Victims claiming that thieves hypnotized them?

[davidm]

Woman in Chinatown hypnotized by thieves

The woman - who speaks only Cantonese - says she was approached by three Asian women on Monday.

They tapped her on the shoulder, and started asking her questions about her family. After that, the woman told police, she was hypnotized.

She says she then went to her apartment - gathered up jewelry and $160,000 in cash and brought it to the Boston Common, where she gave it to the thieves.

According to the article and the accompanying video the same thing has happened in other cities and is commonplace in China.

I do not for one second believe that thieves are going around hypnotizing people and getting them to hand over their valuables. It’s ridiculous on it’s face.

But apparently numerous people are claiming that it happened to them. So what’s going on here? Is it some sort of mass hysteria? Is it insurance scams? Did someone make it up on a slow news day? It appears to be a legitimate news site.

[dataguy]

There’s a documentary about the use of scopolomine in Columbia to achieve what sounds very similar to this. They call it Devil’s Breath.

Here’s the link.

Decide for yourself whether it’s legit.

[Rhythmdvl]

Hypnotism has a range of meanings, from parlour tricks and put-on shows to increased suggestibility and docileness in the face of being told what to do. I’ve had two somewhat introspective experiences that relate. One was ending up on stage in one of those hokey things, but though I do not think I was hypnotized in the vernacular sense, the herd mentality and something prompted actions that were well outside my normal comfort zone.

Second, have you ever been bungee jumping or sky diving? Sounds unrelated, but there is this ‘zone’ one (or I, at least) goes to near the last minute, when the instructor tells you to turn this way, or that way, step here, lean back now… I was much more terrified bungee jumping than skydiving, but the effect was the same. There was volition there, but much of it stemmed from being told what to do.

So perhaps they aren’t being hypnotized with those coins you find in the back of a magazine, but perhaps there is something to a scam where you use psychological and cold reading tricks to get people to hand over their valuables.

By the way, I see you’re from the Philadelphia area. Is your family from there? Where was your father from?

[BigT]

What Rhythmdvl describes I think is exactly how hypnotism works. Of course you are not going to realize that you are suggestible when it happens–it feels like it’s your idea.

The thing that gives me pause is that, according to most hypnotists, you can’t hypnotize someone to do something they don’t actually want to do. I can using those instant hypnosis triggers on, say, a cashier and then telling them they need to give you X amount of money in change, or, say, hypnotizing someone who’s supposed to be watching a store so you can then rob the place, but this describes telling her just to do something that takes time and effort and that she wouldn’t ordinarily do.

And why in the world would it need three people?