Has Anyone Ever Seen a Hypnotist Show?

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:24pm

I saw one tonight at my school from a guy named Dan Larosa...he mentioned that he had been in NYC last week. Anyways, I didn't like it as much as last year's. Last year, they had the volunteers do more silly acts, while this year all they did was ride a magic carpet, do ballet, dance like a Jamaican, and make them forget their names. There were a couple of other things to (make audience disappear, for example), but he did a lot of talking and explaining of hypnosis. Too much. I was looking forward to more stuff.

Anyone ever see this guy or any other show?

[nobizlikeshobiz]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:35pm

omg, speaking of hypnotizing, the freakiest thing happened yesterday

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:48pm

we had one come to our school last year, he was pretty good. He mostly made kids do silly stuff. One guy was convinced that fruit was alive and had feelings, two other thought they were married, they all did some funny dancing...it was entertaining. The kids still get teased for some of the stuff.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:51pm

I saw one with my high school classmates- it was part of our school-sponsored graduation party. Keep in mind that this was a magnet school for overachievers. So watching some of my most neurotic classmates, people who were going to Ivy League schools in a few months, forget how to count to ten was absolutely hysterical. Oh, and the part where they were convinced they were freezing to death was pretty funny, too. :P

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:56pm

Show what, dear?

[insomniak]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:57pm

How does that work, anyway?

[Plum]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 11:00pm

It's the power of suggestion. If you are willing and able to be hypnotized, you're giving the hypnotist the power to suggest things to you very powerfully. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but when you let yourself fall into a hypnotic trance, you're letting yourself believe what the hypnotist tells you- up to a point. Hypnotism, contrary to its depiction in cartoons, doesn't completely preclude free will.

ETA: Remember- at one level, things like feeling cold are all in your mind. If you didn't have the neural circuitry to feel changes in temperature, you'd never feel hot or cold at all. So when a hypnotist suggests to your mind that you are cold, you feel it- even if you're in a sauna. Updated On: 10/14/04 at 11:00 PM

[insomniak]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 11:03pm

Interesting. How do you hypnotize someone? I assume the swinging-coin thing doesn't work. But it won't work unless they want it to, huh? Are you sure?

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 7:32am

When I was at the PA Roatary Leadership Camp we had one come. I got to be hypnotized and it was freaky. You don't remember much but you can feel that something is different. Too difficult to explain.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 9:56am

Most people don't remember what happened afterwards- and if a suggestion was planted in their minds, like "every time you hear the word 'plate' you'll bark like a dog," it doesn't last much more than a couple of hours. Or at least it didn't for my classmates. :)

The common wisdom about hypnotism is that people can't be hypnotised against their will and that under hypnosis, they won't do anything they really don't want to do- they just have their hesitations and inhibitions broken down by the power of suggestion.