Re: Hypnotism

Self hypnosis - yes.
Trust anyone else to do it - no.

Re: Hypnotism

Precisely. Smart decision

Re: Hypnotism

No but i would be up for trying it,if im honest i dont believe i could be so it would be interesting too find.

I bet there are quite a few charlatans out there.

Re: Hypnotism

The guy who claimed he could take people back to past lives was definitely a charlatan.

Re: Hypnotism

Yeah I think you got scammed.
That’s too bad because there are people who can do this and quite well too

Re: Hypnotism

Not Everyone Can Be Hypnotized. The brains of people who can be easily hypnotized are different than the brains of people who can't be hypnotized, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. ... Hypnosis is a trance-like state in which a person has a heightened focus and concentration.6 Oct 2012

I can't be hypnotised.

Re: Hypnotism

There needs to be a definition of hypnosis really for this debate to be effective.

It's not generally what people think it is.

Take Derren Brown. If you've watched his stuff you will have seen that he frequently "hypnotises" his stage participants but it's not actually hypnosis as people usually interpret that term.

The people he uses generally know him and his work. They don't want to embarrass Derren and they have seen the way other people react on his shows and so they act likewise. This is why, no matter how many people he "hypnotises" they all react in the same way. They stand there and let their heads droop and their arms drop to their sides. No-one ever just drops to the floor, sits down, lies down

Another way people describe hypnosis is people susceptible to the power of suggestion. What is actually happening is people are willingly going along with the proceedings. So no-one is being controlled or forced, they are willing participants simply playing a role.

People are always at different stages of life. Many are very vulnerable, lacking self confidence, awareness and many give in easily to any outward pressure. Many people go to mediums, clairvoyants, gurus. They go for Reiki healings or learn Reiki themselves. They can and do get sucked in by all manner of stuff because, like everyone else, they need answers, they are searching, they need to know.

So they will WILLINGLY submit to a clairvoyant's spiel or a cold reader's well honed system of trickery.

Some would say they've been hypnotised but I wouldn't.

That's why you need a definition.

It IS possible to put someone in a suggestive state but it requires drugs in some form.

It is also possible to dupe people through various techniques. Social conditioning, brainwashing, advertising, peer pressure, religion and so on.

You could say that millions are already hypnotised through the power of those techniques.

Re: Hypnotism

What a good post Realist. Yes, I agree we can be persuaded, but some of us are not so easily dissuaded.
You only have to look at the POW in Vietnam, they tried to persuade them to become communists, but it didn't work!

Re: Hypnotism

I've been to two, one specifically to help quit smoking years ago (didn't go under') and then a hypnotherapist for problems I was having.

I've told the story once before about the 2nd one, and can't be bothered to write it all again - short form: I'm not a good subject.... I resist (I think).

Sorry, bit vague, but it was a very long time ago.

Re: Hypnotism

My bigger question is:
Do you believe in past lives?

If you were willing to be hypnotized to possibly go back in time to verify past lives then part of you must have been open to it in some level, otherwise why would you do it?

Did you want to visit past lives?
I’m just curious as to why you did this.