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.

[ApeAttack]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hypnosis = real

[/ QUOTE ]

I can hypnotize people. I've done it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Details?

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

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Interesting story.

You're probably right about the hypnotist overlooking me... there were quite a few people on stage.

On a side note, do you think you could abuse your talent? For example, forcing a female to make out with you or forcing someone to give you money, then having them not remember it.

[scott1]

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You are supposed to be under someone else's control, not delving back into childhood memories.


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There is such a thing as age regression hypnosis where the idea is bringing the subject back to a previous age and gaining some information that they had at the time but have since lost. Not exactly what you were talking about above, but an interesting aspect of hypnosis. One of the notions behind hypnosis is that your subconscious mind stores everything. Conversations you had 10 years ago are still in your brain, you just don't know how to get to them. Think of it in terms of a computer - there's old data in a database (subconscious mind), but the path used to reach that data is lost (conscious mind). The data is as good as gone. With hypnosis, you are by passing the conscious mind and directly accessing the subconscious.

I only tried this a couple times, but did have some success. On one friend I brought him back to 5 years old. He spoke in simple sentences and responded to questions as a child would. The one thing that convinces me it works. I started talking to him about where he lived and his neighbors. He told me he lived next door to the (random German last name here, I'll use Merkel's for example). Once he woke up, I asked him who the Merkel's were and he had no idea. His family had moved a number of times when he was growing up and he didn't know neighbors from when he was young. That night he called his parents and asked who they lived next to in Delaware when he was 5 and they said "The Merkel's, why?". That was pretty cool.

[ApeAttack]

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You are supposed to be under someone else's control, not delving back into childhood memories.


[/ QUOTE ]

There is such a thing as age regression hypnosis where the idea is bringing the subject back to a previous age and gaining some information that they had at the time but have since lost. Not exactly what you were talking about above, but an interesting aspect of hypnosis. One of the notions behind hypnosis is that your subconscious mind stores everything. Conversations you had 10 years ago are still in your brain, you just don't know how to get to them. Think of it in terms of a computer - there's old data in a database (subconscious mind), but the path used to reach that data is lost (conscious mind). The data is as good as gone. With hypnosis, you are by passing the conscious mind and directly accessing the subconscious.

I only tried this a couple times, but did have some success. On one friend I brought him back to 5 years old. He spoke in simple sentences and responded to questions as a child would. The one thing that convinces me it works. I started talking to him about where he lived and his neighbors. He told me he lived next door to the (random German last name here, I'll use Merkel's for example). Once he woke up, I asked him who the Merkel's were and he had no idea. His family had moved a number of times when he was growing up and he didn't know neighbors from when he was young. That night he called his parents and asked who they lived next to in Delaware when he was 5 and they said "The Merkel's, why?". That was pretty cool.

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I was aware of regression hypnosis, but that wasn't what was happening to me on stage.

Do they remember the conversations after coming out of hypnosis?

[scott1]

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On a side note, do you think you could abuse your talent? For example, forcing a female to make out with you or forcing someone to give you money, then having them not remember it.

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I only scratched the surface with hypnosis, apparently there's a huge difference between the level of hypnosis my subjects were reaching and that of a clinical hypnotist could. So even if it would be possible to get someone to do something criminal, it was never within my abilities.

The line that our teacher used when asked this question was that you wouldn't do anything under hypnosis that wouldn't do after a few drinks. People might get more outgoing, do something silly, but they wouldn't commit a crime unless they would do so normally.

I never tried anything inappropriate, though it was tempting. There were a couple times when I thought "I could probably get this girl to take her shirt off" when doing the act in front of a small crowd in our dorm.

[scott1]

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I was aware of regression hypnosis, but that wasn't what was happening to me on stage.

Do they remember the conversations after coming out of hypnosis?

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Vaguely. I think the best comparison would be like waking up from a dream. If you talk about it soon after you wake up you remember it, but if you don't, you forget it. My friend did remember me giving him the suggestion that he was 5, and remembered most our conversation, but didn't remember acting like a 5 year old.

[Khaos4k]

You did exactly what the stage hypnotist wanted you to do. Would have been much better if you had done the exact opposite of what he was telling you.

[garcia1000]

Hi readers, I am new to here.

What do you guys think of this article? It was written by a cartoonist.
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_d.../hypnosis.html

[scott1]

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What do you guys think of this article? It was written by a cartoonist.
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_d.../hypnosis.html

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Very similar to my experience learning hypnosis.

[remi983]

Scott, can u recommend any books, articles, and/or websites?