Have you ever been hypnotized?

Yes, and it was amazing. I was a junior counselor at a summer boy’s camp. A senior counselor, a med student, hypnotized several of us. He hypnotized one kid and told him that his chair seat was getting hotter and hotter, and at one point the poor kid jumped up screaming and hopping around, much to our amusement. I was put to sleep and told that I had the strongest arm in the world. Outstretched, it was able to hold the weight of one of the campers without my feeling a thing.

My eyes were open the whole time and I was totally conscious of everything that was going on. In my brain I knew I was being hypnotized, but still, I obeyed the “command.”

Looking back, I realize the doctor should not have been practicing hypnotism on anybody (today, he’d probably be taken off to jail), but the experience taught me that hypnotism is absolutely real.

Yes, and it was wonderful.

Hypnotism is nothing like what’s shown in movies and TV shows. The subject doesn’t fall into a trance or lose consciousness. Hypnotism is just a deep state of relaxation, with the person able to achieve heightened focus and block-out distractions. In that state, a person is very receptive to suggestions and self-help.

For example, if someone has a crippling phobia, a trained and qualified hypnotherapist can induce hypnosis and then have the subject’s conscious mind focus on ideas for easing irrational fears and anxiety.

Like any kind of treatment, hypnosis isn’t 100% effective for every patient. But, it can work well for many people.

Yes, several times, and I parrot @Pachyderm_In_The_Room
Amazing!
The first time was for stress during a protracted divorce about 10 years ago, then, for quitting smoking. Apparently I was a very receptive subject, and, my therapist told me that people of higher intelligence are the best subjects.

You’d think it would be the opposite, but I think it has to do with open mindedness.
I highly recommend hypnotherapy.
I was so relaxed after my sessions that I could barely drive home. haha

They tried, it didn’t work on me at all.

I was much younger when it was attempted, and it was unsuccessful for me, too. I wonder if it would work now?

In college, some of the people I lived with were tying it. Barbara was hypnotizing Carrie. Some one came to get me to watch. Carrie was given the post suggestion to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water. When she was wakened, we watched as she went into the next room which had a bathroom, sat down on the toilet and peed. (that was a different interpretation of the go to the bathroom command.) Then she got a glass of water and drank it. I asked them to hypnotize me and teach me some Spanish phrases to see if I would be able to repeat them when I woke. Carrie and the rest of the girls watched while Barbara went through the process with me. I got to a point where I could not move my body, but I wasn’t yet asleep. As Barbara went into the final “you are asleep,” Carrie fell to the floor, under again. Barbara woke Carrie and me and we stopped messing around with hypnotism. I had no doubt it worked after that.
Subsequently,I watched several group hypnotisms at the state fair and some people could not go under. Others were really out and afterward followed their post hypnotic suggestions such as crowing like a rooster. They looked very surprised to find themselves following those silly suggestions.