Faking being hypnotized

[scott1]

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Hypnosis = real

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I can hypnotize people. I've done it.

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Details?

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Sure. There was a group at my college called "The Hypnosis Society". On a whim joined it freshman year with a friend from my dorm. It met one night a week for like an hour. It boiled down to one guy who had recently graduated from our school and was trying to get a touring stage show at universities started teaching a class initially. Then us practicing on each other during class. Over the course of a semester we learned the basics - power of suggestion, learning body language, the difference between the conscious and subconscious mind and the ability with hypnosis to directly access the subconscious.

After 5 or 6 weeks we got pretty good in class and started taking turns hypnotizing small groups of people in the basement of our dorm. Basically doing a small version of the standard stage show. We'd start with about 6 or 7 in front of the room and work with the 3 or 4 most susceptible. Tell them they're on a roller coaster, tie fake balloons around their wrists to see them rise, offer someone a word that whenever they hear it they bark like a dog or say something stupid.

It was pretty easy to learn and fun to practice. It was a rush, even with a crowd as small as a few people hypnotized and 10 watching to have control of the room and have the people respond to your suggestions. I can see how it would be a huge rush to do it on stage before a large crowd. And if you had the personality and desire to pull it off, getting a decent stage show wouldn't be as difficult as it looks.

I'd hypnotize friends in their dorm rooms, when I went home that summer I hypnotized my friends at parties. In all I'd say there were only a few times when I didn't manage to hypnotize someone when I was trying one on one.

Went back to school sophomore year hoping to learn more through the society but it turned out to be essentially a repeat of the year before, so I dropped out after a couple weeks. From time to time through college I'd still do it for friends when we were just hanging out drinking at night, but I never got any better at it.

As for whether or not it's real, when you are that close to someone who is hypnotized it's obvious when they are. Breathing slows down considerably, facial expression changes and the body relaxes in a way that's hard to fake.

In, your case Ape, the hypnotist probably didn't realize you were not hypnotized because there were a lot of people on stage, and you probably weren't the focal point. Usually with the stage shows the 2 or 3 people that are most susceptible to hypnosis get the lions share of the attention of the hypnotist. You couldn't fake it successfully if you were the only one hypnotized.