Hypnotism

On another thread, Elmo was talking about a stage hypnotism:

reminds me of the time our high-school hosted a stage hypnotist. who took one girl from the audience and gave her the suggestion that there was a huge snowstorm coming, and that she had to instruct the audience what to do. she became visibly upset and started telling everyone to go to the store and stock up on bread and milk and go home. everyone was laughing hysterically at her and she became frantic, convinced of the terrifying reality of the snowstorm. even when the hypnotist brought her out of it she was still upset. fucked up.

and that reminded me of a similar event at my own high school with a stage hypnotist (is this a thing, btw? wtf?). at the time i thought it was total bullshit, that everyone involved was faking. and maybe they were. and people have tried to hypnotize me before and totally failed. but now i don't doubt that some people can be "hypnotized", though some are more susceptible to it than others.

have you been hypnotized, either as part of therapy or elsewhere? has anyone ever tried to hypnotize you unsuccessfully? is there a significant overlap between people who are susceptible to hypnotism and people who continued to believe that professional wrestling was real for years after others realized it was fake? did your high school have a visiting hypnotist perform in a gym? is that a lucrative career? should i quit my job and try to become a stage hypnotist? and can you please provide me with some contacts at your local high school?

long ago i saw a tv show with a "stage hypnotist" who admitted he didn't have any special skills, that all he did was a show where the people who volunteered happily played along by acting exactly as expected in front of the crowd.

but how does it actually work? do they just assume that whoever they pick from the audience will play along because not doing so would create uncomfortable embarrassment for all involved? maybe there's something similar going on with the televangelists who like to slap people on the forehead in the name of the Lord and make them fall to the ground?

my best friend in college went to a hypnotist to quit smoking, it apparently worked at the time -- though I didn't stay in touch to know how long it worked for

seemed weird to me. kept half expecting her to randomly start clucking like a chicken

even if the reasoning is that the audience member will play along in order to avoid creating an uncomfortable situation, i'm surprised that tactic still works these days. uncomfortable situations have been lifted up to the height of comedy. it seems like there'd be an incentive for an audience member to refuse to fall under the fake hypno-spell, or pretend to fall under it and then doing something wacky, because then you make the failed hypnotist look like Michael Scott.

http://www.daysoftheyear.com/wp-content/images/hypnotism-day1.jpg

I think it's possible to subconsciously plant ideas in people's heads through emotionally arresting sights + sounds like film, impassioned speech, music, etc. -- that seems like a basic foundation of art, propaganda, and human psychology. But I definitely do not get the idea of sitting down with a hypnotist who straight-up tells you s/he's going to hypnotize you. That seems like it would ruin the subconscious part of it.

tho listening to something like this at high volume will definitely make me feel a lil different even if I'm aware that it's going to happen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSA-S8NWMDk

i'm completely skeptical of hypnotism, then see legit counselors offer it as a service. i'd be interested in trying it out. don't know what i'd want to get out of it ... maybe get like a hypnotism sampler or something.

I volunteered to be one of the hypnotized ppl at our senior lock-in party in high school; at some point during the hypnotism process I blinked and snapped out of whatever trance he was putting us under. I definitely felt myself becoming tired and light-headed before then but I don't know how much of that was due to being hypnotized and how much was due to it being 1:30 in the morning. At any rate, I was supposed to not remember that he "hypnotized" me into being a beauty queen, which I absolutely played along with because most of my high school existence was defined by me acting the ass on stage in front of my peers.

i remember during our hypno-session that there were a bunch of us going under at once, maybe 30 or so, and every time someone wasn't playing the game the hypnotist would tap them on the shoulder and ask them to get off the stage. i was one of the first tapped out. seriously though what's with this apparent trend of high schoolers getting hypnotized?

^^^college freshman orientation, in my case!

For some reason my "when did all this hypnotism shit at high school start going down + brainwashing? + conspiracy" google search has not been successful

There is a performer who is a hypnotist in my homedown who has the big sells of being Native American and erotically themed. I wish I would remember the name. Hypno shows seemed to happen a lot in my home town even though I never saw the erotic one (thank god). I helped run a summer fundraiser in high school and the stage entertainers always included some cowboy poets and a hypnotist. I don't think the hypno had updated his act in a long time because one of the gimmicks he would hypnotize people to do was to get on their knee(s?) and say "da plane, boss! da plane" (iirc?) which I now understand (though not through any interaction with it) is a Fantasy Island reference.

My dad used to brag about having, as a college guy, checked out a manual on how to hypnotize people. He said it was incredibly easy, though he refused to show us under some pretense that we would be too afraid of him after such a display of power and will-manipulation. He said he quit because he was too afraid of turning into a Hitlerian figure because Hitler manipulated the masses through hypnotism. My dad said a lot of bullshit.

aahahahaha

what a noble college guy! he had the power to be the next hitler...but he turned it down...

craaaabbbbits your dad and mine should get together sometime and just LIE and LIE

one of the gimmicks he would hypnotize people to do was to get on their knee(s?) and say "da plane, boss! da plane"

ahaha

this may be a silly question, but what exactly is a "cowboy poet"?

Cowboy poets are a thang. They compose folksy poems to be spoken aloud, on various themes thought to be especially cowboy-appropriate, both comic and serious. For example, branding irons, stampedes, lonesome nights under the stars. eating beans, farting, and so forth.

They generally dress the part when they perform their poetry. Some of them do tend herds of cattle for a living or a hobby. Although initmate involvement with the vaginas of cows isn't an occupational requirement for a cowboy poet, handlebar moustaches appear to be.

Wow!

Texas Cowboy Poetry Festival

Cowboy poets are a thang

Yes, I want to be one!

Although initmate involvement with the vaginas of cows isn't an occupational requirement for a cowboy poet,

Got it covered !

handlebar moustaches appear to be.

FUCk