Hypnosis

It's not real. It's all pretend, with the subject playing along. How well it works depends on the subject's desire to please and willingness to play along.

So hypnosis is fake news?

OP:

It's only real for people who are willing to be hypnotized. My sister dragged me to a hypnotist's show in a college auditorium. We started with an exercise that involved pressing our hands together and then not being able to pull them apart, because they were glued, or cemented, or magnetized, or something. Didn't work on me but it worked on my sister, and about 1/3 of the audience. The hypnotist (I can't remember his name, no not Reveen) chose about a dozen people to join him on the stage, including my sister. I swear I nearly ripped her arm out of its socket trying to stop her but by the time she hit the stage I'd regressed to sibling animosity.

He went through them all, one by one, and my sister did pretty well humming as she played piano when he asked her to act out her favorite hobby. Then he asked questions of the group as a whole. At one point he told "the guys" to take off their shirts, and my sister started to take hers off and I burst out laughing, and I mean BURST, like a dam, I'd been trying to stifle it but that made it worse. A few other people giggled on their own or caught the laugh contagion from me but the people sitting around me were scowling. So I made my way out.

As I reached the side door some guy who looked like that Johnny Fever guy from wkrp, speaking into one of those early 20 lb cellphones, grabbed my neck and said, "you just keep on walking boy, before I break your ass!" I was tempted to give him a smartass answer but he wasn't hot.

So I waited by the car for my sister. And when she finally showed up she was furious. She said my laughing brought her and a few others out of their trances and they'd had to leave the show early, and be consoled. The hypnotist requested the 3 or 4 affected wait so he could apologize personally. By the time he got to my sister and was told it was my laugh, he became quite abusive with her, stuff like, "How can such a charming exotic beauty like yourself have such a vulgar pothead academic nerd for a brother?"

I paraphrase. I stopped listening after the third or fourth blow to the head.

That's funny, R4.

It's real

Watch the pretty coin of gold

And you will do as you are told!

Back in the 80s, a hypnotist visited my university and asked a really good looking guy to come up on the stage. I saw there were some people on stage who looked like they were actors. I think this guy also played along. He took off his shirt when he was asked. The hypnotist asked him to drop his pants. He did. He wasn't wearing underwear, nice cock and a really big bush. The hypnotist was shocked and tried to stand in front of this guy, but the guy walked around the hypnotist and acted very proud of what he was showing off.

The curtains were closed. We later learned this was a fraternity man who had planned this all along. He wasn't punished by the university because he claimed he really was hypnotized. How could they? We had another hypnotist visit a couple of years later. It was very carefully staged.

Paging Dr. Hoffman. Paging Dr. Julia Hoffman.

I was hypnotized for a TV show. i agree with some above, you have to be open and 'willing' to go under. The surprising part was what my body could do whilst under. I did a squillion pressups, (usually cannot do them), but also did a handstand, which I had not been able to do, nor attempted for 20 odd years.

BUT, the strangest thing was , I knew I was hypnotized, yet could not stop myself from doing what was asked of me, but also had so much more control over my body than usual. I enjoyed the experience, and it was not set up.

Hypnosis works. I was hypnotized by a then, well known hypnotist who had been called in on the Patty Hearst case. He did a past life regression for me. Not a single thing was suggested to me before or during hypnosis and yet what I saw was amazing. He did this for me 42 years ago and I can still see all the images I saw that day under hypnosis.

I should add that the hypnotist asked me questions while I was under like what year it was (1492), where was I (Scotland), did I attend school (I didn't know what school was), etc. I still have the tape somewhere.

There are different kinds of hypnosis. The performance ones that have been discussed I don't know about. That said I have used hypnosis for lost of mind/body stuff like relaxation and some health issues and it worked for me. I go to a deep state of relaxation much more easily than meditation which I can never do. I think a famous hypnotist once said it was healing through boring. You just tire your eyes and listen. I know there is HypnoBox but I dont like the voices on that app. There used to be a gay erotic hypnotist and I bet that would be amazing. I wish I could find good gay erotic stuff online for hypno.

It works if you a tool. It has been shown scientifically to be along the lines of chiropractic and prayer in effectiveness.

It's like with curses and magic. If you believe in it, it will work for you.

Most of the naysayers here have no actual experience with it. There is a difference between hypnosis for entertainment and for therapy done by a psychologist. There is nothing to have to "believe in", unless you think you have to "believe in" going to sleep at night and dreaming and being able to be conscious sometimes in your dreams. It's a fact that we have different stages of conscious awareness.

I used hypnosis to quit a 25 year smoking habit. I tried the patch, gum, cold turkey, but nothing else worked.

That was 28 years ago and I've never relapsed.

Worked for me.

I went to a hypnotist for a social anxiety issue. We talked for a while and I told him about my issue and some history. We did a test, where I closed my eyes and he slowly described a situation that I was supposed to envision in my head where I was walking through my kitchen, opening the fridge, picking out a lemon, slicing the lemon and finally biting it. My mouth watered. So basically, the idea is that you allow yourself to, your mind can convince your body to do something.

After that, we did a longer session where he helped me relax ("imagine all your stress flowing out of your body") then to imagine a situation in which I might have had social anxiety but then dealing with it. I was also told to hold my fingers together and feel a "cool" breeze easing my anxiety. So now, I have a physical thing I can do when I need to and I can imagine a cool breeze easing the situation. It went on and on, with lots of affirmations and imagining dealing with situations that might cause anxiety. Finally I was to envision scenarios a few months in the future where I successfully dealt with the anxiety.

It was a very helpful session and recorded so I can listen again whenever I want. The total session was 2 hours with 30 min being under "hypnosis". The goal is to rewire your involuntary reactions to something (fight to flight syndrome). I don't know about hypnotism for entertainment but for something therapeutic, I think its much more effective than a psychologist.

R14- It has been researched. that people who are prayed for when in the hospital heal faster. I am not prayer but it is odd.

R17 could you see a hypnotist regarding your weight problem?

OP, I have only utilized hypnosis as part of my work with a trained, licensed, professional therapist. And with a skilled practitioner, hypnosis worked wonders for me. If you are experiencing stress or anxiety that is disrupting your life, seek this out. It might help you a great deal.

In the early 90s, my partner was struggling for several years with AIDS and in the middle of that my mother was diagnosed with very advanced ovarian cancer. It was a lot. A lot of work. A lot of pain. A lot of responsibility. An awful time. I started having dramatic, unsettling, stress filled dreams. I slept, but it was never restful and I even began to dread going to sleep because then the awful dreams would begin. I had previous experience with hypnosis and sought it out again. My therapist referred me to colleague who incorporated hypnosis into her work, specifically to address the dream problem. It only took three sessions and I never had the dreams again... that I am aware of. The hypnotic suggestion was built around the idea that my brain would go about its work of processing the day's experiences during sleep, but that it would be done outside of my consciousness. And it worked.

You're not going to levitate or get winning Lotto numbers out of it, but if you have an issue that hypnosis can address, then try it. It absolutely is real and it absolutely can be helpful. But do it with a reputable therapist, not a non-professional.

[quote] There is nothing to have to "believe in", unless you think you have to "believe in" going to sleep at night and dreaming and being able to be conscious sometimes in your dreams.

LOL, you think you made a point when people need actual drugs to fall asleep because they believe they can't get some sleep otherwise?

Research is pretty clear on the benefits of hypnosis (from a true hypnotherapist)for mitigating things like chronic pain, etc., and to a lesser extent, smoking cessation and weight loss, etc. Hypnosis is terrible for things like recall (false memories can be implanted with leading questions with the person hypnotized having a high level of confidence that the “memory” is real)—hence why it should never be used in court proceedings or investigations. Another fun fact: for the entertainment stuff, you can’t actually be hypnotized to do anything that goes against your morals or do something you’d refuse to do while not hypnotized—you have to be willing to do it, so you can’t be “controlled.”

I’ll also add that if you want to visit a hypnotherapist, I’d suggest you find a licensed psychologist who is certified in hypnotherapy so that you aren’t just finding some random quack with questionable training but a highly-trained professional.

I should add that my hypnotherapist was a licensed psychologist, as so many others have suggested. It was part of a quit smoking program this therapist had devised and included 3 preliminary sessions to discuss why I smoked, why I wanted to quit smoking, issues that could impede my success, etc, the actual hypnotherapy session as well as two follow up sessions.

The woman was respected in her profession as well as being a founding member of the local ACT UP chapter. She was the antithesis of some bar room huckster plying her trade.

Hypnosis can make sex much more powerfully erotic. I've had some of my most intense sexual experiences under hypnosis.

What about hypnosis where they help you remember something from your past? Has that worked for anyone?

There’s a young guy on YouTube who has tons of hypnosis videos. It seems unbelievable but also real.

I’m gonna find some links.

Also I saw a serious documentary where they operated on a lady without anesthetics, only hypnosis.

Here for example

Calling Doctor Bombay. Doctor Bombay. Come quickly ! Right Away !

R19, you got that bass-ackward. Research on the effects of prayer on hospitalized patients showed the only impact it had was negative. Patients who were told they were being "prayed for" fared worse than their non-prayer counterparts. Every study that has yielded "positive" results for prayer has been shown to be biased (researchers got the result they were looking for). Rigorous, double-blind scientific studies have found no impact whatsoever.

As for hypnosis, it has been rigorously studied and found to have valid clinical uses. Yes, there are some who overstate its abilities, but it is recognized by science. The story shared by R4 is a warning not to confuse entertainment with clinical treatment.

R4 - I'm calling bullshit on that. That's the point of hypnosis shows - for entertainment and to make people laugh. Particularly in college.

That's horseshit right there. The whole point is to make people do ridiculous things and have the audience laugh.

Can hypnosis help with changing your eating habits? Losing weight? Exercising?

Yes, R33. That's actually what the research says it does best.

I noticed that the hypnotherapist and I were "reading each other's minds" when I was in a very light state of hypnosis. I. e. I was anticipating things that she was about to say, and she was picking up on things she had asked me to silently imagine. It convinced me that there is a deeper level on which we all mentally connect.

A person's body language and how he presents himself can reveal a lot about that person.

You can also manipulate a person to think about something or to say something and then act like you thought or said the same thing at the same time by pure coincidence, fate, luck, having a spiritual connection.

R35 i believe it’s possible but out of the range of what hypnotherapists are trained to do since science has a harder time supporting phenomena at deeper levels of conscious awareness. I have reached a state of deepened awareness with another person after a very long period of meditative contemplation at an awareness workshop. We both sort of just crossed a threshold and entered oneness, although neither of us were actually thinking, we were just completely connected and experiencing the present moment. It maybe lasted 5-10 minutes? But it felt amazing; neither of us had a “self” in that time and just felt oneness. Science can’t explain it yet, although Buddhist monks have been documented to do amazing things in case studies.

The law in my state allows you use hypnosis as a form of distress. So you can use it to say you committed a crime, under hypnosis, and that it was against your will to. commit the crime. You have to prove it- but there it is. If the state allows you to use it then there can be no credibility issue as to whether hypnosis works or not.

It’s a trance and you are aware of what you’re being told or asked. I did it a few times and came out more relaxed but I prefer other types of healing.

Friends and I messed around with hypnotism when were younger. Plus there was a local act where theyd hypnotize people. It's how I found out I can't be hypnotized.

"..... you are getting verrrry sleeeepy......you feel the neeeeed to present hooooole....."

Everyone can get into a trance. It’s another state of mind and not some type of coma in which you are not aware. Not a fan of hypnotism but it’s not what they show us on the telly