Is hypnosis the power of suggestion run amok?

hahaha It seems this was a better question than I had at first thought.

Research clearly shows that hypnosis creates false memories. When one is training in clinical hypnosis, the use of the technique to recall past memories is considered malpractice and ethically wrong.

Ironically, it is frequently misused to recall UFO abductions and past lives...

OK - Lets get some reality into the answer.

Hypnosis is a natural state that every person has. Every person puts themselves into the state at lease twice a day. when you are dropping ff to sleep and when you are waking up.

Another time (and this could be the clue as to why it is there) is when a person is concentrating on a particular stimulus. Reading, watching TV etc...

Hypnosis, in itself, is not very powerful, it is just very relaxing. It is what goes with it that gives it power.

It, with CBT or NLP or Analysis or any of the other psychological healing techniques become a very powerful tool for helping people overcome.

The time that it becomes inappropriate or 'evil' is when used by religious groups as a brainwashing tool.

ok folks, I don't mean to step on toes, I know everybody thinks they understand hypnosis completely and that it is an undeniable fact of nature. It's not. Hypnosis as we think of it does not exist. A monotone voice will put us in a deeper state of relaxation (bore us) but it doesn't turn you into a mindless zombie. People have a natural inclination to do what they are told, and we all love a good "safe" excuse to act "wacky", that's why "hypnosis shows" work, but all of the participants have complete control of their cognitive abilities.

A very famous study was done, this is how it worked: In a lab setting the participant was "hypnotized" and told to cluck like a chicken whenever they heard the word "psychology". When they were in the lab the results were exactly as expected. The catch is that when they walked out of the lab, a plant would walk up and ask them, "can you tell me where I can find the psychology department?"

The results?: not one cluck. ever.

Hypnosis uses our natural talent for being suggestible. Why most of us are born with this talent is the interesting mystery from my point of view. I wonder what survival benefit this talent provided our ancestors earlier in our history. It must have been pretty significant for it to be still so common a talent.

I suspect hypnosis was one of the earliest important uses we had for abstract language. A sort of mind meld ability. In this age, only some psychopaths (including abusive spouses) , TV preachers and advertising people seem to be aware of its potential.

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Regards,

John Popelish

NO!! people know what types of suggestions they are going to receive before they go under. no matter how deep under hypnosis someone is, hypnosis can never make anyone do anything that they don't want to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis

Its actually fairly well understood.

Yup..couldn't have said it better myself.

yesssss masterrrrrr