posted
I have a classmate who told me that he was once hypotized on stage by Peter Powers, who also does television shows in which he hypnotizes people into doing embarassing things. I don't usually watch this drivel, but I saw one of his shows and was pretty convinced he was using paid actors. An example of his antics can be found here. Other clips tend to involve more profanity, and one time he gets a woman to mime intercourse with street furniture, in public.
His directions are usually complicated (e.g. he hypnotizes a man into believing he is a great stand-up comic, and doing a short routine without any material) and I think would require conscious analytical thought on the part of the hypnotee (is that a word?), yet my classmate claims that he 'sort of knew he was doing it, but couldn't help it'.
Which bothers me, because I consider this classmate a friend and don't believe he has reason to lie. I don't know the details of the circumstances under which my friend was hypnotized, but I think it was on stage. Yet he said something about being selected, so I'm not sure if he was randomly pulled out of the audience.
In any case, here are my working theories:
1) When the camera is rolling/the audience is watching intently, you feel pressured into doing what is expected.
2) There is a selection process of 'subjects' for the TV show. You're in a waiting room full of other people who could use a little extra cash or want to be on television. You step into the interview room, and do what you can to get the part. Then later on you tell yourself enough times that the man hypnotized you, so that you no longer really remember what happened.
3) Before hypnotism, Powers talks you through the process (Then you will feel.., then you will do..., when I snap my fingers...) thoroughly, so that you naturally go with the flow.
4) You believe or want to believe that stage hypnotism works before stepping up on stage/becoming a subject - the rest is a kind of placebo effect.
5) Subjects are simply paid to lie and act.
Or, yes - it actually works. Personally, I am going with a combination of all 5 points.
This particular example aside, has anyone on Hatrack been hypnotized before (for entertainment or other purposes)?
If we have any resident psychologists/neurologists here, what does a state of hypnotism involve? Does a person in a state of hypnotism have access to higher order thought processes (such as those which would allow someone to deliberately misinterpret praise as insults and vice versa)?
posted
My psychiatrist uses hypnosis. But he doesn't make people do things. At least, he never has with me...I can't even really say that I've ever been "hypnotized." He uses it as a relaxation technique to reduce anxiety significantly.
posted
I was "hypnotized" in high school by a guy who came and did and assembly. Once we were all "under" he catogorized us into different levels. He put me in the "deepest" level. He used me for several examples.
I faked the whole thing. I didn't want to get sent off the stage. And the acting was kind of fun. I had really hoped when I went on stage that it would work, but I have memory of the entire experience.
I did notice, however, that it was easy not to laugh. Some of the things I did (seeing a bird on my arm, thinking the stage was 100 ft in the air) I don't think I would be able to do with a straight face in front of such a large audience in a different situation.
I think that hypnotism is real, but I think this guy was hoky. I talked to other people who had been on stage with me and they insisted they had not been faking. I just don't know if I believe it.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hypnotism is all placebo effect, pretty much! Some people are readily susceptible to it, and others aren't so readily. It does NOT make you do things that you don't want to do. What it does is loosen up your inhibitions, so you don't mind doing wacky things when suggested, because you feel relaxed and comfortable and you're enjoying yourself. (That is, as far as stage hypnosis goes). I think almost everybody is capable of being hypnotized under the right circumstances, but probably not many can do it in stage/performance situations.
I've been hypnotized quite a few times. A friend of the family is a hypnotherapist, so wheneve we get together with him we always want him to do some fun hypnosis stuff with us.
DaisyMae, I believe you probably were hypnotized. You knew it was all fun and games and that none of the suggestions were real, and you knew you were performing - but you took it seriously enough that you didn't feel like laughing or smiling unless it was appropriate to the "situation" to do so. You were probably hypnotized! Maybe you weren't as deeply hypnotized as some of the others, but you were relaxed enough to take the game you were playing seriously when you normally would not.
Edit: I should add that I've been hypnotized as part of therapy (as pH described, to help reduce anxiety), just for fun with a few friends and family members, and as part of stage shows. Each time I was fully conscious of everything and remembered everything. In the case of the stage stuff, I did what was suggested because that's what I was open to doing. Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
So are we all saying that hypnotism is voluntary, to the extent that you deliberately relax into a state with fewer inhibitions?
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Euripides: So are we all saying that hypnotism is voluntary, to the extent that you deliberately relax into a state with fewer inhibitions?
For me, it's kind of a visualization/breathing thing. More guided meditation than anything else. But it's with a psychiatrist and not for stage, so I don't know about stage stuff. For me, it's like you just start feeling a lot more comfortable and relaxed.
posted
Thanks pH. By the way, I sent you an e-mail through the forum once; did you receive it by any chance? Sorry, I don't normally follow up on people in a public forum, but I'm just wondering if I said something to upset you, and I hope I didn't.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Aw! I did get that message, and I meant to write you back, but it got lost amongst a flurry of frantic emails from my boss. You didn't upset me!
posted
You guys seem to me to be downplaying hypnotism. Hypnotism is a recorded change of mental state, with a concomitant change in experience. What does placebo mean, anyway? Is gaining health benefits from meditation a placebo?
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Is gaining health benefits from meditation a placebo?
If you decide to meditate to improve your health, the benefits you receive are not placebos.
If you decide to try hypnosis and receive health benefits simply from the expectation that it will work, the hypnosis is a placebo (i.e. the benefits are a result of hightened expectation and confidence).
Of course, the Placebo effect can't be measured, so that complicates things. But we have evidence that it exists; sugar pills alleviating symptoms of illness, for example.
posted
I was "hypnotized" in 6th or 7th grade. If I recall correctly, I fell asleep. Actually fell asleep. As in, I didn't move all during the show and probably drooled a little bit.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Euripides: So are we all saying that hypnotism is voluntary, to the extent that you deliberately relax into a state with fewer inhibitions?
Essentially, yes. Or that's how I understand it, anyway.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I was once hypnotized, on stage, in 10th grade. The hypnotist had me fully convinced that I was a chicken. The effect actually lasted about four weeks (which was fine, since at the time we really needed the eggs).
Posts: 1862 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
The hypnotist should have convinced you that you were a chicken who could lay golden eggs. The egg bit is both boring and unoriginal.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
They have hypnotists every year at our State Fair who get on stage and bring whole groups of the audience up and hypnotize them all at once. I watched it once, but have no desire to try it. FG
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
We had a hypnotist come to our college, and it was a small school. I am positive that some of those people were hypnotized - the stuff they did was utterly out of character and beyond their natural inhibitions - and I'd seen some of them drunk. Anyway, I agree with the people who've said that you have to be somewhat open to being hypnotized or have your guard down for it to work. The second show he did, he was initally checking to see who was under (he sent some volunteers offstage 'cause they were just up there shrugging and scanning the room) and he asked them to raise their right arms and touch their noses and stuff . . . and I almost did it. But stopped myself. I think repeated hypnosis makes it easier to go under.
Anyway, I'm not superstitious or even religious, I was a Bio minor, care about the scientific method a lot, and I believe that hypnosis is real. No idea about that particular guy, though.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I personally attended a school party where a hypnotist was hired and he starting out did an exercise with the audience where he convinced you there was a bucket of sand attached to one hand getting heavier and heavier while the other hand had more and more helium balloons attaching to it and making it rise.
All I can say is that while trying to actually open my mind to his suggestion both my hands moved quite involuntarily in the manner he said they should be.
I was convinced that its a matter of how open your mind is to persuasion. Some people just don't work as well as others, but I was convinced hypnosis does actually work.
Obviously a common fallacy is that you can be hypnotized against your will.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
As a junior or senior in high school I was invited onto stage to be hypnotized. I really wanted it to work; I'd been seeing these hypnotist assemblies every year since seventh grade, and I'd always wanted to try it.
I went up on stage. IIRC, the guy had us imagine we were descending a staircase as he counted down from 10, and our eyes were getting heavier and we were feeling more relaxed, etc. Once we were all hypnotized, he asked us all to shut our eyes (most already had their eyes closed). Then he told us to try very hard to open them, but that we wouldn't be able to. I tried and tried, and then they opened. I was really surprised. So I shut my eyes again. Next, he had us interlock our fingers and try to pull them apart. I figured I'd give it a shot, but my hands came right apart. I looked up at the guy somewhat perplexed, and he motioned for me to leave the stage and join the audience. I was so disappointed; I had been really excited about getting hypnotized. Afterwards I decided that had been the problem; I'd been too agitated, too excited, too set on doing everything just right, and hadn't been sufficiently able to relax. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's how I reconciled myself to my failure.
Anyway, that was my experience, FWIW.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've been hypnotized/practiced self-hypnosis since I was 2 or so (pretty much since I was capable of real thought.) So I hypnotize easy, as long as I trust the person doing the hypnosis. My dad has hypnotized people in large groups, but he says there are always a few who don't trust the process-- and therefore can't be hypnotized. He also says that different people are more or less able to separate from conscious thought, which affects the ability to be hypnotized.
For one of his electives in med school he went and trained with a man who did leading research into hypnosis and got certified in medical hypnosis. He's used it with many patients with great effect, and he used to use it to help me sleep and to help me find things I'd lost. But he also doesn't put much stock in stage hypnosis-- mainly because it's so hard for many people to relax on stage. However, because I am so easily hypnotizable (not a word, I know), I'm pretty sure that if I trusted the hypnotist to not make me do anything I would regret, I could probably be hypnotized in public.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I've been hypnotized/practiced self-hypnosis since I was 2 or so (pretty much since I was capable of real thought.) So I hypnotize easy, as long as I trust the person doing the hypnosis. My dad has hypnotized people in large groups, but he says there are always a few who don't trust the process-- and therefore can't be hypnotized. He also says that different people are more or less able to separate from conscious thought, which affects the ability to be hypnotized.
For one of his electives in med school he went and trained with a man who did leading research into hypnosis and got certified in medical hypnosis. He's used it with many patients with great effect, and he used to use it to help me sleep and to help me find things I'd lost. But he also doesn't put much stock in stage hypnosis-- mainly because it's so hard for many people to relax on stage. However, because I am so easily hypnotizable (not a word, I know), I'm pretty sure that if I trusted the hypnotist to not make me do anything I would regret, I could probably be hypnotized in public.
I think I read something that there are certain people who are more suceptible because of their tendency toward a certain kind of brain wave. Alpha ones, maybe?
posted
I considered being a professional hypnotist at one point. I have the voice for it and a pro I know was teaching the classes, but I was cheap. $1,500 with no guarantees was a bit steep.
I have worked with and known several professional hypnotists. Gary Walker, Mark Crank, and one guy I knew had a partner that built hovercraft as a hobby. The partner was the expert on the episode of Junkyard Wars where they built hovercraft.
He lost.
But that doesn't matter now.
Hypnotism is a delicate state that at any given time only some participants submit too. To many distractions will ruin the whole thing.
I used to book them for school events and college parties.
The worst that ever happened was when we booked Gary Walker, who is excellent, and Afri-American, in a backwater school in the middle of nowhere Missouri.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Maybe you weren't as deeply hypnotized as some of the others, but you were relaxed enough to take the game you were playing seriously when you normally would not. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
