Psychological Suggestion & Hypnosis

[Jackass]

What exactly is hypnosis and what makes it so powerful?

From reading articles on the subject, I've learned the basic states of the mind: Beta Range (Full awareness), Alpha Range (Hypnotic State), The dream state and the sleep state.

Assuming it is impossible to sustain a state of full awareness 24/7, we may drift in and out of the hypnotic state several times a day....so how vunrable does this make us to suggestion of any kind? (Be it commercial, social, political etc.)

And how easy is it to manipulate?

For example, I know that in supermarkets, the hypnotic state of going thorugh the motions, tired after work, go in and get the dinner, we leave oursleves very open to suggestion and a lot of our shopping can be decided for us before we even enter the supermarket.

Also, is everyone equally susceptible? Are there certain things that can just be decided for us..and there's little or nothing we can do about it, because it's already happening every day, and we don't even notice it?

I would be interested in hearing a more educated opinion on the subject than my own, but it's my impression that society in general is just a flock of sheep going through the motions...from consumerisim to how we think and what we like!!

I find the most frightening example of the power of psychological suggestion & hypnosis the situation surrounding the US administration, and the majority of public opinion.

I don't want to get to much into the political side of things, and try to focus on the psychological aspects, but what are your opinions surrounding the American political landscape from a psychological point of view? I don't know if you've seen Michael Moores documentarys "Farenhite 9/11" & "Bowling for Columbine", but he has some excellent examples of how Fear is used to influence public perceptions, actions and even patterns of thinking.

Quite frightening how manipulative and effective these methods are...and also how the median of the Media has become so powerful that from an outsiders point of view (i.e. not watching american news every day, not listening to amercian media in the car etc. etc.) it could have been interpred that american public has been brainwashed to an extent to be patriotic and to live in fear in order to get behind whatever actions that administration wants to take Just an example of what I percieve as the ability to brainwash, use suggestion or hypnosis on the public as a whole ... again, i don't want a political debate. Feel free to contradict me though

So what are your views on public hypnosis and minapulation? Is this widespread? Is it something we can't control...someones pulling the strings and there's nothing we can do about it? How much of our thought really is independant thought?

I look forward to your opinions

Sleepy

I think Derren Browne's show demonstrates just how powerful suggestion can be. I know he'd be more in the school of NLP than hypnosis but the two fields are strongly connected and I think you're more referring to NLP.

I believe that these techniques are in every day use. The religious institutions certainly make use of them (think about the monotonous chanting, standard response prayers, incantations and use of incense etc.); marketing people certainly (ab)use what we know of stimuli that provoke a response (smell of fresh bread in a supermarket, increasing size of shopping trolley's etc); Advertisers, PR staff and even support teams learn some techniques and trigger words so it'd be pretty naieve to assume that the political parties aren't using them...

Mark J

1st time posting here.

haven`t more time to post anything of substance but as regards Derren Brown.

he alludes to using NLP or hypnosis but think about it.
his profession is a magician.

he might use NLP to a tiny extent but i`m sure that the production team have plenty time to edit out what they want and keep what`s good.

it is t.v. after all, entertainment. not experiments into NLP or hypnosis.

DrIndy

I use hypnosis all the time, its trust and belief that it works in a senior figure. As a doctor when I meet an anxious (but not crazy person) on the wards at night who cannot sleep, I do a 5 minute induction. Focus on your breathing, all you hear is my voice, you have no worries, you hear my voice as you focus on your breathing etc......

It works because of implicit trust by patients in their doctors (most people anyway) and they do as I say and thus can very quickly calm them down......

snorlax

it does sounds like some kind of trust in authority figures.
are you sure they don't just act calm because " she thought she should after you intervention, eg placebo "? 5mins doesn’t sound very long for hypnosis. the only time iv ever witnessed it is in a pub in college and it was quite degrading/ humiliating some of the stuff he made them do, though it seems to effect some more then others, it does alter their level of consiousness.i remember him putting a hand damn some girls top, a bit of a perv really and taking full advantage.
but then she wouldn't have let him if she didn't any faith in his expertise, perhaps the crowd might also have had some influence on her performance

DrIndy

It is suggestion and hypnosis cannot make you do what you would not naturally do yourself - it just lets it out!

When I induce hypnosis - my goal is not to put them into a trance, merely to make a suggestion that their worries are not important.

It comes down to trust and people can only be hypnotised by suggestion and belief - you cannot hypnotise someone unless you say "I am a hypnotist" likewise patients listen to me because they implicitly trust me due to my status as a doctor

snorlax

so she's comfortable with her breasts your saying!

would certain doctors not just prescribe tranquillisers/ sedatives if they did not have enough time?
to be honest iv never heard of a doctor hynotising patients, would it not be more along the lines of relaxation what your doing?

iv being reading up on sensory integration techniques used on TBI clients who are over-sensitive to their environment in the early stages of recovery. it's interesting because it follows the same principles eg stimulating the ANS, and helping to make the person more receptive to other intervention strategies like improving muscle tone/ ADL's etc.
some of the techniques include pressure on the upper lip, and putting your palms and pads of your fingers on the person's stomach. others would include a light blanket or sitting on a giant roller ball. all similiar to sensory integration used to treat children with Autism.

[Jackass]

I was at Derren Brown and he very effectively used suggestion on the crowd thorughout the entire show, for his grand finally where he let the audience take votes on each decision which eventually gave a result through a few complex rounds which resulted in the same answer as in an envelope he had secluded and on display since the start of the show. Quite impressive really, and he used various tricks to people on stage aswell as the crowd to influence them.

Part of the reason im so interested in psychology and suggestion etc. is because of that.

It's interesting what you say Dr.Indy about someone can not be convinced to do something they would not normally do through hypnosis etc., but I think the power of suggestion & psychological pressure can pretty much make somebody do anything in the right psychological enviornment. Such as, for the sake of argument, the psychological pressure on someone in a interrigation can influence them to say and do what they would not do also.

I would also believe it would be possible to enduce a trance or hypnosis state on somebody without them fully consenting, however there is still a level of conciuosness that they know what they are doing, but through suggestion, it would be possible for them to consent through persuasion because they are in a vunrable state...so if you wanted someone to sing brittany spears on stage or whatever, they could/would do it regardless of inhabitions, and is something they would never consent to in a fully concious state.

Dickburn

Hypnosis is activation of the REM mechanism while the sensory channels remain open. The purpose of the REM state is for maintaining and laying down emotional and behavioural patterns in the brain. I could go on.

If you really want to learn what hypnosis is and how it works a good place to start is reading a book called Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking. Now have a nice day :0)

Valmont

[Jackass] wrote: »

but I think the power of suggestion & psychological pressure can pretty much make somebody do anything in the right psychological enviornment. Such as, for the sake of argument, the psychological pressure on someone in a interrigation can influence them to say and do what they would not do also.

I would also believe it would be possible to enduce a trance or hypnosis state on somebody without them fully consenting, however there is still a level of conciuosness that they know what they are doing, but through suggestion, it would be possible for them to consent through persuasion because they are in

Convincing someone to say something through leading questions is a far cry from hypnotising them and then using them as your puppet. Although I'm not too familiar with the subject area, I would imagine it is nearly possible to hypnotise an unwilling participant. As Dr. Indy said, with trust and cooperation hypnosis/meditation can yield significant benefits.

Sorry to spoil your plan of world domination using Derren Brown style mind control but it aint gonna happen!

Valmont

Dickburn wrote: »

The purpose of the REM state is for maintaining and laying down emotional and behavioural patterns in the brain. I could go on.

If you're referring to REM sleep, that's quite misleading. The exact function of REM sleep is not fully understood. Several studies suggest that REM sleep is involved in the facilitation of learning but the evidence is far from conclusive. It is also possible that REM sleep is involved in brain development as babies engage in far more REM sleep than do adults.

Dickburn

Valmont wrote: »

If you're referring to REM sleep, that's quite misleading. The exact function of REM sleep is not fully understood. Several studies suggest that REM sleep is involved in the facilitation of learning but the evidence is far from conclusive. It is also possible that REM sleep is involved in brain development as babies engage in far more REM sleep than do adults.

What I wrote was a very short summery of the function of the REM mechanism (sleep). I can understand how you would find it misleading. However I'm very happy to say the function of REM sleep is understood.

If you're interested go into any decent book shop and have a read of the Human Givens book or there's a number of related websites you'll find if you google the words Human Givens. Here's one below

http://www.hgi.org.uk/

Valmont

That's an interesting website. However, this is slightly dubious -

"In the neonate and the foetus REM sleep is the dominant form of sleep and is in some way connected to the programming of instincts into us."

Newborns do engage in a considerably greater amount of REM sleep than do adults but regarding the programming of instincts I'm not convinced. I covered sleep extensively in one of my biological courses last year and did a research assignment on the theories of functions of sleep. Considering the article has no references and any of the academic textbooks or articles I've read never mention this, I'll assume it's just conjecture.

I'm aware I'm not a subject matter expert so if there's any research you're aware of or any articles with references, I'd like to find out more.

Tupins

Hi there,

I would highly recommend Derren Browns book, Tricks of the Mind. I was suprised to find him a really objective and intelligent writer. He explains what hypnosis means to him (and even states that he doesn't even know if it exists or not) and he also explains that he has never actually claimed to be a hypnotist, rather he is a magician and everything he does is a trick. He even goes as far as explaining some of his tricks to show exactly whats involved.

If you want to hear an informed opinion on hypnosis then you could do a lot worse than reading this book. He also discusses a huge range of other topics with regard to social psychology eg, believing in the paranormal, religion, understanding statistics etc.

I am not a trained psychologist but I am interested in the subject and I found this book really interesting.

JuliusCaesar

I've used hypnosis as a adjunct in my work and it has been very useful, especially in treating anxiety/agoraphobia. No, you can't hypnotise someone who is unwilling. But I'd never use it as the main part as I prefer to have patients ascribe their improvements to knowing what to do & to their own efforts.
As part of the training I was hypnotised mysself which was interesting.. I knew I could snap out of it any moment but couldn't be bothered/was curious to see what would happen next.