What is your take on hypnosis?

[ckay87]

At our Rennaissance Faire, they have a stage hypnotist each year. We always catch his show - it's a lot of fun. First year I saw it I thought "how funny" but was somewhat skeptical. Second year I became a firm believer when I watched a member of our party join the group on stage and proceed to spend an hour completely under the hypnotist's control. Our friend remembered nothing. He's a somewhat shy person who would not consciously get on a stage, but boy did he become the star of the show! In talking to him after, he remembered nothing. It took some real convincing to get him to believe us at all. As time went on, some of it came back to him. Very interesting.

The hypnotist starts the show with some exercises and each time I participate, I do seriously zone out. Something always snaps me out of it - usually wondering what my kids are doing, etc. As he explains it, people who can be hypnotized have a great ability to focus and concentrate and tend to be more intelligent. Well that makes sense.

Anybody else ever see this? Experience this? What were your thoughts, experiences? I think it's so interesting.

 

[gris gris]

I've been to shows before where the hypnotist is a comedian, usually they do it at area high schools for fundraisers. Then they get the high school kids up there and under the spell. It's wicked funny. I can't be hypnotized because I can't get myself to zone out or to give up that control of myself. But I think it's real.

 

[Uncle Remus]

Wake me when it's over

 

[tiggersmom2]

I think it is a bunch of hooey.

 

[phorsenuf]

I've been to shows before where the hypnotist is a comedian, usually they do it at area high schools for fundraisers. Then they get the high school kids up there and under the spell. It's wicked funny. I can't be hypnotized because I can't get myself to zone out or to give up that control of myself. But I think it's real.

I knew you had to be from New England!

 

[MzDiz]

I worked at a comedy club for years and in my time there we had a few visits from a certain semi-famous hypnotist/comedian. He generously helped some of the girls with their smoking, weight loss, etc. problems by hypnotizing them for free in the off hours over the weekend. That is, until one of them wasn't under and she realized he was trying to get her to do some not-so-family-message-board kinds of things, if you know what I mean. After she told some other people, we found out that it wasn't the first time he did this. Nice, huh?

 

[gris gris]

I knew you had to be from New England!

Yeah we ROCK! Wicked comes out of my mouth a few times a day, as I'm sure it does yours!

 

[CheshireVal]

I'm generally not very open to the idea of hypnosis for myself (maybe I'm just too uptight! )

However, my father is a psychologist who does therapy through hypnosis. He actually hypnotized my mom when she was giving birth to my little brother. She didn't have an epidural, but still felt no pain at all.

So I think it is real and can work as long as you're open to the idea.

 

[laurajetter]

I've been to the exact same type of show at the local Renaissance Festival, and I have become so intrigued by hynosis! It is downright amazing and so funny to watch. As for whether it's real or not, I completely believe it's 100% real based on the reaction of a particular participant after the show one year who happened to be sitting in front of me.

At the beginning of the show they had a bunch of people come up on stage to get hypnotized at the same time. Most stayed, but some ended up leaving because the hypnosis wasn't working (you have to be open and receptive to the idea of hypnosis, it doesn't work for everyone).

A while went by and as the show was drawing to a close, the hypnotist did one final trick. While everyone was still in a trance, he told them that after they come out of their trance and go back to their seats, when they hear the applause for the end of the show they will stand up and cluck like a chicken. He then brought them out of the trance while still onstage, thanked them all for coming and instructed them to please make their way back down to their seats.

So they all go back and sit down, and one lady happened to sit right in front of me with her husband and daughter. I was so glad to have such a great spot in order to observe her reaction to the impending trigger. She was making brief small talk with her husband and she was beginning to gather her belongings in order to leave.

My eyes were on her every second. I heard the hypnotist giving a final thank you, and then asked for a round of applause for all of the participants. At that moment, she sort of jerked a bit and stopped mid-sentence, let go of what she was holding and stood up and started clucking like a chicken and flapping her arms. After a minute the hypnotist deactivated that behavior as the crowd roared with laughter and said his final goodbye.

Still watching her, the second she was deactivated I noticed she slightly jerked again and she looked to her husband with THE most perplexed look on her face as to why she was standing up with her arms folded up like a chicken. Between his long bouts of laughter, he and his daughter explained what had happened. She had such a genuine look of disbelief and amazement on her face. And it wasn't like everyone's eyes were on her only, by this point people were talking amongst themselves as they filed out of the area.

It was awesome!

 

[dolphinrescuegirl]

I went to a show once and ended up on stage with a bunch of kids near me. I only partly went under as the kids near me wouldn't quit laughing. Although when he told us we would not remember our names, I didn't remember it. The show was held in late afternoon and I was exhausted the rest of the day. Before the show I had been fine. Weird experience. I think if I had been on the other side of the stage I would have gone under more as those people really seemed more hypnotized than me.

 

[ckay87]

I've been to the exact same type of show at the local Renaissance Festival, and I have become so intrigued by hynosis! It is downright amazing and so funny to watch. As for whether it's real or not, I completely believe it's 100% real based on the reaction of a particular participant after the show one year who happened to be sitting in front of me.

At the beginning of the show they had a bunch of people come up on stage to get hypnotized at the same time. Most stayed, but some ended up leaving because the hypnosis wasn't working (you have to be open and receptive to the idea of hypnosis, it doesn't work for everyone).

A while went by and as the show was drawing to a close, the hypnotist did one final trick. While everyone was still in a trance, he told them that after they come out of their trance and go back to their seats, when they hear the applause for the end of the show they will stand up and cluck like a chicken. He then brought them out of the trance while still onstage, thanked them all for coming and instructed them to please make their way back down to their seats.

So they all go back and sit down, and one lady happened to sit right in front of me with her husband and daughter. I was so glad to have such a great spot in order to observe her reaction to the impending trigger. She was making brief small talk with her husband and she was beginning to gather her belongings in order to leave.

My eyes were on her every second. I heard the hypnotist giving a final thank you, and then asked for a round of applause for all of the participants. At that moment, she sort of jerked a bit and stopped mid-sentence, let go of what she was holding and stood up and started clucking like a chicken and flapping her arms. After a minute the hypnotist deactivated that behavior as the crowd roared with laughter and said his final goodbye.

Still watching her, the second she was deactivated I noticed she slightly jerked again and she looked to her husband with THE most perplexed look on her face as to why she was standing up with her arms folded up like a chicken. Between his long bouts of laughter, he and his daughter explained what had happened. She had such a genuine look of disbelief and amazement on her face. And it wasn't like everyone's eyes were on her only, by this point people were talking amongst themselves as they filed out of the area.

It was awesome!

Our guy did the same thing. The person in our party who was put under was DS (13)'s friend. Hypnotist had them do 10 jumping jacks when he said "thank you and goodbye." So DSF does them, we're laughing still, and ask "why did you do THAT?" And he had the strangest, frightened expression on his face. Now, if all that was fake, I'm sorry but he deserved an Oscar.

Afterwards, we pressed him and pressed him about what happened and why he didn't remember. There came a point where he was getting very very upset and I had to tell family to knock it off a while and leave him alone.

Other telltale sign that he was not faking it...I will never forget this...hypnotist had them believe something terrible was done to them by someone in the audience. Now, this is a very well-mannered boy, at least by all appearances. Like, he might swear among his buddies but would die before doing it in front of an adult. You see where this is going. He walks to the edge of the stage and gives the audience of 100+ people the middle-fingered -salute. We didn't have the heart to tell him that.