Do You Believe Hypnosis is Real or Fake?

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falserelic

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#1  Edited By falserelic


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falserelic

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#2  Edited By falserelic

I know that people claim that being in hypnosis actually works. Some people say it helps ease there life problems, or help them remember unresolved issues. I've never been hypnotized so I can't say for sure. But judging from people's reactions it seems like abunch of bullshit to me. Especially when I see vids such as this.

Anyway whats your thoughts about hypnosis?

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Funkydupe

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#3  Edited By Funkydupe

Its BS, just like Verizon.

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Tylea002

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#4  Edited By Tylea002

Oh it's totally a thing. I believe that talented people can influence your stimuli in subconcious ways to get subconcious reactions. That's 100% a thing that people do. It's just influencing the brain. It probably could help with memory/life issues, likely out of a placebo effect (never underestimate the human potential to improve itself when it thinks it's not responsible for it, also hence why it won't work on skeptics) and also because the brain isn't set in stone, it can be subliminally influenced.

Most of the people who claim it will save your life are clearly scammers though, it's not all it's cracked up to be and it does depend on the placebo effect - but I do "believe" in it.

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Dagbiker

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#5  Edited By Dagbiker

If it was real, then we would all think it was real, because they would hypnotize you into going every week, if not every day.

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Video_Game_King

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#6  Edited By Video_Game_King

Isn't it that type of psychosomatic shit that only happens because you believe it happens?

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falserelic

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#7  Edited By falserelic

@Video_Game_King said:

Isn't it that type of psychosomatic shit that only happens because you believe it happens?

Seems like it, but then again I don't know.

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bubahula

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#8  Edited By bubahula

Hypnosis in the sense of planting ideas, and being able to control peoples actions is just all a show. But there are actual times when hypnotizing somebody into a trance like state has practical applications. Although if a participant truly believes in it, the placebo effect can make crazy things happen.

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CptBedlam

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#9  Edited By CptBedlam

I guess it's real. But not in the way it's portrayed in tv shows ("you are a monkey now!" etc.). It's probably a possibility to access someones subconsciousness or suppressed memories or something.

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TheDudeOfGaming

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#10  Edited By TheDudeOfGaming

It kind of works but only as far as being able to play tricks on the human mind. You can't actually program someone to do something you want...unless you're the CIA.

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landon

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#11  Edited By landon

Hypnosis that helps you sleep or recall distant memories is a real thing, the stuff they put on tv like "when I snap my fingers you will behave like a dog" is all bullshit.

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Hunter5024

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#12  Edited By Hunter5024

One time a hypnotist came to my school and took random students from the audience and hypnotized them. I know it was random because half the crowd scrambled up there and I came with one of the people he did it to. He made them forget about specific numbers, pretend they were driving, and dance. To this day I'm not sure whether or not it was real, because I doubt all 25 of them would play along if it wasnt, but it's still kind of hard to believe. Also I am inclined to believe that using hypnosis to drag out memories totally works.

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handlas

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#13  Edited By handlas

Nope. None of it. The people being put into hypnosis to "recall memories" are more likely having "memories" planted into their mind by the hypnosis. And the stage people that are made to act like a dog or whatever are just attention whores hamming it up for the audience... small minded folk willing to play along.

That Penn and Teller Bullsh*t episode about it was funny.

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sweep

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#14  Edited By sweep  Moderator

I was pretty cynical about it until I saw a room full of my friends hypnotised to believe that they were being attacked by an elephant.

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Video_Game_King

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#15  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Sweep said:

I was pretty cynical about it until I saw a room full of my friends hypnotised to believe that they were being attacked by an elephant.

You mean you started believing in hypnosis after a night of heavy drinking?

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L44

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#16  Edited By L44

X-Files taught me so.

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JasonR86

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#17  Edited By JasonR86

It's not really a matter of being 'real' or 'fake'. It's a matter of whether or not the person being subjected to the hypnosis is susceptible to strong suggestion or not.

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sweep

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#18  Edited By sweep  Moderator

@Video_Game_King said:

@Sweep said:

I was pretty cynical about it until I saw a room full of my friends hypnotised to believe that they were being attacked by an elephant.

You mean you started believing in hypnosis after a night of heavy drinking?

I believe in many things after a night of heavy drinking, but that is not one of them. I seen that shit with my eyes, son. With my eyes.

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falserelic

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#19  Edited By falserelic

I think one of the most weird hypnosis I've seen was this..

This preacher who claims to have healing powers. Manage to make everyone in church spaz out. Either he paid alot of those people to act or there just nuts. But I guess the only true way to find out if hypnosis is real is to try it.

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Video_Game_King

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#20  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Sweep said:

I seen that shit with my eyes, son. With my eyes.

You can still see when you're drunk....maybe. It's entirely possible you drink spirits powerful enough to blind a man.

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ripelivejam

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#21  Edited By ripelivejam

is the human mind pretty easily manipulated and suggestible? yes.

can people go into some sort of limited trance-like state through certain methods? probably, though i think it's a combination of condition of your own thought processes and calming of heart rate/metabolic processes, more of a state of mind.

is 90% of hypnosis and what it purports to cause people to do bullshit? most definitely. i recall an assembly i had in middle school where there was a "hypnotist", who at the end of the fucking thing supposedly got all his volunteers (i think like twenty of them) collectively hypnotized and got them to dance around the chairs doing the chicken dance. even at that tender age i knew it was complete horseshit and they were all just playing along. would've loved to be one of them and just sit there doing nothing. :)

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FreakAche

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#22  Edited By FreakAche

Does hypnosis exist? Yes.

Does the pop culture depiction of hypnosis exist? No.

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captain_clayman

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#23  Edited By captain_clayman

Hypnosis is technically a real thing, but it's not even close to how it's portrayed in media. From what I've learned about hypnosis, someone can be lulled into a state of heightened suggestibility. When someone does the swinging watch thing or something similar, there is a chance that it could make the person more inclined to accept the hypnotists suggestions. Hypnosis does NOT cause people to remember supressed memories. Scumbag hypnotists phrase questions in a way that makes their patients victims remember things that didn't happen. The subject may be convinced that they were, for example, molested as a child even if it didn't happen. The rephrasing of questions is especially effective if the subject is trying to confirm something they already think happened (confirmation bias).

Also, some people are more easily hypnotized than others. People who want to be hypnotized (like desperate churchgoers in those faith healing sessions) are much more susceptible.

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AngelN7

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#24  Edited By AngelN7

"Try it go ahead... that's right walk away"

So yeah total BS.

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wrighteous86

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#25  Edited By wrighteous86

I've been hypnotized. It's fake.

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falserelic

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#26  Edited By falserelic

Its good to hear some of the feedback about hypnosis. Reading some of the posts gave me better insight of how the process works.

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alistercat

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#27  Edited By alistercat

Hypnosis has been used in Surgery. That's no joke. I don't know about hypnosis as entertainment though.

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NTM

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#28  Edited By NTM

Fake.

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superfoot

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#29  Edited By superfoot

@handlas said:

Nope. None of it. The people being put into hypnosis to "recall memories" are more likely having "memories" planted into their mind by the hypnosis. And the stage people that are made to act like a dog or whatever are just attention whores hamming it up for the audience... small minded folk willing to play along.

That Penn and Teller Bullsh*t episode about it was funny.

I'm inclined to think its all nonsense myself but how can it all be fake but still be able to implant memories?

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FilipHolm

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#30  Edited By FilipHolm

@Video_Game_King said:

Isn't it that type of psychosomatic shit that only happens because you believe it happens?

Technically that means it DOES work doesn't it? It doesn't matter the reason why you're in that state, you're in it and therefore are "Hypnotised"

Am I wrong?

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Video_Game_King

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#31  Edited By Video_Game_King

@FilipHolm:

I thought it meant that it doesn't work, and that your mind is doing all the work. Related to the placebo effect, right?

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handlas

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#32  Edited By handlas

@superfoot said:

@handlas said:

Nope. None of it. The people being put into hypnosis to "recall memories" are more likely having "memories" planted into their mind by the hypnosis. And the stage people that are made to act like a dog or whatever are just attention whores hamming it up for the audience... small minded folk willing to play along.

That Penn and Teller Bullsh*t episode about it was funny.

I'm inclined to think its all nonsense myself but how can it all be fake but still be able to implant memories?

Just my opinion on what I've seen and much smarter people than I that have investigated such things but a person being hypnotized is there mostly likely because they chose to be there. Thus, they are inclined to believe in it and are easily persuaded by what the person performing the hypnosis might suggest to them. Like any other scam artist... Psychics for example, where they ask a ton of question and when one hits they latch onto it. The person being asked the questions is probably there because they are open to believing in the nonsense. Basically I guess I'm saying the mind is a powerful thing. If you want and someone else wants you to believe something happened... then you may very well believe it to be fact.

I can't explain it eloquently. I suggest watching the Penn and Teller BS episode or James Randi's old show where he exposes people that believe (or don't believe but do it for a profit) they have powers like being psychic.

This vid for example:

I know hypnosis and psychics are not exactly the same thing but I'm sure there are correlations in how they operate with the people they work with. If hypnosis really works then show me the facts of it doing so at least.

James Randi is my heeero.

EDIT: Better yet... a definition of hypnosis from the James Randi Education Foundation's website. Basically what I was trying to say through my ramblings but in a much more succinct way.

"Since there are no adequate definitions of trance and no means whereby one can test for that state, it appears more likely that hypnotism is a mutual agreement of the operator and the subject that the subject will cooperate in following suggestions and in acting out various suggested scenarios. As such, hypnotism may be a valuable tool in psychology."

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mscupcakes

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#33  Edited By mscupcakes

If you can link us to any peer reviewed papers documenting hypnosis then I can accept it.

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gamer_152

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#34  Edited By gamer_152  Moderator

@falserelic: It's a real thing, this isn't even vaguely disputed. It's an academically studied, documentable, easily replicable psychological phenomenon, I studied it in college. If you're looking for answers about our world, don't learn about it with YouTube clips from bad stage shows, or just look at your first-hand experience, read about it from qualified people who are actually doing objective studies and experiments. Just because you haven't experienced something first-hand doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. You've never been to Mars, looked at an atom through a microscope, or lived through World War II, but you wouldn't dispute the existence of any of these things because people have studied them, and documented them with sufficient evidence.

Of course hypnosis doesn't just let you jack people's minds on the spot and let you do anything to anyone, or anything near that, and there has been considerable debate about the exact nature of hypnosis, but you don't have to look into the subject much at all to confirm that it's real.

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Video_Game_King

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#35  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Gamer_152 said:

Of course hypnosis doesn't just let you jack people's minds on the spot and let you do anything to anyone, or anything near that, and there has been considerable debate about the exact nature of hypnosis, but you don't have to look into the subject much at all to confirm that it's real.

At this point, I have to ask what exactly hypnosis is if its nature is as heavily disputed as it is. What about hypnosis is real?

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ExplodeMode

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#36  Edited By ExplodeMode

@falserelic said:

I think one of the most weird hypnosis I've seen was this..

This preacher who claims to have healing powers. Manage to make everyone in church spaz out. Either he paid alot of those people to act or there just nuts. But I guess the only true way to find out if hypnosis is real is to try it.

That's like giving people non-alcoholic drinks without telling them and having them pretend to be buzzed.

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#37  Edited By SexyToad

@Wrighteous86 said:

I've been hypnotized. It's fake.

Care to elaborate?

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handlas

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#38  Edited By handlas

Seems like some people are almost talking about psychiatrists and not hypnotizers.

Personally when I think of hypnosis I think of faith healers, psychics, dowsers, telepathy.... silly stuff like that is clearly not real or at least not yet proven to be real (maybe some of you might disagree with that statement). Maybe I'm coming at it from the wrong mindset.

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SathingtonWaltz

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#39  Edited By SathingtonWaltz

@Gamer_152 said:

@falserelic: It's a real thing, this isn't even vaguely disputed. It's an academically studied, documentable, easily replicable psychological phenomenon, I studied it in college. If you're looking for answers about our world, don't learn about it with YouTube clips from bad stage shows, or just look at your first-hand experience, read about it from qualified people who are actually doing objective studies and experiments. Just because you haven't experienced something first-hand doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. You've never been to Mars, looked at an atom through a microscope, or lived through World War II, but you wouldn't dispute the existence of any of these things because people have studied them, and documented them with sufficient evidence.

Of course hypnosis doesn't just let you jack people's minds on the spot and let you do anything to anyone, or anything near that, and there has been considerable debate about the exact nature of hypnosis, but you don't have to look into the subject much at all to confirm that it's real.

This.

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sumbog

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#40  Edited By sumbog

My brother got hypnotised on a cruise ship once, funniest thing I have ever seen, it can totally work. The thing about hypnosis is it only works if you let it and are open to it, it is based on the whole power of suggestion thing.

Edit: I'm actually pretty sure it is a medical fact that hypnosis is real.

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_Zombie_

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#41  Edited By _Zombie_

It's real, but not anything like what it's been played up to be. It's usually a very specific, long process that can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to a half hour (from personal experience). It doesn't work on everyone, though.

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#42  Edited By bushpusherr

I generally believe hypnosis is real, and I am very much a skeptic. I don't necessarily think that it can work on everyone, and that for those it does it isn't all powerful.

I believe some people try to pass off "hypnotic" powers in the same way that mediums, astrologers, and faith healers do (which are all total bullshit), but I think there are definitely practical applications for hypnosis. I've never been involved in it personally, but I have been to a number of shows with random people picked out of the audience, many of which have been my close friends, and I know that none of them are strong enough actors to have pretended everything that happened on stage.

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handlas

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#43  Edited By handlas

Find it strange that everyone that says Hypnosis is real give very vague answers about how it works, what it does, etc.

Care to define what hypnosis is to educate us and explain, if you have one, your experience with it or at least link to a website that accurately articulates how you believe it works (if you prefer)? I'm surprised at how split the poll is.

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_Zombie_

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#44  Edited By _Zombie_

@handlas said:

Find it strange that everyone that says Hypnosis is real give very vague answers about how it works, what it does, etc.

Care to define what hypnosis is to educate us and explain, if you have one, your experience with it or at least link to a website that accurately articulates how you believe it works (if you prefer)? I'm surprised at how split the poll is.

Usually involves a hypnotic induction, where the hypnotist speaks a series of commands, usually first to get you into 'trance', where your mind is empty and open to suggestion. Following that, he/she repeats commands in varied forms until your brain picks up on the information and believes what they're saying. After that, the desired effect of the video (for example, rendering you mute for a certain amount of time) is achieved. Sometimes they'll release you with a trigger, other times it will be a timed release.

Source: Self-experimentation with self-hypnosis videos on youtube.

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handlas

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#45  Edited By handlas

@zombiebigfoot said:

@handlas said:

Find it strange that everyone that says Hypnosis is real give very vague answers about how it works, what it does, etc.

Care to define what hypnosis is to educate us and explain, if you have one, your experience with it or at least link to a website that accurately articulates how you believe it works (if you prefer)? I'm surprised at how split the poll is.

Usually involves a hypnotic induction, where the hypnotist speaks a series of commands, usually first to get you into 'trance', where your mind is empty and open to suggestion. Following that, he/she repeats commands in varied forms until your brain picks up on the information and believes what they're saying. After that, the desired effect of the video (for example, rendering you mute for a certain amount of time) is achieved. Sometimes they'll release you with a trigger, other times it will be a timed release.

Source: Self-experimentation with self-hypnosis videos on youtube.

That's a perfectly fine definition. If we define it like that then ... sure... it's real. Because it's simply just people having fun.

"... hypnosis is merely an agreement between the subject and the operator that they will fantasize together, nothing more. It may well have some limited value as a psychiatric tool, but it's not a "power," it's not a "force," it's a role-playing game, and only highly emotional persons will react as [a particular subject] did. She probably would have reacted to any suggestion, by anyone, that would produce imaginary events and the resultant trauma."

This quote from Mr. Randi sums it up for me. Hypnotism is an act. Nothing more. So lets not call it "medical fact" like someone did please. No one is entering your mind with or against your will to do things you otherwise might not. You have full control of yourself.

Basically some of you are suggesting mind control is real.

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falserelic

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#46  Edited By falserelic

Seems like A is winning on the poll so far. I guess Hypnosis really does have an affect on some people from reading the comments.

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FilipHolm

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#47  Edited By FilipHolm

@Video_Game_King said:

@FilipHolm:

I thought it meant that it doesn't work, and that your mind is doing all the work. Related to the placebo effect, right?

Depends on how you look at it I guess. But the whole point of it is to get the brain to act/react a certain way which puts you in hypnosis. One way of doing so could be to get the brain to do all the work itself, as long as it creates an effect. The brain is a damn mysterious thing.

I'm not very well informed about placebo... off to the internet! brb

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Jrinswand

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#48  Edited By Jrinswand

I don't personally believe in it but I do believe that the mind is an incredibly malleable organ that is highly susceptible to suggestion.

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zor

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#49  Edited By zor

If it was real, cops, business people, and just about everyone who wanted something would be using it... so to answer your question, no, it isn't real.

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wrighteous86

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#50  Edited By wrighteous86

@SexyToad said:

@Wrighteous86 said:

I've been hypnotized. It's fake.

Care to elaborate?

Like other people have said, you're always aware and in control of what you're doing. For example, I was hypnotized to not being able to open my fist, no matter how hard I tried. While that was physically true, I was unable to open my fist, the whole time, I was aware of what was going on. My mind, open to suggestion, was CHOOSING to not open my fist. In that sense, my mind was tricking or overpowering my body (at my own will) to keep my fist closed. At any point, I could have thought, this is stupid, or I want to open my hand, and I could have "snapped" myself out of it. You're essentially just playing along. So it's fake in the sense that I was always aware and in control, but it was real in the sense that my mind had created this (easily removeable) mental block on the controls of my hand.

Also, being in a "hypnotic" state is pretty much the same thing as, and feels not unlike, being in a meditative state.