liquid

This is a subject I am very interested in, and I have considered taking a course in order to learn more about it.

However, I am wondering where the truth starts and the hype ends. I have done a fair amount of research, and one of the best pieces I have come across is a scientific american article that reports on it as a real phenomenon, and describes various aspects of the psychology and biology behind it.

However, I am interested to know what you all think, and what sources you might have on it.

Francois Tremblay

It seems, from all the information I've read, that hypnotism can be done well or badly. "Implanted memories", mainly thru leading questions, is a severe problem, because people under hypnosis are very suggestible. For example, alien abduction therapists or abuse therapists use implanted memories to scam people out of their money and livelihood (Carl Sagan in his book Demon-Haunted World describes this in more detail).

But it seems that, done right, hypnosis can have an effect - how much, I'm not sure. Maybe studies have been done on the subject, does anyone know anything about that ?

Corey Hammer

I am not personally up on the latest research. However, the last time I heard any information on it was in one of my grad classes in experimental psych. EEG patterns do not change. There is no change in processing. You are just very relaxed and willing to comply with requests (note: there is no correlation between the relaxation and compliance and you won't do anything you do not want to do, e.g., harm yourself or others). You are not any more suggestible when hypnotized than you are when not hypnotized.

There is in fact an individual difference in hypnotizability, higher is more hypnotizable (I'm a 3). I can get nice and relaxed, but hypnosis seems to have no effect on me. That is, I do not comply with the requests.

Editted to Add:

On the subject of implanted memories...it doesn't take hypnosis to do it either. Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated that quite effectively.

[ February 27, 2002: Message edited by: Corey Hammer ]</p>

Major Billy

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879755768/qid=1015027621/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0504050-0206345" target="_blank">They call it Hypnosis</a> by Robert A. Baker.

cricket

I once saw a demonstration -- hypnotist got audience volunteers. How did he know who in the audience would be "performers" who would respond? There were about eight of them; maybe some were plants but I'm sure they weren't all.

How did he know who would be responsive to his 'suggestions'?

liquid

cricket, I can answer that one. there are a number of tests you can do to generally assess how suggestible someone is. A good example is to see who will fall backwards with their arms crossed and eyes closed into your arms. Another is to suggest repeatedly that people's hands are stuck together, and see who has the greatest difficulty removing them.

Typically, a hypnotist will take a large number of people and try some group suggestions to see how they react.

Corey, you state that people are no more suggestible when hypnotised, but that seems wrong to me - you cannot just suggest that someone is hallucinating when they are 'awake' but you can in a deep hypnosis. Could you clarify what you meant by that?

jpbrooks

Isn't hypnotism just a state of focused awareness exclusively on a particular "object" in one's experience?

Corey Hammer

Most of the time, the hypnotist doesn't get all highly suggestible people. However, since hypnotism is so woven into our culture (like Freudian concepts), people will go along with the act even if they are not hypnotized. Basically, they are being nice or because it is expected of them. This is not to say that some are not hypnotized; it's just that all usually are not.

Corey Hammer

Like I said, it's been a few years. My specialty is self-regulation; not this specifically. That said, I do know that there is no difference in state of consciousness between hypnotized and not hypnotized. Logically then, you are just as suggestible because there is no difference. You are "awake" when hypnotized. Also, they are not hallucinating; they are imagining events, creating them from the long term store in some way (note: memory is reconstructive, not icons stored like pictures; hypnosis works similarly).

Corey Hammer

No. Hypnotized subjects perform no differently than non-hypnotized subjects last I heard. Hypnosis is willing cooperation while very relaxed.