Why aren't people TERRIFIED of Hypnotists??

Factual Questions
1

I don’t like revealing personal details but for the sake of this thread I will say that I when I was a teenager I had the experience of being molested when I was asleep. That is, I was awoken from sleep on a number of occasions by the “molestation in progress”. Some people are drugged and don’t wake up at all in situations like this.

It seems to me that that kind of utter defenselessness is totally inimical a human being’s functioning. If I imagine a situation in which I am being hypnotised without being aware of it and my freewill is being completely compromised I get the most disturbing feelings of “necessary revenge”. Like there is a genetic imperative to guard autonomy and annihilate the person responsible for diminishing it in any way. When you think about it, if it were possible to be subjected to another’s will in this way what purpose would be left in life? There would be something seriously and irrevocably missing.

So, after all that: how can people stand to watch John Da Silva advertisements? Why aren’t people scared of the whole idea of hypnotism? They’re scared enough of alien abduction aren’t they? People are scared of a whole heap of things. Why not hypnotism?

2

I think many people are. Its sad really. Hypnotism is not what it is showed up as on TV.

3

Probably because, outside of works of fiction, they’ve never encountered the situation you described, someone being hypnotized against their will. People who volunteer to go on a stage and be hypnotized do so willingly. I see little difference between lowering inhibitions by means of hypnotism and by means of alcohol, other than the absence of a hangover the next morning.

4

You are suffering from a common misconception, that hypnotists have the powers of a Svengali, to bend you to their will. A hypnotist cannot make you do anything you would not do when conscious. A hypnotist cannot make you into a defenseless zombie.

5

Because non-entertainment hypnotism is little more than a relaxation technique.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=55447
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=40760

6

AudreyK: Thank you for providing those links. I’m surprised though, that you believe the information in them supports the idea that hypnotism is innocuous. Doesn’t the phrase “I knew I didn’t have to do what he said, but I did anyway” make you in the least uneasy? Several people said that.

I’ve been reading Skeptical Inquirer for a long time now and I consider myself to be a rationalist. Objectivity rules. When it comes to hypnosis, however, that fact doesn’t make me feel any less disturbed by it. I notice, for instance, that even the Skeptical Inquirer’s stance on the subject is a little hazy. Unfortunately I lean towards the belief that a person can indeed be hypnotised against their will. It’s not that their beliefs can be changed in any way - it probably works a bit like rohypnol.

What about this: If someone has been made hynotisable from birth how would that person (as an adult) know? I mean, if the hypnotism starts that young there will be no point at which a person would be conscious of it. They could be fully programmed to black out on command and not realise it. They certainly won’t remember putting their hand up (like a stage hypnotist’s volunteer) and yelling me! me! Will they?

7

Because you can’t be hypnotised if you don’t want to.

8

If hypnotists could hypnotize people against their will, and make them do whatever the hypnotist wanted, they’d be richer than Bill Gates. Similarly, if psychics could predict the future, they’d make money on the stock market and be just as rich.

Since neither group is rich …

9

It makes me considerably less uneasy than if they were saying “I didn’t want to do what he said, but I had to do it anyway.”

Oh, and G. Nome? There’s absolutely no reason to be in the least bit afraid of hypnotists. Just relax. Hypnotists are good. Hypnotists are your friends. Hypnotists are here to help you. Aren’t you feeling a bit drowsy? Just look at the Smiley Face and let your thoughts drift…

:slight_smile:

10

Why should anybody be afraid of something that isn’t real?

The showbiz hypnotism you’re probably thinking about is just that - show. And those that practice it are akin to the palm and tarot readers and astrologists. Hollywood Hypnotism, the kind where the hypnotized are zombified and act on the whim of the hypnotist - is a myth. The people who participate are going along or desperate (in the case of those silly STOP Smoking Now! ads)

Real hypnotism is about relaxation and nothing more. Listen to a yoga tape - it’s about the same thing.
If I’m going to be terrified of someone, it’ll be any I.R.S. Agent, hands down. :slight_smile:

11

Yes master…Fnord

12

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by G.Nome *
**

**

Also, remember that what people say and what they do can be two wildly varying things. They may say they felt compelled to, but, let’s face it, would you expect them to say, “Yes, I wanted to cluck like a chicken on stage. It’s been my lifelong goal!”

Consider it along the same lines as “I can’t believe what I did when I was drunk last night!” While drinking and hypotism may allow people to reduce their inhibitions, that’s a far cry from giving over complete control of their actions to someone else. Some part of them really wanted to do what they did.

13

<they’re all out to get me>“I’ll tell you why, it’s because the nedia tell them not to, they are all hypnotising you into thinking that hypnosis is so begnin that you have nothing to worry about, that you can’t be bent against their will–but it’s all a trick.”
</taotgm>

14

When I was touring the stand-up circuit, one of the guys I opened for a lot was a hypnotist. He always started with about 20 people on the stage and hypnotized them all because he knew that enough of them wouldn’t be willing enough to be hypnotized in the first place. Furthermore, if someone said they didn’t want to come on stage, he never asked twice because he knew they couldn’t be hypnotized. His description of hypnosis is one of the best I’ve ever heard. Hypnosis is ‘giving someone absolute trust.’ You can only do that voluntarily.

15

Hypnotism is harmless. It’s the action suggested to you that might not be.

Under hypnosis, no one does anything they wouldn’t do if they weren’t hypnotized. You can’t make anyone do anything.

If someone does anything under hypnosis, it’s because they consented to it. Whether it be taking off their clothes or stealing a car, if they do it, it’s because at some level, they wanted to. It’s that simple.

In entertainment hypnosis, people are often “hypnotized” into doing things their dignity would ordinarily forbid them from doing: clucking like a chicken, or doing their very bad Elvis impersonation. That’s one reason a lot of people think hypnosis is about mind control. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works.

Anyone who does something suggested to them under hypnosis does so because they consent to. True, few of us want to look stupid in front of a large group of people. But under hypnosis, you’re well aware of how potentially idiotic you might look. You do it anyway. You rationalize that you’re just following a (harmless) suggestion. You also feel a slight amount of expectation that you follow the hypnotizer’s suggestions. This feeling of expectation, however, is not enough to compel you to do something you wouldn’t do unhypnotized. Were the suggestion a little less innocuous, your sense of right and wrong/good and bad would kick in, and you wouldn’t do it.

It certainly does not make me feel uneasy. I am well aware that when I am hypnotized, I do not have to do what’s being suggested to me. If I do it anyway, it’s because I wanted to. That phrase seems to gloss over that point.

As I said (what feels like a million times) before, hypnosis is an interaction between the hypnotizer and the hypnotizee. Without consensual cooperation between the two, it will not work.

I’m curious-- what is their stance?

I think you’re giving way to much power to hypnotists.

How would you explain such an ability?

You cannot be made hypnotizable. You’re either prone to suggestion or you’re not. Hypnotists can test their subjects for their degree of suggestibility and pick out the ones that would suit their demonstration best, but suggestibility not something you can train people in.

No. People can’t be unwillingly programmed or reprogrammed. People can’t be made to do things against their will in the ways you describe.

16

I have a friend who is a Stage Hypnotist (what can I say; I’m a magician and I know a lot of different people).

I’ve seen his show a few times, and the thing about consenting comes up. He does this thing where after they’ve under and doing stuff, he puts them back under by “loading” his pointed finger, and making a gun noise, “firing” it at them.
Now, like AudreyK said, people won’t do anything that they don’t consent to. I’ve seen it happen quite often when he tries the gun thing with people, and they don’t go under because they don’t consent to guns. That may sound silly, but it happens. At that point, he has a bunch of other ways of putting people back under that he uses regularly.

17

I read an interview a while ago with the Amazing Kreskin. He said something similar to what Arken said, about there being no point in asking someone who said “no.”

He was also asked if there is anyone who can’t be hypnotized. His reply was that he estimated there was a group, likely around 10-15% of the population, that could not be hypnotised because they are simply not willing to give up control. He added that one related characteristic that he had noticed was that these are the people who always order the same thing in a restaurant.

As usual, I’ll have the beef dip, please.

18

My nephew was hypnotized by a stage hypnotist. At the time I can’t remember all that was done to him, but at one point the hypnotist handed him a picture and told him it was a nude picture of someone he knew, and he says that the whole time he was on the stage he was thinking he was just ‘going along with the joke’ (which is what a lot of people report, even though they were in an altered state) but he swears that when he saw that picture it looked like nothing but a nude picture of his girlfriend. That’s a bit scary - one might not do things they normally wouldn’t, but if the way you perceive the world can be controlled like that, one could be tricked into doing something they wouldn’t.

19

You might want to check whether your library has a copy of the book “Open to Suggestion” by Robert Temple. (Aquarian Press, 1989 ISBN 1-85030-710-4)

It’s an interesting discussion of the uses and abuses of hypnosis and it provides extensive references to research which ahs been done in the area.

20

I first went to a free hypnosis session sponsored by my county health board to quit smoking. The hypnotherapist explained hypnosis much the same as some of the posters have; you would never do anything under hypnosis that you would not do otherwise. View a nude photo of your girlfriend? Of course. Murder someone? No. It’s an advanced stage of relaxation where you let it all hang out- you’ll do things you might not ordinarily do, but wouldn’t do things that you would never consider doing.

The first part of the session is getting the participants relaxed - they start with that soothing voice that tells you to ‘feel your toes,’ ‘feel your ankles,’ and work all the way up the body. By the end of that portion I was so relaxed that I was practically drooling.

There are several steps beyond that, but the important thing is that I quit smoking. I bought a tape and played it frequently, each time returning to that advanced relaxation state where I didn’t care about smoking and sometimes forgot that I ever smoked at all. Friends tried the same routine but didn’t have success. Others did, and some used a combination of gum or Nicoderm and hypnosis.

The amazing thing is that it feels so good! It is a total feeling of well-being, if that is what the hypnotist is striving for. I continue to use self-hypnosis and use it to go to sleep quickly, whether at home or on an airplane, train, bus, etc. I can make myself cooler or warmer and can increase libido when I’m ‘not in the mood.’ I had classmates who hypnotised themselves in order to learn foreign language vocabulary lists.

The state that you’re in is often described as comparable to when you are driving a familiar route and get involved in listening to music or day dreaming and miss your exit. You are still capable of driving, staying within your lane, avoiding accidents, but are spaced out. You can function but at a different level.

The advantages I gained are incredible and continue to be so. After totally satisfying sex, hypnosis is the next best pleasure. Hypnosis and sex are a dynamite combination. (Tantric sex involves much hypnosis, realized or not).

The Indian mystic reference? There is a festival, Taipusam, where East Indians who have been blessed with gifts from one of their gods, give thanks by undergoing a three month period of learning hypnosis, fasting, praying, etc., and then give thanks by placing hooks into their bodies and dragging objects - maybe a cart that contains the son they prayed for - and walking miles to a temple where they are acknowledged by their priests as having fulfilled their obligation to the god. The participants often pierce their cheeks with an object (a friend said he saw one fellow with a motorcycle exhaust pipe) that goes through one cheek, through the mouth and out the other cheek. By using hypnosis, they lower their blood pressure to such an extent that there is no bleeding and no scarring once the hooks or objects are removed.

The OP cannot be hypnotised because of aversion to the process. Others with an open mind (particularly teen agers at a show who just wanna have fun) get into it immediately.

BTW - I have some great photos of a Taipusam festival at Batu Caves, outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If anyone wants a few, email me.