Hypnotism...

[MyGSXF:Me]

Well.. last night was the funniest night ever.. apparently..

My boys & I, Ma & me nephew, were given some tickets to see a hypnotist show last night!! (Thanks to the local businesses that sponsor the tickets!! )

anyhooo.. he called for 30 volunteers.. so.. yep, I went up onto the stage. He did a couple of exercises with us. & wheedled us down till he had only 5 remaining.. me included & the following hour or so, had my son laughing that hard, he had to make an emergency dash for the loo before he totally peed himself!!

I've heard all sorts of stories today about what a wonderful.. chicken, fisherman, racehorse jockey, dummer in a rock band, 6yr old at the zoo, "manpower" stripper, swimmer, totally in love with the guy sitting next to me & awesome James Brown, I am..

I gotta tell ya though.. it's VERY disconcerting to suddenly find yaself.. at the front of a stage.. on ya own.. with a mic in ya hand.. & ya down on ya knees.. wondering how the hell ya got there..!!!

Can't remember the guys name.. (have txt Ma, but she must be in bed already.. will try & find out tomorrow) a Canadian fella.. Internationally acclaimed.. & bloody awesome.. apparently..

[Jantar]

Well done. It can be a lot of fun can't it.

I was taught the art of hypnotism about 20 years ago, but haven't used it in such a long tiime I'm not sure if I can do it any more. I must try and see.

[MyGSXF:Me]

I was taught the art of hypnotism about 20 years ago, but haven't used it in such a long tiime I'm not sure if I can do it any more. I must try and see.

Cool!!!!!!!!!!! KB dooo is coming up!!

[Winston001]

I saw Andrew Newton a couple of times and have to say that hypnotists are the funniest entertainment you'll ever see.

One thing he did was tell his on-stage victims that he was invisible to them. He then left the stage, walked back on with a large broom, and swept around them. Sheeiittt - a self-propelled broom!! He then walked on wearing a gas-mask - very Darth Vaderish and they freaked out. Finally he produced a fire-extinguisher with which he fired CO2 gas at them - a couple of people nearly lost their bowels with teror and shot off the stage.

Damn that was a great show.

[CookMySock]

Winston001, BWAAHHHHHHHAHAHAHAH

MyGSXF, wow, very brave of you!

DB

[Skyryder]

Hypnotism........... mumbo jumbo bullshit.


Skyryder

[rachprice]

Nah, power of the mind! It's amazing...placebo effect and all

[Skyryder]

Nah, power of the mind! It's amazing...placebo effect and all

Yes it is........... I agree. But to suggest, as do hypnotists, that they can control you mind is just plain bunkem. They do not control ..............the subject 'allows' control. There is a world of difference.


Skyryder

[Jantar]

I have never heard of any hypnotist who claims to control anyone's mind.

[Skyryder]

I have never heard of any hypnotist who claims to control anyone's mind.

There can be no question that a hypnotist controls a persons mind when they get them to ‘perform’ on stage antics that they would not normally do. Hypnotists prefer to call mind control the power of suggestion. It is more PC than mind control which has connotations of brainwashing which is a different thing altogether.

There is considerable debate (as is suggested in the link provided) as too the degree of ‘suggestion’ that any one person will respond too. However as you have stated in your previous post you have some knowledge of the ‘art’ of hypnosis to know that (mind) tricks can be utilized by the hypnotist where a subject may perform some kind of action that is completely out of character. I picked this up from this link.

(http://www.psywww.com/asc/hyp/faq5.html)

However, it has also been shown that an individual can be tricked by the hypnotist, and possibly led by their trust in the hypnotist, to perform unusual behaviors in unusual situations, even potentially dangerous or embarrassing ones. This potential is well known to fans of 'stage hypnosis,' particularly with that subset of individual's particularly susceptible to the dramatic tactics of the stage hypnotist. These tactics are for the most part different from the classical induction used in medicine and psychotherapy, relying on surprise, sudden confusion, social pressure, and other factors not unknown to medical hypnotherapists, but not normally emphasized by them either.
A classic study which illustrated how far individuals would go in hypnotic responses to contrived hypnotic situations was Loyd W. Rowland, "Will Hypnotized Persons Try To Harm Themselves or Others?", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 34(1939):114-117. This study is described in William Corliss' The Unfathomed Mind: A Handbook of Unusual Mental Phenomena, pp. 120-123. This study showed subjects sticking their hands into boxes with what they presumably believed were live rattlesnakes, and throwing concentrated acid into what they presumably believed was the unprotected face of another person.
This would suggest that the individual is not in control of his actions but that the hypnotist was/is by way of suggestion. Hence my assertion of mind control and at the time of my interest in hypnosis mind control and suggestion were linked as in one.

I am now of the opinion that the subject is at all times in control of their actions but is unwilling to assume control of their own volition (for whatever reason of reasons) hence my belief that hypnosis is nothing but hocus pocus.

Much of the medical techniques that masquerade as hypnosis can be achieved by meditative practices that use the minds capacity to achieve a state of deep relaxation.


Skyryder. Must go for drinkies

[Jantar]

.... But to suggest, as do hypnotists, that they can control you mind is just plain bunkem. They do not control ..................

There can be no question that a hypnotist controls a persons mind when they get them to ‘perform’ on stage antics that they would not normally do. ...

So which is it?

I was taught the basics of hypnosis in the late 1980's, but haven't used the skill since 1995, and never as a stage act. So I'm not sure that I even can anymore. The state of hypnosis is simply one of relaxation, both mind and body, and in that state the subject is susceptible to reasonable suggestion.

As far as I am aware, it isn't directly possible to get the subject to perform anything that is against their ethics or morals. Any such suggestion will have the subject snap out of it very quickly, and the resulting embarrasment is more likely to be that of the hypnotist. It is often possible to get a subject to do something they wouldn't normally do by making the suggestion that they are actually doing something totally different. It still isn't mind control in the true sense.

However I am not sure just what your argument is. First you say its "mumbo jumbo bullshit." Then you say it isn't mind control, then you say it IS mind control.

Have you ever been hypnotised?

[ynot slow]

If you want to be hypnotised you will be,if you don't they won't be able to hypnotise you simple really.It isn't mind control if you don't want them to control your mind.

Saw a guy do same thing at a club,was hilarious,he had the hypnotised person thinking that certain people in the audience were naked,should have seen the ladies perve at the guy who was supposed to be naked,and same with guys perve at the lady in audience.

[Skyryder]

So which is it?

I was taught the basics of hypnosis in the late 1980's, but haven't used the skill since 1995, and never as a stage act. So I'm not sure that I even can anymore. The state of hypnosis is simply one of relaxation, both mind and body, and in that state the subject is susceptible to reasonable suggestion.

As far as I am aware, it isn't directly possible to get the subject to perform anything that is against their ethics or morals. Any such suggestion will have the subject snap out of it very quickly, and the resulting embarrasment is more likely to be that of the hypnotist. It is often possible to get a subject to do something they wouldn't normally do by making the suggestion that they are actually doing something totally different. It still isn't mind control in the true sense.

However I am not sure just what your argument is. First you say its "mumbo jumbo bullshit." Then you say it isn't mind control, then you say it IS mind control.

Have you ever been hypnotised?

No.

There are two parts to my answer which I will try and clarify. First and foremost is the belief that the subject will not in any way act or perform in a manner that is contrary to both their ethical and moral beliefs. As the link that I posted stated, subjects can be tricked into carrying out such actions even to the extent that may endanger their or others lives. This would appear to be a contradiction. On one hand I am suggesting that a subject will carry out an act under hypnosis that they would not normally perform (trick or not) while at the same time argue that they are in full control of their actions. I fully understand the apparent contradiction. But when viewed separately from either, the subject or the hypnotist, there is none as the two have entirely different roles. One is ‘controlling’ the subjects actions by their belief in the power of suggestion and the other performing the commands by the very same belief. This is the common thread that links the two together belief in the power of suggestion.

Secondly subjects when they are under hypnosis maintain that they themselves have no control over their actions. Some hypnotists even suggest that will have no memory. It is the excuse that is used to abdicate their own personal responsibility of their actions. Hypnotists themselves maintain, as you have, that subjects will not perform outside their moral or ethical boundaries. So in effect there is a conflicting opinion between hypnotist and subject. In short this can be summed up as each covering their butt. The Hypnotist on one hand covers his arse should something go wrong and the subject’s self esteem remaining intact by convincing themselves that they were under the power of the hypnotist when making the audience laugh at their antics on stage.

I think the fundamental question is what is mind control that may be where our differences lie. As with most things that are to do with the mind, much is subjective. But as subjects ‘voluntary’ relinquish their own volition or believe they do I don’t think it is an unreasonable assertion that the hypnotist has control of their mind. I simply maintain that the subject is controlled by the hypnotist 'due' to their own beliefs and if they chose to do so could remove themselves from any influence or suggestions from the hypnotist.

That they do not is another subject.

Skyryder