypnotherapy for it, but er…never worked. It was very relaxing, I’ll say that. But I remember all of it, and I guess I just cannot go into that state. No weird stuff, though I remember thinking some of the things the guy was saying were kinda silly…
I think this is sad, because I really want to experience different states of mind, and I really have trouble with it all…sigh
“Reveen” is a straight-forward, no bullshit kinda stage magician who’ll tell anyone who asks that the enduring success of stage hypnotism is due to the simple fact that it gives ordinary people permission to be entertainers.
I’ve been hypnotized twice, both in serious attempts to solve problems. The first time was by a psychologist with whom I was engaged in therapy, and who I trusted implicitly. It was interesting, and I believe I was really hypnotized, but the session was only mildly productive, and by my choice we didn’t do it again.
The second time had to do with attempted weight loss. The session went fine, but at the end he gave me a tape and told me that for this to be successful I needed to play the tape and basically try to be hypnotized every day. I didn’t follow through on that, and the whole thing was kind of disappointing.
Roddy
All hypnosis, without exception, is autohypnosis. What is really happening is that, with the external validation, people give themselves permission to do/think certain things. Nothing external “renders” the subject, at all. The subject does it all on their own. Something that is physically impossible cannot happen during hypnosis, but one can give themselves permission to ignore physical discomfort that they would otherwise register. Think of it as a variant of the placebo/nocebo effects.
To explain the concept, think of walking along a board on the floor. When it’s on the floor, you aren’t shaky, wobbly or terrified. Raise that board up 20 feet, and chances are you be. That’s largely because you’ve just hypnotized yourself.
This dynamic is part of the reason why many hypnotists begin with something called ‘persuaders’. Little tasks like getting you to hold a pendulum on a string and change the direction it’s moving without conscious thought, simply because you’ve been hypnotized to do so. With successive ‘persuaders’ the patient (or ‘mark’, if you prefer) gves the hypnotist more and more control as the mark submits deeper and deeper while convincing themselves that it’s not them who’s doing anything, it’s all the hypnotist.
And yes, I’ve been hypnotized numerous times, often discussing the techniques with the hypnotists afterward. (If you really want to understand the psychology on a visceral level, let yourself be hypnotized 99% of the way for something like the “your body is heavy and you cannot move a muscle”. Don’t totally violate the instructions and start dancing, but allow yourself to submit just enough that it takes a real effort to, for instance, cross and uncross your feet. Or your toes. Or whatever. That should allow you to test what I’m saying in the comfort of your own nervous system.
I’ve also hypnotized people but I’m out of practice and wouldn’t want to try it without brushing up a bit first. Larry Mudd has got it right. Hypnosis works, especially on a stage, because it allows people to act out in a way that gives them ‘permission’.
You are correct. But the hypnotist is a guide. Just as you may walk through a minefield under your own power (doing it yourself) you still need a map to do it without stepping on a mine. That’s why I said that one is more “amenable” than susceptible to the hypnotist’s “commands.” That’s why you won’t do under hypnosis anything against your own moral code or even something that you know would embarrass you.
I saw a stage hypnotist one time tell an obviously hypnotized subject (after several tests) that on a given signal she would rise from her chair and yell, “I’m the last of the red hot mamas!” Later in the show he gave the signal word. The woman just trembled in her chair. He gave the word again, and she said, “I know what you want me to do, but I won’t do it, because it would embarrass me.” As I said, you can’t be led to do something you really wouldn’t do if completely comfortable otherwise.
All hypnosis is indeed self hypnosis, but it is real nevertheless.
Sure it’s real, but it’s also important to dispel the ignore-based fantasy that the hypnotist is really “doing” anything to the subject. Other than giving them permission to do something to themselves, that is.
Not saying that you were making that mistake, it’s just that myth is annoying to see repeated often.
