# Is stage hypnosis real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497 "2009-01-09T05:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/21 "2009-01-09T23:11:11Z")
Our company once made the mistake of hiring a hypnotist as entertainment for a staff Christmas party. It was a disaster. You had a room full of engineers, skeptical as hell, and this hypnotist guy looking for suggestible people. He didn’t find any. He brought people up over and over again, and nothing worked. He finally gave up and apologized to everyone and said he should have known it would be a tough room. That suggested to me that stage hypnotism is ‘real’ in the sense that the hypnotist is not planting shills in the audience or anything like that. It’s just a problem of psychology - get enough people on stage, then do various things that give you clues as to which ones will be receptive to your suggestions. As to what hypnotism really is, I have no idea. We once had a friend who swore she could predict the future and ‘feel’ the auras of people. She really believed it. She would put her hands up to you and get some kind of feeling about your health. Total nonsense, but illustrative of the power of suggestion. She wanted to believe it badly, so her brain tricked her into thinking it was real. I think the same effect explains ‘golden ear’ audiophiles who think they can hear the difference between exotic cables. It’s probably all related. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/22 "2009-01-09T23:20:03Z")
I think it’s a classic case of [herd mentality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_mentality). Everyone on stage wants to conform to the expectations of the hypnotist, the audience and their fellow guinea pigs. Add to that a desire to show off without accountability and you become another cog in the bunko scam of stage hypnotists. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/23 "2009-01-09T23:20:57Z")
We had a hypnotist come to my high school for an assembly. For one of the routines he told the participants they were various celebrities. He told two sitting next to each other individually that they he or she was Madonna. While he was interacting with a third the two Madonnas started quietly talking to each other. It was fascinating to watch as their conversation became more animated as they began arguing over who really was Madonna and who was delusional. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/24 "2009-01-09T23:26:25Z")
> [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](#): > > I guess a definition of ‘hypnotized’ should be set forth first. Not sure we need to define the precise state of the subject - we only need to define _what the act known as stage hypnotism appears to be doing_, and ask to what extent, if any, is that appearance genuine. So: stage hypnotism _appears to be_ a phenomenon where a the performer exercises significant control over the actions and sometimes the mental and emotional state of the subject, often apparently against the will (or at least _better judgment_) of the subject, and in such a way that the subject may appear not to properly recall the events, or at all. And the question is: to what extent, if any are those appearances truthful? Whenever this question is asked on the SDMB, the typical response tends to be that we’re just seeing suggestible people willingly playing along - and I can believe that is so, in some cases, but in other cases, this explanation seems quite inadequate. ---
**Author:** ![HawksPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@HawksPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HawksPath)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/25 "2009-01-09T23:37:26Z")
From all the reading I’ve done, it’s mostly “real” in that the people on stage don’t feel like they are just doing acting. Also, I’ve seen a friend do things that she would have been embarassed to do even if she’d been drunk. I understand it’s not about just being suggestible, it’s about being able to voluntarily put down the wall of resistance. A skeptical person who is truly open to it would be a better candidate than a suggestible person who doesn’t want to let it happen. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/26 "2009-01-10T00:03:18Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > They’ve used monitoring brain activity specifically as a way to test the depth of hypnosis on the Mythbusters. With what result? Lilienfield, Scott O., and Hal Arkowitz, “Facts and Fictions in Mental Health,” Scientific American Mind, 19/6, Dec 2008/Jan 2009, p. 80 “Despite the ubiquitous Hollywood depiction of hypnosis as a trance, investigators have had an extremely difficult time pinpointing any specific [behavioral] ‘markers’–indicators–of hypnosis that distinguish it from other states.” "Still other investigators have sought to uncover distinct physiological markers of hypnosis. Under hypnosis, EEGs, especially those of highly suggestible participants, sometimes display a shift towards heightened activity in the theta band (four to seven cycles per second). In addition, Hypnotized participants frequently exhibit increased activity in their brain’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). “Yet neither finding is surprising. Theta activity is typically associate with states of quiet concentration, which frequently accompany hypnosis. The ACC is linked to the perception of contradictions, which many hypnotized participants experience as they imagine things…that seem to conflict with reality. Further, psychologists have reported similar brain changes among awake subjects. For example, the ACC becomes activated during the famous Stroop task, which requires subjects to name the color of ink…in which competing color words…are printed. Thus, the brain changes are not unique to hypnosis.” The authors are both psychology professors. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/27 "2009-01-10T03:41:06Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > With what result? They weren’t testing the viability of the brain scan as a test, the psych department that they went to for hypnosis aid used it to determine which of the candidates was the most susceptible. The quote you provided, itself, doesn’t seem to particularly deny that there’s any effect, just that there doesn’t seem to be any effects beyond what you would “expect.” So if I tell someone to go to sleep, they’ll look like they’re asleep. It won’t look like they’re in a special “hypnotic” state. The people on the Mythbusters seemed to think that if you tell someone to go to sleep, then the closer they look to actually being asleep, the more suggestive the person is. So they were testing for depth of sleep, not depth of hypnosis. Whether what they were doing was pseudoscience or not, I have no idea. I’m just saying that the info you’re saying doesn’t seem to **explicitly** counter what happened on the Mythbusters. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/28 "2009-01-10T12:30:53Z")
> [@Gotterfunken](#): > > I remember that one, too, and was coming in here to ask if it was the same hypnotist. The way I recall it, the hypnotist had made Biff susceptible to falling asleep whenever anyone ordered him to do so. > > The following night or so (without the hypnotist present), Letterman was joking around with Biff, saying “SLEEEEEP!” to him over and over again. At one point, it seemed like Biff really DID fall asleep–and nobody could get him to snap out of it. I think Letterman had to call the hypnotist and have him reverse Biff’s condition over the phone. It was indeed Mr. Silver again, only this was maybe ten years later on Dave’s CBS show. Silver had become a reasonably successful Vegas act by this time (he also did an infomercial, improve your life thru self-hypnosis or something). Dave had to get him on the phone and have him tell him how to snap Biff out of it! Dave seemed like he was just playing along, but he also seemed to think _Biff_ believed in it enough to work on him. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/29 "2009-01-10T16:45:38Z")
My mother was called up with others for a hypnotist show. He tried to hypnotize them all, she ended up being one of the final six out of about 20. He told her she was a great dancer and told her to dance. She danced about for a bit then he told her that her left foot was very heavy and she could not lift it. She continued to dance about dragging her left foot. He had sit down while he messed around with others. She sat there with a big smile her face. He then told all of them that if they heard the word laugh they would think everything was funny and laugh. He he said cry, they would be come sad. He then told a short story using both words and it was hilarious watch these folks laugh and cry. He then brough them out of the stance and had them return to their seats. Till the day she died, my mother swore all she did was sit on a chair for a few minutes on watch the audience. She was on stage for about half an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/30 "2009-01-11T22:25:36Z")
I never believed in it, until I saw some lady at the LA County Fair. SOMETHING is going on, can’t say what. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/31 "2009-01-11T22:46:33Z")
Are there stage hypnotists who have seen the potential in openly documenting their method for the sake of science? (At which point, it could easily be subjected to repeated trial and study.) If not, why not? [I can think of one obvious reason…] ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/32 "2009-01-11T23:53:02Z")
> [@HawksPath](#): > > From all the reading I’ve done, it’s mostly “real” in that the people on stage don’t feel like they are just doing acting. I went on stage once, when I was a teen, and I didn’t feel I was acting. The hypnotist eventually told me to stagger back to my seat, and I did stagger. Note that I knew that he had told me so. And wondered whether I would. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/33 "2009-01-11T23:58:20Z")
Strictly from personal experience: I’m not sure if this is inherently different from STAGE hypnosis, but I downloaded a recorded hypnotic MP3 file a while ago. I used to be extremely skeptical of hypnosis as well – have resisted and laughed at a few attempts – but this time it was actually something I _wanted_ to try. Holy f\*\*king shit. MAN, did it work! Others have pointed out that it’s not just about suggestability, but also your personal _willingness_ to “let go” and cooperate. When I finally decided to try it, I entered a genuinely different state of mind – it was like nothing I’ve ever felt before, except maybe a dream. Except I was fully conscious and aware the whole time, but in a state of… hyperreality, almost. Kinda like lucid dreaming. It all felt real, but at the same time I was absolutely in control. At one point, I was able to perform a physical feat with my body that I’ve never done before… the details were embarrassing so I won’t go into it here. And it was entirely possible to resist; the second file I listened to was just as effective, but at one part it started telling me to do something I didn’t want to do and I remember getting more and more angry at my iPod until I finally just said “No. I won’t do this. No. Stop. You’re hurting me. STOP. NOW. I will DESTROY YOU.” (yeah, I actually said it out loud…) At that point, my eyes opened and I unplugged my headphones. I was nearly crying at that point, but I still stopped. So… that’s not “hard evidence” or anything, but at least it worked (amazingly well) for me. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/34 "2009-01-12T00:01:52Z")
I’d be very interested to know whether hypnosis works as well on people who have never heard of hypnosis. (Don’t ask me where you’d find such people.) This could help establish how much of it is people responding to their preconceived notions of how it _ought_ to work. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/35 "2009-01-12T00:28:22Z")
You know how drunk people tend to go a bit wild and start to play up, they do things that in a sober situation they wouldn’t do? This is because alcohol has put them in a state where their resistance, their better judgement, has been reduced or dissolved. I believe hypnotism does the same thing. While they’re “under” it feels to them they’re voluntarily doing stuff for a bit of a laugh, but what’s really happened is their resistance to good sense has been dissolved, almost invisibly from the victim’s point of view. They’re in a “state of suggestion” where anything that the hypnotist tells them to do suddenly seems like a good idea, and yet feels to them like they’re doing it completely voluntarily and independently. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/36 "2009-01-12T00:30:40Z")
Are there published protocols for stage hypnosis? Have scientists been able to document any differences between correctly carried out stage hypnosis and incorrectly carried out or sham stage hypnosis? What falsifiable claims can be made here? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/37 "2009-01-12T01:56:19Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You know how drunk people tend to go a bit wild and start to play up, they do things that in a sober situation they wouldn’t do? This is because alcohol has put them in a state where their resistance, their better judgement, has been reduced or dissolved. > > I believe hypnotism does the same thing. While they’re “under” it feels to them they’re voluntarily doing stuff for a bit of a laugh, but what’s really happened is their resistance to good sense has been dissolved, almost invisibly from the victim’s point of view. > > They’re in a “state of suggestion” where anything that the hypnotist tells them to do suddenly seems like a good idea, and yet feels to them like they’re doing it completely voluntarily and independently. Even that doesn’t seem like a complete explanation for all the effects we see being demonstrated - the one that springs immediately to my mind is when people are told to forget the existence of a specific number - they appear to be showing genuine perplexity (and in some cases, fear or fright) when trying to count their fingers and going to eleven, because of the missing number. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/38 "2009-01-12T02:14:19Z")
I had a psych class taught by a prof who used hypnosis extensively in his practice. According to him, this guy was God. > **[Milton H. Erickson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Erickson)** > > Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming. > Biographica... It’s been 20 (!) years ago but IIRC: As a student, if Erickson had a paper to write, he would hypnotize himself so that he’d get up in the middle of the night and write the paper that was due, then return to bed. When he awoke in the morning there it was, but he had no recollection of writing it. He would go to his grandchildren to read a story or whatever, and put them in a trance. They remarked later, “You breathed us to sleep!” He could put people in a trance by how he shook their hand. He could hypnotize all his students, en masse, in a lecture hall. He didn’t announce that he was going to do it or anything…he just did it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/39 "2009-01-12T02:39:35Z")
A number of years back I read a long book that surveyed the various uses of hypnosis. It’s been studied for almost 200 years.[http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Hypnosis-Professionals-Ray-Udolf/dp/1568217277/ref=sr\_1\_243?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231727567&sr=1-243](http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Hypnosis-Professionals-Ray-Udolf/dp/1568217277/ref=sr_1_243?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231727567&sr=1-243)_A hypnotic trance is, according to the author a relaxed state of mind in which the subject is open to suggestion._ There is a long history of it being used, including by psychiatrists and doctors, etc. I know a M.D. who is retired except for his hypnosis practice helping people quit smoking, phobias, etc. I have been deeply hypnotized by a hypnotist, and I am capable of a very light state of self-hypnosis that will reduce pain, lower blood pressure and generally calm me. It is much like a meditation state. Stage hypnosis, of course, can involve shills who are actors or real people hypnotized. It depends on the shows. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has been trained in hypnotism. He has publicly spoken many times about how people can be programed thought hypnotism and questions whether there is such a thing as free will. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497/40 "2009-01-12T03:01:40Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > A long while ago (must be almost 20 years) a stage hypnotist named **Marshall Silver** appeared on Letterman’s NBC show. His last name is actually spelled [Sylver](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYcjax2pxbA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-stage-hypnosis-real/480497.md?page=3)