Hypnotism

I just went to a comedy show that involved hypnotism. I was intrigued to get the invitation from my friend, and so I looked at the wikipedia entry to see what hypnotism really is.

Apparently, its still open to dispute exactly how it works, and there are various types. Some hypnotism happens in a carefully controlled clinical setting, and some is of the type I saw “stage hypnotism.” The going scientific theory on how this sort of hypnotism works is that it works by engaging the hypnotized person’s sympathy, while also using peer pressure, suggestion, harnessing some latent narcissism, and also providing an excuse for the person to act without self control and restraint.

I have to say, I think this is very accurate, and also that stage hypnotism is pretty much a sham for those very reasons. What I mean is that hypnotized people are not under any control at all, they are just in a state where they feel, due to various factors, like accommodating the hypnotist.

The confirmation of the scientific theory on this point was striking. The hypnotist first had the audience do various things which is supposed to increase people’s suggestibility, and in some acts, helps the hypnotist pick particularly compliant “volunteers.” All the while he was stressing two things: that people who are capable of being hypnotized are “very smart” thus creating a positive association between hypnotism and intelligence, and that his show depended on people being hypnotized. As he put it “I need people to be the superstars of this show.” This was a call for help as well as feeding people’s desires to be the centers of attention. Then there was the whole deal with the tired eyes, a blue light, and repeated instructions in an monotonous voice. This I think was an attempt to engage a psychological force that people have noted in the military and fraternities. If you have to work or endure things to be part of something, you will have more attachment to it. Lastly, he repeatedly asked the volunteers to just leave the stage if they were up there to “prove him wrong” about the power of hypnotism.

So with the stage set, the people were told to do various things by the hypnotist, and they did them, the control was less than one would believe if the hypnotist had real “control” of any sort. In fact, most of the volunteers had to be dismissed for not doing anything because they weren’t buying into things even though they got on stage with an open mind.

As far as I could tell, the lesson is this: hypnotism does not work, but stage hypnotism shows work by using increasingly nuanced psychological screens to leave on stage people who are just uninhibited people. First, you get volunteers, people who already willing to do things in front of others. Than you prime them up with all sorts of cues. You try to get them into it. Then you “initiate” them which makes them invested in the show. Then you do some silly little tasks to “deepen” the hypnosis. And finally, you find out who, after all this, still isn’t feeling the force of the psychological matrix you’ve created. You send them to their seats and you’re left with the 2 or 3 most compliant/suggestible/hyped up/willing to please people, and then you exploit these traits to make them do bizarre things.

As a side note, I didn’t find the show that funny.