Metropol

What are your views on Hypnotherapy and have any of you been hypnotised before?

A friend has been reading up on the subject for the past 3 months or so and has acquired a fair amount of knowledge. He has the ability to hypnotise me with ease.

This has got me thinking into how serious it could be if things went wrong, not to mention the techniques being used by the wrong people for the wrong reasons. How many people are there walking around now who have been hypnotised but either have not been de-hypnotised properly, or not at all?

mr smuf wrote:How many people are there walking around now who have been hypnotised but either have not been de-hypnotised properly, or not at all?

In Britain? Oh, about 50-odd million, I'd say.

jenny, your cynicism amuses me. you are of course correct.

when i look at my life rationally, there is no logical reason why i should have bought that happy meal today. but not only did i buy it, i ate it.

i'm sorry colonel sanders

You only wanted the free toy, its not as if you wanted to eat the food, besides it would be cold by the time it reached africa, so you eating it was the best thing for everyone.

mr smuf wrote: if things went wrong

Not so long ago, a hypnotist came to do a night at our student union's comedy bar. All of the people on the front row were hypnotised.

Most came out of it feeling nothing more than a bit sleepy (and embarassed once they'd found out what they'd done). One, however, didn't wake up properly, still thought his tongue weighed 3 tonnes, couldn't move his mouth, and had to spend the next two hours in the company of the hypnotherapist who tried to return him to his normal state. But apparently everything sorts itself out after a day or so.

AFAIK, it works ok. But until then I'd always thought of it as a big joke; when you see it in action it is funny for a while, and increadibly scary at the same time. Think what you have to remember, though, is that hypnotists can only hynotise people who want it... if you sat kicking and screaming, then it wouldn't work.

The physicist Richard Feynman described being hypnotised similar to a great deal of peer pressure on your brain to act in a particular way. His example was that before "being released" from hypnosis, he was told to walk all the way round the room before returning to his chair.

He said he felt it was a little stupid to go all the way around the room, but it was as if there were many many people telling him to do it, and that if he did it, they'd be happy. So he did it.

Peculiar stuff. I wouldn't mind being hypnotised, because I think I'd be very susceptible to it. It would be a fascinating experience, I'm sure.

I had hypnotherapy once - but just sat there in the chair thinking 'what the bloody hell am I supposed to be feeling? What should I be doing or saying?' so I just sat there and had a nap until it was time to go.....

After three sessions feeling exactly the same, I cancelled the course!