Farren

Yeah my brother was really into hypnosis for a while and he also kept saying it was about getting someone to trust you completely.

Even though he didn't study psychiatry or psychology at U (he took pure science0 he's a pretty smart cookie and usually gets thoroughly versed in anything that interests him, so he's a pretty good source.

He once described to me in detail some of the "tricks" employed to get someone in an autosuggestive state. Like:

- they'll make sure you're sitting but remain standing, which at some primal level establishes dominance and by extension authority.

- Asking you to focus on something that's above your head level makes you look up. This makes your eye muscles tired, so when

- they tell you your eyes feel heavy and you're feeling tired, you go "yeah, he's right! That's strange, I wasn't feeling tired a moment ago", causing you to accept their authority even more.

and so on. Its all about using subconscious mechanisms that get you to a point of completely believing someone, to the point where you don't distinguish between the external voice and your own, inner voice.

He was working in sales at the time and going through a pretty manipulative stage of his life by his own admission (he's changed completely in that respect), so he was fascinated by the fact that people go into hypnotic and partially hypnotic states all the time in everyday life. Some sales and marketing techniques rely on this.

Because he pointed it out to me so often I can't help noticing it all the time, like when you get "highway hypnosis" and can't remember a single turn or intersection of the last half hour. Or when you notice people behaving completely out of character or agreeing to things they don't believe in at all because they're in thrall to a more dominant personality and have completely accepted their authority - not just trying to impress someone but complete unaware of their changed behaviour.

As far is the stage thing is concerned I can see a lot of people going along with even the most ridiculous fictions without being hypnotised because there's a powerful instinct not to mess up the show.

I went to a "famed" hypnotist who was on telly and radio several times to try quit smoking. I remember sitting through what seemed like the longest hour of my life, eyes closed, listening to him blather on while all that was going through my head was

"geez, I could get up right now and just walk out. I'm not hypnotized at all. Just bored and uncomfortable. I don't want to embarass this guy or anything so I'll just sit here and nod and mumble when he expects me to - but aarrrrgh, I've got an itch on my lower back and all I wanna do is SCRATCH"

A friend had the same experience with the same guy, but his girlfriend said she went under in seconds flat. He and I are both fairly cynical and detached but she's tends to be quite gullible and reads fantasy novels so much she recently decided to put herself on a "diet" and give other genres a chance. I wonder if there's a correlation

ex-xian

When I took a psych 101 class, the prof did a group hypnotic induction. It was part of his lectures on alterted states of consciousness. He said that basically hypnosis can lower someone's inhibitions, but they wouldn't do anything that they really didn't want to do. When he did the induction we had the option of participating or observing; I participated and did a little less than half of the stuff he tried to get everyone to do. On average, about 10% of the population is very suggestible, 10% almost non-suggestible, and everyone else falls somewhere in the middle. His oldest son has dental work done w/o novacaine by putting himself into a self-hypnotic trance.

There's a standard inductino procedure put out by the professional mind doctors; it's just a way to help someone relax. He read verbatim from the page to get us under, then did some simple suggestions. Hands getting heavy, hands being stuck together, hearing a fly buzz...standard stuff, I suppose.

Toward the end, he put a post hypnotic suggestion that when he heard him smack the podium we would reach with out right hand and touch our left foot.
After we "woke up" he was going thru a suggestibility quiz and suddenly smacked the podium. I reached down with my hand but stopped half way. I remember seeing several girls touch their feet and look around as if nothing happened. He later told me that I was an example of someone who likes to be in control. I started to touch my foot, but realized that I had no real reason to do so and stopped.

All in all, I found it to be a very pleasant experience. After coming to, I felt as if I had had a relaxing massage or a very pleasant, refreshing nap. If you ever get the opportunity to be hypnotized, I recommend it.

One more thing, my prof really didn't care for stage hypnotists...he said that he thought they were taking advantage of people's suggestibility. But I suspect that most people who volunteer pretty much know what to expect, and want to do something "neat," thus inceasing they suggestibility.