Back in High School, we had a hypnotist come in to entertain us during our all night grad party. He picked several people, seemingly at random, from the crowd and hypnotized them. He made one kid think that he really had to pee, but he was glued to his chair. So the kid started looking like he really had to pee, but when he tried to stand, he couldn’t. He ended up running out of the room holding the chair to his bottom. He made a girl think that the guy next to her “stole her nose” and she demanded it back. These were friends, who claimed they weren’t “in on anything” and that they didn’t remember doing any of that stuff. It all seemed real. Was it? Is that possible?
I’ve seen a similar show (it included the “you have to pee” ploy as well). A very good friend of mine was picked to go up on stage, but they kind of weed people out in the early going, and he didn’t make the cut. Apparently he never was “under.” Unlike some who try to fight it, he said he was trying to relax and such but it just didn’t work for him.
If you’re asking ‘is hypnotism real?’ then the answer is yes. You are placed in a state of dreamlike ‘suggestion’ where even though you’re aware, you can’t stop your brain from reacting to commands.
I don’t understand it, but I’m convinced of its reality.
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Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night
The Skeptic’s Dictionary on hypnosis.
My little brother was hypnotized (sp?) at his grad party, was not weeded out, and was the star of the show. My parents have a tape of it and it is HILARIOUS.
He was/is a little hellion and was pretty tanked at the time, which may be why he was an easy mark. He doesn’t remember anything and says he was groggy for a day or three afterwards.
William Poundstone’s Biggest Secrets has a pretty thorough debunking of stage hypnosis. Here’s an excerpt:
Following that is a description of how the hypnotist’s act works. How he chooses the subjects, the use of shills, chloroform, and choke holds, the lighter test, and the rigidity test. The most important of these is subject selection. The hypnotist wants people that really want to be on stage and willing to go along with the act.
There’s more of course, but I wouldn’t want to hurt Poundstone’s book sales.
Now with 1000 posts of pure wisdom!
(or something)
I was hypnotized by a stage hypnotist at a high school assembly, and I can say, for me, there was no fraud or hoax. I felt very at ease, even in front of 600 fellow students. It was as if I wanted to cooperate with what ever the hypnotist suggested. He did the “forget your name” trick, and I can say, I was completely baffled as people asked me my name, and I could not for the life of me think what it was. He told me I was Elvis Presley, and I belted out a pretty good rendition of “Blue Suede Shoes”, a song I had never sung before (I have a picture of this somewhere). He handed out lemon slices, and said it was candy; I knew it was a lemon, but damned if it didn’t taste sweet, and I ate the whole thing, including the peel.
At no time did I feel I was doing anything against my will, yet performing these stunts on stage was unlike me under normal circumstances. I don’t think it was anything more than a state of extreme suggestibility, but then, that is the widely accepted definition of hypnosis. As one who has experienced it first hand, I think hypnosis is real, is not what the most people think it is, and is really not a big deal.
TT
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
–James Thurber
Hmmm. Don’t know about all of your experience, TT. I do know, however, that there are ways to prepare a lemon to make it taste sweet.
Question: How badly did you want to be hypnotized?
So then… the girl didn’t actually think that she lost her nose, she just thought the suggestion of demanding her nose back from the guy next to her was a good idea?
[QUOTE]
Question: How badly did you want to be hypnotized?
[QUOTE]
That really is my point, MrKnowItAll. I wanted to be hyptnotized, I believed it was real, and so it worked on me. If that seems like I was just “going along with the hypnotist”, I would agree; that is precisely what hypnotism is, not the zombie-like state depicted in movies and television. I started out with an open mind, just wanting to see if it was possible, and was quite surprised with the results. I am generally petrified of getting up in front of a crowd, yet there I was, acting like Elvis Presely. It is a state of suggestibility induced by both the hypnotist and the hypnotized. If I had not been agreeable to the hypnotism, or had been very skeptical of its effects, I don’t think it would have worked on me.
TT
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
–James Thurber
I see your point, TT. And after re-reading your initial thread, you made that point previously, too. Excuse my thick-headedness.
What threw me is the idea that what you experienced is “hypnosis”. Maybe it was (depending on one’s definition). What I was saying is that it wasn’t the “hypnosis” that stage-hypnotists want their audience to think it was.
Just curious, when you were told you were Elvis, did you really believe yourself to be the King of Rock 'n Roll?
Now with 1000 posts of pure wisdom!
(or something)
We had the entertainer hypnotist come to (of all places) my high school psychology class. Out of thirty students, he ended up selecting me and one other student. Of course it started with relaxation excercises…as he took us ‘deeper and deeper’ he walked around the room taping people on the arm to get them to sit up, eventually it was just us two left. Now, at the time I had an open mind about hypnotism, my psyschology teacher whom I respected defintely believed in it, and I felt it could work.
It didn’t really work. Ok, he told us that when he woke us up, we would be looking for this goldfish that had been intrusted to us. We should look everywhere, under desks, in girls purses etc, because we had to find this fish (named ‘Blimpy’ or something) that had been entrusted to us. Well, I did not want to let the class, or the hypnotist down and not go along with this. Plus, I had total license to act out as much as I wanted since I was hypnotized. So I ran around like an idiot, emptied a purse or two (haha) for a good couple minutes. Now, there was one other thing he told us. When class was over, as we left the classroom we were to suddenly smell the dead fish, and go through our pockets trying to find him.
By the time class was over, I was beginning to feel a little bit annoyed with myself. Though the other kid claimed not to remember anything (and I did the same) I remembered the whole experience from start to finish. I was no longer sure about any of it - it seemed reasonable to me that everyone might be going along for the same reasons I did. So, at the end of class, we walk out the door, and the other kid starts crinkling his nose and going through his pockets, and everyone looks at me expectantly.
I say, “There is no damn fish.”, and a walk away, leaving them with at least the impression that I am a wretched party pooper. Guilty.
No, I don’t think I did, I just had an overwhelming desire to act out the part, and I think it was similar to Cooper’s experience:
Is this really hypnosis? It all depends on your definition. If the hypnotist can create conditions in which subjects want to do what he says, even when those actions are counter to their normal behavior, the reasons why are not important. IMO, that is hypnosis.
TT
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
–James Thurber
I was hypnotized once several years ago at some college entertainers’ night. I might understand why people say they don’t remember what happened afterwards. I remember everything… in eartip-burning, face-reddening detail.
I was in some sort of highly suggestible mode, but at no time did I actually hallucinate or believe what the hypnotist was telling me. When he told me to hear voices, I didn’t actually hear any voices, I just thought it would be amusing to go along with the act, so I acted like I heard voices.
“How he chooses the subjects, the use of shills, chloroform, and choke holds, the lighter test, and the rigidity test. The most important of these is subject selection. The hypnotist wants people that really want to be on stage and willing to go along with the act.”
I think the last is the most important factor: I wanted to be on stage and wanted to perform. I can rule out any of the others except chloroform, but I really doubt they’re necessary.
-Steve
I once went to a certified hypno-therapist. He had several local ads concerning memory enhancement, confidence, stopping smoking, etc. through the “power of suggestion.”
I have a poor memory and had recently began playing guitar in a band and thought hypnosis might be just the thing.
I met with the gentlemen and explained exactly what it was I wanted to achieve. One thing was wanting to be able to visualize the fretboard better, as this is something I constantly work on anyway.
Another was to go to different scales when improvising instead of automatically going to the pentatonic minor. Again, this is something I was working on anyway at the time (now I’m stuck in Aeolian mode).
I didn’t think these were very difficult goals, I was looking more for reinforcement on mental activities I had already begun practicing.
He was very professional and reassuring with lots of video examples, charts, diplomas, etc. He explained hypnosis wasn’t magic, but just a state of “increased suggestability.” After seeing a lot of this, I was much more at ease.
The procedure was for me to sit on the couch and look at an X on the ceiling. He told me to relax and whatnot. I became quite relaxed. As he made suggestions to be, he would tap a pencil lightly on my left shoe. This session lasted about 20-30 minutes.
I was 100% aware the entire time of my surroundings. I was very relaxed but it wasn’t “just his voice” or anything like that, I heard the rain against the windows, cars, all that stuff. I did not try to “resist”, in fact, although skeptical, I was hoping to gain some benefit from this.
Anyway, it didn’t work. I was told that although I should begin to see some results right away, it would take 2 more sessions to really get the most benefits.
I did not return for more sessions.
FWIW, I do believe the guy thought it would work, he didn’t pressure me to return, and both of us were active duty military at the time.
Hey guys, maybe it’s not the people on stage that are hypnotized at all, but the people in the audiance?
Sorry bout that, I just had to get that out even if my spelling is bad tonite.
My father is a licensed hypnotherapist. WooHoo!!! I have grown up with some strange things. He doesn’t do stage shows and such, but stuff like the guitar person said. Power of suggestion.
Not to put a low note (no pun intended!) on what my father does, but almost anybody can do it. Mind over matter kind of stuff. I mean with the long term, not the stage stuff.
I started with mind over matter when I first got migraines. Of course that doesn’t work for them now, but that is a different story. My environment and circumstances have changed since, and I kinda prefer the meds for that then more mental work. I was also more open to suggestion then, because I was 10, and I am now a 29 year old, married, mother of five. Maybe it’s a time thing too! LOL
Anyway, it does all depend on how open to suggestion you are, and how willing you are to have it work for you.
My father is doing this out of his home, and right now he isn’t charging people for his time, because he wants to make people believe what he is doing. That, and it gets them to come back for further sessions if they know that he is not in it just to get them to give him more and more money.
Lamaze for birth is about the same. You are displacing pain for breathing. When you hypnotize someone to get rid of something you are supposed to replace it so you don’t upset the balance.
Hypnotist have to be very careful with what they are doing. I don’t much care for repressed memories and such, because if the person doing them isn’t carefull, they can lead the client and possibly plant something that wasn’t there, just because they are making a guess at what the client is trying to recall out of a hazy memory.
Rambling again? Yes, I’m sorry, I’ll stop for now.
Mistress Kricket
I too have been hypnotised for entertainment. I remember most everything. I agree that the willingness of the hynotee(?) is important, but I think that the actual state of hypnosis is real.
I began crying in front of a roomfull of people. I actually believed that my friend had done something which I KNEW she hadn’t and it upset me so much I began crying. Later, when I <woke> up I just felt really realxed, like I had just had a great nap.
Maybe the hypnotism is just like an intense relaxation where your inhibitions dissapear. But, that doesn’t explain the crying. I mean I REALLY believed this guy when he said my friend had set up a switch under a chair to zap the person who sat in it and I was so mad at her!
Whether it’s real or not doesn’t matter to me. I just think it’s hilarious to watch men <experience> labor and delivery!
A freind of mine was on stage with a large group during a hypnositists show. I was watching from the audience. The hypnotist told my freind he was Micheal Jackson and that he was performing tonight. He went through some lame dance moves including the moonwalk (which he hates). Later, he told me he had not been hypnotized at all, but was only playing along. He was, and is still, an incredible ham.
Maybe thats what it is. The hypnotist is able to pick out people likely to play along and the only real trick is to get them relaxed enough to overcome their inhibitions.