If you’ve never seen a live stage hypnotism show (where someone invariably ends up strutting around the stage believing for all the world that they are a chicken) then you really ought to go and see one if you get the chance (and if you want to see the chicken example take a look at the video below).

Or would you like to make someone else strut around pretending they’re a chicken?

Believe it or not it’s actually a lot easier than you might think.

How about actually getting someone to shed tears or laugh uncontrollably whenever you give them a cue.

Again, relatively easy.

Both of the above are examples of things you might see in stage-show hypnotism. A lot of people are very sceptical about this because people do such ridiculous things, so cynics often think the participants are plants…

… but it’s very real and actually not that complicated.

That being said though, this doesn’t make hypnotism some kind of magical super-power that means you can bend people to your will.

Nor does it mean that just anyone will do the above.

We’ll get into all of this in more detail and take a good look at hypnotism, why it is such a controversial subject (and doesn’t really need to be seen this way despite my slightly sensational intro) and its very strong relation to less controversial, more familiar concepts such as animal magnetism, mesmerism & meditation.

My Brush With Hypnotism

It’s a long story how I ended up on a Master Practitioner NLP training course which I may write about one day because that in itself is a pretty funny story, but on this premium course I got a few bonus ‘trainings’ in something called Performance Coaching, something called Results Coaching and guess what – Hypnosis! (mainly due to the expertise of some of the instructors we had on that course taking the NLP material who were also qualified to instruct in these areas).

There are a few things I remember about the hypnosis training:

First of all, once I learned the basics I was very quickly hypnotising people (we kept swapping partners at various points during the training and throughout the day I probably hypnotised about 15 different people). Not only that but I had people asking for me specifically to hypnotise them (and in a couple of cases explore some pretty sensitive issues). I was amazed in one exercise that my partner, Dianna was moved to tears during the exercise and hugged me tightly afterwards.

So as the person adopting the role of the hypnotist, these exercises and this training went very well for me and to this day remain very memorable. I even got a certificate at the end of it.

Of course, as part of the training I also – if I wanted to – got to be the recipient – to be hypnotised.

The only problem is I couldn’t be hypnotised.

I just couldn’t get into a hypnotic state. Despite the fact that I wanted to!!

I even tried with a professional hypnotist (pure coincidence, he was there for the NLP training as we all were and had no idea they would also be doing hypnotism training but joined in anyway). Even the professional hypnotist couldn’t hypnotise me (maybe he could but at least not in that environment or in the time we had for that exercise).

The reason I’m apparently difficult to hypnotise is that I have a very active mind and in terms of my modality, I am very heavily Auditory Digital – this basically means I am mainly influenced by logic, and often have a little voice inside my head (self-talk) examining what’s going on in my thoughts or around me. It may for example take the form of amusement, observation or disagreement. In this instance whenever I feel myself getting anywhere near even a light trance, a little voice in my head will start asking ‘What’s going on here?’ and then it starts (the voice in my head, not the trance – that goes out of the window). If I see others getting into a trance-like state, I’ll end up paying more attention to them than being able to switch off distractions, relax and go into a trance-like state myself.

Writing this actually reminds me of another weird experience about 3 months prior to that NLP training course at a related event where a guy called Chris Howard performed a mass hypnotism at Chelsea Football ground. I’m going to come back to that later because I want to get into the guts of the article.

So, back to modalities…

Other modalities are auditory (mostly influenced by what you hear, including sound-based language and ideas related to hearing and sound – i.e. you believe in what you hear), visual (mostly influenced by what you see, including constructs and visual ideas – i.e. you believe in what you see) or kinesthetic (mostly influenced by what you feel – i.e. you believe in what you feel). These along with Auditory Digital are the main modalities, there is also olfactory (smell) but that is much less common (unless perhaps we were talking about a dog).

When it comes to modalities it doesn’t mean that you can’t be influenced by more than one, but people will usually have one which is more dominant than others. If you know this about someone when it comes to hypnosis, then perhaps someone who has a strong auditory influence would fall into a trance easier if helped with sound (e.g. waves crashing on a beach, or a simple metronome) and someone who has a strong visual influence if helped with a visual cue (e.g. a spinning spiral or the classic hypnotists pocket watch).

Modalities in themselves are a very interesting topic. Note to self: I should write an article about Modalities one day (I say this so often, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of things to write about!!).

The lead scientist in the Stanford University Hypnotism Study which I describe below also has a theory about why some people are more susceptible to hypnotism than others which we’ll get back to. I’m sure he knows a little more about the subject than me but modalities are the main reason I was told I’m difficult to hypnotise – then again, it was an NLP training course and modalities are an NLP concept so go figure…

So let’s take a closer look, starting with what Hypnotism actually is.

What is Hypnotism?

At its core, hypnotism is all about the power of suggestion.

It really has two sides to it:

1. A recipient being in a certain ‘state’ which can be termed ‘a hynotic state’ but is basically a state where peripheral awareness is reduced and responsiveness to suggestion is enhanced
2. A ‘hypnotist’ assisting the recipient to enter a hypnotic state and making suggestions for the recipient to act upon.

The act of the recipient following suggestions made by the hypnotist is hypnotism.

If you want a more ‘official’ definition, try this from The Society of Psychological Hypnosis: [Hypnosis is] “A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.”

From wikipedia: “Hypnosis is a state of human consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.” so guess where wikipedia got their definition from?

Origins of Hypnosis

So Hypnosis as we know it today actually originated from pure animal magnetism.

The term ‘animal magnetism’ was what Dr Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer used to describe the manipulatable state all living creatures are capable of entering – i.e. this is our hypnotic state. To date we still understand what is meant by animal magnetism, though perhaps less so its link to the origins of hypnotism.

So, guess where the term ‘Mesmerism‘ came from…

Yes, you guessed it. Dr Mesmer, as an early expert in the field of what we now call hypnotism was so influential in this field that the term ‘animal magnetism’ that he initially used was soon surpassed with the term ‘Mesmerism’ (both of which referring to what we now term ‘Hypnosis’).

The Stanford University Hypnosis Study

Academics have studied hypnosis and trance phenomena for more than a century.

Despite their efforts, they couldn’t get a handle on the trance-like hypnotic state to their satisfaction in terms of a satisfactory scientific definition. Was it a state?, a trait?, a genetic predisposition?

Scientists concluded that there was no detectable pattern in the brain when someone was in a hypnotic trance.
(even after using fMRI scanners that measure brain activity).

Most psychologists over the years have therefore concluded that hypnosis is nothing more than a learned social behaviour with participants simply acting out and playing a role and mostly using their imagination.

That was until new research carried out by a team working under Dr. David Spiegel at Stanford University.

The study looked at 57 subjects split roughly into two groups – those with very low and very high susceptibility to hypnosis.

This time the fMRI scanner (which basically measures which parts of the brain fill up with blood) was put to good use amounting to 3 key things happening only to the highly-hypnotizable people:

1. A drop in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate. This is a part of the brain that’s stimulated when you’re worried about something, but tends to be less active during hypnosis.
2. An increase in connectivity between certain areas of the brain, specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or DLPFC (a part of the brain responsible for planning and organization) and the insula (a part of the brain designed to help regulate body functions).
3. A decrease in connectivity between certain areas of the brain, this time between the DLPCF and part of the brain concerned with self-reflection.

Or, in plain English, under hypnosis:

1. People are more relaxed and more worry-free.
2. There is a stronger connection between the brain and the body.
3. People are less inhibited and will do silly or embarrassing things without thinking about it.

These changes help to demonstrate how it is possible for highly-hypnotizable people to feel less stress, less pain and less anxiety while under hypnosis.

So basically they would feel less self-conscious dancing around the stage like a chicken.

Real or Fake?

So Hypnosis is a very real phenomenon.

Nothing fake or occult about it at all (though as Albert Nerenberg mentions in the video below, if you go into a bookshop and ask for a book about Hypnosis you may still end up looking in the occult section).

We even now have some scientific backing for the phenomenn, thanks to the Stanford University Hypnosis Study described above.

In fact, if you think about it, hypnosis is a state of consciousness which is very similar to meditation which we’ve written about here in several different articles (Qi-Gong, Mindfulness etc) and is all very real and very useful.

When used in Hypnotherapy for example (another very practical use for hypnosis), practitioners say that the most useful aspect of hypnosis is that the shift in brain activity as shown by the Stanford study allows patients to look at their issues from a different perspective (which due to the reduced self-reflection would also help patients to be more receptive and less constrained by anxiety, stress and barriers such as their own limiting beliefs). Effectively, Hypnotherapy is a kind of guided meditation that helps participants calm themselves, block out external stimuli and thoughts, and look at issues, ideas, and situations in a new, more detached way.

TEDX Video on Hypnosis – Is Hypnosis Fake?

This video does more than answer the question I already answered. It’s very interesting and gives a good overview of Hypnosis, covers some of the history, some of the mis-perceptions people have about it and most importantly has someone running around on stage who thinks he’s a chicken.

You know I am a big fan of TED (#262 on my list of awesome websites) and this video is no exception.

I actually wanted to find a very brief video covering some of the stuff I’ve described in this article about what hypnotism is (and isn’t) and some of the science behind it and then perhaps also a short video showing some hypnotism in action.

This video is a little longer (25 mins) but it does cover it all (& beyond that, now you have an understanding, if you want to know more given it’s such a fascinating subject, just search YouTube and you’ll find there’s plenty out there on the subject).

 
At around 24 minutes into the video, Nerenberg says the following:

“Hypnosis is not the preserve of hypnotists, or hypnotherapists even, it is the common massive, amazing inheritance of all humanity.”

i.e. we all have the animal magnetism/mesmerism/hypnotism capacity within us (just for some it’s more accessible than for others).

So Is Mass Hypnotism Possible?

Yes it is.

I can tell you it is because I’ve experienced it – well, more accurately: observed it by standing in the middle of a huge crowd of zombies.

I said earlier that writing about my training experience with Hypnosis reminded me of another event prior to that training where a guy called Chris Howard performed a mass hypnotism at Chelsea Football ground…

I was in the room when he was about to start and began his pre-routine spiel. I needed to go to the little boys room so left the auditorium. The place was surrounded by black curtains and when I tried to leave a couple of security guards told me I wasn’t allowed to leave during that part of the show. ‘Don’t be ridiculous’ I said, ‘I need to go to the toilet’. They blocked my path. I couldn’t quite believe it and being the mischevious person I am, rather than just returning to my seat (and in addition because I *really* needed to go) I swerved past them and made a run for it. I made it to the toilet and they let me go. When I got back into the auditorium it is one of the most freakish sites I have ever seen in my entire life. I’ll never forget it. The whole crowd were standing there like zombies. There may have been a few exceptions, but I didn’t see any. They were all in a trance. I made my way back to my seat and observed the spectacle as the only non-hypnotised individual I could see.

During this mass hypnotism, which was pretty impressive by the way, Chris Howard didn’t do anything crazy, but instead used it to demonstrate to people how he could use that hypnotic state to refresh those hypnotised and fill them with amazing self-belief. When that exercise was over everyone around me really did seem very positive.

Can Anyone Learn to Hypnotise People?

Yes – because at its simplest, hypnotism is just the power of suggestion. How many times do you suggest things to people? What about if they don’t initially agree with your suggestion, but you persuade them? Is that hypnotism? How about if they are tired and therefore in a state that they are easily influenced or if you grind them down into submission and they eventually take your suggestion to buy, say or do something. Is that hynotism?

At a deeper level, hypnotism involves induction – reaching that trance-like state so that the animal magnetism can be more effective. Put differently, at a deeper level, hypnotism involves induction, to reach a state of human consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion. Sound familiar?

What we haven’t covered here is the different levels of trance and what these actually mean. I learned basically we have 3 levels – light, medium or deep trance (well I suppose 4 if you include no trance at all).

It can be argued that you don’t have to be in a trance at all to respond to the power of suggestion. i.e. that someone could hynotise you without the need for induction. This is where the lines get blurry for me between hypnotism, influence and persuasion. If you were to look into a form of hypnosis known as Eriksonian Hypnosis (after Milton Erikson), which is all to do with indirect hypnosis (suggestion) often through the use of language and subliminal messaging, then you will find some examples. This is to do with the fact that our unconscious mind (or our sub-conscious mind (or ‘self2‘) depending who you speak to) is not capable of processing negatives.

Try telling someone ‘Don’t think of a blue elephant!’ and guess what they will do.

I did learn quite a bit about Eriksonian hypnosis on the training I mentioned earlier and it’s a fascinating area of hypnosis theory in itself. It may seem to contradict the idea of induction and being in a state where we are susceptible to suggestion, but Erikson would argue that we all go in and out of trance many times during the day without even being aware of it. Eriksonian hypnosis is perhaps a little more controversial due to it’s indirect and metaphorical nature and perhaps a lot more related to simple communication, persuasion and influence. Perhaps at times we are hypnotising each other without even knowing it?

We’ve covered quite a lot here so I think I will leave a more detailed overview of Eriksonian hypnosis for another day but you have a short overview. Basically, it is to do with indirect suggestion, metaphor and storytelling rather than the more direct form of (more classic) hypnosis derived from the work of Dr Mesmer which usually involves a very definite induction phase and then very direct, often commanding suggestions. (Sleep!)

More on Why Some Are More Susceptible Than Others

Dr Spiegel, who led the Stanford University Study believed that people who are of a creative disposition, who have made good use of their imagination while growing up and/or who were perhaps read lots of stories by their parents appear to be more hypnotizable as adults.

Spiegel also believed it’s likely that people who are highly-hypnotizable will have had some kind of traumatic experience early in their life.

Such experiences would have created stress which in turn would be dealt with via a re-wiring of the brain (perhaps to avoid confronting the trauma) which as we know means some neural connections being strengthened and others weakened.

Final Thought

Well, that’s all a lot to take in.

I’ve never actually used my understanding of hypnosis (or ‘magic hypnosis skills’) to hypnotise anybody since doing the training 10 or so years ago. This is mainly because I’ve never needed to (i.e. I have all of the coaching & consulting tools & techniques I need) but I think some understanding of this area and of cognitive science in general does help in many other areas.

What I would say though, is if you are at all cynical about the practice, then assuming it is done in an ethical way, it is very powerful stuff (let’s just park the idea of getting revenge on one of your friends by making them make lose their self-awareness and having them make a complete fool of themselves – it could get messy).

By removing our inhibitions we can achieve amazing things. We can of course do this without the need for hypnosis at all and with pure self-belief which we’ve written lots about on this site already. We can also achieve amazing things in terms of focus, relaxation and restoration with meditation which itself is very similar to hypnosis (a kind of solo-hypnosis, if you like).

Beyond this we can of course consider hypnosis…

In a stage show, it could have us dancing around like chickens, having very little real change to our lives apart from experiencing a very restorative moment as we lose our inhibitions and have a bit of fun – much like REM sleep but with a story to tell your friends afterwards

Used more seriously, hypnosis can be very powerful, a guided meditation which can help with all kinds of healing, to re-program bad habits or to explore issues without anxiety or inhibition.

An understanding alone of what hypnosis really is (and it really is quite simple) I think is very useful and relates to lots of things in our everyday lives, because trance-like state is not binary, it’s not on or off but has many levels and is organic – as is suggestion.

As Nerenberg said, it is the amazing inheritance of all humanity – it’s animal magnetism.